Arthritic Critic

So I had an ESI in my neck yesterday. For those of you that have no idea what that means, its an epidural steroid injection. Apparently, my pain management guy has some killer steroids because wow, have I got the red face and the serious bitchies today. I'm also feeling the need to put up a Christmas tree or twelve.... So there has been a lot of sitting around today feeling sorry for myself. The Mr. has nixed Christmas tree decorating and I have neery a closet or a childs bedroom to clean (I did them all the last time I was flying high on steroids...17 closets...go me). My face is so warm and red that I'm pretty sure if I got out a steak I could cook it to medium rare..possibly rare and I could roast a few marshmallows if you prefer... So while I was sitting around bored and on fire I just happened to think about when I was getting my iron infusions done. My Hematologist is also an Oncologist and I ended up having my infusions in the chemo ward at his office. There is pretty mu

What a difference 24 hours makes. Today was my first appointment for what I call my surgery rounds. I saw my Rheumatologist and I have to say the more I see him the more I like him. Yup, he's about my 3rd one within the last year but I think I have finally found a keeper. I started Rituxan in April against my better judgement (I wanted to try Actemra). The first month was seriously a killer, between two huge doses of steroids and the obviousness of it being a cancer drug, well let's just say I wouldn't be a great cancer patient. I have never slept so many hours in my life as I did that month. That said, holy shit, batman....it worked. Probably better than anything I have taken in years. Am I cured, uhm no! But a lot of what I'm still dealing with is deformed joints that have been damaged while trying to find the right meds. We are slowly addressing those issues one at a time (good times). So you can imagine when I thought that I would need to stop taking Rituxan for my

So I went on vacation and it was wonderful. So much better than I had even hoped for...and now I've been back three days and I'm a hot mess. I promised myself that I wouldn't worry about my health while I was gone and I think I did a pretty decent job but now that I'm back and I'm looking at a rheumatology appointment tomorrow and a neck injection on Friday, I just don't want to do it. I don't want to talk about surgery on my foot, or going off my meds for 6 months (you know the ones that we just found that work), I don't want to up my methotrexate injections...which may be a problem since the freaking pharma company that makes it has decided not to make it so there's a shortage, I don't want to deal with more cortisone injections, I don't want to have this conversation with my Endocrinologist who is going to flip his lid when I tell him I need surgery. I just don't want to, I'm scared.... I remember what it was like when I went off m