I am an initial stage patient of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus (named as RHUPUS - RA+SLE. I am having medication for last 6 months now. The bone joint pains have reduced tremendously. SLE should be also in check. Though I would not know. My question is - how will I know that my disease is in check. Also for how long I have to take medication. This is important as the medication has severe side effects on my digestion system. So much so that I am on daily medication by A Gastro specialist. Also I have reduced the dosage from 200 mg to 100 mg of my RHUPUS medication as the doctor prescribed dosage had unbearable side effects on my digestive system. Is all this ok or I am doing something wrong. As ever thanks for all your help and guidance. Best regards.

Dr. Sameer SahayRheumatologist10yrs exp

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Hello, as there are several meds involved in typically treating rhupus, it's impossible to answer your specific question without more details. But I can give you a basic understanding of what your disease is. Rhupus is basically SLE, but with the arthritic features of RA. The best way to see if the arthritis is controlled is via symptoms and intermittent X-rays or sonograms of the relevant joints. SLE though is quite different. Clinical features along with certain lab tests like esr, ds-dna titre, complement levels, etc help to assess disease control. An important caveat is that absence of symptoms is not equal to disease control, rather low degree smouldering disease is possible, hence do not modify medication without a rheumatologist's advice, to prevent long term complications. Remain active and exercise regularly while keeping a positive mind as the treatments available today are excellent. Tc.  

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