First Blog

[thekeys46]

Well here goes, my first Blog

Went for a treadmill test today as I experience a fullness in chest arms and neck when walking up any incline. I had one 18 months ago which showed an SVT. At that time I was able to complete the test. Felt really stupid today as I only managed 4 ½ mins before feeling really uncomfortable and had to ask them to stop. He didn’t seem to think there were any signs of angina(suppose thats good), but why do I feel like this?

I had to go and have a CXR again, met loads of my work colleagues all asking me how I was. ‘Fed up being off but no better than when I went off sick 4 months ago. ’ At least my eyes weren’t red today. I asked the Dr. about taking NSAID as suggested by the Opthamologist and he agrees I can take them.(Hopefully will be able to get the scleritis under control). Opthamologist appointment Friday and then at some stage another nerve conduction test, ah well, at least it gets me out of the house. Realise I need something to keep my mind active. The only other time I was off work for this long was when I had my children. Have decided I am going to sign up for the Certificate in Counselling course. At least that doesn’t involve hands too much.

Being off gives me too much time to think ‘am I imagining all this going on in my body?, is it the medication working against each other?, is it time to pack in work?, will I ever feel better than this?.’ Life is for living. I must buck myself up and realise what I do have-family, friends, a home, can still walk. Suppose this could be a new beginning....watch this space.

[sylvi]

Welcome to your first blog and very good it is too. If you have ra you will be fatigued i'm afraid. You will get there eventually so don't think along the lines of giving up work until your ready or you find it too hard.You will start to see life rather differently from now on,eg; can i do that or not. There is no imagining with what is going on in your body,you know yourself there's something wrong. Let the docs do their job and find out what is wrong and the best way forward for you, it will take a while so be patient. There's me telling you to patient when i'm the worlds worst for being patient.

I wish you well for your course and your future will be bright what ever you do.

Sylvi.xx

[sciqueen]

Hi

Welcome. You seem to have alot going at the moment. So good luck with that.

Look forward to reading more of your blogs in the future

Sci x

[allanah]

Hi, and great to have you on the site,

I was supposed to have the treadmill test but due to my joint pains was not able to do it so they did it chemically and got me on a drug that really helps, so I hope they find out the cause of your tiredness soon, mine was AF. Also got steroid drops for my scleritis and episcletis and its kicked it into touch after a couple of weeks. I got the eye problems before they diagnosed RA for me and felt RA was the underlying cause of my eye inflammation problems. Its very uncomfortable though and really makes you feel tired and irritable having bad eyes doesn't it.

There is a link between Iritis, episcleritis and RA, it might be worth mentioning to your ophthalmologist if you have joint pains and he might get you checked out if you havent already.

I always wanted to do a counselling course but never had the time, so I hope you could get to do that, it would certainly give you a good insight into your health problems and help you with the management.

So let us know how your appointments go hugs ()

Axx

[thekeys46]

Hi Allanah,

the rheumatologist feels that the scleritis has been caused by RA. Like you I had it before the RA diagnosis. That has been one of my main problems for the last 3.5 years. Steroid eye drops don't seem to help at all so now I have the cardiologists go ahead to introduce NSAID along with the DMARDs.Did they think that your AF was caused by the RA(talking so many abbreviations here)

I am enjoying the introduction to counselling course and looking forward to embarking on the certificate course. I realise I need to be around people so hope it will help.

xx

[allanah]

Hi

Well that was my obvious first question and I think there has been a recent study and interview on this site about the link of RA with heart disease. I'm not sure if that includes pulse disorders though. The Rheumy didn't really come up with an answer but said at the time that this study was being undertaken. Think it was on the homepage of NRAS on the left hand column.

I had warfarin to keep my blood thin due to the AF and was still on the RA meds, I think at that stage it was Methotx8 and Remicade infusions but not sure , its been a long year! and Brufen for the pain, but i got fed up of blood tests for warfarin and asked my GP if it was essential. She said as I was under 65 that i could just have an 75mg aspirin a day, which was great so no more trips for warfarin and lots of dosage changes!!

My family all had RA and my dad and his eight brothers all had RA! I have recently been in touch with family who emigrated to America and three of them have very bad crippling RA and my cousin who is 14 also is very bad with RA. So a very strong history and unfortunately three of them all got cardiac problems very quickly after they developed RA. So when I got the AF within days of getting RA i was a lot worried lol.!! Oh and three of them got Iritis and glaucoma due to the RA (according to their docs at the time.)

However I think i have a strange family problem so I dont now if this is all just coincidence and the cardiologist I got couldn't care less when i told him and asked him if he knew of any links, oh well, there's always one, but it would have been interesting to know. BUT would it help cos theres not much I can do about it anyway but do what the rheumy and opthalmic says lol

so keep in touch, I'd be interested to hear what they say to you!

Love Axx