Re: One Experience/Encouragement

[Guest guest]

Hi

My name is too

Thanks for sharing your experience. What is the doctor's name

that you saw in Ga? Where in Ga is he?

I also have uveitis(inflammation of the eye). I saw Dr. Wrostko

in New Jersey and he was treating them with Minocin, Zovirax,

and Erythromycin ointment . Sadly, he died suddenly and I have

not found another AP opth. I am seeing an opth. who has performed

vitrectomies on both eyes. I am still having problems seeing though..

If I hear of anything I'll let you know.

Conaway

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

This is a very encouraging story. Good for you!

Ellen McCool

rheumatic One Experience/Encouragement

Hi Everyone,

I haven't posted on any of the rheumatic sites in several months

and at last feel that I may be able to offer some hope and

encouragement to others on the AP journey. So here's an update on

my own AP success. Sorry for the lengthiness but I think the whole

story may be helpful to some. Skip to the 8th paragraph if you want

the bottom line.

Some background:

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) dx'ed 7 years ago

Traditional meds prior to this round of AP (my 2nd): methotrexate,

Enbrel, prednisone, celebrex (quit everything except prednisone

before starting on the AP which, in retrospect, may not have been the

wisest choice).

Traditional meds prior to first round of AP: prednisone, voltaren,

plaquenil

Two foot surgeries to remove sizable rheumatoid nodules

('95 & '02)

Current meds: generic flagyl (metronidazole) 500 mg twice a day;

minocycline (100 mg twice a day); generic nizoral (ketoconazole) 200

mg twice a day; clindamycin IV once a week; prednisone 6 mg a day;

antibiotic eye drops

My first stint with the AP was begun early on in my disease, about a

year and a half after diagnosis (late '97). I started with a week

of clindamycin IV's followed by oral Minocin (200 mg MWF) and

bi-weekly clindamycin IV's for about two years. At that time, the

week of IV's worked like magic for me and provided immediate

relief from a very swollen knee and a few other unhappy joints. I

never herxed or had any experience other than continued improvement

starting from day one. After two years on the AP, my husband I and

were finally able to have the child we'd longed for because I was

finally able to get off all drugs except prednisone. So that I could

become pregnant, I stopped all antibiotics and continued on

prednisone only (at that time, no one on any of the sites I

frequented knew about the safety of erythromycin during pregnancy).

The pregnancy was a breeze and I had only occasional mild RA

discomfort toward the end of the pregnancy. Looking back on this

first AP episode and based on what I've learned in the meantime,

I believe that the antibiotic treatment so early after diagnosis was

what made it so successful for me.

After my beautiful, healthy daughter was born in June `01, I

enjoyed another 4 weeks of little or only mild RA discomfort. Then

the bottom fell out! I became nearly incapacitated with pain and

swelling in every joint known to man. I couldn't pick up my 8

pound daughter to nurse her and had to have my husband help me lift

her out of her crib and put her back to bed. I couldn't move much

of

anything, really, so even getting to the crib was an undertaking. I

was a mess and my worst nightmare had come true. I had to increase my

prednisone intake to 30 mg a day (from 8), just to be able to

function.

Within a few weeks, I started taking twice weekly Enbrel injections

(Enbrel had become available and approved for early treatment of RA

during the years I'd been away from the AP and I decided to give

it a try because I was in such dire straights). I'd discussed the

AP with my rheumatologist who poo-pooed it but he did give me a

prescription for minocycline for it's anti-inflammatory benefit.

