Perhaps some of you could talk to a?

May 9, 2008

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: " Riehle, a " <a.Riehle@...>

" cadlard@... " <cadlard@...>

Date: Thu, 8 May 2008 09:57:26 -0500

Hello,

I've had morning stiffness and pain in the joints of my hands and feet for

several months now. It seems to move around, though, over the backs of my

hands and tops of my feet. I would describe it as twingey pain. I also am

fatigued. My doctor ran all the tests...my sed rate was low, no rh factor,

ana negative, everything looked good. He then did an mri and found

'lesions' on my joints. He's now treating me for seronegative rheumatoid

arthritis with methotrexate and plaquenil. I also took prednisone for six

months or so, which I recently weaned off of because of concern of the long

term effects.

I'm concerned that we're treating too aggressively and/or prematurely,

seeing as the blood work was all normal, and I was wondering if there's

anything other than RA that could cause joint lesions.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

a Riehle

May 9, 2008

Hi, a!

I'm still pretty new to all of this, too. I didn't test positive for RA for

about two years before my diagnosis. I was told had a torn meniscus in my

knee and metatarsal stress fractures in my foot. I had knee surgery and

walked for six weeks in a foot cast. Meanwhile, I was given two wrist

splints for my swollen tops of my hands. In the end, all of my symptoms

remained the same. Nothing was fixed or better, and the osteo docs gave up

and sent me back to a rheumatologist. That was when I finally tested

positive for RA and Fibro.

I have pain everywhere, but the tops of my hands and feet, several fingers,

and one knee are where my disease is most obvious. So, long story short,

yes, it could certainly be RA even without positive initial tests. My doc

wanted to treat me with the same regimen you are using. I stalled because I

didn't really want to use such harsh drugs during my child-bearing years

-just in case. I recently learned about the AP protocol, and despite a

miserable month long herx reaction, I'm glad I did. Little by little, I can

see I'm improving. Today I walked across a parking lot with shortened steps

but NO LIMP! (or pain!) Hurray!

One last thing, the biggest (non-medical) help for my feet was an excellent

pair of New Balance shoes. They really did make a huge difference for me,

though it was a big change for me to start wearing shoes all of the time.

LOL

Blessings!

Terri

_____

From: rheumatic [mailto:rheumatic ] On Behalf

Of cadlard@...

Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 7:44 PM

rheumatic

Subject: rheumatic Perhaps some of you could talk to a?

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: " Riehle, a " <a.Riehle@ <mailto:a.Riehle%40cmegroup.com>

cmegroup.com>

" cadlardchariot (DOT) <mailto:cadlard%40chariot.net.au> net.au "