Bkwrm398's Musings

Mom is feeling worse.  Every new symptom (or set of symptoms) is seemingly brushed off as another manifestion of the rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease combo.  The doctor's seem so convinced of this fact that no additional testing has been performed.

 RA, being an immune system disease, has the ability to affect vital organs and cause cancer.....yet, my mom has not received necessary testing to rule out problems in these areas.  Her rheumatologist did refer her to an ortho. Recent knees xrays shows both are badly damaged by the RA.  A MRI showed the cartilage in her right knee was beyone torn...it was shredded. The synovial membrane surrounding the joint has been inflammed for so long it has begun to thicken...creating new problems.

Knee surgery is scheduled for Sept. 22.  The ortho will remove as much of the cartilage debris as he can and he is going to try to shave down the synovial membrane.  At best, the surgeon is hoping to "buy" my mom a year or two before she will be required to have complete joint replacements.

New symptoms include: drenching night sweats, fever, weight loss, extreme (beyond the norm) fatigue and highly increased pain levels.  One contributing factor has been a sudden med change.  She was told to stop taking one pain med and to start using a pain patch.  She should have been tapered off of the pain med (according to the prescription insert from the pharmacy).....she wasn't and went through some pretty major withdrawal symptoms as a result.  Is is too much to expect your doctor to know that??

The thing that worries/scares me the most is knowing (deep down in the very center of my being) that something else is going on with my mom.  She has been in an active flare for almost a year now.  There have been no signs of the flare subsiding.  

Time to put the thinking cap on.  I've got to convince her to seek another opinion, search for another doctor, seek out a research hospital...anything. Because, something's not right.