Rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy

I have a Q for those who have arthritis...

I have rheumatoid arthritis (thanks dad!). It's generally very mild, and I just take Neurofen, but when its quite bad i have some stronger anti-inflammatories.

I'm on the TWW now, and if I'm pregnant will go see my specialist to find out more info, but I'm just hoping to hear from some people with experience.

But you can't take these while pregnant can you?

My hands are flaring up at the moment, just starting to get red and stiff, and if I'm pregnant I shouldn't take neurofn for it. I probably should have seen my GP about this BEFORE the IUI, but I wasn;t having any probs and was just so excited and really not thinking about much else except YAY! I might be pregnant soon!

Did your dr presrcibe soemthing else, or did you have to grin and bare it?

Oh, i also have some of that "deep heat" arthritis stuff... it doesn't seem to do much really, except take a bit of the edge off, but is this unsafe during pregnancy also?

Alisia, I'll try to dig up some previous threads about this later (not at home just now).

But... you will probably find that your arthritis will be significantly better while pregnant. By the time I was 7 weeks I was feeling great, but sadly I miscarried not long after.

There are medications that you can take - the NSAIDs are essentially out completely, but panadol, panadeine, panadeine forte are ok for pain relief, and prednisone is probably your best bet if you need anti-inflammatories.

More info later... I promise!

BW

I also have RA (as well as fibro) and I've been told no nurofen and no creams. I asked about Dencorub (arthritis ice gel) and it hasn't been tested and therefore I was advised to stay away from it.

I had a pre-conception chat with my rheumy and his treatment plan was prednisone if I have a flare during pregnancy which is unlikely. The baby actually protects you from the RA has half it's genes are from his/her Daddy - how cool is that!!!!

If it is in your hands then a heat pack should be safe to use in isolation to get some relief. I know a lot of people say heat packs are a big no no but I've been told as long as it's in isolation (I was having huge probs with my shoulder) then it is safe.

Oh I should add that I was lucky enough to go into remission before TTC and so far no sign of a RA flare. Thankfully that has helped me go without meds.

Goodluck with everything. Hope you get a BFP and some pain relief very soon :D