Tishylu's fight against the dreaded RA

Now have completed five years of having RA. For the past year I have been alternating months between Vibramycin and a generic Minocycline. I only take one 100 mg capsule each Mon-Wed-Fri. This summer, when I went to get a new prescription of Minocycline, the pharmacy had changed brands. (Had used global, now was Teva). So I said OK and got the Teva brand. After about 2 weeks into using it, I felt my shoulder get achey. Hmmm...did I strain that shoulder? Maybe...  The next day, the pain had gone. OK. The following morning, my wrist ached. Uh-oh. Decided to up the dose to one per day. The next day, all ok.  The following day, one knee just about buckled under me when I got out of bed. The pain was excruciating. OKAY....I knew that the meds were simply non functional. So immediately switched to the Vibramycin (Brand, not generic). Took one a day for the next month, it took about 4 days to stop flares. Then the following month, gradually dropped back to weekdays only. Then back to 3 per week. But for some reason, I find that when taking the Vibramycin for an extended period of time like that, I was getting very very tired. Almost clinically depressed, in fact. So I went to a different pharmacy with a new prescription and got a different brand of Minocycline. Watson.  A little leery, because it was the generic Watson Doxycycline that had changed its formula and caused a major setback a few years ago. However, the Watson seems to work just fine. So again, I am doing the minocycline and alternating with the Vibramycin. Since I have a few more months worth of Vibramycin to use up, I will just take that for two weeks, then do six weeks of the Minocycline.Overall, feeling great. All fingers are fully functioning, and can curl up tight. I can unscrew the toughest screw top from a bottle with my bare hands, no problem. Funny how it is those little things that you really appreciate after being so crippled that your hands are like lobster claws.  I hope that others can use my information to find an easier route to staying in remission than using the horrible chemo drugs and horrid biologic drugs that are out there.  I hope and pray that this continues to work for me. Five years and counting.