Aaaah! The Waiting Game :)

After my poor time in our Public System, I saw a private Rheumy last week. Result? Get a blood test for markers on June 30th and come and see me mid July. OK.

Reason being, by them I would have taken Plaquenil long enough to see what effect it’s truly having - that would be 4 months, so I feel this is fair enough. Also fair enough because I don’t want to take Methotrexate, and my GP supports me - she’s not a fan of multiple drugs.

I wanted to ask some of you knowledgeable folk a question - which I will get to, sorry it’s got long

Initially when I was diagnosed with double seropositiveRA (all possible inflammatory markers sky high), I had what I now know to be a “flare” which mainly effected my hands and knees, plus I was really tired.

One of the PH Rheumies gave me some Pred, which I took for 6 days and it totally flattened that inflammatory situation - not completely, though, but enough to make a big difference. 2 weeks later I started on the Plaquenil, and currently do not take any other medication.

The 2 years prior to diagnosis has been littered with various tendinitis issues in my feet and hands - my thought are, this was the beginning of RA, just didn’t flare symmetrically at the same time.

Currently, I have one left middle finger that’s being a trigger finger - really locked in the morning, difficult during the day. My left foot (why don’t we count them?) - is giving me a lot of grief, after exercise. My right hand has moderate stiffness in the morning, but not dramatic, it mobilises relatively quickly. The Pred cured my inability to squat (knees), so that’s quite improved - and not come back.

Do others have RA symptoms that are worse on one side than the other? The new Rheumy said my markers were not good, yet, apart from the left hand and foot, and some tiredness, I don’t feel too hard done by. In fact I feel like I had one awful flare that’s settled down, but I’m left with a lot of niggles and I’m not sure what they mean.

Would be interested in thoughts from people who have much better knowledge of this disease than I do, cheers Deb

PS. If anyone can tell me what dimension image fits into the “banner” part of the profile nicely, I’d love to know, ‘Cos the one above doesn’t fit and it’s 600 x 200

Also, posting photos seems to be a bit random as to where they end up. Is there a Help section ?

[Bon1]

Hi YanniBaci

I definitely had symptoms that were non symmetrical. In fact going back a long time I had a painful shoulder and then a weird swollen thumb. In fact looking back I remember looking on google and thinking “well at least it’s not rheumatoid arthritis because it’s not symmetrical” !!

It was only when I had my nuclear flare two and a half years ago that it acquired the typical both sides pattern. And now that I am under control I once more have just a swollen finger and bad neck...

Hope all goes well for you

By the way I would add there’s no problem with mixing some of the drugs: it was only when I added plaquenil to Mtx that i was able to start getting my prednisone down.

Bon

X

[widgie]

i really am behind the times. Are you really saying that my fingers going into spasm really is yet another result of this auto-immune disease?

That explains quite a lot. Thanks

[Hidden in reply to widgie]

Hi Widgie,

That’s been my experience, and to be honest, it’s been the worst. Perhaps falls into the “well known” category of everyone is affected differently? Anyways, I can heartily recommend seeing a hand therapist - splints work magic on this issue. Hope you get that fixed soon, cheers Deb