If you are on corticoid steroids long-term, have hit menopause, or have osteoporosis chances are your doctor has recommended a yearly dexa-scan.
I had my first one two years ago. My prednisone dose varied over those two years so I never saw the need to get another one. With my most recent flare and spine difficulty my doctor ordered another one. My symptoms were consistent with a regular flare except for the acute spinal pain.
My Dexa came back more or less normal. No osteoporosis!! …yet.
While my bone density levels are still “normal” they have decreased in the last two years. I am no closer to lowering my prednisone dose (crossing my fingers for Spring!) so I have to start osteoporosis prevention.
I started Actonel at the end of December and hopefully will be on a generic alternative starting next month. (Troubles in insurance land – I will follow up with another blog post soon).
This is good news but it makes me laugh. Three years ago, I was that person who refused to take pain relievers or vitamin supplements. Now I am taking 15+ pills a day and because they are eroding every inch of me I have to add more.
Not only was I that person who wouldn’t take pain killers, I couldn’t even swallow them! I was incapable of swallowing a single candy-coated Advil pill. Incapable, as in, I kept gagging it up involuntarily. (TMI??)
Look how far I’ve come! 😛
Hi, my name is Monica and I have RA.
the Rite of Aging...early 
Hi Monica, I was interested to read you’re taking Actonel – I’ve got the box in front of me but don’t feel mentally prepared to take it yet! How are you finding it? Well done for coming so far with taking medication. I can relate as after a bad reaction I was too scared to take meds for 7 months, but then realised not being on drugs was worse for the RA than being on them.
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Hi Fran,
I was on Actonel for 3 months. I was mildly surprised about how I well I tolerated the medication, granted, I did drink two glasses of water with the pill. It was definitely a process, both mentally and physically. Unfortunately, my insurance policy recently changed and they no longer fully cover “brand name” medications. I switched to the weekly generic form of Fosamax. I start this new medication at the beginning of April so I will keep you posted!
I’m so jealous, I could never strike up the nerve to stop taking my medications. I am very curious what it would feel like, but I am just too worried my condition will spiral. Did you notice you were able to take less medications after the hiatus?
Good luck!!
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Hi Monica,
I’m really sorry about the delay in getting back to you – my notifications don’t seem to be working which I need to look into. I hope that things are going ok with Fosamax.
To answer your question, I actually felt much worse off medication – I was too scared to take it but also in denial about how aggressive the RA was at the time. I ended up being desperate to try another medication as it became unbearable. Having an ultrasound on my hands was a wake-up call because it showed bone erosions, particularly in the wrists, and made me realise I had to return to the medications. Unfortunately, rather than less medications I am actually taking more now!
Good luck to you too.
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Thank you for the response!
I spoke to my doctor months ago about doing an U/S to see how my RA was progressing but I am too frightened to actually go through with it…
Isn’t it funny how in order to combat the disease we have to take medications and in order to combat the side-effects of the medications we have to take more medications…and they are so many side-effects that push us in the wrong direction anyways. Where do we draw the line??
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Hi again, I’d really recommend having an ultrasound even though it is nerve-wracking because it gave me a fuller picture of what is happening. But I can totally understand why you wouldn’t want to. I know what you mean about the side effects too. I’m avoiding side effects by taking anti-histamines constantly and that works for me at the moment, but not sure if I’ll have to take them indefinitely.
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Which anti-histamines are you taking? I use Benadryl for my pet allergies and insomnia but otherwise I have not really looked into taking them for the side-effects.
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I’m taking loratadine (one a day) on the advice of my rheumatologist which seems to be preventing side effects (because of previous side effects and a serious reaction from 4 different drugs).
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I am seeing my rheumatologist soon so I will talk to him about anti-histamines! Thanks!
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