Re: 51 and newly diagnosed

[Guest guest]

Welcome to the board and I'm sorry you have reason to be here. It sounds like you need more extensive information than you are likely to get in response to your posts here. I recommend http://arthritisinsight.com/ for disease description, medication descriptions, and explanation of lab tests as well as a lot of other information. Prednisone and related corticosteroids are notorious for promoting weight gain and many other bad side effects. However, they are usually very fast acting as compared to most RA drugs that take several weeks or months to become effective. Also Prednisone and related drugs do not slow down or stop the permanent joint damage that often comes from RA. For that you need a DMARD (Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drug) and Methotrexate is probably the most common one of these.

The relapse while reducing Prednisone is very common. Prednisone does not cure the disease but usually reduces the symptoms markedly. When Prednisone is reduced the disease resumes as though you had never taken the Prednisone. We love it because it allows us to function but we hate it because it has bad side effects and does not cure the disease.

So far there is no cure for RA but only ways to permit us to function in spite of the disease. Most medicines take a long time to become effective so it is hard to know whether a treatment is working. Also the disease varies on its own from day to day and from week to week just to make it more complicated.

As you are aware the weight gain is very bad for you and the extra strain on your joints only makes your RA worse. It's not easy to lose weight but that is probably the most effective treatment for your RA. Exercise is hard but does pay off in less pain and more weight loss.

Glucosamine and/or chondroitin are generally supposed to be helpful for Osteoarthritis but not for RA. .

I'm sorry this is not more encouraging but I'm trying to tell it like it is. God bless.

----- Original Message -----

From: tx3catmom

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 8:08 PM

Subject: 51 and newly diagnosed

Hi -- I was recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis after a few months of chronic pain. I'd had lower back paid for years and just attributed it to lack of exercise. I became less and less active as various joints began to ache, which I attributed to too much weight and my age, plus lack of physical activity. I finally experienced swelling in my fingers and hands which I thought was an allergic reaction due to rubbing various ointments on my aching back and joints. When it began to hurt to pick up a stapler at work or lift more than a couple of files, etc. I began to fear that I would no longer be able to work, but tried rest and various ointments. Rest just seemed to increase the pain, rather than lessen it. Then my feet and ankles started getting puffier -- since my mother experienced congestive heart failure after suddenly gaining nearly 25 pounds of fluid, I got scared and went to the doctor. One look at my hands and ankles and she sent me to the lab for extensive blood tests, etc. My rheumatoid factor was up, she said so she prescribed a packet of 4mg methylprednisolone tablets to take (6 the first day, 5 the next and so on, until I took 1 the last day) and 50 mg of Vioxx for the pain. I took them before bedtime and felt wonderful the next day -- the first time I'd been able to function normally in a long, long time. My fingers continued to feel feverish and achy and I was worried about having a relapse (just the thought of going through that sort of pain again was so depresseing), so I went to see her again. She referred me to a rheumatologist who sent me for more tests and took me off Vioxx and prescribed high doses of calcium supplements, 1MG folic acid per day, and put me on 10 mg. prednisone per day. My pain kept getting worse (as a result of being off Vioxx) so I took a few that I had left and the pain was immediately reflieved. I went back for a follow-up after 10 days and told him that he must give me something for pain as without it I couldn't do the daily things I need to do just to live and work. So he reduced the Vioxx to 25 mg. and said he wants to eventually get me down to 15 mg. per day, and he also prescribed 15 mg. of Methotrexate to take once per week. I went back after a month and he said that my swelling hadn't gone down much and I had gained 31 pounds since I first went to his office about 6 weeks before (I swear I wasn't eating more than enough to gain maybe 5 pounds tops). He said the large weight gain was due to the prednisone. I asked him to take me off it because I was ballooning up and couldn't keep gaining weight so fast -- that I felt too bloated to do anything and was getting winded pretty easily. He didn't like the idea, but he prescribed a large amount of 1 mg. tablets for me to gradually reduce my dose by 1 mg. per week. I'm now down to 5 mg. per day and the swelling in my hands and ankles is coming back (although I'm not having pain, thank god, due to the Vioxx). Has anyone else experienced a flare-up when coming off prednisone? Also, it doesn't seem to be doing much for me. I want a medication which will slow down the advance of rheumatoid arthritis and I don't know what role prednisone has in that. Is methotrexate supposed to do that? My doctor explained that it helps with the autoimmune system . . . something about how I have an overactive autoimmune system which caused the arthritis. But what is good for the joints? Also, I'd like to know if any of you have had good luck with high doses of glucosamine and how much are you taking per day? Thanks!! (Geez I am so glad I found this group...at last, someone I can whine to when I'm in pain and everyone else thinks I'm exaggerating....)