RA: report

I'm still not seeing the kind of improvement that I want to be seeing yet. My hands and fingers flare off and on. My knees are a constant. At times they don't want to bend properly and I have to slowly encourage them. If I sit for a long period, I'll stiffen and it will take some time to get everything working again.

I have my next RA appointment on December 16th. I really look forward to stepping the medication up and getting more aggressive with the treatment. In the past two months I believe the condition has gotten worse. It's spread to my feet and is more consistently in my hands.

I had a appointment with Dr. Brems on Friday. He's an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in shoulders. I went to him to receive a second opinion on the rotator cuff tears in both my shoulders. I appreciated what he had to say which was that he doesn't recommend a surgical correction. On the risk/benefit scale, something like this would be too risky.

He also believed that given the chronology of the events of this year that the RA probably started in the shoulders way back in April. The reason is due to the fact that the shoulder muscles overlap the joint by a third -- more than other joints in the body. The more muscle to bone surface area, the more the opportunity for RA to do it's damage.

He liked my shoulder strength, which meant that the damage I have is not significant in the tendon connections to the bone, but in the layers underneath. Long term, he indicated that any tears under 50-percent can actually with time begin to heal themselves. I liked hearing that.

Given all this, he felt it most important that I get my RA under control with medication in working with Dr. Kuchynski. That once I am able to do this that areas like the shoulders -- like the right foot before -- will start to take care of themselves.