Pete
My problem started in my eyes with severe Iritis. Eye drops and steroids cleared up the inflammation. After a year my eye problem didn’t go away. My eye doctor ask me do I have any kind of arthritis in my body. My reply none at all. She wrote me out a prescription for a blood test. The blood work came back positive. I have to see a RA doctor. They did more blood work. They got into my family medical history. My grandmother on my mothers side had RA arthritis.. she lived to be 84 till the medications got the best of her and died. My doctor had me down with Uveitis at first. After a year they upgraded it to inflammatory arthritis. Its a form of RA. My doctor wasted no time starting me out with Methotrexate. Do you remember the famous lawsuit about vioxx. I took that stuff too for 3 years. That was good stuff. It cleared up my sore wrist and hands. After 3 years they had me on 20 grams of metho. It didn’t clear up my eye problem. Only thing left I could do is start using Remicade. Remicade cleared up my eye problem and my other joint problems. Every time I get soreness in my body. My doctor says its part of my HLA. I was 48 years old when they started me on metho. I'm 62 now. 5 years on remicade. I cant complain about my joint problems. I tore off the shingles and put on a new roof on my shed last month. I was a little sore when done. I’m worried about the healthcare in our country today. Its getting worse everyday. 3 months ago. My remicade cost my insurance 45 hundred dollars, now its up to 6 grand for every 8 weeks. How long will my insurance keep paying for this stuff. We have a lot of people living in this world that think its all love and sex. When we don’t have health insurance we don’t have nothing. Pete work with your doctor and I hope you have good insurance. You are going to need it. Take care of yourself. I know what your going thru. This disease is no picnic.