MEDICATION Advice
Posted , 6 users are following.
is there anyone out there who has taken RA meds with little side effects,. if so what was it.
0 likes, 6 replies
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Notes on MEDICATION Advice
EileenH deena13493
Posted
It's not question you can really answer - just because I have no side effects doesn't mean you will also have no problems. And vice versa. And what works for me might not work for you.
AlexandriaGizmo deena13493
Posted
Eileen is right, we all react to different meds completely differently, I was diagnosed 12 years ago and have steered clear of all medications that we're offered to me and went the herbal route.
Doesn't work for everyone but it helps me.
Ask your rheumatologist next time you speak/see tgem
deena13493
Posted
could you explain what "herbs" you take. And I will ask at my next visit.
blair97497 deena13493
Posted
Deena, what symptoms are you suffering with RA?
How long have you had these?
How do they affect how you live or limit you from how you'd like to live?
Do you have any joint damage yet?
I expect these are some of the questions your rheumatologist might have in mind in considering your treatment.
This is my challenge and I think it will be common to many of us. Together with my specialist I need to balance my disease related suffering and future progression against how I end up responding to treatment. I can't tell you that because I am ok with my drug treatment, you will be too. I can't say that just because I responded badly to a particular drug, so will you.
In fact in the context of my own experience, I have to choose between benefits of treatments and possible side effects.
I do put up with side effects, but I choose to do so because my experience of RA was rapid onset of devastating widespread pain, a severe change to my physical function. It affected me mentally, reducing my cognitive function, making me mentally clouded, exhausted, unable to maintain concentration, making me fearful, irritated and depressed. I was despairing and considering whether a future life in that state was something I wanted at all.
My life under treatment is not the same as it was before I developed RA, but it is something I can live with.
So Deena, what are you trying to choose between?
gaz1234 deena13493
Posted
Hi
Ive been on methotrexate and injecting humira for about 16 yrs and havent had any side effects at all.
Still have pain like but p/killers for that, but my med,s seem to keep my levels ok.
Although lately theres been a trace of blood in my urine so sotta have something called a PSA which seemingly is a bloid test fir prostrate.
Good luck
Gaz
timothy11402 deena13493
Posted
I have used methotrexate for the last 15 years and my blood tests have been good. Also use hydroxychloroquine with no ill effects. I have to go to my opthomologist yearly to make sure that it has not deposited pigments in the back of my eyes. But the opthomologist told me in all his years in practice he has not seen this happen due to the use of hydroxychloroquine.