Kinda Ground Hog ish. Some days are better than others, but I feel fortunate that I’m only 3months in to this. My doc says I’m in remission,but I’m not so sure. My blood work is basically back to where it was before the onset. The two weeks before I was diagnosed, was pure hell. Couldn’t Get up in the morning, couldn’t comb my hair or get dressed, walked like I was 100. It would ease in the afternoon. With Prednisone it was almost instantaneous relief and only on 10 mg. After a week I had to jump it to 15, I’m now down to 9mg. But, and this is huge for me, Prequenil. We added that about3 weeks ago and the pain in the morning is minimal. It takes a while to build up in the system, where’s prednisone is only good for a day. I forgot the Plaquenil on day and hurt all day, not going to do that again.
I talked to one lady that has RA and she’s been on it for 15 years! My doc says it the safest thing out there, little side effects, but docs don’t use it much anymore because the drug companies are pushing the newer more expensive stuff.
If there is one side effect that I’ve noticed is the muscle wasting. I’m weaker and any weight training I do doesn’t seem to make much difference. So I’m still doing it, because I’m such a macho 76 year old, haha, mainly psychological.
So good luck to you, my Primary Care Physician says it’s a 1 1/2 to 2 year course and it will burn itself out. However on this site there are individuals that are going on 10 years or more. We’re certainly all different!