Out of the Blue

In August of this year, my doctor finally convinced my insurance company that the traditional TNF blockers like Simponi, Enbrel, and Humira weren't working for me. She prescribed Orencia. It is a once-a-month infusion, and finally - FINALLY - something is working! Is it a perfect cure? No. But I have been able to wean off steroids - I took my last 2.5 mg dose last week. It is taking my body some time to get adjusted to not having that Prednisone boost, but this morning, I woke up with a bit more energy and a bit less stiffness. However, I have been through a year-long odyssey of unabated pain, swelling, and joint deterioration. I started writing about it in July of this year, but it was too depressing to continue, so I let it go. During that year of extreme fatigue and pain, I almost believed that I would never get better; that the dark hollow I found myself inhabiting was the extent of my life. Thankfully, it was not - but I know that there are more valleys and hollows ahead. That...

The past six months have been brutal. In addition to rheumatoid disease, my doctor suspects I have fibromyalgia, and that would explain the all-over body pain I've been fighting. It is bad enough to have your joints inflamed, swollen, and aching. Add in the feeling of coming down with the flu - throbbing muscles, pounding headache, incipient nausea - and you have a description of the past half-year for me. My right knee has been swollen and very weak. After a couple of weeks of pain that I could manage, about two months ago, my right leg was in agony from hip to ankle. Driving was the worst - just the twenty minute drive to work was torture. I developed two large knots behind the knee, which was, itself, about the size of a grapefruit. I had an emergency appointment with my rheumatologist, who put a steroid shot into the knee, under the kneecap. In a joint so full of fluid, the addition of more liquid was almost unbearable. After another week or so, my knee began to respond to th...