General Arthritis Q & A

I was diagnosed with Giant Cell Arteritis almost 2 years ago and have not been able to take less than 8 mg. of prednisone without severe headaches returning. My doctor has suggested trying Cellcept in conjunction with the prednisone and then eventually decreasing the prednisone until I no longer take it at all. After reading the side effects of Cellcept, I am very apprehensive about starting such a potent drug. What experience does your center have using this new drug?

Joint stiffness is described as an almost universal symtpom of RA, but can RA occur without significant morning stiffness, especially early in the course of the illness?

I have had RA since 1967.  When I eat a meal, immediately afterward I get cold.  I can recall that as a child, after I ate I would frequently go outside and sit in the sun to get warm.  I also find that I frequently get cold and it seems it is from the inside, and the only thing that will warm me up is soaking in a hot bath.  Is this from the arthritis, or something else?

My right foot is very swollen and becomes more inflammed at times. This started when I was pregnant. Saw a specialist and wore compression hose for a while. My daughter is now 19 months old so I am afraid that the swelling is permanent. I cannot fit into my shoes on my right foot, but my left foot still fits most of my shoes. Left foot is slightly wider than before too. Do you think this is lymphedema and do you think it may be permanent. If not, I would like to know how it may be treated so I can be normal with conformed feet again. Read about Sequential Gradient Pump Therapy and Complete Decongestive Therapy but these seem to be for very severe cases. Do you think these therapies would help?

My dad is 56yrs old and he has a CPK level of 1000 and also high cholesterol. He has now been taken off his cholesterol tablets due to his high CPK. He has also had a shoulder replacement which gave him a Staph infection. The infection has said to be gone now but i am really worried. What other cholesterol medications can he go on which dont rise CPK level and how can we treat CPK?

medical history, the client had cholesterol and no trygliceride, and from his family diabetic history he is predisposed to have diabetes, but not taking any medications . We started the first two weeks with a cardio exercise (not Exceeding 75% of the heart rate reserve), with body weight floor exercises. After two weeks, I did the 1RM testing on the weight training machines. The subject was feeling great training 6 days a week. After one month, he was hyper and and sleeping only 3 hours a day. I asked him to check with the physician. he did a blood test and his cpk level was high (around 5600). Normally the first question was if he uses cocaine, but the answer was no. His phsyician told him to stop exercising for 10 days, and asked for a calium/potassium test. What do you think the problem is?  Would it be rhabdomyolisis?I am a personal trainer. I have a client who started to train with me a month ago.