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Originally Posted by MAT52
I've been flaring like mad ever since recovering from a bout of pneumonia a month ago. My sed rate went back up to 58 - not my highest but usually an accurate reflection of how things are with me.
My jaw, wrists and hands, knees, shins, ankles and feet all have intense toothache like pain - which I'm told by my GP must be my RA because it's in the area surrounding my joints so must be a type of rheumatic neuropathy. And yet I can move most of these joints without too much stiffness and have no swelling or boggy joints that are the hallmark of RA? The pain is severe and widespread but is almost entirely in the nerves surrounding my joints and this includes my jaw pain.
He also explained that my skin biopsies from my calves have come back normal so he says this shows that the neuropathic pain is not causing my nerves to die and is therefore not a true neuropathy - or not a progressive one at least.
I'm not entirely confident about the reasoning behind any of this I have to say - but started Imuran two days ago at the lowest dose and so far have had no unpleasant side effects.
Does any of this make sense to anyone here? I have tried Amitriptyline, Gaberpentin and Cymbalta but had adverse reactions to each of these so am now relying on max doses of Codeine, Paracetamol and Naproxen - which are causing chaos to my innards!
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Are you seeing a specialist, from my understanding a gp would be equivalent to a pcp(primary doctor) in the states. nerves dont need to die to become neuropathy, if nerve destruction is present, such as (shingles), you would feel neuralgia and then complete numbness. paracetamol is a weak anti-inflammatory against something like yours.
i am curious what kind of pneumonia was it, bacterial, viral, or idiopathic?
is the sed rate, based on per hour?Most likely you have to see what imuran does with your symptoms, if it relieves it, ra is suspected, if not, then its not ra.