Although I started feeling much better the first week on Enbrel, I

was told that it would take about 3 months to gain the full effect of

the drug. I was able to reduce the prednisone to 10 mg a day fairly

quickly (within a month). By four months into the Enbrel exercise

(Dec.'01), I noticed that I didn't seem to be improving any

further. My rheumatogolist added Celebrex to the mix and I found out

then that the Enbrel would get as good as it was likely to get by

about the 6 month point. In the 4 - 6 month timeframe on Enbrel,

I

was able to reduce the prednisone to 7 mg for a while but by 6

months, I could tell that it wasn't helping as much as it had

been

earlier. By May '02, I was back up to 10 mg a day of prednisone

and

needing additional relief. The doc's answer was to add

methotrexate to

the mix. Against my better judgment (and all previous promises to

myself about never taking this nasty drug), I started taking it in

June '02 and it enabled me to drop the prednisone to 5 mg. It

worked tremendously well for about 4 weeks and then by 6 weeks, I was

again at the point of needing 10 mg of prednisone a day to prevent

constant pain. I was functioning pretty well but hurt a lot. In June

I also finally went to see an ophthalmologist about an eye problem

that started at the beginning of the year and had been getting worse

ever since - and found out that my left eye was being attacked by the

RA. I couldn't believe it! My vision was very blurred and the

outside corner of the white of my eye had turned bright red. The

opth's answer: voltaren drops and prednisone drops which never

helped

a thing.

By this time, I was fed up with - and terrified of - the obvious path

I was on so I returned to my earlier AP " roots " if you will.

I decided I had to get back on the AP no matter what. I went out to

the web sites that I'd relied on years earlier.to reacquaint

myself with the AP and learn what might be new after three years

away. I began researching for experienced doctors I could see about

the AP and scheduled several appointments.

At the end of July '02 I abruptly stopped taking the MTX since it

clearly wasn't working anyway and I'd read enough to remind

myself why I should never have started taking it in the first place.

At the end of Aug. '02, I did clindamycin IV's daily for a

week through a local doctor who had provided these IV's to me the

first time around. She also prescribed Minocin so I could begin the

oral treatment. Well, I herxed like you would not believe! OWWWWWW!!

It was pretty ugly. I went to an appointment in New Jersey at the end

of Sep. to see an AP eye doctor about my eye and promptly started

antibiotic treatments specifically for my eye. I had another

appointment scheduled in early Oct. in Iowa to see the AP doc there

but didn't find out anything new I could do that I wasn't

already doing (although the doc is a very kind, concerned

individual). So I continued the AP as I knew it (Minocin and

clindamycin) and unfortunately continued to decline (side note: I

followed all the rules re: 2 hour window for Minocin, probiotics,

lots of water intake and the guidelines re: hydrogen peroxide baths

and benadryl). I developed yeast problems and my local doc agreed to

prescribe daily Diflucan. I also had to increase my prednisone to 15

mg a day for any kind of relief.

Paragraph #8:

I visited the rheumatic sites daily for encouragement, information,

understanding and hope - and got all these things (a zillion

thanks to all of you who established these sites and who keep them

alive!!). I also found out about the apparent huge success of the

antibiotic regimen prescribed by a doctor in Georgia and decided I

had to go see him. I did that in mid-Nov. '02 and the rest of the

story is nothin' but GOOD NEWS!!! By the time I went to see him,

I couldn't travel alone so my Mom (God bless her forever) came

from

Alaska to help me travel to Georgia and back. After that appointment,

I finally felt I'd found a doctor who could and would help me get

well. When I got back home, I scheduled sick leave at work beginning

Thanksgiving week (because I was in such awful shape and expected to

get worse on the new regimen before I got better), filled all my

prescriptions for the additional drugs (the doctor added flagyl and

nizoral to the minocin and clindamycin) and got started with the new

drug regimen on Nov. 20th.

I expected to herx like crazy but didn't. I experienced a slow

but fairly steady lifting of pain and stiffness. My biggest challenge

for the first 2 months was an OVERWHELMING, debilitating fatigue

brought on by the drug regimen. There were days that I could hardly

hold my head up I had so little energy. Needless to say, I slept a

lot and did a whole lot of laying down. Another problem I experienced

was that the drugs caused me to not want to eat anything -

everything tasted pretty awful and I had some level of nausea most of

the time. But, within a month of starting the regimen, the pain was

70% gone! At the one month point some swelling, especially in my

knees and ankles, remained that was pretty bad.

