Rheumatoid Arthritis

Interesting! A new drug approved to fight RA called Actemra. Some of the side effects are very scary like tears in your stomach. It another one that would have to be infused taking around an hour according to the prescribing information. Looking at the cost there is this card http://actemracard.com/ that will give 80% off per infusion up to $4000. Well if they are paying up to $4000 which could be 80% the 20% out of pocket should be about $1000 (assuming the total cost was $5000.) This would need to be take once a month. That would be $12000 a year. Please tell me they are kidding. With the high cost and high risk.. I'll pass on trying this one.

Today is Sunday but it is my Friday as I thankfully have the next two days off from work. It has been a very long week. Many of the girls in our office have been sick and I feel a bit worn myself. I bet I'm catching something as well. My shoulders have been very painful. The pain wakes me up at night. I try to adjust my self to sleep on an angle on my back but once I fall asleep I must roll over. Today my toes also joined the fun. Every toe was just painful to wake on. For some reason the bottom of the heel of my foot has also been hurting this week. It hurts even worse when I don't have shoes on. With all this pain I was very thankful to find one last pill for pain left in the cabinet. I have been hoping to see the doctor at the local clinic.. but that may have to wait till next week. I find that moisturizer helps for some reason but I don't know why. Why doesn't matter too much as long as something helps. I going to introduce more fruit into the family diet.

We moved from Ohio to Tennessee for the wonderful view of the mountains and to get away from the snow. This year has been a bad year for snow and ice in Tennessee with more on its way tonight. I hear many co-worker feel the cold weather in their joints. I can't really tell because the joints have just been hurting. The worst is my shoulders. They have just been so bad full through the last week. I tried everything from heat, mussel rub, hot shower, and pain relief medication. Yet the shoulder continue to hurt. Sometime they "go out" just too painful to use or move. Last night I just prayed. I prayed for my shoulder pain to ease up. I woke up refreshed and my shoulder felt great. Through out the day my right should started to get a little sore, but I did a bunch of cleaning that needed done as well. I'm sitting here typing with my shoulder still feeling much better then they have all week. I don't know why but the shoulder pain stopped, but praying sure did

Living with RA is not easy. People living with RA want share their experience so they can help future generations. RA does much more then just hurt. I laugh as I call for my children to come lift out that full gallon of milk from the refrigerator. Sadly I can not lift up the milk, to me it feels like 30lbs. I'm not old, 31, but I sure feel old. Why is this RA so bad? Because the proper treatment is just too expensive to afford, especially without insurance. I have started this blog to keep tract of how living with RA affect me and to share what I go through. Maybe this will help someone or help my grandchildren who are likely to get this. It the start of 2011 and this year I'm going to share a weekly report of what is going with my RA and how it affects my life. Helium Living with rheumatoid arthritis