RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS MEDICATION SIDE EFFECTS

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS MEDICATION SIDE EFFECTS

 

Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disease where the body mistakenly attacks healthy tissue which causes inflammation that can damage joints. This is an entirely different disease than Osteo Arthritis. One of the differences between the two is the pain and stiffness from RA is worse in the morning and the pain occurs in pairs of joints such as both hands, ankles or knees. OA usually just attacks single joints with the symptoms getting worse throughout the day. With RA, permanent joint damage can occur when the body attacks the healthy tissue.
My husband has both RA and OA, being diagnosed in 2006 and there are many different types of treatments available but many have side effects.  There is no cure. This blog is about one of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Medication Side Effects that made us make some changes.

NSAIDs are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, naproxen and COX-2 inhibitors such as celecoxib. While these can give temporary relief from pain and inflammation, they do not prevent joint damage from increasing.

DMARDs are disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs which includes methotrexate which can help relieve pain and may help slow joint damage.

BIOLOGICs are TNF blockers and used to treat severe RA and can help relieve pain and stiffness.

My husband is on all the different types including a monthly infusion of Orencia plus many DMARDs and NSAIDs including Celecoxib.

 

About six or seven years ago my husband started having severe distorted hands, unbearable pain when they would swell and the fingers would go in positions that couldn’t be mimicked and locked in place. When this happened in his legs, he couldn’t put any weight on them and he would crumple to the floor without warning.   These are pictures of his fingers locked in the positions with severe pain and unable to release on their own.

My husband has been on a variety of all these treatments for going on 12 years and his morning and evening medicine cups are overflowing. I started researching each medication from the basic NSAIDs, DMARDs and the BIOLOGICs to read up on the side effects.

When I did extensive research on the Methotrexate, I found some very interesting information. I knew it caused nausea, vomiting and stomach pain but this was lasting three to four days after he gave himself the weekly injection. Just as he was beginning to feel better, it was time for another injection. It also can cause severe muscle spasms and weakness. After reading this and doing more research, we decided to stop the Methotrexate.

 

He has been off Methotrexate for about four months and since stopping this medication he has not had any grotesque hands and hasn’t had weakness in his legs that would cause him to collapse.  While he does still have swelling, you can now see the veins on the back of his hand.

We mentioned this to his RA doctor and he agreed to our decision but will continue with his monthly blood tests for hubby’s liver and kidney plus creatinine.

When someone takes a few different medications, each can have different side effects sometimes interacting with the other.  When someone takes ten or twenty different medications, imagine the side effects each one can have that may interact with one of the others.  I’m hoping by removing Methotrexate from hubby’s treatment plan it will help with his severe side effects from his Rheumatoid Arthritis.

My 72-year-old hubby is in constant pain from his Rheumatoid and Osteo Arthritis but that hasn’t stopped him from working six days a week and walking 10,000 steps a day plus drinking 64 ounces of water.  Since he just had a total right hip replacement less than three weeks ago, he hasn’t made it back up to the 10,000 daily steps, but today he walked 4,943 steps. I’d say he’s skipping along great!

While people probably shouldn’t change medications without their physician’s blessing, we had to do something to try to relieve some of his  excruciating pain.  So far, I’m hoping this was the culprit.