Today, just four short months after beginning the new regimen, the

pain is 95% gone! I returned to work two weeks ago with much of

my " old self " energy back. My blood work is quickly returning

to normal - matching the improvement in my symptoms. In mid-Nov., my

rheumatoid factor (RF) was 160 (normal is less than 14) then spiked

up to 183 the first month (this was expected). By the end of Feb. -

just a couple of weeks ago - it had dropped to 100!! I've

been told to expect that by the time my RF drops to 60, I should be

completely pain free and that's just around the

corner.WOO-HOO! In

mid-Nov. my C-Reactive Protein (CRP) was 8.25 (normal is less than

0.8). By late Feb. it had dropped to normal at 0.57!! I've also

been

able to reduce my prednisone dosage from 15 to 6 mg a day (and still

slowly weaning).

I have to tell you that I rarely adhere to the 2 hour window around

the minocycline because after trying that early on, it was just too

much to try to juggle it with everything else. I'm using the

generic instead of the brand Minocin with obvious success. After

about a month on the new regimen, I no longer needed hydrogen

peroxide baths because the pain was pretty much gone. Before starting

the flagyl and nizoral, I took hydrogen peroxide baths at least three

times a week and sometimes more. I also stopped taking benadryl

because it didn't seem to make a difference in how I felt (it had

made a huge difference before I started the flagyl and nizoral). I

haven't been very good about taking probiotics, either, although

I do try to get some in now and then. I'm working on increasing

my

probiotic intake because I do think it's important. The one thing

I've concentrated on is eating healthily so my body has the fuel

it

needs to heal.

I still struggle with the not wanting to eat issue but it's

significantly less drastic than it was. My knees still bother me some

(the 5% remaining pain area) so I can't stand up completely

straight or walk without limping yet but I'm close to it and know

I will again soon. My eye isn't recovering very well (can't

see

out of it but I can distinguish very bright light) so I'm

researching

again to find out what else I might be able to do for it. I think in

time it will heal, too.

Some of the things I couldn't do four months ago that I'm

doing well today are:

Ø I couldn't stand up straight to walk - standing and

walking at all were very painful. Now I can go for short walks with

my daughter in her stroller and not be in agony afterward.

Ø I used 6 pillows to prop up or support various body parts

while trying to sleep at night. Just rolling over from my back to my

side or vice versa was very painful and took a lot of effort. Today

I'm down to three pillows and don't even wake up when I roll

over.

Ø I couldn't lay on my sides for more than a few minutes

because my hips hurt too much. Now I can sleep on my sides as long as

I want to.

Ø When I sat down anywhere, I had to sit on a couple of pillows

and adjust my position every 5 - 10 minutes because of the pain.

Today, I can sit - even on hard surfaces like wood or concrete -

without pain.

Ø I had to use my hands to help lift my legs when getting out

of bed because of the pain and weakness in my legs. Today I just get

out of bed like a normal person.

Ø It was very difficult for me to dress and undress myself

- getting a pair of pants on or off was awful and I had to sit to

do

it. Today I can put on a pair of pants one leg at a time, standing up.

Ø Showering was difficult because I couldn't turn on the

water by myself, squeeze the shampoo bottle or stand for more than a

few minutes at a time. Today, no problem.

Ø It took forever (several minutes of concentration) to move

from a standing to a sitting position and vice versa. For the most

part, I used my arms to push myself into a standing position with

very little assistance from my legs/knees - too painful. Once

standing, I'd stand there for several minutes to slowly stretch

my knees straight enough to walk (more like waddle). Today, I can sit

normally and can stand almost normally (the knees).

