Hello there, I’m posting regarding my husband. He has RA which has been controlled very well for many years with drugs, 10 methotrexate per week and sulphzane.
Unfortunately he is always ill...eyes dry, infections of the eye, sensitive to the light, blood shot. Gets hay fever and never used to.
Skin irritation, all new and if he gets a cold it knocks him for 6 and never takes days off sick!
My question is are there any other RA suffers that have experienced the same?
What can the GP do? Can they test the antibodies in the blood that fight infection and can anything be done?
He has a doctors appointment today, which I will attend with him!!
Thank you in advance for any input.
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Nosnip
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Talk to the doctor about Sjorgen's syndrome and ask whether they will test for that. A lot of people with RA have it as a secondary thing, luckily usually very mildly as it's horrible. But it causes dry eyes and light sensitivity etc. I can't go out without sunglasses on bright days, and use eye drops all the time.
As for infections do you look after yourselves well? Proper sleep, good nutritious food with plenty of fruit and veg? Daily exercise? That sort of thing can help make sure your metabolism is in tip-top condition.
Unfrtunately the drugs we are given to control our RA and other autoimmune conditions such as Sjogren's Syndrome, lower our immunity, so we are more prone to infections than most people. Suggest your husband avoids too close contact with others who have colds etc and as HH advises, ask about Sjogren's Syndrome and keep youself as healthy as possible.
the drugs for RA do lower your immune system, and it's so important to rest when you're ill to get back to health quicker. Otherwise you can be fighting infections that only seem to get worse Try to encourage him to rest more - fighting an autoimmune disease never works unfortunately! If you want to help him feel better, make sure his diet is good and he eats a lot of immune boosting foods, because it can't do any harm
Just responding to the cold bit rather than eyes..
Yes unfortunately heavier longer colds, viruses etc is an unfortunate side effect of the meds to keep our RA at bay..
I'm in the middle of one now, I seem to pick up cold from a 100 metre distance of someone with cold. Lol.. But the severity and longevity of mine is always worse than others.. They floor me.
I think, if you can, try to get him to rest if he does get poorly, it will give him a better chance of recovery and hopefully stop colds morphing into something more serious, like a chest infection. (mine often do)
I'm pleased he's got someone like you, looking out for him, and looking on here, for how to help him. Bless you!
Responding to the eyes bit rather than the cold JoJo’s done that. Although I will say have you tried giving him good old home made chicken soup made by boiling a chicken carcass (it’s also known as Jewish penicillin)
Anyway, his eyes. If they feel dry he needs to get himself some good preservative free eyedrops and keep using them throughout the day - no limit to the number of times he puts them in. I keep some by my bed and put them in last time at night and even if I waken during the night.
I like HycoSan and Theolose Duo but there are lots to choose from and a good local optician will be able to advise you.
Preservative free drops are not cheap but they are much the best. The other thing I do is to squeeze a face cloth out in hot as I can bear it water and press that to my eyes for a while, I’ve also got an eye bag (again from the optician) and I put that in the microwave for a few seconds and lie down with that on my eyes.
You can also get things called Blepha Wipes to clean your eyes and lids - from optician’s shops if your optician thinks they will help. The big thing is to keep using the drops regularly- a lot of people start, get relief then stop using them because their eyes feel fine - they’re not really fine, they only feel better because the eye drops are artificial tears. When you stop using them, your eyes still can’t make enough tears.
As a PS - above is assuming that dry eyes are the problem - it would be worth your husband having an eye test to make sure dry eyes really are the problem. If they are then the above suggestions will be fine. If dry eyes aren’t the problem then your optician can refer him to the correct specialist.
Nosnip I get exactly the same problems with having RA, I’ve had the cold since Christmas plus a chest infection and was in bed a couple off days with it and also have dry eyes and got eye drops from the Optitions plus I wear glasses now as my eyes have deteriorated, I also suffer from hay fever and take antihistamines , it’s not only the RA that’s the problem it’s the complications that go with it xxx
Hiya Nosnip, welcome. It's so nice you're asking on behalf of your husband, makes such a difference when our partners are proactive.
