Just diagnosed with RA

I've been having pain in my hands for over a year, but kept brushing it off. It got really bad over the summer so I went to my GP who sent me to a rheumatologist. She sent me for X-rays and blood work. I went back for the results today and I have rheumatoid arthritis. They are starting me on Plaquenil and an anti inflammatory for now and I go back in 6 weeks to see how it's going. They can see some pretty bad bone erosion in some of my finger joints which would explain the pain.

I've never had to take a medicine daily in my entire life I know it could be much worse, but I'm scared of having to take meds for the rest of my life. I'm scared of being in pain forever and having deformed hands.

Anyone else have RA? Any advice for a newbie who's still a bit in shock?

Re: Just diagnosed with RA

My sister has this. She goes through bad and good spurts.

I know the hardest thing for her is dealing with her insurance company because they often like to make her jump through hoops to get her medications paid for.

She is lucky because she has a great RA doctor, who has a heart, and will give her the meds for free if the company flucks with her.



Just from talking to her as well, she has said that avoiding certain things in her diet, she has found has helped a lot (i.e. salt, caffiene, alcohol).

She also tries to engage in activities such as yoga and pilates and says that helps too.

Just diagnosed with RA

Thank you... I'm going to have a really hard time ditching caffeine, but I know it probably has to be done!

Thank goodness we have really good insurance through DH's job, so that part of it shouldn't be a problem.

Re: Just diagnosed with RA

For an alternative to the typical treatments, check out www.roadback.org and read a book called The New Arthritis Breakthrough.

My father has scleroderma, which is related to RA, and he uses the treatment they talk about. I think that the RA patients do well with it also. They use it for more illnesses than just scleroderma and on their message boards they talk about all kinds of treatments. He can answer questions b/c he has read so much about it.

Just diagnosed with RA

I have a friend who was diagnosed with RA last year and she said that cutting gluten out of her diet makes a big difference for her.

Just diagnosed with RA

I have psoriatic arthritis which mimics RA, diagnosed at 22. Ten years later I am currently taking the injectable Humira, which has helped me tremendously. I first tried Enbrel which worked great at first then stopped working for me after about 18 months. I then was put on an infusion of Remicade which is basically a low dose form of chemotherapy, I would go every six weeks and sit for about three hours getting the infusion. This did not react well with my body it made my entire body flare up and cause extreme pain and stiffness. I switched rhematologists and was told the protein in Remicade probably wasn't compatible with my body and at that time I was given a script for Humira. It comes in pre filled injects pens and gets sent overnight to my house as it needs to be refrigerated. The pharmacy sends me sharps containers as well. It's a subcutaneous injection which goes into the layers for fat similar to Insulin. I usually have my husband inject it into the back of my upper arms as I found this location to be less painful then the legs or stomach. They have copy assistance programs as well that the pharmacy can lead you to. Again this has been the best treatment for me and I find it works great. I hope you find what works for you and I wish you all the best.