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Rheumatoid Arthritis

People's stories

Disease duration 11-15 years

Interview 08

Interview 08

Age at Interview: 68
Sex: Female
Age at Diagnosis: 57
Background: Retired secretary, widowed with 2 adult children.

Brief outline:Polyarthralgia 1983 & '90. RA diagnosed '91 after knee pain & general decrease in mobility. Side-effects from Gold injections & some NSAIDs; knee injections helped. Now Methotrexate10mg/wk (+folic acid) & Ibuprofen 1/day & pain killers. Sjogren's syndrome.

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Describes ineffectiveness and side effects of anti-inflammatories including worrying chest pains from diclofenac.
Print As I say I've been very lucky I think, that I've found the right treatment when I've needed it. I think if I'd have stayed on the, the anti-inflammatories, if the other, other treatments hadn't been available I don't think I would have coped so well because they didn't have the effect on the problems and they certainly didn't make the swellings go down or stop the pain so I've been lucky that I've found the right treatment when I've needed it. When you were on the anti-inflammatories were you having to take a lot of painkillers? Yes. He first lot of anti-inflammatories I had, I can't remember the, I think it was Voltarol, I had very bad chest pains I was very worried. I thought, I thought I was having a heart attack. I mean I don't know what a heart attack is like but I had very bad chest pains and also my arms were very bad, the, they were, the pain was in my arms as well and, and apparently that was a side effect and I didn't like that at all. So I wasn't on Voltarol for very long. But the anti-inflammatories not very good for me. Did they put you on a different type of anti-inflammatory? I've been on several in the past which I can't remember the names of but I have been on several. I understand there's loads of them that you can try. But as soon as I saw the rheumatologist he said Gold injections so that was it, straight onto the Gold. And you didn't have to carry on taking the anti-inflammatories? No, no, no.

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