Wow! Thanks for all the responses. On Thursday I actually left work early to pay a visit to a new Doctor and posed the same question to her (along with my other question regarding Celebrex) - her response was pretty much the same in that it comes down to quality of life only, no more and no less. At the same time she intends doing a few more blood tests for me, along with a new CXR this Wednesday. Aside from running her own practice she also operates a clinic from the local State hospital (with no Medical Aid all the tests, examination and X-Rays will set me back less than $3) and comes across as that rareity(?) amongst Doctors - someone who is still interested in what happens to her patients. She listened intently to what I had to say, asked a multitude of questions and, depending on what the blood tests and X-Rays show, would also like to look at doing a muscle and lung biopsy. She has also advised me to stay off all forms of anti-inflammatory until after the tests since, obviously, they would suppress the levels of inflammation (if any exists, in my case). The blood tests she's looking at doing are:
ESR
CRP
ANF
RA Latex
Ca & Mg
ACE Levels
Strangely enough my previous Doctor tested for none of the above, doing only a Gout test (!?), standard Blood Count and the HLA test (after I asked).
Christopher