I take MTX (20mg injections) & have tried double therapy with sulfasalazine. You've had good advice but the first thing that occurred to me was with the skin irritation. I have stress eczema so as you'd imagine I only have when stressed but I also had itchy skin in the same areas when I was on SSZ. SSZ is an antibiotic-based DMARD & one side effect of sulfonamides (the AB group it belongs to) is itchy skin, it is of course also a side effect of SSZ. I never felt well on SSZ & for one reason or another, it made me feel very low & I stayed on it too long but when it was stopped within weeks I was so much better even though I was only on MTX whilst waiting for it to leave my body to start another DMARD.
All I can add otherwise for your husband as he's susceptible to colds is to be on top of hand washing & maybe consider using an anti bacterial gel when out for those times he's unable to, times like exiting the last door of a public loo, after using a shopping trolley/basket, anything he uses that anyone who's not the best with hygiene could have touched, things like that. Avoid anyone with a cold. I swerve away if I hear anyone coughing or sneezing & been known to skip an aisle in a supermarket if someone's doing either. Little children & grandchildren can unfortunately be carriers of lot of germs & colds especially in winter, there's always something going around at school so if your family little ones have the sniffles maybe best to be aware.
My h generously passed on the virulent bug that's been around the back end of last year & this, I offered it him back & I must have witch tendencies because he got it back. Along with it I had an eye infection, not nice so I won't explain, but the one thing that helped more than anything was good old cucumber slices. Maybe worth a try if all else fails or even it it doesn't. It was so soothing I actually fell asleep 'wearing' them, granted I'd not been sleeping too well due to the bug but it was soothing.
Hopefully some of the ideas we've mentioned help. It's enough having RD without all the things that come with possible issues with the meds we need to control it.
Firstly thank you for all your, lenghly knowlegable messages, I very much appreciate that.
The bad eyes have been going on for nearly a year, he did see an optician in March 18 and she did give him hydrosan drops..although he was meant to use them daily...I think once eyes better then stopped...he won’t be bloody told!
I attended the doctor armed with a list of question and annoyingly possible conditions!
The GP who wasn’t our regular Gp was amazing.
He throughly examined my husbands eyes, which the whites were bright red..no white at all. Gp Explained that the RA plus the medication can cause dry eyes, plus my hudsbands working environment sometimes can add to the problem (tell you about that later).
GP prescibed an anti biotic eye drop (which looking through his notes on his screen has had about 5 times in the past 8 months).
Eyes drops for the day to keep them lubricated (this will be on going for life).
Another thicker eye drop at night, again on going.
We didn’t really discuss the low immune problem that much as the eyes took over the consultation.
One thing the GP did say is that if you feel a cold coming on you can not take the Methatrixate...but obviously that weights out complications of being body seizing up!
Believe it or not my husband is a scaffolder/contracts manager and he believes the excercise is good for him!
We’ve been through very difficult times with his RA.
We have a 9 year old daughter who was an ivf baby so my husband had to come of the SSZ and was never on the methotrexate as you can not be on it whilst trying for a family.
He had to be drug free for 6 months whilst we did the treatment and things got very bad. I would dress him, cut his dinner up etc. I remember the day we had to attend the clinic for our ivf treatment, I had to help him up the stairs in a busy tube station, people were looking as if he was drunk!
Could possibly write a book about it all!
Still attended work but work but work colleagues would cover him! Then made redundant so our insurance covered our mortgage!
Methatrixate has been a wonder drug and His mobility went back to normal after being drug free.
However all the side effects, bad eyes and low immune is causing difficult at the moment.
We will get there, but us women sometimes have to steer the way for the husbands that won’t be told!!
Thank you again and look after yourselves.
Xx
Ps my husbands mum who we sadly lost about 4 years ago also had RA only the drugs were not available then, once too far gone. She got hers in he early 30’s and was so buckled up. Mental in her legs, feet, arms and neck eventually housebound.
Our daughter (her only granddaughter) only ever saw her in her house for 6 years.)
So we lucky to have this drugs available because with out these my husband may have been like him mum.
Nosnip, doctors opinions differ on whether to stop methotrexate if someone has an infection. There's no easy option either way, but personally I'm with your new GP as I would rather put up with a period of debilitating pain, which I have done, than risk getting a common or garden infection turning into something far more serious . It usually takes a few weeks for the effects of the methotrexate to wear off anyway by which time any infection will hopefully have cleared.
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Try to encourage him to rest more - fighting an autoimmune disease never works unfortunately! If you want to help him feel better, make sure his diet is good and he eats a lot of immune boosting foods, because it can't do any harm 
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