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Arthritis - DAMN it hurts today

Melensdad

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
When I was in my early 20's I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, now its 25 years later and my RA has been treated aggressively and managed since it was diagnosed. However when I had foot surgery in February I was told to stop my RA medications because they suppress the immune system and slow down the healing. The problem is it takes 6 to 8 weeks for the RA drugs to build back up in your system when you stop taking them, even if you only stop for 3 or 4 weeks.

So now I have recovered from foot surgery enough that for the past 8 or 9 days I've been hobbling around on my crutches. Walking on the crutches aggravates the arthritis in my shoulders! Wednesday my left shoulder hurt. Yesterday I was feeling good. Today my right shoulder is hurting pretty bad.

Anyone else suffer with RA? This is a pretty miserable disease!
 
Yes, I do Bob, I know what you are going through. Some days you just want to lay in bed and not move and it still aches.... I luckly at my young age can get by with lodine and naproxen to control the swelling and pain... I do not want to be alive at 50 if I can help it....
 
mbsieg said:
luckly at my young age can get by with lodine and naproxen to control the swelling and pain
Click to expand...

What is lodine?

My main medication is Methotrexate, which was a state-of-the-art treatment 20 years ago but now is used in conjunction with one of several other drugs (often Enbrell or Humira, both of which are self injection drugs). I also take naproxen those minor aches and pains when they occur. Fortunately the Methotrexate does such a good job preventing the joint damage for me that under normal circumstances I really don't need to take too much pain medication. One drug that works great for me, but is not a cure or even a long term solution, is prednisone. Doctors seem to hate to prescribe it because it can do lots of damage to the system, but damn is it effective, even if only for a day or two. I know when I've taken it on my worst days, it totally turns my worst day into a day when I feel great. Still, its a bad drug, lots of nasty side effects if used for any length of time, but I sure wish I had one NOW.

Lately I've been using Vicodin for pain, but that is as much related to my surgery as anything else. I've also got a pain killer called Tramadol. Buried in the medicine cabinet is some codine, but I honestly can't remember the last time I took any, it is probably out of code by now. It never seemed to work very well for me anyway (ditto the vicodin, that just seems to take the 'edge' off but not actually do too much).

One thing I can't figure out is why some people take vicodin as a recreational drug to get high. It doesn't seem to give me any buzz and sure doesn't seem like anything that would be considered a 'fun' drug to me. I just don't get it.
 
From what I have been told by my Doc Etodolac (which I take) is a generic form of Lodine a pain killer. I also take a large selection of other drugs for All finds of problems... Gout for one.... Makes the arthritis even worse and wears more at the joints...
 
I know a couple people with Gout. I'm glad I don't have that. When they have flair-ups they are absolutely miserable!

Has your arthritis been diagnosed as Osteoarthritis or Rheumatoid Arthritis? While they share part of the same name, they are very different diseases. Both can still hurt like hell!!!
 
B_Skurka said:
I know a couple people with Gout.
Click to expand...

Yup, have that as well as (for now) relatively mild RA. What bothered me was that when the physician got the blood test back that confirmed RA, I thought he was going to tell me that I had cancer the way he was talking. So far the RA has never hurt as severely as the couple times I had gout in my big toe. Damn it hurt. I never thought you could possibly have so much pain in just a toe! My heavy physical labor lately has my RA hurting considerably more than normal as well. :shitHitFan:
 
I have arthritis, not sure about the RA part though probably osteo, in both knees. I used to be a lot fatter than I am now and they bothered me quite a bit. I was having to walk down stairs backwards because it hurt so bad to go down the normal way. I still have the occasional flare-up but I'm doing much better now. Hope you get to feeling better Bob.
My issue right now is sciatica. I'm having an outburst of that. The last couple of bouts have been handled by a steroid injection and a course of oral steroids. This time it doesn't seem to be going away with the 'roids. I have some Lortab for pain, but all that seems to do is make me talk a lot and I still hurt. My wife was trying to go to bed last night and I sat on the bed yakking at her for about an hour, and I'm not normally much of a talker. Hutch
 
Dargo . . . you and I have discussed this before. You really need to get on a treatment plan before you have serious damage to your joints. It only gets worse, it never gets better, but with proper treatment many people (myself included) have seen the disease halted for years, if not decades!


Hutch . . . Osteo is the more common type of arthritis, it can actually be managed pretty well with some over the counter supplements and they actually do work. Go to any big pharmacy, or someplace like Costco, Sam's Club, etc and get a big bottle of Glucoisamine and Condrotin tablets. Just a few years ago you'd have to buy 1 bottle of each tablet. Now they have the two combined into a horsepill sized tablet. Sometimes it is marketed under names like "Triple Flex" or something like that. But for early to moderate Osteoarthritis it can actually STOP the disease and even repair some of the minor damage. You have to take it for a couple months before you even start to notice that it is working, but there are scientific studies (real ones. . . not the type on info-mercials) that prove it is effective in a large % of people with Osteoarthritis. It is even endorsed as proven effective by the AMA, etc.

