Okay… so much for psyching myself out… it was incredibly anit-climactic… Yes Sean (bless his heart) warned me about all of the wonderful things that I might be able to expect…
Get sick more easily (OH BOY!)
— wash your hands and use paper towels to shut off the water in public bathrooms
— don’t open doors if you can sucker someone else into it
— don’t push the buttons on the elevator…
— hand sanitizer is your friend (OH BOY)
If you have surgery… stop taking embrel a week before and wait until your surgeon releases you to start it back up…
If you have dental work other than cleaning… or maybe it was smiling as you pass a mirror… something like that anyway… stop a week before and wait a week after before starting it again
If you catch a cold… go see you PCP and get checked out and wait a week after you are WAY better before starting back up again
If you get a bacterial infection… go to see PCP and get meds… a week after meds, you can start embrel back up
I will let you hash out the… if you have stuck the needle in a clean spot on your tummy and you pull back and see blood… take it out and throw away $800 worth of meds and get a new needle… hash that one out with your doctor or your doctor’s nurse… I will definitely be listening to Sean…
The injection site rash that can be from a day to a week can be a pain in the… injection site… =)… but benedryl is your friend.
Sean also managed to mention one other thing that I sort of didn’t quite realize… people comment on things if they either REALLY REALLY are angry (which is what typically happens) or are really REALLY thrilled about something (which happens way less often because they don’t think about being thrilled…). He also said that there are lots and lots of bad things about him out on the internet because he is Dr Booth’s gate keeper and he takes the blame for things that he does on her behalf… because it is in the patient’s best interest.
It was kind of a duh-OH… DUH kind of moment for me… Dr Booth has, more than once, comment on how I’m a weird patient… I tough it out and do what I need to do to get stuff done… I don’t generally call Sean unless I am in A LOT of trouble (like I can’t raise my arm above my head without thinking I’m going to pass out… or like I can’t bear weight on my leg without it making my eyes water and my breath catch… you know… the little things) so I’m not really a patient that is much trouble and when I do call there is most usually a REALLY good reason… so I guess I never really realized that there are patients that are a total pain in the arse for them… or that those patients want it NOW… (I want a feast… I want a bean feast… don’t’ care how, I want it now… hello Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)… I know people like this… I guess we all do…
SO… In the interest of being one of the OTHER people (the happy ones) that occasionally don’t sit back on their behind ends… let it be said that I could not be happier with either Dr Booth (who takes her time with me even when she is running behind… who doesn’t let me settle for… aaaahhh I’m mostly good… who has a great sense of humor and enough REAL knowledge to see all of us through) or Sean her nurse… who is honest and gives you the worst case but is honest enough to tell you as much… who laughs at reality and will be brutally honest with you even when he knows it totally isn’t what you want to hear. I’m glad I didn’t kick him today and the shot (while it still is a little ouchy) wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
And now… I’m sitting here listening to Raffi and tough it through my last day of pager duty! I bough Chi Walking from B&N and now, I am going to use my Embrel and Chi Walking to get me through the Austin Half Marathon in just about 6 weeks!!!… Watch for me… I will be wearing the purple hoody that says Seizures Suck!
A Figment Of Fitness 