It took a couple of months, but as of early Sept. I was back into "full remission"...that being, no swollen or painful joints, no shooting pains after eating a "forbidden food", no morning stiffness, all systems seem to be back to normal.
The most difficult thing to get back to normal were my wrists. Especially the left wrist. For some reason, there is a very small area of inflammation on the upper area of the wrist below the thumb. It is just a teeny tiny bit painful in the morning. Goes down and pain gone by noon each day. I also have some slight inflammation below each knee. Just saw my Rheumatologist, and asked him if that was OSTEOARTHRITIS or a result of my RA. There is no pain associated with the soft swelling, there was a small bit of sort of a burning sensation at night a couple weeks ago, gone now. He said he could not tell, and to just keep an eye on it and if it became problematic we would do an xray of the joints to see if there is Osteoarthritis starting up there. (Two of my brothers (younger) and my mom have Osteoarthritic knees, so it seems to run in the family).
I will be getting more of the Ranbaxy pills to continue to test them versus the brand Minocin capsules. I am also going to get some Vibramycin capsules and again alternate months between the two types of drugs, just so as to prevent greying skin or other side effects from constant use of Minocin (have not seen any yet...fingers crossed).
Please pass this information on to anyone you know that is suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis. The drugs most frequently prescribed are just poison to the system (Methotrexate...awful stuff. Look it up.) I take NO over the counter or prescribed anti inflammatory drugs, NO steroid shots, NOTHING but the antibiotic...right now, taking only 100 mg Minocin every Monday, Wed. and Friday. "Maintenance dosage." After six months or so, if there are no setbacks, I may even try reducing the dose further, to 50 mg each time, instead of 100. I want to absolutely minimize the drugs in my system.
Have a good day, please contact me or post a note on the blog if you would like to discuss this treatment. Don't forget to go to www.roadback.org and read hundreds of stories like mine from people who are successfully treating RA with these antibiotics.
