Dr Hugh Jones 2014-03-13 Person 5 5 0

I have several ongoing complaints (polymyalgia rheumatica arthritis in shoulders, hands, hips, ankles restless leg syndrome and potential hypertension) plus interactions between, and side-effects of, the drugs used to treat them. I visited Dr Jones today to check if a recent set of blood tests showed a flare-up of PMR, as I feared. This proved negative, but Dr Jones pointed to a slight kidney problem, possibly linked to the relatively high dosage (1000m pd) of Naproxen that I take to control arthritic pain. To the suggestion that I might stop taking this, I reacted with outright dismay: I have once before gone 'cold turkey' on Naproxen and the pain was acute. Ordinary painkillers - eg paracetamol - were ineffective, and only Nurofen worked. Dr Jones therefore suggested an alternative strategy: 1) re-take the kidney test, as a check on the earlier one, and 2) reduce the Naproxen dose to 750m pd, with two taken at night to control pain on getting up. I have agreed to this, and will see Dr Jones again in a fortnight to discuss the results. I am really grateful to him to listening about my experiences without Naproxen - the pain was completely unliveable with - and I look forward to seeing how the problem can be resolved in future.