Interview 04 - Rheumatoid Arthritis

Age at interview: 53

Age at diagnosis: 30

Brief Outline:

Diagnosed '79 with rapid onset after glandular fever. Various foot surgery undergone and hand surgery planned. Symptom relief from physio/ hydrotherapy & some complementary therapies/diets. Currently taking Coproxamol, Methotrexate, folic acid & occasional NSAID.

Background:

Housewife, divorced with two children born after RA onset. Symptoms subsided during 1st pregnancy, then got worse and no remission in 2nd pregnancy.

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Asserts that patients should take an active role in making treatment decisions.

In those days people were given large doses of steroids long term routinely and I knew that's what I didn't want. So I refused steroids and I'm, on reflection I'm very glad that I did because now I don't have all the problems that are associated with people taking steroids over long periods. But I've found over the years that the patient actually has to take an active role in the process of their disease.

You cannot afford to assume that all the health professionals know exactly what they are doing. They may think they know what they are doing but you can ask two different health professionals and you can get a different answer can't you? So I think in a way it's, it's helped me, that I've been a bit of an exceptional kind of patient, I'm not the kind of patient who'll just take whatever I'm given without questioning it. I come from a family of medical people and I want to know what the drugs are, I want to know what the side effects are. So I knew instinctively I didn't want to take steroids.