Can PA make me feel THAT awful? In a quick run-down of my medical history I had breast cancer was 36, several scares since. Major back surgery- spinal fusion at L5-S1 with titanium instrumentation. In October 2006 my orthopedic surgeon did arthroscopic surgery on my knee to try to repair a bas meniscus but it was beyond fixing- nothing was left. It took me almost a year to heal- and it was one hellish year! We investigated synvisc but I am allergic to its main component. And the allergies! Penicillin, keflex, sulfa meds, tetracyclines and cipro. That alone is a major problem. By June 2008 I felt like I was paying rent at my ortho's office I was there THAT much for fluid to be drained and cortisone to be injected. ALL of this pain & trouble from a fall on my icy driveway? I was beginning to lose faith in everything. My ortho suggested I see a rheumatologist and I was happy to try yet another doctor's opinion. After seeing the RA doc, he diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia! I could have sworn I had RA but I never tested positive for it. NOW I know that not everyone tests positive for it. I spent 3 solid years convinced I had RA- swollen. Hot, stiff joints that started with my first flare up in my wrists and that flare was like nothing I ever had, I couldn't even grasp a glass! I began taking Lyrica for my 'fibromyalgia' and things kept getting worse. I saw my rheum doctor every six weeks. Because of my back surgery, my PA doctor order tons of tests including a bone scan that showed a rather large 'hot' spot on my sacrum-iliac, on the hip bone close to the spine. That discovery sent me to my oncologist and test after test and finally a biopsy cleared up THAT issue. However, on the 2nd bone scan there was another hot spot on my right axillla area- same side as my breast cancer. Ultrasounds confirmed this and my PC doctor suggested they remove the lymph nodes in my right arm pit to be sure. Thank God, the biopsy was clean! No one could explain why! Then another problem! I developed cellulitis in my right upper arm just months after surgery and I was very sick. I finally came home from the hospital with a PICC line in time for the holidays. When I still had numbness and pain after 5 months, nerve studies showed I had complex regional pain syndrome or what they used to call it, RSD. So there I was in constant pain from that Dx and still kept after my RA doctor about my hot joints. Finally at one visit he asked if he could drain my knee. I was thrilled to be rid of that fluid and hoped my knee would feel better afterwards. THAT draining finally proved my RA- after I had been sure that I had RA for almost 4 years. The fluid he drained was yellow and nasty looking and I asked what it was. He said, "This is the RA you were certain you had, You were right!"
Wow. You're a medical textbook on legs, aren't you! Congratulations on finally getting the RA diagnosis - it's a relief, yet throws you for a loop. It's good to finally know, but boy, you don't want to have it. And don't worry about the length of your post, some stories require length. I've had RA for 40 years and my medical files are bigger than War and Peace (if you want to read some of mine, just click on my name to see my profile)..
It appears to be fairly common to use Enbrel and Humira with methotrexate, at least in the US. I'm Canadian and had never heard of it until I started writing for HealthCentral. Sometimes, the biologics need a bit of a booster and although you may not get any benefit from meth on its own, it could increase the effectiveness of the TNF blocker. And by the way, look forward to starting Enbrel or Humira. They have been miracle drugs for me and for many others, so it's quite likely that your husband might end up having to trouble keeping up with you once they kick in!
In terms of the burning pain... it sounds familiar in a couple ways. On the one hand, it sounds an awful lot like fibromyalgia pain, although if it were, you would likely have it in your upper body, as well. Are you still taken Lyrica? If not, you might want to try for a few days and see if that helps. On the other hand, pain that concentrates below the waist often comes from the back, so maybe that has something to do with it, as well - although the burning quality can describe fibromyalgia pain, in my experience, it can also describe sciatica, which tends to start in the buttocks and blew down in the back and/or size of the thighs and calves. The connection with the treatment starting may be a coincidence or maybe not. When I've taken some of these types of drugs, one of the side effects I've experienced as muscle pain, although the fact that the pain is only below the waist seems to me to indicate that it is a coincidence and probably has more to do with e.g., sciatica. However, I'd recommend that you speak to your doctor about it.