Hi all! I really appreciated the welcome on my first post and have learned so much just reading posts.
I’ve been dealing with being newly diagnosed and took my 3rd methotrexate dose last night.
I’m curious to hear the different med protocols that got folks into remission. What did it take and how long did it take??
What is remission i am never pain free despite all the meds i take. xxxxx
Very sorry about your case, Sylvi. You have been having RA for a long time already but yet it is not under control. I could not imagine how bad your daily life could be. I am not experience to suggest anything as I am already in remission after about 1 1/2 treatment. I hope you can be better each day.
Amy
Amy i don't just have ra i have fibro and cfs as well so its hard to tell what is causing the pain darling.xxxx
sylvi
I’m so sorry to hear that. I’ve had chronic central neuropathic pain for about 4 years before the RA went off like a bomb recently. It is a different and altogether challenging type of pain. I do what I can to keep my pain levels to manageable but I also doubt I’ll ever be mostly pain free again either 
Mtx + hydroxy put me into remission. I initially took mtx for about 8 months with no huge improvement so they added hydroxy and by the time I had finished a course of steroids I'd been on, I was symptom free and stayed that way, even tho I had to come off hydroxy after a couple of months because of side effects. However, I was getting side effects from the mtx too, always did have, and in all I stuck that for 18 months but eventually asked to come off it because it made me feel so ill and miserable. Once off it, all my symptoms returned and the next DMARD I tried did nothing to help and also gave me undesirable side effects, so now on my first biologic and so far, although it's probably holding things steady, it is not putting me 'in remission' as inflammation markers are still high. I am not as bad as I was when RA first started though so for that I am thankful and I can still lead a nearly normal life and only need paracetamol regularly to keep pain at bay, or the odd co-codamol, so I feel fortunate that I don't have to take heavy duty pain meds. I hope your journey to remission is a smooth one!
Hi. I understand remission to mean 'absence of disease'. It seems that RA is something that can be dampened/symptoms controlled, rather than absent, although that would of course be great. The experienced people on this site say effective management varies from one person to another, as does the disease. I hope yours is soon responsive. Best wishes.
Remission means not an absence of disease but an absence by controlling of symptoms.
Hidden medway-lady I’ll take dampened or absense of symptoms. I know the disease is going to be always lurking! I’d like to give it a throat punch!
Following the advice of my rheumatologist!
I was lucky as my first rheumy was great, and discussed things well. So I started on MTX, increasing dose, which worked but not enough. So after a few months hydroxy was added in, which helped more but not enough. Then another few months later Sulpha was added in, with increasing doses and finally things stabilised. That took about a year.
And then after about another year I was judged to be in remission which for me means absence of active disease. Yes it's still there, but in the background so no pain or swelling as long as I'm a bit sensible and take the drugs.
helixhelix I know that must have been one very long and hard year. I’m going to ask my rheumy about being aggressive with triple therapy at my next appointment. Not so much that I’m impatient... oh wait. Yes it is!! I don’t want overkill but I don’t want to suffer any longer than needed.
So, even in remission, drugs are still required?
For most people it is a medically controlled remission, i.e. you still have to take the drugs. Some people are lucky enough to be able to slowly taper off the drugs and stay in remission, but that is less common.
Sadly I've never managed without drugs, despite all my lifestyle changes.
That’s like my thyroid. It’s controlled but I’m taking the meds for life. Phooey! Thank you. 
No remission, just effective treatment, Humira. But ~I am not in remission because if I miss my Humira, my joints hurt again after a couple of weeks.
hawker955 I’m glad you have something that works though! I can’t take Humira or other TNF biologics because I also have MS...and it’s been shown they can make MS symptoms worse.
Sorry to hear that QT, I did not know that about MS. It must be very tough suffering from both. You have my sympathy if that helps!!
Lefludamide which made things worse for a while then worked like a magic wand. I took MTX for a short while and it did not make me feel ill at all, just my hair fell out in handfalls. Literally handfulls so was advised hyper sensative and changed to LEF. Now in remission life is great i do keepfit, walk and swim nothing really has changed from a normal life. I was treated aggresssively and it paid off, no damage no swelling and it took about a year in all. I do sometimes overdo stuff by ignoring the warning signs of fatigue ie I can no longer walk 5 miles every day then do the gardening (we have a big garden) its a matter of priorities. I do believe keeping active if you can is vital as in my case the RA affected my lungs and blood. The hidden risks of RA do exist and three years ago I could have died had I not had a very good GP and prompt treatment at the local A&E and several days as a patient.
