All posts tagged: RA treatment

RA feet and orthotics

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My RA started in my feet. About 20% of patients are introduced to RA via painful feet and about 95% of RA patients eventually do have feet involvement.  RA struck my poor feet first.  Diagnosis was slow as my primary doc, an internist, later said I was too old to have RA and that the pulses in my feet were strong so my feet were fine. Once I was diagnosed. Methotrexate (MTX) was my first RA drug. The dose was gradually increased until I reached the max of 25 mg/week.  I tolerated the nausea and diarrhea which eventually passed.  MTX helped me but by this time my feet were in a lot of pain and I walked with great difficulty. I was sent to a podiatrist who declared right off the bat that he didn’t do foot surgery for RA. Fine, I thought. I had read about the horrors of RA foot surgery and I wanted none of it. I did need to know what would help. He did three things for me. He ordered …

RA treatment in the 1920s

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In the early days of the twentieth century very little was known about rheumatoid arthritis.  It might have been called chronic infectious arthritis, proliferative arthritis or atrophic arthritis. Rheumatology was not a specialty. There were no rheumatologists. It was not a good time to have RA. Arthritis treatment at the Mayo Clinic  included bed rest. Patients were admitted to the hospital and put on bed rest for several weeks. They were given a balanced diet. Physical therapy was an important therapy. It improved range of motion, strengthened muscles and prevented deformities. Heat and massage were used  to improve circulation and to remove toxins. Bracing and casting were used to support joints and reduce contractions. Canes were prescribed. Shoe corrections were prescribed. Vaccine therapy, fever therapy and sympathectomy were popular treatments at the Mayo Clinic based on the theories of the time. As medical knowledge grew these therapies fell out of favor. Salicylates were drugs of choice. Remember this was before sulfa, penicillin and cortisone. It a was long time before ibuprofen would be formulated. Any …

Purging, Bloodletting and Algorithms

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, the old remedies of purging and bloodletting were left behind. Lister’s concepts of cleanliness had finally become widely accepted. Human anatomy was documented. The culprits of bacteria were identified. Medical knowledge base was growing beyond imagination. Yet doctors were stuck. There was no cure for a bacterial infection. There was no cure for a strep infection. If you were stricken with a strep throat, there was a good chance that you would die. Doctors had no solutions and people of all ages died from pneumonia, wound infections, meningitis, and more. Infection was feared. Today all this is unimaginable. But then, Ehrlich’s ‘magic bullet’ was yet to be discovered. The world changed forever with the discoveries of sulfa in 1936. Penicillin was refined and put into production in the 1940s. There were many more ‘magic bullets’ to follow. Doctors finally had new tools for their toolbox. It became the age of knowledge plus tools. Life became much better. Lifespans became longer. Today, in the twenty-first century, our doctors have …

Remicade started

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                                                                                             Remicade is the new RA drug I am starting. September 2016. There is a loading dose, another dose two weeks later, another a month later. The regular schedule for me will be 8 weeks apart.  I have had the first two doses. It is given by infusion over two hours. The whole thing lasts about three hours. I haven’t had any reactions. Nausea is a common side effect. I have it with methotrexate so I am armed with a strong anti-nausea medicine and I am good. Last month was tough for me. Flare plus flu.I have been in a perpetual RA flare for three years. The only difference is that sometimes it is much worse than other times. It has been on the worse end of the scale for …

Rituxan- the final frontier

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Rituxan, the final frontier February marked the second anniversary of my Rheumatoid Arthritis diagnosis. After two years of treatment, my average pain level was reduced from 10+ to an average range of 4 to 7 every single day.  The constant presence of pain and a body riddled with inflammation continue to suck every drop of energy from my aging, aching body. My treatment was complicated by the addition of thyroid cancer and soon after that with the addition of  breast cancer. Both required surgery. Both required radiation treatment. Both required medication.  Both interfered with my RA treatment. The TNF antagonists, like Embril, are contraindicated for those who have recently had cancer. I am not allowed to have them. The ongoing treatment for thyroid cancer is to keep my body slightly hypothyroid. It helps prevent the cancer from recurring but it also increases the effects of RA fatigue. The ongoing treatment for breast cancer is anastrosole. It eliminates all estrogen in the body. It also puts me at high risk for osteoporosis as does Rheumatoid Arthritis. My treatment originally started with …

RA Progress, Thanks to medical research

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It was 1965 and time to do his urine test to determine  his insulin dose. He was diabetic. He followed procedure carefully.  He went into the bathroom and closed the door. He picked up his urinal and proceeded to fill it. He left the bathroom and handed the urinal to the nurse.  She took it into the bathroom. She dipped her measuring tape into her patient’s urine. She waited as it changed color. She held it up to the chart. A 2+. She went back to the nurses’ station and drew up the units of regular insulin designated for a 2+ test result. She administered the insulin to her patient.  Diabetic management in the 60s.  Blood glucose meters had not been invented yet. During that same time, there was not a lot of relief for rheumatoid arthritis. Prednisone was new. Methotrexate for RA and all the biologics were a long way into the future. RA  progressed relentlessly until a person was totally crippled and in constant pain. Death would be the only relief. Rheumatoid arthritis is still not an …