after being on triple drug therapy for 5mnths and feeling improvement, the last 2wks have been very painful in my hands and feet.Any advice.

[nel60]

[Rockpool60]

Hello. Are you in Scotland? I was on the triple therapy but have had to come off the Sulphasalazine as it made me ill with stomach pains. That is good that yo are starting to feel improvement :D. I would phone the Rheumy nurse for advice. take care xxx

[nel60]

yes im in scotland.had no side effects with medication only wish it would sort it out.x

[Hidden]

I think sometimes it creeps back through the side door Nel60. I live in Orkney and am not on triple therapy - only on 2 DMARDs, and second Hydroxy only introduced 2 months ago but I had one nasty episode after I'd been on MTX for 3 months - I wonder if the dosages needs adjusting? If you're on Sulpha, MTX and Hydroxy then probably the MTX is the one that might be most effective so ask your rheumy nurse or consultant if you can go up on one of them if you have any leeway still on dosages. TTx

[helixhelix]

Hi there. I'm also on triple therapy, but in England so I started them one at a time. And I've slowly had to increase doses as well , so now on 20mg MTX, 2.5g of sulpha (5 tabs/day) and 400mg hydroxy. Each time things have been adjusted I've improved for a while and then slowly gone backwards again. So as Tilda says either your RA is working its way round your meds, or could also just be a flare, as I still have flares from time to time for a few days and then calms down again. Over time I've got to know how I react, so I can sort of tell the difference between a flare and when I need to nag rheumy to change meds - but hard to describe in words. And everyone's different anyway. So also think you should give your rheumy a call to see if you can be reviewed. Polly

[nel60]

I called her today ill get a call tomorrow,thanks

[Hidden]

Hi Nel60

I hope you managed to get some advice from your rheumatology nurse, but in the meantime I thought you may find it useful to read our article on coping with the pain of RA. It includes some non-drug methods of managing pain using things like warm or cold packs on the painful joints. Please follow this link to read the full article: nras.org.uk/about_rheumatoi...

As the others have mentioned your rheumatology team my be able to adjust the doses of the medications you are on if you don't feel your RA is well controlled at the moment. But we have often spoken to people who are getting on very well with their drugs but still do get the occasional flare up. Hopefully this will just be temporary but if your flares are getting more frequent or more severe it would be worth discussing this with your rheumatology team again.

Kind regards

Sarah Kate

NRAS Helpline