I just registered today. Have had ra for over a decade and am a male. Went through the normal course upon first diagnosis. Got frustrated with having to take methotrexate, couldn't enjoy my beers, lol. Found dr. Who prescribed the long term low dose antibiotic therapy. 50 mg doxy and 50 mg of minocycline every other day. All blood work normal for over three years, virtually pain free as long as exercised daily. Was able to maintain my beers too, haha. After these years of normalcy figured I could quit antibiotics, so I did. Worked fine for a couple of years, in remission, then a really stressful life event(s) occur and bam RA back with a vengeance. Treated for a couple years with Vicodin and a steroid blast up to 60 mg on initial therapy day and would lower dose 5-10 mg a day until down to 20 mg day and then slowly wean to 5 mg a dy. would go along fine but like clock work every sixty days needed steroid blast. All Going along fine then bam in hospital with congestive heart failure and afib. Afib must have been going on for a while because even with meds and electro therapy afib returns. So now I have an enlarged heart, persistant afib with severe RA. Taking care of heart now with cardiologist and went back to rhumy first time in years. Anyway my question is my RA has definitely gone from affecting my feet and hand joints to really pounding what i would describe as my tendons. My joints don't really hurt like the tendons and what I describe the muscles where they attach. Still exercise relieves like nothing else.....does anyone have similar symptoms where it's tendons and muscles vs. the joints. Also any of you have cardiac situations you believe to be linkevd to your RA. THe dr. Also started me on plaquinol, so do any of you taking that think you felt relief in a couple of weeks vs. a couple of months? I don't want to wait months for results. My RA factor was over 400, sorry for the rant, my c reactive protein is also off the charts, I'm a mess. Sorry for CHOPPY writing but trying to keep it short as poss.
