Recently been diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis

Peterstannard

Hi , I have in the last 3 months been diagnosed with RA and it has been quite scary from going to a pretty fit individual to someone who is struggling with joint pain especially in the mornings.

I was initially put on Methotrexate but after 3 months of not helping they have now added sulfasalazine as well but I am still not seeing any improvement..

can anyone reassure me that I should feel better after a while or should I ask for another treatment.

regards Peter

janey4

Hi @Peterstannard thank you for posting and a very warm welcome to the Online Community. We are a great bunch of people here and really hope you will continue to post.

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis of RA and we get how scary it can be when first diagnosed and we get that coming to terms with a long term condition can be emotional as well as physical. Many people struggle with joint pain particularly in the mornings.

It's not unusual for a rheumatologist to introduce another DMARD alongside methotrexate if that does not seem to be working well and these drugs can take up to 3 months to notice an effect.

Exercises but not overdoing things can be helpful and if you feel the treatments are not working for you, do reach out and let your rheumatologist or nurse know, so they can look at other treatment options if necessary.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/rheumatoid-arthritis/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/

Please do keep posting and letting us know how you are getting on and i'm sure others will also post with their ideas as well.

Best wishes

Jane

Peterstannard

Thank you Jane it is nice to know I can use this site and get valuable information