Grouchy Rheumy

[ideamktg]

I saw my rheumy yesterday, after a year. I've been doing great on minocycline for several years. She prescribed it after I requested it after failing on conventional drugs and has always seemed pleased at my incredible progress. Yesterday, she looked haggard, so I'm sure she was having a bad day. She was not happy to learn that I've been experimenting with my dose since January. “Either take it or don't take it!” she snapped. She did give the o.k. to try 100 mg/day instead of her original prescribed 200 mg/day. I have been taking 100 mg. on M-W-F and, have been experiencing some tenderness and swelling in my hands again. 

I had cut back for two reasons: feeling great, and yeast. The doctor gave me no suggestions about yeast. She basically said I'd have to live with it if I wanted to be on mino. Then, to my surprise, she angrily said, “This is not my medication of choice for you.” She went through the list of RA meds, “What about MTX? What about Arava?” I told her why she had taken me off of each of those meds…elevated liver enzymes, etc. It kind of scared me to see that she remembered absolutely nothing about my history and hadn't looked through the records before the exam to refresh her memory. She made it sound like I had rejected those drugs without trying them. I could tell she had an inaccurate picture of me. It was like the first time she had ever seen me, though I've been going to her for maybe 8 years.

I had bloodwork and hand x-rays done. Sed rate test results already came in online: 2!

I've been to four rheumys since I started dealing with arthritis, including one recommended by Road Back.  I'll stick with her, since I only see her 1-2/x year, she's willing to prescribe the mino, etc. I know there's a shortage of rheumys and they're overworked…I do think that's why she was so mean yesterday!

So, I'll increase my mino a bit, do all I can for the yeast on my own (my gynecologist gave me an Rx for diflucan), and go back in 6 months. I'm confident things will settle down between now and then.

Sierra

 

 

[ideamktg]

My sed rate was a 2 with an exclamation mark. 🙂

Sierra

[lynnie_sydney]

[user=2347]Sierra1[/user] wrote:

She did give the o.k. to try 100 mg/day instead of her original prescribed 200 mg/day. I have been taking 100 mg. on M-W-F and, have been experiencing some tenderness and swelling in my hands again. 

I had cut back for two reasons: feeling great, and yeast. The doctor gave me no suggestions about yeast.  

 

Sierra – sorry to hear of your experience, although it certainly isnt an isolated one. But it must make you feel a little dispirited, especially as she seems not to remember much at all about your history.

Just wanted to flag a couple of things to consider: the tenderness and swelling may be herx related – herxing will often follow any change in dosage/regime. Also candida can often produce symptoms that mimic an RA flare. And BTW rheumies generally dont understand the rationale behind pulse dosing of abx. Hope you get this under control soon. Lynnie 

 

Be well! Lynnie

Palindromic RA 30 yrs (Chronic Lyme?)
Mino 2003-2008 100mg MWF - can no longer tolerate any tetracyclines
rotating abx protocol now. From Sep 2018 MWF - a.m. Augmentin Duo 440mg + 150mg Biaxsig (roxithromycin). p.m. Cefaclor (375mg) + Klacid 125mg + LDN 3mg + Annual Clindy IV's
Diet: no gluten, dairy, sulphites, low salicylates
Supps: 600mg N-AC BID, 1000mg Vit C, P5P 40mg, zinc picolinate 60mg, Lithium orotate 20mg, Magnesium Oil, Bio-identical hormones (DHEA + Prog + Estrog)

[spfister]

Lynne:

Regarding having a flare from a yeast infec.  I just had to take a 2 week coarse of cipro for a lung infect.  Now I have a yeast infec,  and I'm feeling a lot of pain also, could this be a flare from the yeast?  I quit the mino for a few days hoping to wait until the yeast infec is gone to restart.:doh:

 

[ideamktg]

Just learned that my CRP was also normal.

Sierra

[lynnie_sydney]

[user=2270]spfister[/user] wrote:

Lynne:

Regarding having a flare from a yeast infec.  I just had to take a 2 week coarse of cipro for a lung infect.  Now I have a yeast infec,  and I'm feeling a lot of pain also, could this be a flare from the yeast?  I quit the mino for a few days hoping to wait until the yeast infec is gone to restart.:doh:

 

Joint pain may be caused or exacerbated by candida. And candida wont just go on its own. You'll either need to treat it with something like diflucan or possibly try a natural anti-fungal. There's probably discussion of other's preferred treatments if you type in 'yeast' and/or 'candida' into the search function above. Lynnie 

Be well! Lynnie

Palindromic RA 30 yrs (Chronic Lyme?)
Mino 2003-2008 100mg MWF - can no longer tolerate any tetracyclines
rotating abx protocol now. From Sep 2018 MWF - a.m. Augmentin Duo 440mg + 150mg Biaxsig (roxithromycin). p.m. Cefaclor (375mg) + Klacid 125mg + LDN 3mg + Annual Clindy IV's
Diet: no gluten, dairy, sulphites, low salicylates
Supps: 600mg N-AC BID, 1000mg Vit C, P5P 40mg, zinc picolinate 60mg, Lithium orotate 20mg, Magnesium Oil, Bio-identical hormones (DHEA + Prog + Estrog)

[Parisa]

Sierra,

I think when they mold rheumatologists I swear they are looking for people that are really rigid in their thinking.  It's always so disappointing when you are with the person whose job is to fix you and you are sitting there with the answer right in front of their faces and they refuse to see it. 

[Author]

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