Arthritis relief?

[Disneychick13]

So I will try to address your initial question although I am quite disturbed, as others are, that an insurance company/physician would require OT/PT for RA along with other testing especially in light of your daughter actually having a diagnosis already. That being said…

There is no OTC medication or crème or diet that will help. Full stop. Before I was “officially“ diagnosed and had a rheumatology appointment, my primary care doctor did prescribe a tapering course of fairly high dose prednisone that was highly effective in the short term (it is not a long term solution but it did get me over the hump until I saw the rheumatologist). That will probably be your daughter‘s best chance at alleviating symptoms before her rheumatology appointment. Just my opinion, I am not a physician, but I do have RA and I do know how brutal the pain can be.

 

[anniemae]

How frustrating for your daughter! I just can't believe she is still functioning. When I first started having knee pains, it escalated at an alarming rate and within months I had no use of my hands and I could barely walk. Going down stairs and standing up was excruciating. I never cried so much in my life I was in such pain. I never could have lasted 3 years without treatment, but she may have a more mild case.

If she is getting worse, it is imperative that she gets in with a rheumatologist as damage is happening. Any rheumatologist will fit her in as soon as they can. I am so sorry she (and you) are going through this. Tell her to hang in there and once she gets the right meds she will feel so much better.

 

[DLgal]

OP here. My daughter was diagnosed at the Cleveland Clinic in November 2019 with rheumatoid arthritis. She was living in Connecticut at the time and it was a six month wait to see a rheumatologist. Covid hit and her appointment was canceled. By fall 2020 she had moved back to Maine, not working, with no health insurance. Once she got a job, she had to go through the hoops for the insurance company (yes, the insurance company dictates who can be seen for what, and how to go about it) and when she was finally supposed to be seen by a rheumatologist (Jan 2021) SHE had covid and had to cancel. She dealt with the long-term debilitating migraines from covid for almost a year and finally scheduled another rheumatology appointment, but before the appointment came around she started grad school in the fall of 2021... again with no health insurance, so canceled the appointment. Once she had health insurance she's seen her PCP twice since Jan 2022 to be told both times as she wasn't having "a flare" they couldn't do anything about it. She finally was able to change PCPs (and health care conglomerates) and YES she has been told that she has to have xrays and blood work and PT/OT before she can get a referral to a rheumatologist- otherwise the insurance company won't approve the rheumatology appointment or anything that comes of it.

I am not sure why people don't want to believe that the wheels of medical care turn much slower in some places than others. It took me 22 weeks to get an MRI and into an orthopedist. Also, insurance companies DO dictate the pace and pathway of health care. Part of the hold-up was that my PCP requested an MRI, it was refused, and I had to have 6 weeks of PT and then my PCP had to find two more physicians to sign onto me needing an MRI before they'd reconsider the request. We are in a health-care desert here, with a significant lack of physicians (six hour wait at walk in care last week) and long, long waits for some appointments (seven months for a mammogram), even with a PCP (three weeks). Having lived in the Boston metro area for 30 years, this is extremely frustrating for me. Many people we know who have significant health issues drive over 2 hours to Portland ME or over 4 hours to Boston to see specialists for their treatment. One of the concerns DH and I have about our impending retirement is the lack of health care in our area.

But she HAS a diagnosis already! Where are those records and why doesn't her PCP have them? Are you telling me that anyone in your area who moves there from somewhere else with medical problems already would need to get re diagnosed in order to receive continuing care for their preexisting condition? Does her new insurance just start everyone as a blank slate? Sounds really wasteful to to pay for PT and x rays on someone who doesn't need it.

And yikes, I would think about moving somewhere else with better health care in retirement. That area sounds awful. I'm in the middle of being worked up for some cardiac issues and was able to see my PCP within a day, she agreed I needed to see a cardiologist, I got that appointment as a new patient within 2 weeks and then 2 weeks after that was in having an echocardiogram done followed by a Holter monitor placement. I already have the results back and have been put on medication. What you are sharing is horrifying. People die when they have to wait that long for imaging or other tests.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I'm so sorry your daughter is suffering, @leebee . I hope she gets help and relief very soon.

 

[anniemae]

OP here. My daughter was diagnosed at the Cleveland Clinic in November 2019 with rheumatoid arthritis. She was living in Connecticut at the time and it was a six month wait to see a rheumatologist. Covid hit and her appointment was canceled. By fall 2020 she had moved back to Maine, not working, with no health insurance. Once she got a job, she had to go through the hoops for the insurance company (yes, the insurance company dictates who can be seen for what, and how to go about it) and when she was finally supposed to be seen by a rheumatologist (Jan 2021) SHE had covid and had to cancel. She dealt with the long-term debilitating migraines from covid for almost a year and finally scheduled another rheumatology appointment, but before the appointment came around she started grad school in the fall of 2021... again with no health insurance, so canceled the appointment. Once she had health insurance she's seen her PCP twice since Jan 2022 to be told both times as she wasn't having "a flare" they couldn't do anything about it. She finally was able to change PCPs (and health care conglomerates) and YES she has been told that she has to have xrays and blood work and PT/OT before she can get a referral to a rheumatologist- otherwise the insurance company won't approve the rheumatology appointment or anything that comes of it.

I am not sure why people don't want to believe that the wheels of medical care turn much slower in some places than others. It took me 22 weeks to get an MRI and into an orthopedist. Also, insurance companies DO dictate the pace and pathway of health care. Part of the hold-up was that my PCP requested an MRI, it was refused, and I had to have 6 weeks of PT and then my PCP had to find two more physicians to sign onto me needing an MRI before they'd reconsider the request. We are in a health-care desert here, with a significant lack of physicians (six hour wait at walk in care last week) and long, long waits for some appointments (seven months for a mammogram), even with a PCP (three weeks). Having lived in the Boston metro area for 30 years, this is extremely frustrating for me. Many people we know who have significant health issues drive over 2 hours to Portland ME or over 4 hours to Boston to see specialists for their treatment. One of the concerns DH and I have about our impending retirement is the lack of health care in our area.

At this point (the bolded) any pcp worth their salt would have sent her to a rheumatologist. It sounds like she was failed at every turn. Is she going ahead with the PT and blood work so she can get to a rheumatologist?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

@leebee, is it possible that the PCP thought that the pain in her hand is more injury-related or something like that, and that’s why they wanted your DD to try PT first? I mean, I think if she wants to see a rheumatologist she should be able to (and should be, anyway, after a diagnosis of RA), but just thinking maybe the doc wasn’t convinced the pain was due to RA. I hope she can find some relief.

My mother had severe arthritis (OA) and she was plagued with horrible pain for years. The Voltaren cream was the first thing that actually helped her knees quite a bit. (And there was a cream that a Russian friend had recommended that we could only find for a time on Amazon, then it disappeared. Prior to that we bought tubes of Aspercreme by the dozen.) She spent several years trying “new” oral pain medications but she experienced side effects from all of them, so she took plain old ibuprofen which was the only thing she could tolerate, and it did help her - there were times she couldn’t take it, like pre-surgery, and you could see a noticeable difference in pain levels. She also took a PPI for her stomach since she had had an ulcer in the past and that was something that had to be watched. I have some pain from an old injury in my neck along with some arthritis in that shoulder (I had radiation on that side that left it weak) I use Motrin just as needed and I keep a chargeable, wrappable heating pad with me that helps when I put it on there. If you want I can send you the information about the heating pad.

It is very difficult to live with chronic pain.