I'd add I do believe and others may disagree that diet is only important if weight is an issue. We all need to do everything we can to stay healthy and weight is an important issue. But that goes for the whole poulation as does smoking. I have had foot surgery and it made a huge difference so don't look at having RA as a sentance of a miserable life but look forward to a great life with good medications and if your in the UK an NHS that despite being hard pressed does look after the vast majority of people very well.
Diet is only important if weight is an issue? Are you serious?
And here was me thinking heart attacks were a bad thing.
Regardless of what your beliefs are regarding diet affecting the symptoms of RA you can’t actually believe that, can you?
I meant excatly what you've just said ie diet is important for everyone but it does'nt mean that the gluten free or some of the so called diet "cures" ie Padison's which crops up every now and again work to put RA into remission. I'm Celioc and think you've misread my post. I think that being overweight puts such addittional stress onto the body that it makes RA possably harder to treat. Please reread.
It doesn’t matter how many times I read it, it still says ‘’diet is only important if weight is an issue’. Seems pretty clear to me. Nobody mentioned gluten-free or any other diet.
Gluten is not the only thing in a diet that may (or may not) be unhealthy. It is entirely possible to eat a gluten-free diet that is really, really bad for you. As far as I know most ice cream doesn’t contain gluten, but if that was all you ate it wouldn’t be a very healthy diet. Same goes for vegetarianism. Chips smothered in cheese are vegetarian.
Who said diet was a ‘cure’? As much of a cure as methotrexate? Why is it when someone is on MTX and achieves remission the MTX gets the credit, but when someone does the same on, say the paddison diet it’s just a coincidence?
Just to be clear I’m not saying that diet is the answer, but you can’t be sure that it doesn’t play a part, in the same way people can’t be sure that it does. Until there has been more research done nobody can say for sure either way, so why dismiss it with such conviction? It seems to me being open to new ideas is a good thing. Im not suggesting believing everything you read, but at least have an open mind until you see strong evidence to the contrary. Because dismissing something without any evidence makes it a guess, and not a particularly educated guess.
I regret that you'r taking the comment out of context and really hav'nt followed other posts re diet. and by the way a lot of ice cream does contain gluten. i'm not responding further but suggest you read other posts re diet and cures. Diet is not important as long as its not claimed it cures RA which some posts say it does. Weight clearly has to be a factor which is when diet can help. End of.
Whilst I realise that a lot of food gets cross-contaminated with minute quantities of gluten, as far as I know, cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla pods don’t contain any grains. I’m sure some manufacturers may add thickeners and / or other glutinous ingredients but for the purpose of illustration let’s assume I meant ‘proper’ ice cream.
Why you don’t think I’ve followed any other posts is curious, but if you say so. Those that claim they know a cure for autoimmune conditions are wrong whether that’s through diet, meds or voodoo.
Why say something if you aren’t prepared to discuss it? Everyone is entitled to your opinion, hey? As long as they agree...
Obviously weight is a factor but that’s not what you said. I take it you are now agreeing that diet is important regardless of whether you are overweight? And if so, why? If diet can affect your body’s ability to process, say glucose - why are you so certain it can’t affect your immune responses to things? After all it was thought until fairly recently that serotonin was produced solely in the brain, but now we know that those pesky bacteria in your gut make 90% of it, and what dictates the make-up of those bacterial colonies?
When you end a post with ‘End of’ it makes it look like you have nothing further to add to the debate.
Good evening to you.
🙏🏻
Much tho I'm tempted to jump into the debate, Qt314grl is new to this board so let's not get too heated on this thread. I'm sure we'll have other opportunities to discuss as the importance of lifestyle is not going away any time soon.....
Absolutely, but when we make sweeping claims that suggest diet is of no consequence to our RA they can’t go unchallenged else it appears we all agree. And for some it really does appear to make a huge difference.
I would politely suggest that in this case it is relevant to the thread title, and without wanting to sound childish (😈) I was responding to a claim made by another, not bringing it up out of the blue for no reason. Ahem.
I will leave it there.
