Hot Tip: If you decide not to take your Rheumatoid Arthritis medications, let your Rheumatologist know!

As Rheumatologists we see many people and diagnose many people with arthritis, and in particular Rheumatoid arthritis. The medications that we recommend require specific monitoring and it is important that people get regular blood tests when on these medications. This is to pick up any possible early changes of harm in the blood tests before people get sick on the medications. Often we see people, make recommendations and then make plans for them to come back after a certain period of time to see how they responded to the medications, to keep any eye on blood tests and to make sure that there are no side effects to the medications.

If people don’t take the medications, and don’t tell us, we don’t know. And if we don’t know, we don’t know what else to recommend, and we can’t make suggestions as to how to best manage a person’s arthritis.

It is so important that if you don’t take the recommended medications for any reason that you let your Rheumatologist know.

You are under no pressure and no obligation to take the medications that we recommend, but if we don’t know you are not taking it, we don’t know whether to follow up with you about getting regular blood tests done. We don’t know if you’ve gone to see another Rheumatologist, we don’t know if you’re going to come back and see us, we don’t know if you’ve decided to not take any medications at all for your arthritis and we don’t know if we need to follow up with you if you haven’t communicated with us! Not knowing your decision places us in limbo and leaves things unclear in the patient-doctor relationship and potentially places your health at risk.

If people decide not to take the medications that I recommend I don’t mind. I’m a professional in my field and an expert in the field of rheumatology and we make certain recommendations based on what we have diagnosed. People (patients) pay us to access our expertise in an efficient manner. We do the study and the training of many many years so that you don’t have to and what has taken us years to learn you can access from us in a short time frame of a 30 minute consultation. It is then up to you, the person, what you do with that information.

I always discuss a situation with my patients. I want to hear about their paradigms when it comes to health care. I want to discuss any of their concerns about taking medications for Rheumatoid arthritis. I always give people information about medications and schedule a specific appointment to go over any medication related concerns and questions before people are started on medications. Its important that people have solid foundations before starting these medications.

If someone doesn’t want to take medications, I want to know. There is literally no pressure from me, BUT knowing how you are approaching your arthritis management gives me perspective on how to follow you up to best support you in your arthritis care, and whether I need to follow you up by way of appointment, and lets me know whether I need to follow you up to get regular blood testings to monitor your arthritis management. It also lets me know what to tell your GP who thinks that I am managing your arthritis! And then I can keep them informed and up to date as well so we are all on the same page 😎

If you don’t want to take medications, I like to understand why. This helps me to help you. It is possible that there may be fears and concerns that a simple conversation can help and support with.

Communication Is key and keeps things clear for all of us and allows the best possible support for you in your arthritis care.