Same here, Joey

[Guest guest]

I had the full blown classical flare up about 3 years ago. I was on Doxycycline

at the time

as an anti-malarial prophylactic which has really freaked out the PAs By the

time I could

get into see an Internist my sed rate was 1 and Im HLA B 27 neg. Im on Celebrex,

Tylenol

and Uroxtrall and I follow the blood type diet and take all kinds vitamins and

herbal

supplements and have good results using Aspercreme. I have seen urlogists,

gastroentorolgists (Endoscope and colonscope) no Chron's or IBS!) and

opthamoligists and

they all say things are OK except the urination problems.

I feel so fortunate that I do not have the extreme symptoms many here have. I

will say that

I now know what real pain is like. I have had injuries to my knees and sholders

that

required surgical repair and cortinosone shots, etc but nothing hurts like am

auto-immune

flare up. I used to wonder what the big deal about RA, Lupus, etc was now I

know.

Im being treated in an internal med office. One of the guys is an expert in

infectious

diseases and actually called the ball on ReA. He likes to call it post infective

arthopathy.

The other guys were calling it osteartitis because of the low sed rate and lack

of classical

symtpoms (but they were clear in the history). He said the symptoms can last for

years and

can be very mild to extrme. The other guys were looking for the full blown stuff

shown in

the medical text books.

My current internist is worried about joint degeneration and wants to send me to

a rheumy

but Im afraid they will put me on methotrexare. The other guys in the practice

felt that If I

could fucntion on the celebrex alone they should leave it there. If they do put

me on

methotrexate would have a negative impact on my employmeny. X rays are always

negative for degenertaion.