Out of the Blue

I'm not really sure why I'm writing tonight. I'm not sure I have anything relevant or meaningful to say. Today was wonderful. I felt great when I got up and I went out for an easy hike at a local park. After that, I picked up groceries. Shopping usually wipes me out, but I felt great even after putting away a car-load of stuff. After lunch, I went back out and picked up some pansies, then spent the afternoon planting them in the memory garden I made for my father this spring. Just as an aside, I bought yellow and blue flowers, because my dad was red-green color-blind. Blue and yellow were two colors he could reliably discern, so they seemed like the best choice. After I finished gardening, I cleaned up, grilled a steak, and had supper. Then I went back outside and set up a fire in my fire-pit. I sat there, watching the flames as darkness gathered. It was a beautiful day, in every way. At nine o'clock, I got ready for bed. I settled in and took my medication. Saturday ...

Last time I updated this blog, I said I was finally going to start Methotrexate, aka MTX. My doctor suggested I take the medication at night, just before bed, and she also suggested that I take it on Friday or Saturday night, so I could recuperate on a day off, because you only take MTX once a week. I decided on Saturday nights, mainly because Saturday is the day I spend catching up on housework, yard-work, and homework. I took my first dose of MTX last Saturday night. The side-effects were noticeable within thirty minutes. I got dizzy, then nauseated, but nothing worse than that. The next day, I felt tired, but not really much more tired than normal. All this week, while I've been on vacation, I've felt nauseated. It is a low-level kind of nausea, reminiscent of morning sickness. It was still as prevalent yesterday as it was the day after I took the meds for the first time. Last night, I took my second dose. This morning, I woke up feeling something I haven't felt sinc...

I saw my rheumatologist on Tuesday. She had the results of my most recent blood tests, which were two months old. The shortage of specialists means I only get to see her once every eight to twelve weeks, so the blood tests are always old by the time we review them. In this case, it was only a comparative review. She compared my numbers from July to the first tests I had done in early September of 2013, the tests I had run in January of this year, and the second set of tests I had done in April. There was good news and bad news. The good news is that there are no signs of lupus, which is what my current rheumatologist worried about. The bad news is that with the exception of a slight blip in April, my inflammatory markers and rheumatic factor have not changed since last year. This is despite nine months of treatment with Plaquenil and anti-inflammatories like Mobic and Relafen. I haven't gotten worse, but I haven't gotten better, either. The next step in treatment is Methotr...