REDUCTION

hi Ptolemy i hve RA and was told on top of mtx to take eight a day, i have managed without eight for two days just took two at ten before bed.n

i feel i am putting too much meds in my body.

i am having plenty of fresh turmeric, fresh ginger and more green tea.

apart from the pain behind my ear and down my neck i seem to be coping.

walking is difficult but thats with the mid foot OA, i was told when i had the injection three weeks ago on my hand , that the doctor has recommened me for injections in my feet. so we will see .

Hi Margaret.

Thanks for this. I have PMR (coming up for 20 months) and am dropping down slowly to 8mg per day using DSNS.

I was interested in your mid foot arthritis as I have had that in my right foot for many years to the point where I limped when walking. The steroids have definitely helped with that but, more significantly, rocker bottom shoes and a visit to a good podiatrist for custom made orthotics. I rarely limp now and walk quite well for reasonable distances.

Good luck with it all.

Do the paracetamol make any difference? Did the rheumy tell you why you should be taking them? Perhaps they are helping the OA?

Hi Judith i can hardly walk some days, which get me down as i was a walker going to the lakes, doing the three peaks etc and miss it all.

i was lucky and had two pairs of shoes made on the NHS .i am waiting to see a podiatrist at chapel allerton to see if they can do anything more for me as the rhymi there seems to think these shoes are not good.

It was my a GP at our practice who gave me them, but this doctor who i see now (who may the way is really good listens and talks to me) who says that two many do more harm to the liver, and if i dont get any more relieve with the pain why take 8, so we are seeing how i go on taking less. The rheumy wants me to up my mtx, but i dont want too.

He is right, paracetamol are none too good for the liver if taken too much. If you stopped taking them altogether do you think it would make a difference? I don't blame you not wanting to increase the mtx!

Its a funny thing, because since i started taking my steroid in morning, then two hours later the folic acid in morning, then vitd after lunch, steroid at tea time, and magnesium at night i seem to be a bit better, i only took two paracetamol at bedtime last night as my neck pain was really bad, and so far today i have not taken paracetomol.

but saying that i have just had really bad pain in my fingers, so i am going to keep trying. tonight is my first night were i reduce my pred from 2..5mg to 7mg as i take a split dose of pred.

so watch this space

Sorry it should have read i reduce my pred from 2.5mg to 2mg to night making a total of 7mg a day

I was going to say that is rather a large jump but it wasn't!! Hope it all works out well.

Do ask about rocker bottom/sole shoes . They have helped me enormously.

Good luck!