It should be noted that while Glucosamine & Condrotin are proven effective for Osteoarthritis, when taken together over periods of time, the two supplements unfortunately do not help people who have RA.

.

Disclaimer, I am not a doctor and am not trying to prescribe medicine for others, I'm just passing along information that I understand to be true and accurate. If it doesn't work for you, don't sue me for "malpractice"
 
Hi Bob,
I been dealin with it for 15 years now.They tell me my back looks like a 80 year old man .

B_Skurka said:
When I was in my early 20's I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, now its 25 years later and my RA has been treated aggressively and managed since it was diagnosed. However when I had foot surgery in February I was told to stop my RA medications because they suppress the immune system and slow down the healing. The problem is it takes 6 to 8 weeks for the RA drugs to build back up in your system when you stop taking them, even if you only stop for 3 or 4 weeks.

So now I have recovered from foot surgery enough that for the past 8 or 9 days I've been hobbling around on my crutches. Walking on the crutches aggravates the arthritis in my shoulders! Wednesday my left shoulder hurt. Yesterday I was feeling good. Today my right shoulder is hurting pretty bad.

Anyone else suffer with RA? This is a pretty miserable disease!
Click to expand...
 
BigAl said:
They tell me my back looks like a 80 year old man .
Click to expand...
Al, I think that is you butt that looks like an 80 year olds butt :moon:

Any idea if you have RA or Osteo? What type of treatment are you on, or are you like Dargo and just in denial?
 
B_Skurka said:
Al, I think that is you butt that looks like an 80 year olds butt :moon:

Any idea if you have RA or Osteo? What type of treatment are you on, or are you like Dargo and just in denial?
Click to expand...


Its RA and I have been suffering through it taking Alieve .Thats why I am on here at 2am .Can;t sleep!
 
B_Skurka said:
I know a couple people with Gout. I'm glad I don't have that. When they have flair-ups they are absolutely miserable!

Has your arthritis been diagnosed as Osteoarthritis or Rheumatoid Arthritis? While they share part of the same name, they are very different diseases. Both can still hurt like hell!!!
Click to expand...
Bob, it is early RA and seems to be getting worse yes I take all the supplements along with all 13 of my other meds!!!!!!!!!!!:pat: :puke1: :smileywac
 
RANT MODE:

mbsieg, BigAl & Dargo . . . since all three of you have RA, I'd really recommend you guys get to a rheumatologist, or at least a regular doctor who is well versed in RA treatment. If I did not seek treatment I would either be bedridden or confined to a wheelchair by the time I was 30. I tend to get emotional about this topic.

There are two basic courses of treatment, one is to treat the pain and swelling. That is basically a short outlook type of treatment but it is very common. It is typically treated with NSAIDS class drugs, which are non-steroid anti-inflamitory drugs used to treat pain. They do not stop the progression of the disease. While under this type of treatment, it is also fairly common to be treated with the occasional injection of steroids or take short courses of steroids. While under this type of treatment, your joints will continue to degrade and the damage cannot be undone. Over the long term, this type of treatment can lead to disability.

The other course of treatment is one that works to suppress the actual disease to prevent the damage to your joints. In the old days drugs like plaquanil (sp?) and gold shots/gold injections were common. About 20 years ago methotrexate came into common use for RA. Methotrexate was a breakthrough in that it had the ability to stop the RA and often put it into remission. It works for a very high % of patients who use it. Methotrexate is taken orally and can work for a lifetime or for a couple of decades. About 10 years ago a new class of injection type drugs started to be commonly used. Some of the most common are advertised on TV and you give yourself a shot about once a week. These drugs are used with methotrexate. They are even more effective than methotrexate alone and are generally considered the proper course of treatment for RA.

What it boils down to is that RA destroys your joints. Once the damage is done, it can't be repaired. Doctors who do not know how to treat RA often just treat the pain and that may cause you major problems as you age, especially if your RA is aggressive. A doctor who knows how to treat RA will typically treat you with a combination of drugs that are designed to stop the disease from destroying your joints. Also, for RA, supplements do not work.

In many ways, treating RA is like treating Cancer. The more aggressively you treat it, and the sooner you start treating it, the better off you will be. I am living proof of that fact. I may be complaining now about my RA, but I consider myself to be a very fortunate person to have learned early that following an aggressive treatment plan can lead to a normal life. If I would have followed a pain-killer NSAIDS type treatment with occasional steroids then I would very probably be disabled today.


/RANT MODE OFF



OsteoArthritis is totally different and needs to be treated differently, often a regular doctor can effectively treat patients with mild to moderate Osteoarthrits. People with RA really should seek out a rheumatologist.
 
