, re rheumy appointment

[Guest guest]

I agree with Kathy F, your rheumatologist should be

willing to be a lot more aggressive. Yes, the drugs

won't get rid of the damage you already have, but

maybe they will save you getting arthritic damage from

the PA in your knees or other hip and so forth.

When I saw Dr Liang at Northwestern Memorial,

he told me that even though I had some damage in the

right hip, and in the spine, he was still going to

start me on Methotrexate at that point to prevent

further damage. And it did work for awhile. Then when

we moved to the suburbs and the Methotrexate wasn't

working by itself anymore, Dr Dachman in Schaumburg

placed me on the Enbrel.

I need a right hip replacement myself, and one of the

doctors I work with recommended the ortho who did her

sister-in-law's hip, a Dr Wixman at Northwestern. I

talked to her sister-in-law, and she is ecstatic with

her new hip and with the doc. Says she doesn't know

why she didn't do it years ago. She and I aren't THAT

old, (I'm 48, and she's younger than me, maybe late

30's or early 40's). Turns out Dr Wixman is partners

with a Dr Stern, who is the one who did my dad's hip

replacement years ago, and that turned out just

wonderful! He went from being in a wheelchair to

walking without any assistive devices at all within 3

months after his hip replacement, and he was 89 years

old at the time! I'm actually seeing the ortho on May

2 to see when I can schedule my OWN hip replacement.

(Hopefully sometime this summer, in JUly when my

oldest dd is home from college, so she and my ds can

drive since I won't be able to for a month or so

postop). The new hip materials are more durable than

in the past, so some orthos (like Wixman and Stern)

are more willing to be aggressive in the younger

patients to improve their quality of life. You're just

going to have to take copies of the CT or MRI of your

hip showing the damage with you to Ortho so they can

see just how bad things are!

Blessings to you! Wanda

Wanda