I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately… go figure. I started out thinking about the way doctors do (or maybe don’t) learn bedside manner. I have dealt with more than one doctor in recent years who apparently either clepped … Continue reading
It’s been a long and thought full day. The more that I go through today the more that I think that if you are going to be a quack you should be a duck not a doc. I am watching … Continue reading
Sorry Kim… another song title… but today I’m grasping at straws for how to put anything.
The heat is on 70… The office door is shut (It’s a work from home day) so the heat stays in the office… My fingers and Toes are freezing… I have on 2 hoodies… and I’m nursing coffee and oatmeal. It is 30 outside but I’m pretty sure that isn’t anything to do with it. When I walked Squirrel into the doctor’s office I wasn’t hardly cold at all and I wasn’t wearing my jacket or anything…
Stress is an amazing thing.
Today hasn’t ACTUALLY been so much of a diamond.
Squirrel has been following her blood sugar because she has been feeling really really weird and has been showing some of the symptoms of high blood sugar. I’ve been helping track everything because something just isn’t right… I’m not sure what, but something isn’t.
I am SO tired of the doctor telling me that the tiny dose that she takes twice a day of her lamictal is causing her breathing problems and major headaches after only taking it for 4 months. Sometimes side effects can happen after a long long time. Sometimes… Sometimes… Sometimes… Sometimes…
We should be using the meters that THEY use to take readings… because the EIGHT times they TRIED to take the reading with the first meter never did work AT ALL and the second meter took three times to get it to read? Great… OH BOY…
Squirrel has been asleep for 5 hours… she has eaten a banana today… the black and blue mark from right about Christmas time hasn’t healed yet. She feels like crap. But she is at least resting and she should be awake to eat.
Me… I feel like someone beat the crap out of me. When this kind of stress hits I hurt everywhere… the inflammation fights back and I just feel yuk. But I’m really glad that I was having a work from home day today so I could be there for her… to support her and to hold her up (metaphorically)
I was talking to my mom this week and she asked me how it started. I realized that I probably haven’t ever really written down my story… so (as I sit here with the rain tapping on my window and … Continue reading
Went for a wonderful walk again this morning with bear. Squirrel has been kind of hungering for chili (not the kind of chili that you mostly find around here… more like back home chili (beans mean tomatoes…) with a little … Continue reading
Okay… Good news… Enbrel seems to be agreeing with me (at least for now). I had some itchies at the the injection site. I was light headed for about an hour. I had a headache the next day. The light headed was probably because I hadn’t eaten. The headache Sean said usually isn’t Enbrel, but Enbrel says it is common. I had one.. whatever it was, I had one yesterday.
Yesterday my mom kind of poked at me because I was talking about Tai Chi for Seniors because I’m only forty(mumble mumble)… he he he … I’m 45 and that isn’t even 50 yet and that SURELY isn’t senior. HOWEVER… given that sometimes I feel achey and tired… I figure that if I read a book designed for people older than I am… when I have those days… I can stop and think… hey, I can fall back and take even the slowness of Tai Chi just a little more slowly and a little more gently.
I also explained to her what squishy is… kind of. The doctor tells me that my joints are squishy. I believe her. She went to doctor for a really long time… I figure she knows. I can’t feel the squish she talks about. My reference to the squishy-ness is… my one pair of running shoes doesn’t fit my toes without hurting so I wear my other pair. My knuckles don’t bend quite right. My wrist aches a little bit differently. My hip or my knee doesn’t feel right. The squishy is swelling (which is why my toes don’t fit my shoes quite right) but not like I got hit with a baseball swelling that is a bump that is big and you can see… more all over swelling. Don’t get me wrong… I can sometimes actually SEE the swelling. My knee has gotten bad enough that I have HAD to wear one of my really big pairs of sweats because my jeans wouldn’t go over it… it was almost twice the size of my other knee. Mostly I feel it, though, rather than see it obviously.
And today (as is the title of the entry) we went for a walk. 8 miles… to the library and back… Stopped off and the pharmacy… picked up Tiger Balm Ultra (it’s white, not red) and warmer and longer lasting… I love this stuff. Right now, I’m feeling the 8 miles… my hip is a little bit sore and I feel like I could nap a week… but I feel pretty good and my “tight” running shoes are fitting fantastically…
It was in the 40s when we left home, it was in the 60s when we got home… I was sweaty BIG time by the time we got home (and for some reason when I get sweaty… my bra… love my Danskin bras… gets soggy and when I sit down I freeze… so hot bath and now a well deserved rest before we go pick up the squirrel)
Posted in Journalling, Post A Day Post, rheumatoid arthritis
Tagged enbrel, postaday2011, rheumatoid arthritis, squishy joints
Rant Alert… It’s that kind of morning… I’m feeling pretty good and I’m in rare form. and Yes, my peeps at work… this is a flag waving kind of thing… but hey… THAT’s what I do. Now, I’m not saying … Continue reading
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!
Posted in Embrel, Post A Day Post, rheumatoid arthritis
Tagged embrel update, nurses, postaday2011, Rheumatologists
It was my first day physically back at work for the New Year… The road to the school is all dug up for repaving (has been since the start of Christmas break…) so I had to take a detour to … Continue reading
Sigh… reality smacks you in the face. One of the books that I got at the library yesterday was The Woman’s Book of Yoga & Health. Yeah… while I was running my clone this morning, I thought I would crack … Continue reading
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