Diagnosed in August 2007 with RA I was immediately put on Methotrexate, Celebrex and Lyrica. In January 2008 I began Humira injections 1 every 2 weeks. Well, on Sept. 12 I developed pain in my left elbow which I thought was an RA flare up, but the next day it was about 3" red hot circle around my elbow. I went to the local hospital and was put on Amoxicillian 500 mg. and the nurse marked the redness with an ink pen and said if it increased to come back. I took 3 doses of the meds and when I woke on the 14th the redness and swelling was down to my knuckles, very hot, very painful. It was like I had someone else's arm, it was big and stiff, I could hardly bend it at all. My daughter took me to a larger hospital in a nearby town and they took tests and started an IV immediately and admitted me. My sed rate was 95! Normal for me is 12-15. They put me on Zosyn and Vancomycin from Sunday night to Thursday evening. Then I had a PICC line inserted into my right arm that goes direction to the large vein next to my heart and I get an infusion every 24 hours of the Vancomycin for 14 days. The first thing they agreed on was NO RA meds and no Celebrex and no female estrogen patch. WOW! Well it's been two weeks without and so far I haven't killed anyone! I see the rheumy tomorrow and hopefully I'll be finished with the "V" and I think they'll remove the PICC line. In 5 days I saw 6 doctors including an orthopedic, rheumatologist, surgeon and 2 hospitalist doctors. Their diagnosis went from bursitis with losts of infection to cellulitis to MRSA, the big bad staff infection which is penicillian resistant. My ortho drained the bursa one week after I was released from the hospital and it is getting better by the day.
My delima is this. My internist and ortho said I most likely would not have gotten this infection if my immune system wasn't so low due to all the meds I was on for my RA. I'm very hesitate in getting back on everything. As of now, its 18 days off of MTX, Humira and Celebrex and I'm just noticing pain in my feet and some in my legs. I feel it's a damn if you do and damn if you don't situation.
I'm seriously going to try changing my diet (which I need anyway) and try some other natural or homeopathics for RA before I get back on the meds that are such a toll on our bodies. Any ideas or comments about all this would be greatly appreciated.
1st photo shows beginning of infection, 2nd shows spreading down to my knuckles - you can see the ink marks as it progressed.
Has anyone tried natural meds or homeopathics for RA? That's what I'm going to try as well as changing my diet to a healthy one. I need any advice please!
God bless you all!
