paula

[pdeecool]

my doctor says my blood has high

i have ra and started taking metho and small dose of prednisone, my doctor says ra indicators don't necessarily mean i have ra. anyway i'm on metho and steroid for 6 wks and my symptoms are worst at night after sleep. swollen, stiff hands , arms, wrist, fingers and foot stiff, want to do all steroids but doctor says not most effective treatment. I'm depressed. my mom had ra but i had no symptoms until a month ago. maybe its low vitamin d or 12 or something. what do you thibk?

r

r

[ruth_p]

It could be RA but it could be another inflammatory Arthritis, we’re not doctors here and can only give you advice and support. When I was uncontrolled I was always bad in the morning and it would take a while to get going. Steroids are ok in the short term but have lots of bad side effects, as well as being an upper so try to avoid taking them too close to bed time. They also give me bad night sweats, but then so does my RA when I’m flaring. Who prescribed the methotrexate? Have you been to a rheumatologist or just your GP? GP’s aren’t specialist enough to diagnose and decide which medication you should have. I hope some of this is helpful. 🙂

[Simba1992 in reply to ruth_p]

Hello Paula,

If you want to reduce the the stiffness and pain in the morning take the pred at 2-3 o'clock in the morning. This is what new research tell us and it's really working for me. You can also ask your doc to give you extended release pred. This means you take it at bed time and comes to effect at 2-3 o'clock. This way you don't need to wake up in the middle of the night.

It has been shown in reasech also that low dose pred with mtx is very effective i early RA and has a longterm decreasing effect on erosion. Better than just combining mtx with othe DMRDs and the adverse effects were in fact minimal.

[stbernhard]

Hello Paula and welcome to this forum. You'll find lots of understanding people with good stories and advice here. None of us are clinically trained, so we can't give medical advice or diagnosis. I am afraid you'll have to stick with the health professionals for that. The NRAS website has loads of very good information on RA, medication, GP appointments, stress, low feelings etc. That would be a good place to start if you are looking for more information on RA. Their helpline staff are also excellent. All the best and keep in touch.

P.s I was diagnosed nearly 10 years ago and I am leading an active life with very few restrictions.