Hello everyone, I am new here and new to RA. I was lucky to be diagnosed in less than a month after 4 flare ups out of nowhere. I had no idea that RA just came upon you. I am expecting my first visit with the specialist and have picked up a lot of good tips here. I have RA in my shoulders mainly and the pain is excruciating. I've had 2 steroid shots and I am wondering what do you do when flareups come on? I have no pain medicine and motrin and naproxene are useless and they always come on in the evenings. I tried celebrex and I can't tell that much difference. How many steroid shots can you take? It seems like I am having at least one flareup a month and they are debilitating, I have to miss work and I can't sleep at all.
My wife developed RA 16 years ago,and had been on every drug known to the medical world.Like you, one day she was working and the next day she couldn't walk. All I can advise you is to be very careful of any drug that you are prescribed,steroids and naproxen are two of them.Although my wife had two new hips,two knees and was to have both elbows replaced,the rheumatoid factor never showed up in her blood.
I haven't had any steroid shots but I know what you mean about the flare ups. I take Norco, Soma & Inbuprofen for the pain, but when I get a flare up, nothing really helps. And forget sleep. Mine is always in my hands/wrists and lying down makes it worse. Standing and walking seem to help so I get absolutely no sleep at all. I know how you feel!! I'm on Leflunomide now for RA but I'm only 2 months in. Although it has definitely helped my feet (I could barely walk in the mornings) it has seemed to actually increased the flare ups in my hands. My Rheumatologist said it'd take 2-3 months for the medication to START working and a good 6 months to take full effect. OR it may not be the right med and I'll have to try something else. I wish you all the best with your visit to the specialist. When I got my flare ups initially, I went to my chiropractor and he was able to take some of the pain away immediately. You might try that. Good luck to you!!
That is great to know, I would have never thought about a chiropractor. I'll keep that in mind for the next time. I am going to ask my specialist if he can give me pain medication for these episodes, something I could keep on hand. The GP I go to now makes me feel like a drug addict for even asking. I feel very ignorant about all these medications that are posted on here because I am not familiar with anything but plaqineil which is what I am taking.