Arthritis - Working With Your Doctors

By editor | July 23, 2007

Doctors, of course, understand the difficulties of dealing with arthritis. They know that now and then you may find yourself feeling frustrated or depressed or even tempted to stop taking your medications when they don’t seem to be working. Or, if you forget that trial and error is the name of the arthritis treatment plan, you may lose faith in your doctor and wonder if she is doing her job properly.

What you need to keep in mind is that not everyone responds the same way to the same medicine. While a certain medicine may work for most people, it may not work for you and you may have to move on to another. This doesn’t mean that either your doctor or the drug is a failure. It’s just an unfortunate reminder that humans all respond differently. We are wonderful, intricate creations, and no two of us, including identical twins, are exactly alike. This makes life more interesting, but it also makes treatment of a disease such as rheumatoid arthritis more difficult.

What helps most is understanding that your doctor does have a plan and that each phase of treatment has an end point. So each time your doctor prescribes a medication, ask how long it will take before results may show up and how long he wants you to take this medication. Ask what signs to look for and what changes to expect. It may help if you keep a small notebook with you and jot down notes about your symptoms (or use a small tape recorder if writing is painful).

Always think of yourself as an active participant in your health care. You can help your doctor find the best treatment for your arthritis by carefully noting symptoms and changes and reporting them. You’ll find that the frustrating process of finding the right treatment for you becomes a lot easier when you’re involved in the decision making.

And be patient. Remind yourself that arthritis medications don’t work overnight. Because of the nature of this disease and because of how different we all are from one another, the very medication that worked just fine for your neighbor may not be the right one for you.

And no matter what else you do, keep talking to your doctor. It’s the best way to ensure that the two of you can forge a partnership in healing that will allow you to take charge of your disease and your health.


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Topics: Arthritis |

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