Just sayin'.
I am on 5 mg predisone per day, 10mg MTX per week ( now on MTX for three months) and 2-3 5/325 vicodin per day. Is anything going to work ?
Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !
OK. Thanks for listening.
How is everyone else ? How would you describe your pain on the average day?
Biologics will probably be the next step for you.
I'm on Simponi (biologic), Arava (similar to MTX), Daypro (an NSAID), and Tylenol-3 (codeine) for pain. If I overdo it I'm still in tremendous pain. As long as I take it easy and rest a lot between every activity I can have pain on a 1-2 out of 10 scale. If I manage my energy and activity level I have about 3/4 "good" days / month and 1/4 "bad" days a month. Keep in mind though my body is wrecked from 30 yrs of this disease.
5 mg of prednisone doesn't touch my inflammation, so you may want to talk to your doctor about the possibility of upping your dose. When I was on pred, a higher dose meant less hand/foot pain.
I'm back on Remicade, but only one dose. My pain is horrible every day, but I'm getting through. Six more weeks until my next dose- I'm hoping things improve after that.
What does the pain feel like?
Hmmm. On a good day it is just aches and the occasional twinge. On a bad day I either feel like I've been beaten with a bat all over, or that my entire body is on fire with pain. Individual joints or tendons may feel like they are being crushed or torn when moved. I guess that's not a pretty visual.
mimiB said:
I am sorry ! What does your pain actually feel like ? I would like to know how others describe their pain from PsA.
My "good" days my pain is more dull ache and overall 'heaviness'. It is really hard for me to explain what the feeling is. It isn't like my legs weigh too much (although they do LOL) - it is like I am trying to operate my legs in quicksand. A few times lately, when I have been really wiped out, my legs have buckled too. That didn't hurt - but it was terrifying.
At my worst (when my inflammation was out of control - before steroids or mtx) it felt like someone had run over my feet with a truck and every joint waist down was on fire and required major effort and tears to move.
I have been keeping a pain diary for the last few months prior to my Rheumatology appointment last Friday. Being a bit of a OCD person I condensed it all into a easy to read table and presented it to the doc…results, more x-rays MRIs planned and increase of MTX to max dose.
I am uncomfortable all the time but I don’t record this as pain as its sort of the level I’ve had for years. The pain in my shoulders when I lift something, put on my seat belt, dress, etc is between 4 and 7 as its mostly sharp stabbing pain and varies in intensity. My SI joints are usually the worst and the sharp stabs of pain I get are often up to a 9 which is enough to make me feel sick and dizzy. The throbbing pain I get, in too many to mention places, ranges from uncomfortable to about 5.
I don’t generally use pain relief ( I can’t function at all on the strong pain meds…I’m completely spaced out) as I’ve found it useless in the most part and now I am not standing so much at work and have my TENS machine the SI pain is not as bad as it was…fingers crossed