HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

question and I hope that you all will weigh in on this..

Support Forums
>
Rheumatoid Arthritis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 7/24/2014 8:57 PM (GMT 0)
I have been on rituxan for about 14 weeks now. The infusion. Well this week I have went back to being bad with fatigue.... went to rheumy today he is kind of wondering if the infusion is not working had bloodwork done today so we can tell what is going on. My question is how many of you out there suffer more from the fatigue that pain with RA?
Thanks for any answers
Peggy
Posted 7/25/2014 6:28 PM (GMT 0)
For me right now (I'm off ra meds) the both are almost equal, but I do have more pain because of other diseases/ dx's. If I had only RA both pain and fatigue would be equally hard on me.
Sorry, wish I could've given you a better answer.
Posted 7/25/2014 11:50 PM (GMT 0)
Chartreux I hope you feel better soon and get back on your meds. I understand how hard it is to be off of them when we need them so bad. I am weaning down on the prednisone started today and believe it or not I could tell it. Not too bad but could def. tell it. I was just curious if the fatigue presented itself worse for some than others. Like you said if I was not on meds for the ra I might have as much pain as well.
Hoping for a better day for you tomorrow my friend.
Peggy
Posted 7/26/2014 4:52 AM (GMT 0)
For me the fatigue does not outweigh the pain most of the time. Although, when I am in a severe flare the fatigue is very bad. I am not sure if that is partly due to the anemia I have developed over the last year though or also having low T levels... So I have energy and drive problems (not just sex unfortunately) from that as well but I thought it was due to RA for a long time.

Take it slow coming off of the Pred psbg, I know you have heard it a lot but in my case I was very sensitive to lowering my dosage once I was below 10mg/day. It was a long process but I was able to finally get off of it and have been Pred free for a few months now. I will keep you in my prayers.

If you are not already you might think about taking an adrenal supplement. My adrenals had a very hard time keeping up with the lower pred and took quite some time to recover. In fact I think it may have contributed to my low T levels as well but until I get in to see my endocrinologist I have no idea if there is a possible side effect there.

Hang in there, if you have to go up a bit on your dosage don't give up or be hard on yourself. I had to several times to avoid severe flares but I was able to persevere through it eventually.
Posted 7/26/2014 6:01 PM (GMT 0)
The fatigue is the hardest part for me. It seems like when my RA is in a flare, I don't sleep because of the pain. When I'm on prednisone I don't sleep because of the weird dreams. Either way, I still have to go to work and take care of my husband (who has dementia). So, for me, the fatigue never really goes away. The pain does sometimes.
Posted 7/31/2014 8:57 PM (GMT 0)
Often for me, when my pain is better, the fatigue also lifts. I've taken wellbutrin which gave me energy for a while but I still had the pain. I had to stop taking it as it made my BP go up.
Posted 8/1/2014 9:34 AM (GMT 0)
Hi. My wife's condition is almost like you. She always complain about pain. The only thing that helps her is medicines.
Posted 8/1/2014 10:53 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you all so much for your responses to my fatigue question. I was mistaken about the time on the rituxan. It has actually been 9 weeks since I took the infusion. Guess I had no given the infusion time to work. My rheumy and I both were thinking I had been on it for about 14 weeks. Anyway my infusion seemed to start helping this past week. I worked a little bit on Tuesday and took rest of week off. I have since felt sooooo much better energy and pain levels are so much better. I am praying that it continues and I believe it will. I hope you all have a pain free and fatigue free week. I am so thankful that I have my friends on this forum to talk to...
Hugs to you all
peggy
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply