All posts tagged: methotrexate

RA, a Progressive Disease

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I have seronegative rheumatoid arthritis. That means I have more issues with inflammation and less joint damage that a person with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis. My rheumatologist sometimes thinks they must be two different diseases. Once diagnosed both are given the same treatment. I was on methotrexate for seven years. It helped about fifty percent. Biologics helped anywhere from twenty to fifty percent. The combination made life bearable. Methotrexate had been a difficult drug with the side effects of nausea and diarrhea. They passed. With the injectable version of methotrexate, the side effects disappeared. I have a history of breast cancer that required surgery and radiation. It left my breast tissue with poor circulation. I developed methotrexate black box complication number thirteen, soft tissue necrosis. It took ten months to heal and included surgery. Absolutely no more methotrexate, or it would happen again. So I lost my fifty percent relief. I was lucky to get twenty percent relief with the biologics. I have been through most of them. The TNF inhibitors can cause cancer and the …

Using Heat and Cold for RA

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Heat and cold application can be a helpful tool in managing the symptoms of RA.  Have you mulled the idea of using ice or warm compresses to make your joints feel better, but was unsure what you should use so didn’t do anything? Should I use heat? Should I use ice? The answers are simple and unless taken to extreme, heat/cold applications are non-invasive, safe, and helpful for many arthritis sufferers. In sports medicine Ice is used for an immediate injury such as an ankle sprain. We have all experienced the call for ice after someone falls or is hit in a sports event. When applied to the skin, ice causes the local blood vessels to constrict. This slows down the circulation and will reduce new inflammation and swelling to the affected area.  Ice will also numb the area quieting pain receptors and reducing pain. Ice from the ice chest or a very cold soda can are usually available at a soccer game or similar sports game. It makes ice an easily obtainable, useful remedy. …

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Lockdown Update

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We are still locked down. We go to Costco and to Smiths. We travel out with our masks and our hand sanitizers. Those we meet are friendly and have smiling eyes behind their masks. If a person depended on reading lips to understand another, they are currently out of luck. Who would have guessed? Certainly not last September. Life changes so quickly. My garden is winding down. The squirrels are fat and happy after eating my tomatoes. The roadrunner couple I saw having sex in my back yard now have healthy teenagers who are as aggressive about eating birds as their parents. Our quail population is booming. They love quail blocks and nest along side the squirrels on a little used side of my property. I make bread every couple of days. I have many recipes for rye bread, but rye flour is now unattainable. Not enough planted by the farmers for the current demand. I also make a lot of oatmeal bread. Lucky for me. I make my own buns for bratwurst. I also …

At home with RA and Covid March 2020

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We live in Albuquerque. Sunny day. Tomato plants outgrowing their nursery. Pantry is stocked as usual, and our internet is dependable. Doctor appointments are via phone. Trips to the grocery store are carefully planned. There is no bread flour or other baking supplies on the grocery shelves. Eggs can be hard to get. There is no food in Amazon’s Pantry.  We are on lockdown. Yet we still count ourselves as lucky people. We do not have the virus. No one in our family has the virus. Francis, our little cockapoo, is healthy. Our pantry shelves are stocked. Our income, at this moment, is as it should be. Our home is safe. We are lucky. I have rheumatoid arthritis. Recently I had to stop taking my RA meds, methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine as two of my cancer docs said to stop. I had developed necrotic, infected tissue from breast cancer radiation treatment. This infection started in October. I had a partial mastectomy in December followed by a severe cellulitis. Now after months of treatment at the wound …