It's highly aggressive and affects most of my joints but primarily my spine, also my bowl, skin, nails and eyes are affected... but it's relatively well controlled, I manage to DJ once or twice a week with the help of a roadie and also manage to run another small business. I holiday abroad about four times a year so I'm not doing so bad. You just learn to live with/around it.
We've discussed this before, but for what it's worth, the jab of Etanercept I give myself once a week seems to have stopped my RA in its tracks, with no obvious side effects. With me it was very much the Last Chance Saloon, having tried all the other types of AR-suppressing medication.
You’re spot on with this, it describes my experience perfectly. I suffer both extreme fatigue and insomnia at the same time thanks to my arthritis... I’m actually awake now because I’ve just got home from a gig... I will have a very slow Sunday and probably Monday too recouperating.
It sounds like you’ve had a rough time too, and yes I’ve had to stop my meds a few times too thanks to pneumonia. I still just get on with it as much as I can though... I was working until 2.30am entertaining people and I’ve dug my car out (admittedly with some help) and have been ferrying family around and shopping for building materials to het my parents garden room finished in time for Christmas day... I don’t let it stop me.
Aye, had my eyes tested, and was supplied with a card to regularly test my eyesight against. I noticed a problem when I was driving - things in the distance started to swim about in a most disconcerting way. Luckily, my wife was in the car & took over driving.It can adversely affect eyesight in some people as you found out. Were you advised to have your eyes tested before starting hydroxy, then at least once a year after? Glad your eyesight returned to normal. I think it's causing a bit of acid reflux, but I daren't stop taking it.
Entanercept worked wonders for me - I was like a new man a couple of days after starting it...well almost! As no doubt you know, it's a very strong immune suppressor. Apparently it was this very med that helped make thing easy for the UTI bug get into my bloodstream and cause the septic arthritis in my hip. The docs told me not to take again...other meds later followed suit.
There is a limit to how much I can safely suppress my immune system, being prone to severe chest infections that have hospitalised me on several occasions. I’d rather deal with arthritis pain and poor mobility than not being able to breathe.It can adversely affect eyesight in some people as you found out. Were you advised to have your eyes tested before starting hydroxy, then at least once a year after? Glad your eyesight returned to normal. I think it's causing a bit of acid reflux, but I daren't stop taking it.
Entanercept worked wonders for me - I was like a new man a couple of days after starting it...well almost! As no doubt you know, it's a very strong immune suppressor. Apparently it was this very med that helped make thing easy for the UTI bug get into my bloodstream and cause the septic arthritis in my hip. The docs told me not to take again...other meds later followed suit.
After I was discharged from hospital for the septic hip, it scared me that much having sepsis that I went cold turkey and stopped RA meds, including steroids and anti inflammatories, which I still can't take, and relied just on strong pain relief. It took about 4 weeks for the meds to leave my body and start feeling the effects of the RA returning. Another fortnight and I was crippled with pain and at times was unable to move from room to room without help. I just couldn't get over how bad the pain had become in most of my main joints. I was nigh on housebound for the next 4 months...how I lasted that long in such constant pain I'll never know. Eventually I had to give in and my rheumatologist started me on methotrexate, which I'd been on in the past. I had to have a chest x-ray to start methotrexate and that's when the abnormalities were found in my lungs so I had to stop taking that as well because it can cause lung problems of its own. Thankfully, and probably due to starting hydroxy, the pain has not returned to anywhere near as bad as when I went cold turkey. I'm still not in a good place and my mobility ain't too clever either, but like you I try to keep on truckin' as much as I can.