😉
medway-lady PFKAAde as it turns out, weight is a problem for me, lol. I understand what y’all are both saying though.
I’m not a fan of the mtx right now. It makes me pretty nauseous, so atbthe very least I’m hoping to start injections instead. The Leflunomide does sound interesting to me, I may ask rheumy about it at next visit too.
It is great for me, no side effects or hairloss. But takes a whle to work. Blood tests every 2 months are a tie but other than that would not know I have RA.
I have been in remission after about 1 1/2 year treatment. Below was my personal experience of recovery journey and I hope it does give you an idea of what do expect. However all of us are different though.
healthunlocked.com/nras/pos...
By the way, I have been away for a long time as I have been very busy and active in helping to conduct the polling and counting agent training throughout the whole country. Now that the election is over, I shall be back to look into any new development of RA.
Amy
Amy_Lee thank you for sharing the link. I will definitely read it. I love reading personal stories because it seems like these autoimmune diseases are never the same path. I also have MS and I know how the disease can present and progress in totally different ways for different folks.
Well it took me 17 years ! But for some the first Dmard they take hits their RA on the head & they go into remission.
Let's hope that happens for you.
I was diagnosed 11th April with S-negative early RA, (all bloods totally clear and normal) 4th MTX dose and only side effect is a hangover for a couple of mornings.
I was given a steroid shot a week before diagnosis and all my symptoms tenodinitis/tenosynovitis in my hugely swollen hands and puffy wrists, feet swelling at the end of day and stiff feet for 30 mins every day, cleared TOTALLY within 5 days - ive had no real symptoms at all since then, and my already low DAS score at the start is currently zero. Slight short-lived stiffness in a finger in my left hand now and then , but that's it really.
I never had any fatigue, or any swollen joints, so I now feel 100% back to normal - lifting weights again, walking everywhere, and cycling 6 to 11 miles few times a week.
I know the steroid injection will wear off, but the MTX should be kicking in by then - and I can have another if I need it.
Good luck to you hun with whatever you do. I know a lot of people get huge relief from the steroid boost, to me its been 'miraculous' . Although over-all, I do know I've been really 'lucky' so far, have zero join destruction right now, and symptoms were so few.
Biggest thing for me, and ANYONE is getting fit and strong again as much as you can, to keep joints protected and heart and lungs healthy.
Hugs to you x
I started methotrexate in November....by the beginning of January i was pain free except my thumb and I’m February my rheumy said i was in remission! Still riding the remission wave right now and feeling good!
That's so unfair that you also have MS. I started with RA when I was 38. I was eventually put on diclofenac ( this was nearly 30 years ago). After 2 years of pain I went down with flu and lying on my sofa feeling rotten I felt all the fluid in my toes that had given me agony
" drain" out of my body. I had a 3 year remission from that moment. It was like a miracle. No meds for 3 years. RA came back for another 3 years and the same thing happened again this time with a remission with no meds for 18 months.
I read about 15 years ago that a uni in London was doing research into the flu virus and auto immune diseases including RA and Leukaemia . The idea is that the flu virus kick starts your immune system.
The last remission I had lasted 13 years with no meds. I have been extremely fortunate. It came back 2 and a half years ago when i was extremely stressed and exhausted. I could sense my body was at breaking point. I have always tried to put off methotrexate as I had Hepatitis A when I was 20. I'm 65 now and may be I will try it but reading all the comments here I'm not keen.
Thinking about the thorny subject about food i do think it's really important what we put into our bodies. If we put the freshest, healthiest food into our system it will not only taste better but will be better for us. My step mum had MS for many years and she ate lots of fish, chicken and fruit and veg. Her drs said it helped . (At one point she had to have an investigative procedure and the dr said her gut was remarkably healthy).
I have been very lucky with my remissions. 2 from flu and the last 13 year one which happened gradually ( diclofenac was the only med) with the disease just burning itself out. I have just 2 fingers with a little joint damage.
I do yoga when I can. I don't know if any of this will help you. It's just my story . I do hope things improve for you.
Hi, once I was diagnosed...took about a yr or so! I was put on plaquenil, i cant tell you when but i went into remission for more than 10 yrs! It is only the last year or so, that i have been getting flare ups and just started mtx injections. Good luck!
you got to see it to believe it
Can you get joint damage while in clinical remission?
Remission 
Remission
You got me thinking Minka
