Playing Catch Up

A lot has been going on lately. Some good, some bad, some... eh. First, the good. Part of the reason I haven't updated is because I spent some much needed time with friends recently, huddled together, cursing the snow, and have an amazing time. It means a lot to have friends that wonderful and understanding. They are the best and I already miss them terribly.

Now, onto to the RAD related stuff. The elimination diet was a complete failure. I was so hopeful for those couple of days! But after those days, everything was just the same as always. There was never any improvement and even upon reintroduction of foods, there was no difference. I was disappointed not to find something I could do to make the pain more tolerable, but happy to be able to eat whatever I want again. Oh well. It was worth trying, I think.

Also, after two weeks at the highest possible oral dose of methotrexate, which left me horrendously ill 3 or 4 days out of the week, I called my doctor explaining that spending roughly half of the week nauseous and/or vomiting was not really my idea of fun, I was switched to the injectable form of methotrexate. So, once a week, my amazing husband gets to- I mean, has to jab me with a needle full of sickeningly yellow liquid. I am incredibly thankful that he is able to do it for me because there is no way my fingers would be able to function well enough, especially first thing in the morning, to do it myself. The good thing about the move to the injections is that I have absolutely no more nausea. That was a welcome relief. So, at least my Wednesday's are no longer spent mostly in the bathroom. It does leave me incredibly exhausted, though. It's a really weird feeling, actually. Somewhere between a really bad hangover (not that I have personally ever experienced such a thing, of course!) and that hit-by-a-truck-and-I-can't-even-move feeling you get with like a really bad flu. Still, it's a lot better than being sick for half of the week!

My main problem with the MTX is that it doesn't actually seem to be doing anything for me. I should be showing at least some signs of improvement by now and instead I have been getting progressively worse. This week has been really hard. I have been so fatigued all week, I spend hours of every day fighting to keep my eyes open. The amount of pain I have had this week has also increased, leaving me feeling pretty sad and discouraged.

I have 10 more days until my next appointment with the rheumatologist. If things continue they way they have this week, it could very well feel like the longest 10 days of my life. I hope we can come up with a new plan this time and it's not just more keep taking the MTX and see what happens. Hopefully, I'll be moving on to bigger, better medication.

As a side note, maybe it's just my bad attitude, but I swear if I see one more blog post or comment from someone regarding dealing with the chronic pain and fatigue of RAD saying to "think of Dory in Finding Nemo and just keep swimming" I just might come completely unhinged.