Miracle medicine?

I have rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disease. For the past several years my doc has tried to get me to start getting Remicade infusions, which I declined to do because, at $2500 every 6 weeks, they were just too expensive.

Last week I was at a funeral for my nephew who died from a lymphoma that was not diagnosed in time to treat, although the odds of success with radiation and chemotherapy were not that good if it had been.

I wondered about the fact that my mother also had been diagnosed with two lymphomas just before her death. I mentioned it to my doctor, and he said that there was a link between RA and lymphoma. For one thing lymphomas cause high levels of rh factor which is also a measure of RA activity. In RA the linings of the joints becomes misidentified as abnormal tissue by the immune system and causes the joints to become inflamed and swell in the same way lymph nodes do when one has an infection, such as mumps. The joints react by adding more cartilage and bone, with the result that one's knuckles and toe joints become enlarged and the phalanges begin to point in the wrong directions.

Today I happened on this report that Remicade has been linked to higher levels of lymphoma. I had a cousin my age who died of Chrohn's disease back in the 80s. I'm glad that I held off on trying Remicade, but I wish I understood how my genes might be related to these diseases. I've been taking methylprednisolone for over 20 years and have suffered from a lot of secondary problems from that, but without it, I'm sure I would have been crippled long ago. Vioxx and Celebrex use may result in heart disease, but when they're the only thing that helps pain, the chance of heart problems may seem worth taking. I'm not sure that we should be measuring our medical prowess just in terms of longer life expectancies. Quality of life matters more and more to me these days. The problem with RA, is that it doesn't kill you, it just makes living really painful.