Rheumatoid arthritis sucks!

It is now the end of May, and I can't believe we are getting close to being half way through 2012. I am still struggling with my rheumatoid arthritis and I am in hospital as I write this post. We have decided due to my illness that Max will have his top surgery in Melbourne - there is a great new surgeon Andrew Ives who has trained with Megan Hassell. When Max and I were thinking that my RA and new medication would be sorted by now, we booked in to see Mr. Ives and have a consult. It went really well and we tentively booked in surgery for Max at the end of July. Unfortunately we have had to cancel it and leave it open until we start to see some improvement in my health. The last six months have been really tough, not only has Humira failed to work, so to did the next medication Simponi. Also my RA has been getting worse. Joints affected are fingers, hands, wrists, right elbow, toes, feet, ankles, right knee and hips. This means pain and stiffness in LOTS of places. Leading up to my hospital admission I was struggling to make myself a cup of tea, drive, shower - well really anything. I have also been working 3 days a week too (at the expensive of socialising and leisure - lucky I enjoy my work so much and in a supportive environment). Another thing that sucks about RA is the side effects of the medication used to treat it. I take Prednisolone which is a steriod, this causes so many side effects both short and long term (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prednisone), though it is the only medication that I am on that is currently keeping me functioning (if you can call it that). Also the DMARDs (disease modifiers anti-rheumatic drugs) are immune suppressors which increase risk of infection and cancer - I am on Arava and have tried all the others. I also take Methotrexate which is a chemotherapy medication (once a week) and this makes me feel nausous and fatigued. Ironically in also increases your chances on cancer. So the plan while I am in hospital is to develop an adequate pain management regimn (now on oxycontin and endone) and reduce my blood pressure (side effect of Prednisolone and being in bad pain for 6 months). Also I should be starting another new biologic DMARD called Orencia. This medication in trials is shown to have good efficacy, it will just take 3-8 months to take effect. I have positive feelings about this one.