So I know that trauma to your system can trigger an RA Flare. A friend of mine recently had a total knee replacement and several weeks later had a painful episode of gout. I read about that on line and told him that it was due to his surgery – it triggered the gout.
Not sure why it took me so long to look inward and recognize that the trauma of surgery was causing my flare. I kept thinking I would be better tomorrow. I did stop the RA meds for almost a month and have been back on them for 2 weeks, but the pain and inflammation seems to get worse every day. Yesterday afternoon and evening I cried more than I want to admit I did. I couldn’t get comfortable. Sleep? Barely a wink. My restless legs were all over the place in bed last night.
This morning I cried again and could see how swollen the non surgical knee was. I thought about my friend with the gout. I thought about last summer when I was changing biologics, and took a couple prednisone tapers which honestly helped. I’d been taking 2.5 mg of prednisone per day which is obviously not enough to beat the rheumatoid back. My brain was thinking I should call my rheumatologist, but I don’t want to whine. Besides, he’s going to suggest a prednisone taper. So as much as I hated doing it, I took another dose to bring today’s daily total to 10mg.
It’s been about 3 hours and I definitely feel better already. I have more mobility in the knee and much less pain. Most likely I won’t sleep much again last night, but it’s a trade off I’m willing to try. Besides, we turn the clock ahead tonite, so there’s one less hour to toss and turn.