Will I get back to work? Advice please

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babeire
babeire Member Posts: 2
in Work and financial support

I waited a year during covid after a ra diagnosis, during which time I have damaged my feet. Hydroxichloiquine did not help but methotrexate has helped somewhat. I'm a HLTA and have been off work, waiting for my feet to improve, for 3 months now. I just cannot imagine being on my feet 7hrs a day again. 😫 Any advice, experiences or just tough love would be appreciated.

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  • ToneBlues
    ToneBlues Member Posts: 94
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    Hell @babeire

    Welcome to our online community and thank you for asking for our support.

    I understand that you were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) over a year ago and was prescribed hydroxychloroquine initially, and methotrexate (MTX) subsequently to control your symptoms. You work as a high level teaching assistant (HLTA) and have been off work for three months. You are concerned that returning to work will mean being on your feet for up to 7 hours a day, and that will not be possible for you as your feet are painful (you may have suffered long-term damage as a result of a delay in getting appropriate treatment).

    This is the general VA web page about working when you have arthritis -

    https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/living-with-arthritis/work/

    In addition there is a support service offered by VA designed to help people stay in work if they want to -

    https://www.versusarthritis.org/additional-services/working-well-with-arthritis/

    You contact this service by emailing Maureen McAllister - see details on the above web page.

    Something else important to consider is whether it is appropriate to return to work during the current Covid pandemic - the way that methotrexate works is by suppressing parts of your immune system, which could make you vulnerable to serious infection, especially in a classroom setting, even if you have had all available vaccine jabs.

    Thank you once again for asking the online community for its support - please keep in touch and let us know how you are getting on.

    Very best wishes

    @ToneBlues

  • Arthuritis
    Arthuritis Member Posts: 444
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    @babeire So sorry to hear about your situation.

    Try & stay positive, I hope your employer will be able to accommodate your needs.

    I have a couple of questions:

    i) When did you first notice something was wrong?

    ii) What were your symptoms at the time of diagnosis?

    iii) What dose of MTX are you on, and for how long have you been taking MTX?

    As ToneBlues says, now might not be the best time to be among children as MTX is a powerful immune suppressant which prevents a response being mounted to an infection. The suppression is not specific to the immune cells attacking your joints, it attenuates all immune responses, so you have to be extra careful from now on avoiding infection.

    I am on 15mg MTX weekly and 400mg HCQ daily.

    Its good that you are seeing improvement on MTX, it often takes a while to work, like 3-4 months.

    Also while there isn’t a cure now, there are many researchers at Uni’s & hospitals right now looking for an affordable cure, some with promising & tantalising results. Let me know if you’d like to read up on current research.

  • Ader1
    Ader1 Member Posts: 4
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    I just read this. I hope you don't mind me asking if I may read up on current research Arthuritis?


    "Also while there isn’t a cure now, there are many researchers at Uni’s & hospitals right now looking for an affordable cure, some with promising & tantalising results. Let me know if you’d like to read up on current research."

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