Ø I couldn't lift anything with one hand that weighed more

than a few ounces (a glass of water for instance) and couldn't

lift much of anything even using both hands. Today, I'm still much

weaker than I should be but I can now lift many more things with one

hand and without pain and I can pick up and carry my 21 month old

daughter with no problem.

Again, sorry for being so long winded. I wanted to share both AP

experiences because it might help someone else avoid a round 2 - or

an overly lengthy round 1.

Best of luck to you on your AP journey!

To unsubscribe, email: rheumatic-unsubscribeegroups

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

Your letter was tremendously useful to me as it took me back to the " bad old

days " . I couldn't put on socks even with one of those " sock helpers "

because I couldn't pull on it due to terrible pain in my hands. Driving was

torture. I remember wondering if I would be able to turn the knob on the

front door if I had a fire. .

I am soooo grateful!

in Oregon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some of the things I couldn't do four months ago that I'm

doing well today are:

Ø I couldn't stand up straight to walk - standing and

walking at all were very painful. Now I can go for short walks with

my daughter in her stroller and not be in agony afterward.

Ø I used 6 pillows to prop up or support various body parts

while trying to sleep at night. Just rolling over from my back to my

side or vice versa was very painful and took a lot of effort. Today

I'm down to three pillows and don't even wake up when I roll

over.

Ø I couldn't lay on my sides for more than a few minutes

because my hips hurt too much. Now I can sleep on my sides as long as

I want to.

Ø When I sat down anywhere, I had to sit on a couple of pillows

and adjust my position every 5 - 10 minutes because of the pain.

Today, I can sit - even on hard surfaces like wood or concrete -

without pain.

Ø I had to use my hands to help lift my legs when getting out

of bed because of the pain and weakness in my legs. Today I just get

out of bed like a normal person.

Ø It was very difficult for me to dress and undress myself

- getting a pair of pants on or off was awful and I had to sit to

do

it. Today I can put on a pair of pants one leg at a time, standing up.

Ø Showering was difficult because I couldn't turn on the

water by myself, squeeze the shampoo bottle or stand for more than a

few minutes at a time. Today, no problem.

Ø It took forever (several minutes of concentration) to move

from a standing to a sitting position and vice versa. For the most

part, I used my arms to push myself into a standing position with

very little assistance from my legs/knees - too painful. Once

standing, I'd stand there for several minutes to slowly stretch

my knees straight enough to walk (more like waddle). Today, I can sit

normally and can stand almost normally (the knees).

Ø I couldn't lift anything with one hand that weighed more

than a few ounces (a glass of water for instance) and couldn't

lift much of anything even using both hands. Today, I'm still much

weaker than I should be but I can now lift many more things with one

hand and without pain and I can pick up and carry my 21 month old

daughter with no problem.

[Guest guest]

>

> Hi Everyone,

> I haven't posted on any of the rheumatic sites in several months

> and at last feel that I may be able to offer some hope and

> encouragement to others on the AP journey. So here's an update on

> my own AP success. Sorry for the lengthiness but I think the whole

> story may be helpful to some. Skip to the 8th paragraph if you want

> the bottom line.

>

> Some background:

> Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) dx'ed 7 years ago

> Traditional meds prior to this round of AP (my 2nd): methotrexate,

> Enbrel, prednisone, celebrex (quit everything except prednisone

> before starting on the AP which, in retrospect, may not have been the

> wisest choice).

