Reply to Tell me about life with Rheumatoid Arthritis

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[quote=Anonymous]I have Psoriatic Arthritis (but generally not psoriasis, interestingly). Very similar to RA but presents a little differently—causing pain asymmetrically, in the smaller joints, and causes something called enthesis which is inflammation where bones and connective tissue meet. Over the 15 years I have had it (7 before diagnosed, 8 yrs since) the biologics are by far the best treatment.

My DR who is otherwise very conservative said that front-line treatment is a DMARD as soon as someone is diagnosed, so that any damage can be stopped or even reversed a bit. There’s a lot of damage that can happen before it’s symptomatic. The way he described it to me is that he’d like me to still be playing the piano in a decade, and i wouldn’t be able to without a DMARD.

For me, i had inflammation/bone loss that occurred prior to diagnosis, that has basically been reversed since I’ve been on DMARDs. It’s an incredibly outdated clinical recommendation to try and manage inflammatory arthritis with just steroids or pain meds. You should be on a DMARD, 100%. Read any clinical or patient education website.

Now, for DMARDs, I started with methotrexate, had to max out the meds, couldn’t handle losing 1 day a week to chemo brain and mouth ulcers, switched to humira, failed through in about 2 years, and have been on cosentyx for about 3/4 years. Had to double the dose, but still worth it.

I can hike, do yoga, play guitar and piano, stay awake until 10 pm, don’t get eye infections that can cause blindness, etc. Life changing. Please consider it. There’s so much benefit. [/quote]

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