The bad side of no pain...

Hi my name is Jeannie. I was diagnosed 17 yrs ago. One day and I swear this is how it happened. I woke up and could not uncurl my fingers on both of my hands. My primary care dr put me on pain meds and Arava and sent me on my way.. LOL Did it help ? NO! I was referred to a RA dr. who was more concerned about his nurse and how much money he could collect. So I moved on to another dr. Discovered the University of Utah and there formed my first great relationship with one of the best docs ever. We tried every new med out there and experimented around. I was allergic to every thing they invented. Remicade, Humira, Enbrel just about killed me. So we tried one last med the same but different Orencia. It was my miracle med. I was a human being again I moved I played I chase my grandchildren. I was there living the real life again. With a combo of plaqnial, metha trex, ibuprophan and small dose of steroid 2mg and my weekly shot of Orencia I was a god. Or I thought.

July 16 2015 I had my 6 grandbabies over and enjoyed a day of fun and hide n seek. That night I was achy, tired and had a small flare on my right hand. Did an extra dose of tramadol before bed and conked out. Woke about 2 am and was freezing. Thought great a bug from the grand children kind of fast but oh well took Tylenol and for the rest of the night shivered heated and ached. 5 am got up and my hand was so swollen and red streaks where crawling up my arm to my pit. Scared and feeling like crap was rushed to the er. I had a blood infection. Shocked and scared they admitted me to the hospital. I was really sick. Major pain meds and antibiotics pumped into me for 2 days. When a hand dr. came in and said we are taking you to surgery they sliced my hand open and cleaned under the skin. The next 2 days were bad. My fevers reached 104 - 105 and my infectious dr was worried I was either gonna lose the hand or die. So the hand dr. took me to surgery again and cleaned it again. 3 days later because I had been off all my RA meds my body started to fight the infection. We finally learned a IV I had for pain meds 2 weeks before for a back problem had got strep in it. I am now learning to go all natural and trying to get back up to my good spot, but with natural help. I have a few times needed a little prednisone. I try so hard not to use it. Its hard though, do I walk to the bathroom in the morning or crawl. I will let you know at a later day after I am fully recovered how its going. My advice to everyone.. Leave that band aid on. Treat every little scratch with antibiotic gel let it SCAB! We are using major immune suppressing drugs. ++ Side note 10 days after I stopped my antibiotics. I got anther infection on my breast, back on antibiotics. But caught in time. Be vigilant++