Yet another diagnosis

It has been a few weeks since I have visited this site. I saw my rhuemy recently who says, without a doubt that I have chronic/aggressive RA. This is in addition to Osteo-arthritis and fibromyalgia,etc... It has me frieghtened. I tried Prednisone, I got sick. My rheumy insisited I be treated aggressively, but I wouldn't allow her to give me steroids shots. I am currently taking Plaquenil. Everything I read about RA has me scared, but I want to be informed. Does anyone have information reguarding what to expect as time goes on? I am also wondering about levels of inflammation in the blood I have been told (by my Dr) that normal "healthy" people have an inflammation level (in the blood) of 0.0-4.9 Last July mine was 16.0 and 2 months ago it had jumped to 86.9!!!!!! What does this mean???? How sick am I? Please help! I have searched relentlessly for information and I am not satisfied. Any help is greatly appreciated. Please respond to this post or e-mail me at <Admn. snip: Email address removed for privacy concerns. I know my Sisters can help. Thank you all so much for caring!

I do not have RA but my grandmother had it for most of her adult life. I remember visiting her when she wasn't feeling well. Of course things are different now, but she was housebound and had tried everything there was available at the time to no avail. Now she didn't HAVE to be housebound, she was just embarrassed to go out because regular shoes didn't feel good on her feet (they had to be granny shoes, you know?) and her hands were affected but she was still able to take care of herself and her house.

I know there are more things available now to treat RA and I also think it's important that you have a doctor you trust. And then it's important that you work with the doctor. I have other kinds of illnesses and I know that the inflammatory illnesses that I have need to be treated aggressively early in a flare or they get out of hand. In particular, Inflammatory Bowel Disease. I didn't want to take the strong meds either, but I finally worked out a treatment plan that I automatically put into action when I need to. Otherwise I am on a maintenance programme that works for me. This is after a bunch of trial and error approaches. If your doctor suggesets something you aren't comfortable with I would suggest discussing it thoroughly. There might be a good reason that you might want to try it anyway. For example, Prednisone injections are local and might not affect you the way oral Prednisoone did. They didn't me when I had them for Bursistis. Didn't help much, either, but they help a lot of people.

Hopefully there will be other sisters along shortly who can offer more information from their personal experiences.

Joselle

(((SPR))),
I'm sorry you have yet another dx Sometimes it seems neverending I dont have RA but do suffer from FMS..I cant imagine having to deal with that on top of having FMS, which is so very painful itself..(((hugs))) Here is some info on RA that might be of some help in understanding it better:

Rheumatoid Arthritis:

http://www.healthtalk.com/rain/

http://www.duq.edu/PT/RA/TableOfContents.html

http://www.arthritis.org/

http://www.arthritis.org/conditions/DiseaseCe

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/rheumatoid

http://www.hopkinsarthritis.org/

http://www.allaboutarthritis.com/

http://www.arthritis.co.za/fibromyalgia.html

RA Treatment:
http://arthritis.about.com/cs/ra/

Arthroplasty for rheumatoid arthritis:
http://webmd.lycos.com/encyclopedia/article/1834.50824

Arthritis Center:
http://health.discovery.com/centers/...arthritis.html

There are a few other ((Sisters)) here who have this as well, I'm sure they will be along shortly to share their experiences/advice..Good Luck Pls keep us posted on how your doing...(((hugs)))