Rheumatoid Arthritis

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

 

I am writing in hopes of some guidence, insight, etc. I have a 46 yo

female patient that called me the other day with questions about

acupuncture and RA. This is a new diagnosis for her and she is really

reluctant to take the prednizone and methotrexate that the doctors

have prescribed and are urging her to take as soon as possible. On

February 8th she had ACL replacement with a cadaver part with only

local aneshthesia. The surgery went very well and all that she really

complained of after was fatigue which is more common with general

anesthesia than local. Two weeks after surgery her elbows, wrists,

hands, ankles and feet began to hurt with some swelling in the fingers

and toes but hasn't noticed that they are hot or very red. She didn't

remember any fever or chills with the onset, she hardly ever gets

sick, the only digestive complaint she has is occasional acid reflux,

and she does have issues with contact dermatitis and hay fever. She

has seen two rheumatoid specialists, had two RA blood tests and both

have come back negative. The first doctor put her on prednizone and

that helped the pain but she didn't want to have to stay on prednizone

forever so got a second opinon who said they could see if it was just

a virus that she contracted in the hospital and took her off of the

prednizone. The pain got worse and now they are sure that it is RA

even though the blood tests came back negative and they would like her

to get back on the prednizone and start taking methotrexate, which she

is really reluctant to take. Her question to me is can acupuncture

help and if so should she refrain from taking the drugs until after we

try chinese medicine? I am pretty fresh out of school and don't have

any experience with treating RA but I do know that acupuncture can

help keep the acute attacks at bay and can help with the pain when it

does flare up. What I don't ever want to do is to tell a patient to

go against what their doctor is telling them to do but can we tell if

the acupunture and herbs are helping if she is on the drugs?

Any help and information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cybil Kendrick, L.Ac.

Breckenridge, Co.