Anyone living in Britain?
Posted , 8 users are following.
I only ask because we seem to have different treatments here and it would be good to compare notes.
0 likes, 28 replies
Posted , 8 users are following.
I only ask because we seem to have different treatments here and it would be good to compare notes.
0 likes, 28 replies
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lbh kate50809
Posted
kate50809 lbh
Posted
Thanks for your response Ibh. Please see my response to Christine and Floramac. I am unfamiliar with this sort of site and thought I needed to respond to each person individually. That's why I cut and pasted the second reply! I am also recently diagnosed and had my first appointment at the Rheumatolgy clinic at the end of May. Hope yours goes well.
Kate
jones10939 kate50809
Posted
Seen OP rheumatology after a week and then temporal artery biopsy 6 days ago, waiing for results and further decision re meds.
kate50809 jones10939
Posted
Kate
jones10939 kate50809
Posted
Bear in mind that the various NHS trusts could well have different policies I'm aware that with a different medical condition that there's a superior test which is free in England but has to be paid for in Wales.
Different Rheumatologists may well have their own preferred regime.
kate50809 jones10939
Posted
Kate
EileenH kate50809
Posted
This is a UK forum so yes, plenty of Brits around! There are far more on the HealthUnlocked forum - run on behalf of PMRGCAuk, the main charitable body for the illnesses. They also have a list of local support groups all over the UK:
http://www.pmrgca.co.uk/groups/
But as Jones says - there are people in the US who use similar approaches to doctors in the UK and mainland Europe - the guidelines are published jointly by ACR and EULAR, the American and European associations of rheumatologists. And two different rhuemies on one hospital will have totally different ideas. About the only constant is that prednisolone is the only real option!
Jones - what superior test? The only thing I know of would possibly be the ultrasound temporal artery scan (other arteries can be looked at too) but that isn't a payment problem really, it is availability of someone trained to do it and it is universally available even in England. It was done in a comparative study against TAB (the biopsy) but it takes several months to learn u/s techniques and that costs money - the NHS doesn't have any... It is done in some places where someone involved in the original study can do it but using a senior consultant to do u/s when they are desperately short of rheumatologists anyway isn't going to happen. Training courses are being done but not enough to roll it out everywhere.
kate50809 EileenH
Posted
Kate
jones10939 EileenH
Posted
Eileen - "different medical condition" was the phrase I used - to illustrate that within the UK there are different policies, whatever the initial problem.
Sorry for any confusion.
EileenH jones10939
Posted
My fault - didn't read the whole sentence in one, if you see what I mean!!!!