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@dadcue

"So the ABC’s of this triad of conditions really is fascinating to me."

It isn't just these three conditions.... it is all autoimmune conditions. I think they all have more in common than what makes them different. Years ago, conditions like this fell under the broad heading of rheumatism. Now there are more than 200 distinct rheumatic diseases. I don't think they are that distinct. This is especially true when you can have more than one condition going on. My rheumatologist said I had a full range of things going on.

The common denominator is inflammation. I think it boils down to what is the best way to treat autoimmune inflammation. I'm not sure prednisone is the best way. All the inflammation pathways are fascinating to me. My rheumatologist says there aren't single individual inflammation pathways. It is more like a network of pathways with cross talk, upstream and downstream regulation and all sorts of things happening.

I'm just happy that Actemra works well for me. My last infusion was 7 weeks ago because of extensive travel. My rheumatologist knew it was going to be a long time between infusions so he sent some prednisone with me in case I needed it. I didn't need the prednisone but now I'm wondering if I still need Actemra.

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Replies to ""So the ABC’s of this triad of conditions really is fascinating to me." It isn't just..."

I will tell you what my Rheumy told me in December when i had had a long stretch of no flares, and only a low hum baseline of pain. I questioned whether we should dial back frequency of infusions or dial down dosage per kg. He said lets bring this up in March. When we’ve spent two years of tweaking to get here, I don’t really want to change anything.