I have recently been diagnosed with RA and am on some heavy duty drugs. I would like feedback from other ra patients. Are these drugs safe long term? What is your cancer risk? life expentancy? I am 63. Will this disease progress more rapidly because of my age. I am going to a good facility (I hope) but my doctor does not really have a lot of time to discuss anything with me. He seems to be good medically. There is
very little support for this disease. Maybe I am overacting to the severity of it. What are the bes facilities for this disease? Any support would be appreciated.
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Hey Sheila. Enbrel and Methotrexate are both great drugs! I am 20 years old and have been on Enbrel for 8 years now i believe. When i was diagnosed i was taking methotrexate and although it worked great, i spent the day of and after i took my shot being sick to my stomach so i missed a ton of school.
Although I am only 20, my doctor says I have the body of an 80 year old, but that doesnt keep me from doing what i love; dancing. If it hadn't been for being active, i would be in a wheel chair. But now, if you see me on the street, you wouldn't know that i had arthritis.
These medications help so much and even though your diagnoses was many years after mine, i still think you can beat arthritis. Exercise. Find something you like to do. stay busy. Thats the most important thing. Also, don't give up on the meds! I ended up asking to take myself off all meds but enbrel about 3 years ago (i was on Celebrex, Enbrel and Methotrexate) and i'm doing great. Just get your body under control and push through it.
I hope some of the things i said help. Like i said, i know i'm only 20 but arthritis has been a huge part of my life and i just wanted to share the hope! we can beat arthritis! :)
Megan
January 26, 2009 - 1:25pmThis Comment
Hi Sheila, Can you share which drugs you're using? If you have some concern with your medications, have you looked into alternatives? If so, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine may offer some helpful information that you can discuss with your doctor, who should be willing to spend a little more time with you. Is your doctor a rheumatologist? And while there are many proven traditional treatments for RA, it's important not to replace them with a complementary treatment that is unproven. If you'd like to find out more about Complementary and Alternative Treatments for RA, you can find out about botanicals, vitamins, dietary approaches, hydrotherapy and more at the below link:
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/RA/
Thanks Sheila.
August 2, 2008 - 4:31pmThis Comment
Hi Tina, Thank you for your response and great information about alternative medicines. So far I have been going to a rheumatologist and he has me on predisone and methotrexate. The predisone has been reduced to 5mg and I'm pretty sure he will take me off it in a month. Methotrexate has been increased to 25 mg which I think is maximum dosage? He thinks I will probably have a flare up at which time he will put me on embrel. It's been almost a week and so far no flare ups. I take fish oil, borage oil, flax seed oil, vit D, calcium, daily vit and green tea along with prescription drugs. I exercise 1-2 hrs per day. My big fear is what the methotrexate & enbrel will be doing to my insides. My doctor tells me that these drugs slow the progression of the disease. The way I understand it is that I will eventually be deformed and in a wheelchair. It will just take longer to get there if I stay on these drugs. I guess this is a very unprediciable disease and the outcome is different for each individual. I've had RA for 4 months now and am so confused as to what is ahead for me.
August 3, 2008 - 10:28pmThis Comment