DH has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis - what to do?

[mears]

Dh has seen rheumatologist today who has diagnosed RA. He started having symptoms last year which settled but he has had pain in his fingers, wrists, ankles, toes and balls of feet since may. Has been on anti-inflammatories since then which do help but he knows when he misses a dose. He saw a complimentary therapist 2 weeks ago who specialised in arthritis treatment and is well known. He is taking pills and powders that she has perescribed. He has been advised to start Sulfalazine which reduces inflammatory response in body, however there are side effects.
He is in a real quandry what to do. The information leaflet he got from the hospital today (arc) advises not to rely on complimentary treatments as you run the risk of joint damage. Early intervention is important. He doesn't want to take medication though.
Any sufferes out there with advice?

When I worked n medical information we had a series of letters from a woman with RA. She wrote telling us that we were peddling poison, that her GP was in the pay of the drug companies and that she wasn't going to take any more 'poison' to make drug companies rich.

THis, of couse was her right (and I'm not being sarky) but the sad thing was, as the letters continued, we could see her hand writing deteriorate as time went on and she went without treatment.

Very, very sad.

I used to write Patient Information Leaflets. By law we had to list the side effects (quite right too), but we didn't have to list the possible effects of not being treated.

14 years ago dh had some awful chemotherapy, could have damaged his kidneys, made him go deaf, infortile, they didn't do any of these things, but did make him feel very sick for a while. But if he hadn't taken it he would most likely be deal of testicular cancer.

As you say Mears, it makes you think

Mumsnet isn't blocked at work Tissy. Tried it out today .

Dh seems OK on his tablets, increases his dose again on Friday.

yes back on today phew!

and it is really noticeable how few people come my way from the rheumatologists these days. The drugs do work, in spite of the side effects (which aren't as common as all that, and if they do happen, usually there is something else to try!)

Where is your way Tissy?

have you seen my other health thread?

My mother has very bad RA, which was undiagnosed for many years as she just put up with the pain. She now has pain in most of her joints, and is being recommended to have several replacements. She had her hips done many years ago, when she couldn't bear the pain any longer, and the surgeon said that there was very little left to remove. She has tried a huge range of alternate therapies, diets, supplements etc, and some seem to have made a difference for a while, and others if anything made her feel worse (in particular I would not recommend the Hays diet - she lost far too much weight and was miserable). She has had NSAIDs, injections into the joints of both steroids and gold, methotrexate and etanocept. They are just about to try another anti-TNF, and I hope that it does more for her, as she deserves a few pain free years. I think that the worst thing for her is the lack of holistic care, as the advice from her various consultants has not been well coordinated. Otherwise I would recommend a bit of trial and error, and see if you can access an Expert patient programme, as it seems that the more control you have over RA the better the quality of life and the lower the level of drugs required to control pain.