Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
I'm so sorry to hear this. RA is bad, bad stuff.
The friend I support has RA and it is hell for her. She can't keep a job because she never knows when she'll have a flare and be unable to work. She'll feel fine for a couple of weeks, but out of nowhere her foot will swell to the point where she can't put her shoes on or he wrists will swell and become excruciatingly painful. She can't drive long distances because a couple of ours at the wheel almost guarantees a flare in her wrists. She'll get soft tissue inflammations every couple of weeks. She takes methotrexate and has Remicade infusions every 5 weeks (over $4,000 each) and has tried all the naturalpathic stuff. She's big on that. She was has strong, independent, hard working woman until this disease struck her. After working and being productive for 40 years she has lost everything she owns and is in constant fear of losing what health insurance she has. Everything she manages to scrape together goes to co-pays and overdue doctor bills. She was a proud, strong woman until RA came along. It has ruined her life.
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The joint swelling as described was a side effect of Remicade (and the other 2 medications I mentioned) for me......the Lupus type symptoms. "Things" were going swimmingly for about 10 months of the treatments till I awoke one morning to my right hand swollen up like a blown up surgical glove. Painful to boot.
It was Lupus like like as the swelling moved from my hand to my forearm, shoulder then down to the other hand over a period of a few weeks. To make a long story short the swelling traveled down thru my abdomen (that was exciting) and into my feet....this all took about 3 months and I had stopped taking the Remicade.
The swellings were in my feet for about 6 months, then finally ceased.
About a year later I started Humira which was good for 4-5 months then we went thru the whole routine again. Them did it again with Centrix ...So much for that class of drugs. I was too stupid to quit work and just kept on truckin on......