I shoot myself every week.... AKA my road to taking Enbrel

I know I haven’t blogged in about a million years, but stuff got crazy this last year.  I started teaching dance at my high school instead of just English and cheer.  Then I decided, hey, I’ve got some free time, so I took on being a LINK crew coordinator too.  Then became the 10th grade facilitator for the English department.  Then we bought a house.  Then I started teaching a second level of dance.  Then my Arthritis took a total freak-out and I was pretty much immobile for a solid month.  You get the picture.  I am my mother’s daughter and I try to do way too many things at a time. It’s really a sickness.

Anyhow, I decided to come back to blogging for 2 reasons.  1. Over the summer Andrew and I went to Cuba.  The US government still has the embargo against Cuba (which is insanity).  But we decided that we wanted to go to Cuba before the restrictions were lifted and Americans went and ruined their amazing culture.  Finding out travel information for a country that my country has not been able to visit in DECADES was really hard and I’d like to put my experience/information out there for anyone who is thinking of going (which I WHOLE HEARTEDLY suggest you do).  More on that later....

And 2. I recently started taking a new medication that I’ve had some strange reactions too and I just wanted to put that information out in the internet-world too.

So, the Arthritis.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have Arthritis.  I was diagnosed at 7 years old.  It’s kind of a thing I deal with, but don’t let it ruin/run my life.  Well, this summer my body decided it was going to be different.  At the tail end of our trip to Cuba, my right knee started to feel really stiff.  It wasn’t really anything new, but it was annoying.  Then, when we got home, it really started to go crazy.  It was so swollen that I was honestly worried about extreme joint damage and even being able to function in real life.  I sat with it elevated and ice on it, slamming Aleve like crazy, for days at a time.  I thought maybe if I ignored it, it would go away.  Great thinking, right?  It didn’t.  I called my Rheumatologist (of which I had not done for 3 years.  World’s greatest patient here) in a total panic.  I couldn’t walk.  I couldn’t sleep.  I couldn’t cheer.  I certainly couldn’t start teaching dance in a month!  I was totally freaking out.  I called the doctor and she didn’t have any appointments available for like a month.  Not going to work.  So, I told them that I was a teacher on summer break and would go sit in the waiting room all day if they thought they might be able to sneak me in at some point.  It only took about 3 hours of sitting one day and they took me.  PHEW!

My right knee exploded......

 Doctor appointment #1: She ran a series of blood work and my immune system was clearly doing some sort of tap dance.  That day she drained my knee and gave me a cortizone injection in both my knee and my thumb.  The knee draining was awesomely gross.  She had me lay back while she inserted a huge needle.  She asked me not to look.  I, of course, looked.  It was amazing.  My knee literally began deflating like a balloon. So cool.  I believe I yelled out “that’s disgusting.  Amazing, but disgusting.”  She instantly begged me not to look and said that she’s had patients pass out while she has the needle in their joints.  I assured her that I was a freak and wanted to watch.  I even asked if I could take a picture afterwards.  She may or may not have looked at me like I was deranged.  She told me to take it easy.

Sorry. I know this is gross.  But....it's still pretty cool.  This is like 1/2 of what she took out.  My knee deflated like a balloon.  It was awesome!

Doctor appointment #2: SIX freaking days later I called the doctor in a panic.  My knee was literally more swollen than it had been before. We had some contractors in our house installing the sliding glass doors, and in broken English one asked me if I had seen a doctor because they were all talking and said my knee looked bad.  I was like a circus freak, making even contractors gasp in horror at the sight of my unsightly knee.  It was bad.  My amazing doctor fit me in the next day.  She asked if I had taken it easy, which I had to admit, I was for me.  A normal person with normal activities, not so much, but me - heck ya.  I had only done this elliptical bike machine one day for one hour.  Who knew that would anger the Arthritis Gods so much.  Well, except my Rheumatologist who sternly told me that was in fact NOT taking it easy.  oops.  This time she wanted to treat it a little bit more aggressively.  She not only drained my knee and gave me TWO injections of Cortizone, but also subscribed me Prednisone (a steroid) to try to calm my immune system.  I’ve done the Prednisone before for a few days at a time, but she put me on it for 5 weeks.  I got the worst stomach pains and the only thing that helped was eating.  I was a lazy eating machine for 5 weeks. AND to add insult to the chunky injury, I went on a cruise during week 5 of the steroids.  Come on!  I was already eating all the time.  Let’s just say my jeans fit VERY differently at the beginning of summer than they did at the end.  Very differently.  During this time, my knee felt stiff, but there was barely any swelling.   I was feeling amazing (besides the constant eating and the steroid-induced hot-flashes.  Dear god the hot flashes.  I was the only person complaining that Alaska was hot!!!!!)

Elliptical Machines 

Doctor Appointment #3: But why did I need to go a third time if I was feeling great?  Well, here’s where the new medicine started.  I stopped taking the Prednisone on Saturday, and by Monday (the FIRST day of school), my knee was a giant Elephant Man status knee.  Commence the freaking out again.  I thought “I can do this,” then I attempted to climb the stairs to my classroom for the first time since June and started freaking out all over again.  The dance/cheer teacher cannot be asking to take the elevator.  It was pretty much my worst-case-first day of school scenario.  Cut to me calling the doctor yet again in a panic.  She couldn’t see me for a week, so I wore long skirts as to not alarm the natives.  It was a LOOOONG and PAINFUL swollen knee week.  When I finally went to see the dr., she decided she wanted to put me on an immuno-suppresive called Enbrel.  It is a weekly self-injectable, which isn’t the best, but it’s not the worst.  I had been on Remicaid a few years back and that was a monthly 4 hour infusion, so a quick weekly injection trumps that. I couldn’t start it this day though, because I had a raging head cold (stupid teenagers already got me sick!)

Doctor Appointment #4: Went to get first injection today and even brought my 6 month old TB test results like a good patient.  The doctor asked “did you go anywhere this summer that you might’ve contracted TB?”  I looked at her sheepishly and had to admit to going to Cuba.  They were literally having a Cholera outbreak when we were there.  Freaking Cholera.  Who gets that anymore.  So......one more delay in getting new medicines since I had to get a TB test.

Doctor Appointment #5: Got TB test read and it was negative (phew!  I was actually a little bit nervous with all the summer travel).  I did my first injection and had no problems.  I'm using the Enbrel Sure Click needle, so it's minimally scary!  We will see if it’ll work.