> Traditional meds prior to first round of AP: prednisone, voltaren,

> plaquenil

> Two foot surgeries to remove sizable rheumatoid nodules

> ('95 & '02)

> Current meds: generic flagyl (metronidazole) 500 mg twice a day;

> minocycline (100 mg twice a day); generic nizoral (ketoconazole) 200

> mg twice a day; clindamycin IV once a week; prednisone 6 mg a day;

> antibiotic eye drops

>

> My first stint with the AP was begun early on in my disease, about a

> year and a half after diagnosis (late '97). I started with a week

> of clindamycin IV's followed by oral Minocin (200 mg MWF) and

> bi-weekly clindamycin IV's for about two years. At that time, the

> week of IV's worked like magic for me and provided immediate

> relief from a very swollen knee and a few other unhappy joints. I

> never herxed or had any experience other than continued improvement

> starting from day one. After two years on the AP, my husband I and

> were finally able to have the child we'd longed for because I was

> finally able to get off all drugs except prednisone. So that I could

> become pregnant, I stopped all antibiotics and continued on

> prednisone only (at that time, no one on any of the sites I

> frequented knew about the safety of erythromycin during pregnancy).

> The pregnancy was a breeze and I had only occasional mild RA

> discomfort toward the end of the pregnancy. Looking back on this

> first AP episode and based on what I've learned in the meantime,

> I believe that the antibiotic treatment so early after diagnosis was

> what made it so successful for me.

>

> After my beautiful, healthy daughter was born in June `01, I

> enjoyed another 4 weeks of little or only mild RA discomfort. Then

> the bottom fell out! I became nearly incapacitated with pain and

> swelling in every joint known to man. I couldn't pick up my 8

> pound daughter to nurse her and had to have my husband help me lift

> her out of her crib and put her back to bed. I couldn't move much

> of

> anything, really, so even getting to the crib was an undertaking. I

> was a mess and my worst nightmare had come true. I had to increase my

> prednisone intake to 30 mg a day (from 8), just to be able to

> function.

>

> Within a few weeks, I started taking twice weekly Enbrel injections

> (Enbrel had become available and approved for early treatment of RA

> during the years I'd been away from the AP and I decided to give

> it a try because I was in such dire straights). I'd discussed the

> AP with my rheumatologist who poo-pooed it but he did give me a

> prescription for minocycline for it's anti-inflammatory benefit.

> Although I started feeling much better the first week on Enbrel, I

> was told that it would take about 3 months to gain the full effect of

> the drug. I was able to reduce the prednisone to 10 mg a day fairly

> quickly (within a month). By four months into the Enbrel exercise

> (Dec.'01), I noticed that I didn't seem to be improving any

> further. My rheumatogolist added Celebrex to the mix and I found out

> then that the Enbrel would get as good as it was likely to get by

> about the 6 month point. In the 4 – 6 month timeframe on Enbrel,

> I

> was able to reduce the prednisone to 7 mg for a while but by 6

> months, I could tell that it wasn't helping as much as it had

> been

> earlier. By May '02, I was back up to 10 mg a day of prednisone

> and

> needing additional relief. The doc's answer was to add

> methotrexate to

> the mix. Against my better judgment (and all previous promises to

> myself about never taking this nasty drug), I started taking it in

> June '02 and it enabled me to drop the prednisone to 5 mg. It

> worked tremendously well for about 4 weeks and then by 6 weeks, I was

> again at the point of needing 10 mg of prednisone a day to prevent

> constant pain. I was functioning pretty well but hurt a lot. In June

> I also finally went to see an ophthalmologist about an eye problem

> that started at the beginning of the year and had been getting worse

> ever since - and found out that my left eye was being attacked by the

> RA. I couldn't believe it! My vision was very blurred and the

> outside corner of the white of my eye had turned bright red. The

> opth's answer: voltaren drops and prednisone drops which never

> helped

> a thing.

>

> By this time, I was fed up with - and terrified of - the obvious path

> I was on so I returned to my earlier AP " roots " if you will.

> I decided I had to get back on the AP no matter what. I went out to

> the web sites that I'd relied on years earlier…to reacquaint

> myself with the AP and learn what might be new after three years

> away. I began researching for experienced doctors I could see about

> the AP and scheduled several appointments.

>

> At the end of July '02 I abruptly stopped taking the MTX since it

> clearly wasn't working anyway and I'd read enough to remind

> myself why I should never have started taking it in the first place.

