Posted 10/22/2011 3:00 PM (GMT 0)
All-
Halfway between my 4th and 5th Remi infusion. Overall, I feel like it's helping- within a few days after each infusion, my symptoms improve, and stay improved, until the next round. The day of my first infusion, was my last day of Pred after a slow taper from 40mg.
After my 3rd infusion, my doc wanted me back on Prednisone, feeling as if progress wasn't fast enough, and that I was approaching my 1-year anniversary (and quite honestly still doing pretty bad). Pred the first time around really didn't do anything for me, nor did it give me any side effects. After giving up my fight against getting on Remicade (oh, and 6mp as well), and I was a little more inclined to get back on the Pred to see if it could knock things out. I got a slight bump after starting at 40mg, and then stayed steady after that. Dropped to 30, then to 25, without incident, except...
For the last 2 weeks, right around the time I dropped to 25, my right knee has been hurting- 3-4 days out of the week (some days it's perfectly fine), and on an affected day, it's for a few minutes at a time, a few times throughout the day. Feels like it's being twisted and I have to slightly limp for a bit. Mild level of pain. I did have a single isolated incident 10 days after first starting the Remi, my left knee was KILLING me for about 3 hours, couldn't walk. Since then I've been fine until about 2 weeks ago.
Not sure if it's coincidental with the Pred drop to 25 or not. I hope not. My only side effect still from the Pred is slight body acne (thank goodness that's all it is), but I do NOT want to go back up on dosage just for my knees, and get myself stuck on the Pred.
Question- and I'll talk to my GI about it as well, but want to get prepped from you all first- can I ignore my knees, so long as it doesn't get worse? Is there a chance I'm getting arthritis or some other joint issue? am I concerned for nothing?