Thanks for the info Bob!!!!!!!!!!!! I think you know more than my Dr...... Mike
 
mbsieg said:
I think you know more than my Dr...... Mike
Click to expand...
I learned about this the HARD way. RA nearly destroyed me and it seriously damaged my father's life, but now I tend to preach about it because so many people are unaware about the different types of arthritis, what it does, and how it can be treated.

For people who are really bored, go to the Arthritis Foundation's website and you can read about all this stuff. http://www.arthritis.org/

One thing that I learned is that it is a big mistake to just think that "its just a little touch of arthritis and no big deal. . . "


Here is a link to get a free Rheumatoid Arthritis kit from the Arthritis Foundation :
http://www.arthritis.org/afstore/singleproduct.asp?idCat=&idSubCat=&idproduct=3797


Here is a link to get a free Osteoarthritis kit from the Arthritis Foundation:
http://www.arthritis.org/AFStore/singleproduct.asp?idproduct=3799&idcat=8
 
Bob-
As you probably don't remember, my previous career was in biotechnology where I spent several years working on a drug called Rituxan for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma. This drug has had quite a big success in RA. Here is a link to just one of the info sheets on it. Let me know if I can be of any help with more info on this drug.
Bonehead
 
How is it that they could tell that I have RA with a blood test? What marker is there in blood that confirms the disease? Can there be false positives?
 
Dargo said:
How is it that they could tell that I have RA with a blood test? What marker is there in blood that confirms the disease? Can there be false positives?
Click to expand...

Just type in "rheumatoid arthritis blood test" in Google. You'll find out plenty. :yum:

http://arthritis.about.com/od/radiagnosis/a/rheumfactor.htm

80% of people with rheumatoid arthritis are positive for rheumatoid factor.

What Is Rheumatoid Factor?

Rheumatoid factor is an immunoglobulin (antibody) which can bind to other antibodies. Antibodies are normal proteins found in the blood which function within the immune system. Rheumatoid factor though is not normally found in the general population (only found in about 1-2% of healthy people). The incidence of rheumatoid factor increases with age and about 20% of people over 65 years old have an elevated rheumatoid factor.

A blood test is used to detect the presence of rheumatoid factor. The blood test is commonly ordered to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid factor is present in 80% of adults who have rheumatoid arthritis but there is a much lower prevalence in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
zSB(3,3)

The incidence of rheumatoid factor increases with duration of disease in rheumatoid arthritis: at 3 months the incidence is 33%, while at one year it is 75%. Up to 20% of rheumatoid arthritis patients remain negative for rheumatoid factor (also known as "seronegative rheumatoid arthritis") throughout the course of their disease.
​
Click to expand...
 
Im 36 and have arthritis. I use ibupropfin. About 3 pills a day. (600mg)
It works. Weather changes really get me though.
 
I too suffer from arthritis, though don't know what type. I don't like taking pain killers and only do so, reluctantly when it gets too bad, but when the pain is really bad and I don't have to drive or operate machinery etc., I have found the best pain killer is whisky. I don't know what is in it that does the trick, but whatever, it can't be the alcohol as gin, vodka, rum etc do not work the same, whisky definitely takes the edge off it. It also has the added benefit that it tastes much nicer than pills!
 
Well I am now on Prednisone treatments for the next 2 weeks. The pain in my right shoulder could not be controlled by Codeine, Vicodin or Tramadol. I've been taking a sleeping pill + a tramadol every night just to get to sleep. The use of crutches from my foot surgery just makes things worse. Hopefully the Prednisone will calm the arthritis. The problem is it is a very strong immune system supressor so it will slow down the healing of my foot surgery.

THIS SUCKS.

I need some of Anita's Whiskey cure!!!
 
Sure hope you get to feeling better Bob. You've got problems on top of problems. I tell ya-gettin' old aint for sissies, and I'm only 52. I just finished a course of Prednisone for sciatica on my right side, which apparently didn't work. I also get severe cramps in my left leg, so I can't bend it very far without those kicking in. Sleeping is fun-can't get comfortable with the pain in my right hip and can't bend my left leg. Too much to remember just to sleep. Oh yeah, arthritis in both knees so I have to be careful of how I position them when trying to sleep also.
Hang in there Man!
 
Try the whisky folks, even if it doesn't help the pain, it is nice to take! I don't think there is a pain killer invented that really does the job, if there is I haven't found it yet, and I have tried most of them. Funny, this business of cramp in the left leg and pain in the right hip is so familiar. I find now that I am waking earlier and earlier because of the pain and have to get up to prevent it getting worse - soon it won't be worth going to bed at all. You 'painful people' have my sympathy for what it is worth - a fellow sufferer!
 
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