Interview 10

Age at interview: 65

Age at diagnosis: 54

Brief Outline:

RA diagnosed after wrist problems & then overall disability. Some joint injections. RA medication' Gold 20mg/month, Diclofenac & Solpadol daily, Movelat (NSAID gel), Zopiclone (Sleep). Other drugs for ulcer, blood pressure, Emphysema, stroke and migraine.

Background:

Retired miner and HGV driver. Married with 3 adult children. Family history of RA.

Gold injections at the right dose have worked and stopped most of the flare ups he had had...

I was given various painkillers. They wasn't controlling it either and one of the consultants then put me on the Gold injections. At first I was taken ill, as the dosage they give me was too high but after a time and differences in the dosage they got it absolutely right and to my great relief I have found it controls the flare ups I have and a lot of the pain that I have in, I have suffered has evened out and I'm a lot better for it.

I was told that the Gold injections did stop me getting deformed. He said without the Gold the way you was going you would have been deformed long before now but the Gold injections have kept it. I still get the stiffness. I don't get a patch of the flare ups that I used to have. I used to have them quite a few times a week on a daily basis. Now they are rare, they are rare. I can use my fingers a lot better. I haven't got a good grip but I can do things, you know, which I couldn't do before I went on it. A lot better. I'd say 100% better anyway to be quite honest 'cos they were more or less getting useless but I can do things now.

And what do you understand that the Gold's doing?

Well what I've been told, although it's not a pain killer, I get painkillers to ease the pain when I'm in pain, it stops the progress of the disease, stops it spreading and keeps the flare down, the, the flare ups. It, it controls the flare-ups then and it is right I can speak about that, from experience. They've been marvellous, they been marvellous honestly, oh I can go months without a flare up now where I couldn't go a day before.

The council and social services installed a stair lift and downstairs toilet.

In a lot of ways that I can do things now which I wouldn't have had a hope of doing then, I couldn't even get out of the chair on my own, I fell down the stairs on 4 different occasions and I had a stair lift installed but now I can climb up the stairs unaided.

That's good. You say you had a stair lift installed, that's quite a sort of major thing to have?

Yes, yes 

Were there, were there other things that you needed to do round the house?

I couldn't get in and out of the bath so I had that taken out and I had a shower installed. I had an upstairs toilet and by the time it took me to get up the stairs I was having little accidents so between the social services and the council they installed me a downstairs toilet as well which has solved all them other problems.

The council paid most of the cost of adapting his house.

Cost implications, well I've had to pay a certain amount to have the stair lift and the toilet and the shower put in but biggest part of the cost was borne by the council. Where I used to catch a bus I've got to either to rely on my son when he's not in work, when he's in work the biggest part of the day 'cos he works on the buildings, I've got to rely on taxis and things like that. So, well I used to walk anyway you know to where I usually went. I worked in the pit biggest part of my life, I'd never catch a bus or anything else, I'd walk there. But, well, nowadays down definitely to a, a private car or a taxi if I've got to go anywhere at all. Even to go down to my surgery, to have my Gold injections, it's a taxi. 'Cos I fell out the bus on three occasions actually and the last time was in front of a crowd of people and that was it, finished.

So was that recently?

No, I've been doing this thing now for quite a couple of years. I'll, I'll only go in a taxi. My, my daughter always comes with me to help me in and out of the taxi. 

He had flares every day.

Well not OK until as I said this treatment has done it. When, when I was in a, having a lot of flare ups no, it wasn't, it would flare up at any time of the day and when that happened I was in too much pain I was, I've had to sleep on me settee at times where I haven't been able to get up from there and go up the stairs even with the stair lift. I couldn't even get there only on my hands and knees. It was just too painful. Much too painful. 

And you talk about flares. How would you describe a flare?

Well a flare, will actually occur within a matter of minutes. I'd feel slight pain, then really bad pain and it was that would last for hours and hours, days anyway before it would sort of come back down again then and then I'd have a bit of relief but I could say that it was on a daily basis that I was having these flare ups.

And were they in a particular joint or just..?

Wrists mostly. Wrists and my elbows and fingers and my toes. My toes especially.