My Story of RA

[jmsmile]

I had a large cyst on my ovaries removed in November 2009. After recovery I was in perfect health for a couple of months. In February/March of 2010, I started having some pain in my fingers and knees. It would hurt so bad at night that I would wake up and cry. I could hardly use my hands in the morning to get ready for work. Some mornings I just wanted to cut my hands off! It would take at least an hour before I had any relief.

I went to my family doctor. The first thing he thought was that is was related to my surgery. He did some blood work and put me on Hydrochlorothiazide. The blood work came out negative. I was back in his office the next week. I told him my hands hurt bad enough that I wanted to cut them off. He tested me for RA and put me on Decadron (a steroid) for 5 days. A couple of days later my hands hurt really bad again. He gave me a refill on the Decadron but none of the tests showed anything related to arthritis. I was back in his office the third week. He decided to do a nerve study for carpal tunnel (even though the pain was not just in my hands but also my knees). He set up the appointment for the nerve study and also to see an orthopedic doctor. In the meantime he added Vicodin to my prescription diet. It really did nothing for me. Only the Decadron worked. The nerve study showed I did not have carpal tunnel but the orthopedic doctor still wanted to send me somewhere else to re-do the test. He put me on Mobic. I called my family doctor and asked him to send me to a rheumatologist. The rheumatologist did more tests and x-rays. He switched me from Decadron to Prednisone and added Tramadol. I went back for the results. RA factor was not up but the x-rays showed a little bit of inflammation in my knees and hands so I was diagnosed with RA. He kept me on Prednisone and added Plaquinil. After a couple of months I started weaning off the Prednisone. Over time I went from three 5mg. tablets a day to just 1/2 a day. The next week I forgot to take my Plaquinil altogether (forgot to add it to my pill case). My hands started hurting again. The doctor told me to take more Prednisone again.

About this time I caught up with an old friend who is a now retired pastor. He had RA to the point where he was in a wheelchair. He found out about the antibiotic treatment Minocin. He started on that and was in remission for 10 years! For 10 years he did not take any medicine and was not seeing a doctor (although he admits he should have followed up with the doctor some). Just in the past year he has started having some trouble and is walking with a cane. He went back to the doctor who helped him and he is back on Minocin and slowly getting better again. He recommended I read the book, “The New Arthritis Breakthrough” which I got so much out of. He told me about Minocin and believe it or not my rheumatologist agreed to write me a prescription for it. I had a lot of trouble finding the name brand (which is what everyone recommends) because it is so expensive that the drugstores around my home did not carry it. I finally was able to obtain it through my mail in prescription company. I have only been on it a couple of weeks but I do feel some relief. I will stay on the Prednisone (1-1/2 per day) and Plaquinil till this gets in my system but I am hopeful that I will get better. I am passing the information on this treatment to another lady I had talked to who has RA really bad. Pay it forward!

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