Interesting news item!

bbc.co.uk/news/health-20898940

In this case it's gout but guess the same might also be possible for RA sufferers with terribly bad hands?

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I saw it too, flipping terrifying. So much for gout being about jolly chaps with red noses going for the port. Clearly can be much more serious at times.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Hi Wooly-I was recently diagnosed with RA and have read much about the antibiotic therapy treatment. I wonder if you pursued it? I talked my Dr. into letting me be on it, but he has also wanted me to take MXT and Areva, both of which gave me side-effects that I wasn't going to tolerate. I am in the process of changing doctors and am hoping for the best. I have been on Minocycline for almost 3 months now, along with 4mg Methylpred 1x daily. I still have problems, but I'm not waking in the morning crying anymore. Please tell me how it's going for you. Thanks, Denise

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Oh don't - my dad had gout poor soul - I think its as badly misrepresented as RA if not worse. And I've got a horribly red nose just now - maybe from too many tipples but I think it might be a boil on my nose?! X

[earthwitch]

I find all that transplant stuff really scary. It would be bad enough having an internal organ that belonged to someone else, but having a hand that wasn't yours???????????????

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If I was in Harry Potter world I would cheerfully accept a nose transplant at the strike of a wand today. But I'm also a pragmatist and if it was between a useless hand or a hand that worked - albeit someone else's I'd opt for it like a shot! Tilda

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Oh dear so the boil is for real....bit late, if it had developed sooner you would have done a great job standing in for rudolph LOL

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I saw it too and i was as ignorant as loads of other people, never knew that gout could be so disabling and like Wooly I did think it was only Henry VIII lookalikes who suffered from it. I would take the hand i think, it would be strange but.....

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Poor gout sufferers - and we RAers with the "just a bit of arthritis" stuff should be more aware really. But I think it's the uric acid in certain foods and drink that can cause gout and it's very much a brother (affects men much more) to RA so we should really be more aware. Let's hope this man's hand transplant sets everyone right more about gout at least.

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PS it's too lopsided to make a good Rudolph - unless he was half cut?! Tx

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I saw this too, but it was probably and extreme case of loss of use and wouldnt be available routinely.. patients had to be physically and emotionally suitable so any one with any nervous , problems, such as bipolar or major depression wouldnt be suitable.

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Yes I agree. The thing that is surprising everyone is that it shows just how severe gout can be. Tilda x

[minka]

yes i saw that thought it was a rich mans problem gout ya can stick that

wouldnt ya think your body would sort itself out a bit better its always amases me how when you look at things your body can go into self distruct.

better to be born old and work back like the strange case of benjamin button.

hell i would give it some pago at 21 years old.

[rattusrattus]

i don't think i'd want someone elses bits - internal or external - i'd find it very difficult to accept a deseased person's spare parts in or on me - i even feel sick at the thought of someone elses blood.

if it was a life of death decission then i might have to deal with it it but the thought would never go away.

it's like frankensteins monster or the thing from the adams family...

[cathie]

Poor guy he was a pub landlord waasnt he. I hope it works but he willhave to take loads of nasty anti-rejection meds. I think I'd rather be abandoned on top of a chilly mountain with a bottle of whisky. Or like Gordon Buchanan from Mull who was taking photographs in a poly cube and this lady polar bear came along feeling like a snack.

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Thanks for making me laugh Polly - I'm in such a grump with my back ache that it's quite a feat but the polar bear tale made me hoot - I'm so sadistic! TTx

[allypal]

I often look at my hands and think that they don't look like mine anymore, but it would be weird to know that it wasn't mine! Reminds me of an old horror film where a severed hand had a life of it's own, and committed evil deeds. Oh dear! Then there was 'Thing' in the Adams Family......

Ally x

[Hidden]

I loved the film with Brad Pit. But I feel younger now (well not today with my back actually) than I did ten years ago when the kids were young. I was covered in horrible eczema and always tired and fatter than I am now too. So maybe its really happening and at 90 I'll be back in nappies? Xxx