Working with your Rheumatologist

Working with your rheumatologist 

When it comes to the management of diseases that cause chronic pain such as rheumatoid arthritis, it becomes clearly evident that one major ways to succeed in your treatment is to ensure you see your rheumatologist regularly, as opposed to those erratic visits or never visiting at all. When you have been diagnosed with the condition the first step should be for you to identify one immediately. In many cases your primary physician should be in a position to refer you to one. There always good chances that the rheumatologist your personal physician will refer you to is one with whom he or she has worked and there may not be a problem of you both getting a long well.  

Working Together

Even in the case where you have no referral, today it is possible to identify a good practitioner by either asking around, especially from people who have suffered the experience since they may already know one they can recommend. However, it would be good for you to know that rheumatologists seem to be in short supply all over the world. In the case where you feel you could do better with a new rheumatologist apart from your current one, you should be advised to continue visiting with the current one until you locate another one, even as you try to work out any challenges there may be.  

Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the diseases that can be referred as long term diseases. Therefore one of the ways you can catch any changes in the disease early is to maintain regular visits with your rheumatologist. During your regular visits you are likely to go through regular exams to check your joints for any swellings, possible changes in strength or motion as well. Periodically, you should be able to have a candid discussion with your rheumatologist about the general outlook of your disease and treatment plan to help you know what to expect in future.

When you get to proactively engage your rheumatologist in your treatment plan and become a partner, you will more easily receive an estimation of the yearly progression of the disease which can easily be used to predict its future progressions. This will lead to early and manageable new referrals or the possibility of additions of new dimensions to the current treatment. This is especially helpful when new joint damage or changes in the levels of functioning are discovered to have occurred well in advance.  
 

Many patients will think that such regular visits are a waste of time but the truth of the matter is that nothing could be further from the truth. However brief your regular visits are, they build the relationship between you and your rheumatologist and it is bound to be a long one. If he or she discovers no major problems than it is an indication of stability. Remember that rheumatoid arthritis affects everyone differently and so your condition is not like that of any other patient. Your doctor will better understand your condition depending on how regular and open you are with you visits and this will help you better cope with the disease.