rheumatiod arthritis on top of wegs

[boomer]

I was just dx with rheumatoid arthritis. blood work is normal (normal for me anyhow) but lately ive been felling great pain in my joints. slightly different then what i was feeling when first dx with wegs. what im wondering is if anyone is taking any treatments or meds and if so how they are doing with a the meds that they are already on. I was told too get exercise as well but my feet hurt so bad im very limited.

[elephant]

Boomer what medicines are you on? My sister has Rhematiod Arthritis and she is on methotrexate and plaquil(sp). So why do the Rheumy's think you have RA?

[GARYfromBOSTON]

Boomer, I have a nice Schwin recumbent bike that I feel is probably the one of the best exercise machines for people with joint issues (if you have bad knee issues, it may be a problem). And it's so quiet you can watch TV or read a book while doing it. You could check out a recumbent bike out at a gym to see if it would or would not work for you.

[Sangye]

Boomer, how did they make the diagnosis of RA? I urge you to get to a Wegs specialist asap. Wegs can disguise itself as RA, and the blood tests are famously inaccurate--lots of false positives and negatives. It isn't unheard of to develop 2 autoimmune diseases, but you want to make absolutely sure it isn't Wegs in disguise. If it's really Wegs then it's more active than you think and needs to be treated as such. Wegs can kill you, RA cannot. A regular rheumy doesn't have the skills to sort this out.

[Jack]

I too suspect that this is Wegener's arthritis rather than rheumatoid. They can appear very similar in the early days, but I suppose you might just be very unlucky.

The American College of Rheumatology criteria for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis are that four of seven of the following criteria must be present:

1. Morning stiffness in and around joints, lasting more than 1 hour.
2. Arthritis of three or more joint areas involved simultaneously.
3. Arthritis of at least one area in a wrist, metacarpal or proximal interphalangeal joint.
4. Symetrical arthritis involving the same joint areas.
5. Rheumatoid nodules.
6. Positive serum rheumatoid factor.
7. Radiological changes typical of RA on hand and wrist x-rays.

On this basis, I could be considered to have it, but I know that I do not.

[Sangye]

Yup, me too! Weggies with joint involvement will often have #1-4 and #6. We will definitely NOT have radiological changes, since Wegs doesn't damage the joints when it inflames them.

(Gosh, my reply sounds a bit like the "Holy Hand Grenade Rulebook" in Monty Python. #5 is right out!)

[JanW]

My RA factor is quite high, which was the reason I found myself at the rheumy's to begin with. However, I don't have any of the other symptoms, and it was quite easy to rule out based on the clinic exam. The RA, ESR and C-RP in my case are high because of my wegs.

[elephant]

The Rheumy first diagnosed me when I was a child with RA. The whole time it was WG. So that's why I was questioning it. I agree with Jack and Sangye.

[jola57]

I asked my son to look into his med books and he found that as Sangye said we show all the signs of RA except for the radiological changes. I would quesion diagnosis of RA without a show of changes in the joints. Either way the treatments overlap in some ways and as far as I know there are no medication conflicts.

[boomer]

Its turns out to be fibromyalgia. Im having a few more test but i dont want to go on anymore meds. they just added domperidon to the mix and its helping by the side effects suck. As for meds im on immurane, prednisone, pantaloc, folic acid, vit d vit b12 diovan