> At the end of Aug. '02, I did clindamycin IV's daily for a

> week through a local doctor who had provided these IV's to me the

> first time around. She also prescribed Minocin so I could begin the

> oral treatment. Well, I herxed like you would not believe! OWWWWWW!!

> It was pretty ugly. I went to an appointment in New Jersey at the end

> of Sep. to see an AP eye doctor about my eye and promptly started

> antibiotic treatments specifically for my eye. I had another

> appointment scheduled in early Oct. in Iowa to see the AP doc there

> but didn't find out anything new I could do that I wasn't

> already doing (although the doc is a very kind, concerned

> individual). So I continued the AP as I knew it (Minocin and

> clindamycin) and unfortunately continued to decline (side note: I

> followed all the rules re: 2 hour window for Minocin, probiotics,

> lots of water intake and the guidelines re: hydrogen peroxide baths

> and benadryl). I developed yeast problems and my local doc agreed to

> prescribe daily Diflucan. I also had to increase my prednisone to 15

> mg a day for any kind of relief.

>

> Paragraph #8:

> I visited the rheumatic sites daily for encouragement, information,

> understanding and hope – and got all these things (a zillion

> thanks to all of you who established these sites and who keep them

> alive!!). I also found out about the apparent huge success of the

> antibiotic regimen prescribed by a doctor in Georgia and decided I

> had to go see him. I did that in mid-Nov. '02 and the rest of the

> story is nothin' but GOOD NEWS!!! By the time I went to see him,

> I couldn't travel alone so my Mom (God bless her forever) came

> from

> Alaska to help me travel to Georgia and back. After that appointment,

> I finally felt I'd found a doctor who could and would help me get

> well. When I got back home, I scheduled sick leave at work beginning

> Thanksgiving week (because I was in such awful shape and expected to

> get worse on the new regimen before I got better), filled all my

> prescriptions for the additional drugs (the doctor added flagyl and

> nizoral to the minocin and clindamycin) and got started with the new

> drug regimen on Nov. 20th.

>

> I expected to herx like crazy but didn't. I experienced a slow

> but fairly steady lifting of pain and stiffness. My biggest challenge

> for the first 2 months was an OVERWHELMING, debilitating fatigue

> brought on by the drug regimen. There were days that I could hardly

> hold my head up I had so little energy. Needless to say, I slept a

> lot and did a whole lot of laying down. Another problem I experienced

> was that the drugs caused me to not want to eat anything –

> everything tasted pretty awful and I had some level of nausea most of

> the time. But, within a month of starting the regimen, the pain was

> 70% gone! At the one month point some swelling, especially in my

> knees and ankles, remained that was pretty bad.

>

> Today, just four short months after beginning the new regimen, the

> pain is 95% gone! I returned to work two weeks ago with much of

> my " old self " energy back. My blood work is quickly returning

> to normal - matching the improvement in my symptoms. In mid-Nov., my

> rheumatoid factor (RF) was 160 (normal is less than 14) then spiked

> up to 183 the first month (this was expected). By the end of Feb. -

> just a couple of weeks ago – it had dropped to 100!! I've

> been told to expect that by the time my RF drops to 60, I should be

> completely pain free and that's just around the

> corner…WOO-HOO! In

> mid-Nov. my C-Reactive Protein (CRP) was 8.25 (normal is less than

> 0.8). By late Feb. it had dropped to normal at 0.57!! I've also

> been

> able to reduce my prednisone dosage from 15 to 6 mg a day (and still

> slowly weaning).

