Managing a RA flare-up

I do hope all you 'grans' with RA and associated conditions are aware of NRAS and the information available from them, as well as the Health Unlocked forum. I've been living with RA for over 20 years now and have had a similar history of lung, eye and heart conditions, along with osteoarthritis in several places.
Currently between surgeries and so reliant on steroids to keep symptoms under control, but hope to get my life back a bit in 2025.
Best wishes to all of you.

Have had OA since I was 21 due to an accident at school. Lived with it & through it for years then at 75 was told that I now have RA. Found very hard to deal with flares as they were getting worse & more frequent. During one I was given steroids which really helped. I now take one 5mg dose as maintenance as my Consultant said that at my age I would not do well on Methotrexate which I was reluctant to take due a family member being put in hospital for two weeks after taking it for RA. Steroids can cause problems but I find I can cope with the constant niggling pain & at 80 now I’ll take this & wait to see what happens if anything does happen. Hopefully it will not!

I have been on Adalimumab now for about 5 years. It has transformed my life. I inject myself once a fortnight and all the injection pens are delivered. I am very lucky so far.

Truelovealways, I had never heard of etoricoxib, until you mentioned it. I can't have ÑAISDS, so that's also crossed off the list.
Fentanyl was the last chance for me. I had already tried morphine. Unfortunately, it is addictive and very difficult to come off.

As for steroids, my consultant will only give a Kennilog injection, as a last resort, due to my severely immunosuppressed status and the fact that forty years of steroids for COPD have caused severe osteoporosis.

If only someone would invent a miracle pill!

Seabear, as we have already posted, sometimes we need to change biologics after a time. Don't lose heart.
It is such a blow, when we think we are doing well and the condition is dampened down, then it flares up with a vengeance. That is the cruel nature of the beast.

Paracetamol is underrated and found to be an effective painkiller in conjuction with other medication, However, your liver function needs monitored.

I’m sorry that you’re having a bad flare @Seabear. I’m also on biologics, which have been great, but I’ve been having a few flares lately, I think it’s because of all the viruses that are doing the rounds. I use Etoricoxib during a flare, which helps a lot, if the flare isn’t improving I ring the RA clinic helpline and they generally call me in for a steroid injection. It’s good that you’re taking it easy and looking after yourself and I do understand how it can get you feeling really down. I hope the flare calms down and that you’ll feel better soon.

I am awaiting a respiratory appt ( who knows when), I am a carrier of a mutated cystic fibrosis gene, and that itself is a worry regarding fibrosis.
My chest is not good at the moment, but fortunately no obvious signs of fibrosis in the lastest xray..
RA is the work of the devil!

We really are inflammatory twins. I have Sjogens along with other debilitating auto immune friends. I had cateract surgery a couple of years ago. The (very lovely) surgeon said he’d only do my left eye under general because things were stuck together and he anticipated it taking an hour. He did the right eye another day under local which he anticipated taking 30 nit the usual 10/15 minutes. It took 50 mins as it was so like the right eye, all stuck together 😵‍💫.
I also have (mild) copd . I was very relieved to have copd rather than methotrexate triggered fibrosis
Yes alive and I was kicking a ball for my labrador earlier

As was my pain consultant appointment! Horrible man, I refused to go back.
My eyesight is failing too. Secondary Sjogens means I no longer read books. 😢

It took fifteen years to be diagnosed. High doses of steroids for COPD were masking it. I also tested seronegative. Strangely, I am now seropositive.
What a pair we are.
However, we are still here, alive, but perhaps not kicking.

Sorry Marydoll - my eye consultant experience was added as a twin to your cardiology one

Marydoll, fortunately that style of consultant is becoming rare. My rheumatologist insisted I take statins though cholstorol was 5, that she said is alright for ordinary folk, but not for you because the biggest cause of death in my patients is heart disease linked to inflammatory arthritis. Needles to say, I took the statins

My diagnosis took 15 years because a series of blood tests came back ‘normal’ despite classic symptoms. I had uveitis/eye inflammation in my left eye when I was 43 . I was seen daily at the eye clinic for treatment and oversight. It was initially astoundingly painful and extremely light sensitive. Treatment was passed back to my GP, who, I told the eye surgeon had suggested the inflammation might be linked to arthritis. His snippy response ‘Of course it is. Your right eye is already permanently damaged and now so is your left. You’ll be registered partly sighted and disabled within ten years’. With that, he turned on his heel and left me reeling. My children were 8 and 6 at that time. My gp was brilliant at reassuring me and here I am doing ok

Iam, my R.A twin.😘

When I saw the cardiologist after the Leflunomide episode, he left the room with his team, then walked back in on his own and said: Your RA won't kill you, but the majority of RA patients do die of heart failure. He then walked away without another word.
Talk about being blunt! 😱

I’m now on benepali Marydoll. I have permanent af, picked up when I had a really bad chest infection 9 years ago. So blood thinners mean no anti inflammatories and paracetemol does little.
Good to hear you feel the weather contributes. Chin up 🌞

Iam, I too had a rare reaction with my second biologic.

I am now on my third, Benapali, it had started to kick in, but today I am feeling miserable, my whole body aches.

I inject once weekly and also am on the highest dose of Sulfazalazine, eight daily.
I can no longer tolerate any other RA medication or it contraindicates with my heart medication or COPD. One caused such a severe reaction, that I ended up in Coronary Care.
I was totally unaware that RA and heart issues are not uncommon. In fact I was unaware I had a heart condition.

On top of that I cannot have most of the usual painkillers, so I have a Fentanyl patch and eight paracetamol daily.

I had to laugh when this morning, both the student and GP said that I looked so well and certainly didnt look sixty nine!
The student asked what my condition was. Both the GP and I burst out laughing. Where do you want to start?, she asked.

I was just saying to DH, that I think the weather plays a huge part I'm my pain.It is damp and miserable today.

I am sorry you are having a miserable time Seabear. Having taken Methotrexate for several years, I have now also been on a biologic, (Adalimumab), for a few months and haven't had a single RA flare up since starting. My blood inflammatory marker has come down from 20 to 7 (normal is 5). I had to miss one dose due to breast cancer surgery and certainly noticed a difference, but that was to the OA in my knees. I was very relieved when the effects kicked in again. I was hoping for a pain free time for the rest of my life so disappointed to read that it doesn't always last!

My friend has had RA for the past 40 years. She has an injection once a month , on top of other medications - 13 in all. She has also had a heart valve replacement (no connection with her RA).
She travels everywhere - her life doesn’t seem to be much restricted.
One of my sons had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when he was 10 years old. Naproxen helped him. Fortunately, he has grown out of it. (52 years old now).
So sorry that you suffer from this. The flare-ups are awful I’m sure. I hope you have help at home

Sympathy Seabear. I developed a significant rare reaction after twelve months on my first biological. One in ten thousand and I was the one. I’d felt so well, sleeping without pain waking me, active again. My biologic was stopped and I had a miserable year during which the reaction thankfully disappeared but the flare up returned. Then another biologic and so fat, so good
I have to bite my tongue when people tell me oh I know how you feel, I’ve got arthritis in my knee 🌞🙈

We have just had our kitchen replaced. I think it has caused my RA to flare with the work and stress involved. I am lucky that Naproxen seems to help. Try not to overdo things and take life more slowly. DH has taken over more of the running of the house and garden. Delegate if you can.

Thanks for all your comments (and I hope all the spam gets deleted) I've been on a biologic for a year and it's been wonderful, which is probably why I'm so down at the moment

REPORTED!!!!

Shame to derail such a worthwhile thread!

Thanks Iam

Reported irritating scam on an important thread

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