LIVING LIFE AND LEARNING ALL I CAN ALONG THE WAY
I had my latest rheumatology appointment last week. Overall, I would say that the appointment went very well. I told my doctor that I had been feeling well, but that my wrists continued to be stiff, sometimes sore, weak and definitely had a very limited range of motion — though they are far better than…
The story of the Sed Rate Saga continues. I wish I could say this was the ending, because it would be a happy one. I went to my rheumatologist’s office last week Monday and he gave me a lab order to get some more blood work done. The last time we had checked my Sed…
I am past due for a RAD update, so here it goes: I had my last appointment with my rheumatologist in June, shortly after I returned from vacation. Since the beginning of March, I’ve been slowly but steadily improving, with my rheumatoid arthritis symptoms becoming less severe and less frequent. The only real persistent symptom…
It’s time for my next update to my ESR chart. You can read about the Sed Rate Saga and my switch from Enbrel to Humira to treat my rheumatoid autoimmune disease back in December. I’ve been tracking my Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR / Sed Rate) –a measure of inflammation — since that time, trying to…
A couple months ago, I decided to get serious about keeping track of my medical records and really taking ownership in the management of my health care. It is my body, after all. This led to me requesting files from several doctors, the creation of at least one spreadsheet and a chart (because what are…
Today I had my follow-up appointment with my rheumatologist to evaluate how well Humira was working after three months. I switched to Humira in December of 2011 from Enbrel, because my sed rate and inflammation were high, and my disease was not well enough controlled in my doctor’s opinion. He was seeing joint space narrowing…
I had a bit of déjà vu this week. If you’ve been following my story, you may recall the start of my “Sed Rate Saga” — my hesitation to get my blood drawn back in November and the immediate call from my doctor’s office after my lab results came in because my inflammation was high. …
Well, I am now into my third week of being on Humira. You can read about my switch from Enbrel to Humira to treat my rheumatoid arthritis here. And, if you’re not too squeamish, you can even see pictures of my first Humira injection here. I did my first injection on December 9th, and I…
With RA, there are a lot of ups and downs. For many people, symptoms wax and wane in a series of flares (increased disease activity) and lulls (decreased disease activity). Personally, I don’t have a lot of ups and downs—or, at least, the ups and downs don’t go too far from my own “baseline” or…