>

> I have to tell you that I rarely adhere to the 2 hour window around

> the minocycline because after trying that early on, it was just too

> much to try to juggle it with everything else. I'm using the

> generic instead of the brand Minocin with obvious success. After

> about a month on the new regimen, I no longer needed hydrogen

> peroxide baths because the pain was pretty much gone. Before starting

> the flagyl and nizoral, I took hydrogen peroxide baths at least three

> times a week and sometimes more. I also stopped taking benadryl

> because it didn't seem to make a difference in how I felt (it had

> made a huge difference before I started the flagyl and nizoral). I

> haven't been very good about taking probiotics, either, although

> I do try to get some in now and then. I'm working on increasing

> my

> probiotic intake because I do think it's important. The one thing

> I've concentrated on is eating healthily so my body has the fuel

> it

> needs to heal.

>

> I still struggle with the not wanting to eat issue but it's

> significantly less drastic than it was. My knees still bother me some

> (the 5% remaining pain area) so I can't stand up completely

> straight or walk without limping yet but I'm close to it and know

> I will again soon. My eye isn't recovering very well (can't

> see

> out of it but I can distinguish very bright light) so I'm

> researching

> again to find out what else I might be able to do for it. I think in

> time it will heal, too.

>

> Some of the things I couldn't do four months ago that I'm

> doing well today are:

> Ø I couldn't stand up straight to walk - standing and

> walking at all were very painful. Now I can go for short walks with

> my daughter in her stroller and not be in agony afterward.

> Ø I used 6 pillows to prop up or support various body parts

> while trying to sleep at night. Just rolling over from my back to my

> side or vice versa was very painful and took a lot of effort. Today

> I'm down to three pillows and don't even wake up when I roll

> over.

> Ø I couldn't lay on my sides for more than a few minutes

> because my hips hurt too much. Now I can sleep on my sides as long as

> I want to.

> Ø When I sat down anywhere, I had to sit on a couple of pillows

> and adjust my position every 5 – 10 minutes because of the pain.

> Today, I can sit – even on hard surfaces like wood or concrete -

> without pain.

> Ø I had to use my hands to help lift my legs when getting out

> of bed because of the pain and weakness in my legs. Today I just get

> out of bed like a normal person.

> Ø It was very difficult for me to dress and undress myself

> – getting a pair of pants on or off was awful and I had to sit to

> do

> it. Today I can put on a pair of pants one leg at a time, standing up.

> Ø Showering was difficult because I couldn't turn on the

> water by myself, squeeze the shampoo bottle or stand for more than a

> few minutes at a time. Today, no problem.

> Ø It took forever (several minutes of concentration) to move

> from a standing to a sitting position and vice versa. For the most

> part, I used my arms to push myself into a standing position with

> very little assistance from my legs/knees – too painful. Once

> standing, I'd stand there for several minutes to slowly stretch

> my knees straight enough to walk (more like waddle). Today, I can sit

> normally and can stand almost normally (the knees).

> Ø I couldn't lift anything with one hand that weighed more

> than a few ounces (a glass of water for instance) and couldn't

> lift much of anything even using both hands. Today, I'm still much

> weaker than I should be but I can now lift many more things with one

> hand and without pain and I can pick up and carry my 21 month old

> daughter with no problem.

>

> Again, sorry for being so long winded. I wanted to share both AP

> experiences because it might help someone else avoid a round 2 - or

> an overly lengthy round 1.

>

> Best of luck to you on your AP journey!

>

>

[Guest guest]

Does this problem with your eyes involve twitching at all? My eye(s) have been

twitching on and off for over a week. I'm not sure if I should see my GP about

it or not.

---

In rheumatic , Sbcona@... wrote:

>

> Hi

> My name is too

> Thanks for sharing your experience. What is the doctor's name

> that you saw in Ga? Where in Ga is he?

> I also have uveitis(inflammation of the eye). I saw Dr. Wrostko

> in New Jersey and he was treating them with Minocin, Zovirax,

> and Erythromycin ointment . Sadly, he died suddenly and I have

> not found another AP opth. I am seeing an opth. who has performed

> vitrectomies on both eyes. I am still having problems seeing though..

> If I hear of anything I'll let you know.

> Conaway

>

>

>