Thursday, June 20, 2013

Finally...an answer!

It's not a good answer, but it's still an answer! If you have been reading my blog from the beginning (congrats mom!) then you will notice a trend. A weird health trend. As in...if it's weird or unexplainable, it will happen to me. I have gone through major migraines, lady problems, cysts, bone, knee, ankle, thumb, wrist and heart problems. Well, most of it is related to... drum roll please... Rheumatoid Arthritis. Yup, that's what I said. At 29.

I had my knee surgery, and the Dr noticed "significant synovitis." Translation: lots of swelling that isn't supposed to be there. The synovial membrane is the inner membrane on the joints. It creates synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints. Therefore, synovitis is the swelling of said membrane. He drained lots of fluid off my knee, and because of all the other inflammation sent it off for biopsy.

The results came back with "indications of RA." That sent me off to the lab for another round of tests, which showed "high indication" of RA, which resulted in an appt with a rheumatologist. I went in and heard the words "I am 112% positive you have moderately advanced RA." well yippee skippy! I just looked at him and told him I wasn't 30 yet. He said it didn't matter.

RA is an autoimmune disease where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. This is a chronic illness, it may go into remission, but I will always have it. The research shows that early diagnosis and aggressive treatment slows the progression of joint damage. Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs help slow the progression of the disease. They are immuno-suppressants, which don't target on specific thing, but decreases the immune system overall.

They put me on a drug called methotrexate. This drug is also used in chemo. Yeah, great. I take one dose a week, but let me tell you, that one dose is a doozy! I was warned that I might get nauseous after I took it. I took it saturday night, so I could lay low on sunday. Fast forward to wed, when I FINALLY started to not feel sick. I called the Dr and asked for an anti-nausea med, but they were hesitant to give me one because most of them interact poorly with the psych meds I am on. I had my 2 Dr's talk to each other to figure out a med that would work. I am so glad we found a combo that works!

I have been on the meds for a month. Besides the methotrexate they put me on prednisone, which helped somewhat. The immediate swelling went down, which is a blessing. My hands had become VERY swollen, but I just thought I had putting on weight. Turns out it was edema! Once the steroid got in my system that abated. With the swelling down some of the pain subsided. Good!

I have a check up on Monday, and I get the results of my blood work. We'll see!