Help

[Znewell]

Hi all I'm sort of new to this I was diagnosed with ra a month ago been off work for 4 months now see my doc today and he has signed me of again for another mouth till I see a specialist about my elbow it's stuck in a 90 degree angle witch is very painful it's been like it for a year now so can't really so my job but my doc keeps telling me once you see the specialist we will see what the say but all the time I'm waiting don't know how long sick pay last or what to do when it runs out anyone especially else had this problem with work and docs it doing my head in don't now what to do x

[GordonEdin]

Hi,

I suddenly came down with RA five years ago but am now essentially OK after medication.

GPs are unlikely to prescribe the effective medication without the go ahead from a Specialist. Anti-imflamatories and CoCodamol were not very effective on me.

Really, if this has not already happened, you need a consultation with a Rheumatologist as soon as possible. He/she may well then prescribe a steroid injection as a short term fix and then sulfasalazine, methotrexate or similar 'DMARD' to control the disease.

You can only have a few steroid injections, but (in my own experience) they can rapidly improve your symptoms. The DMARDs can then work more slowly to reduce inflammation and joint damage.