Moanalogue - March Edition

Sorry to hear you're already reacting to the drop in prednisone. That's awful. Is there anything you can substitute while your body adjusts, like an Ibuprofin substance? (I think it's called something different in Austrailia - but our name brands are Motrin and Advil.) I know you have to be careful with Chrons, but is there some type of anti=inflammatory drug that won't affect it?

I'm curious to ask people here if they have noticed a difference in generic brands of meds. I've been on plaquenil for many years and my pharmacist has been special ordering a particular brand for me (long story, but bless his heart!), but last month I got a different brand by accident. I decided not to take it back and try it and have been taking it for about 3-4 weeks. The last 2 weeks I have had more pain/flare than I have had in a long time.  It's been raining and I have to wonder if it's a coincidence or the different generic med. I didn't have this bad of issues from the storms in January.

Take care everyone! It's almost the weekend! **

Could help but chip in on your discussion re: patches for pain..... I've tried them and they did nothing for me, Jax I understand if my memory services me well tried them and they were great for her, but it's worth a try when next you need something.

Keep well and I'm sure we will be talking soon.  Jax are you still out there???

Camama - Your headache sounds like the ones I get. My PCP diagnosed them as Neuralgia - I call them my 'massive headaches '. I use a heat pack on my head but it travels around my skull and face and it hurts to be touched - is that the same as you?  Everytime I get one I think I am dying  The Dr. also said it could be a side-effect from the Humira - who knows. I hate them and I get no warning that its coming. I end up popping 8 panadols which hardly do much. I was getting them at least once a fortnight, random days, and they last for hours/whole day - UGH.

Mags - I didnt take drugs either when I was young, but the effect strong meds have on me would have made me a cheap druggie When I had my bowel resection they told me to hit my morphine pump before trying to get out of bed, I had barely got out of bed before I hopped back in to sleep for a couple of hours .

(((HUGS))) to all of us that are feeling achy and sore this week - hopefully next week is better for everyone.

Jo

It's horrible that Im excited about someone else with the same pain as me, but Im glad to have you to talk to about this . I hope you get some answers from your Dr.s I would be interested if they think its one of your meds causing it (like my Dr.) or the RA itself.

Please let me know when you know

Hope you finally got some sleep

Have a good day.

Jo

Hey Mags,

My breast is less swollen, so thats a relief. As for the job huntiing I have put that on hold till I have my eye op late April as I think the recovery for that will take up to 10 days (cant start a new job looking like that lol).

Yeh, Im wondering where Jax is too, seems an awful long time to wait for internet access.

Hope you are doing good

Jo

Yeah our internet troubles are over I hope. New house new phone line new server, all conspired together to lock us out of any internet access. But all problems hopefully resolved and I am back to annoy you all again.

I feel a bit out of touch so will read up when I get a chance on the last few weeks.

Hope you are all well. I have been suffering from a viral infection and have a massive headache too. Can't blame it on the humira as I'm currently only on mtx and my pain patch.

The patch didn't work at the lower doses only once I got up to 32mcg per hour did it have any effect. Now I am on 50mcg patch of fentanyl it really works for me. Pain is totally knocked down. Not gone but manageable, I actually feel fairly normal on it. Not like I am on nothing but only slightly hazy. I feel relaxed, like I can cope with life. I'm fine to drive and work. My main complaint is I tend to overdo things and then really suffer afterwards. When you suffer chronic pain and you get these windows of pain free ness I tend to jump into them and over do things and end up in bed in agony! Its so hard to pace myself, I am having to learn the hard way exactly how much I can manage.

I would reccomend them to anyone. It has turned my life around, I hated living on pain killers, having 2 hours pain free then 2 hours of agony waiting for my next dose. This is so good, worth a try. I reckon Mags didn't have a high enough patch, 25mcg wasn't enough for me, my doctor kept upping the dosage every 3 days until it worked, then it wasn't until nearly 3 weeks on it that I really noticed a huge improvement.

Well lovely to be back, have to go to work now, golitho

On Wednesday this week I had an injection in my ankle/foot to help with pain, not only was the procedure dreadfully painful in it's self, but 4 days later and still in more pain than I had before!

I'm so disappointed in it all and feel I've gone 3 steps back and not forward.  My head was in the right place and had been since Christmas, I learnt to cope with the pain and adjusted life so I could deal with it. Now I feel out of control, and back to where I was before Christmas, I'm tearful, depressed and upset about the whole thing. I know they said it was only a slight chance it would work, and I told myself and others around me that I wasn't going to get my hopes up, but deep down I must have otherwise I wouldn't feel like this today.

I'm going to tell my specialist on Monday when I see him that 'that's it' no more trying this and that as nothing has worked in the past two years and I must just get on with life, take the drugs have the infusions and learn once again to adjust to it. I just can't go through this again, I'm over it.

Sorry just having a rant as I'm frustrated by the whole thing, it's no ones fault, I had to try, it failed but enough is enough.

Here endith the rant for today, tomorrow hopefully will be a better one.

Sometimes just a little smile from a stranger can make a difference.