Once again, it's been awhile since I blogged. I just don't have time to get on here like I used to. It might have something to do with my little man I guess...haha! Let's see if I can catch you up on the life of Hannah.....
Christmas was wonderful! We got together with all our family and got way to much as always! Porter really enjoyed his first Christmas...as much as a 4 month old can I assume! He got lots of books, Baby Einstein dvds, and many wonderful toys!
New years was also very nice. We laid low this year and just got together with family both new years night and on new years day. It was nice to just eat lots of food and play games. No hang over this year, which was NOT missed at all!!!!!
Besides all the holiday fun, the only other new thing was my doctor's appointment in St. Louis on the 5th. If you haven't already read about my RA, you can look at an older blog that talks all about it. To continue on that subject, I will try to sum up what the Rheumatologist told us.
The Dr. asked me lots of questions and did a physical exam on me to see how my pain was and where it was located. She also looked at all my previous blood work, xrays, and bone density tests that I had taken in cape with my primary doctor. She then agreed that I did indeed have RA, but that I might also have another ANA disease, such as Lupus. We weren't too surprised in hearing this, because my dr. mentioned something about it before.
So today I have to go take more blood work that is specifically for ANA diseases, and then in 2 weeks I will return to StL to go over what they found. In the meantime, I will start my treatment for RA. I will continue to take my Mobic for the pain and swelling everyday, but in addition I will start taking a drug called Methotrexate. It's 4 pills that I will take once a week for the rest of my life. They also give this to cancer patients as a form of chemotherapy, so it might make me sick. I have to take folic acid along with it to restore what it takes from my body. I can not drink once I start this treatment. I take it like I can not even drink one glass of wine or even one little beer for the rest of my life! Apparently, Methotrexate affects your liver so you can't add any other problems by drinking. I will have to get labs done every month forever as well, to make sure my liver is doing ok.
When I go back in 2 weeks and she talks to me about my lab results, she will also start me on another drug called Enbrel. You may have seen the commercials about this on T.V. This is a shot that I will have to give myself every week, forever. Enbrel combined with the Methotrexate should help relieve my pains and hopefully slow down the disease process. Since we caught this early enough, it's possible that I could have no bone deformities and live a relatively normal life!
The biggest thing that bothered me was if I could have more children or not. The Rheumatologist said that we would just have to plan my pregnancies better. I will have to get off all of my meds at least 3 months before we start trying and then stay off until I am done breast feeding for the first few months or so. My pains might get worse after the baby is born like it did after Porter, but I can return to my meds and it should all be alright again. That was GREAT to hear!
I read up on Lupus, in case that's what I also have, and I don't really like some of the things I read. I won't get into them now, because I might not even have it. I know everything will be ok though. It could be so much worse, and I'm thankful that it isn't a life threatening disease!
I just wanted to share that with you. If anyone knows someone with RA, or even Lupus, please share your story with me. Maybe you can tell me what meds you/they are on, or how they are doing. It's amazing how many people actually have RA after I found out I have it! Thanks for listening!!!
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Hannah, I told you in your earlier post that my niece has JRHA. The medications she has taken are:
naproxen
steroids
methotrexate
remicade
enbrel
Here is her experience with these meds and what they have switched to.
Steroids have their basic side-effects for everybody as you know, and then she had a bad reaction to a remicade treatment after they tried to restart it a couple of years after her initial treatments (sudden horrible pain EVERYWHERE, you couldn't touch her).... so she's on the Enbrel now.
Methotrexate has never given her any real problems besides the occasional diarrhea and stomach pain, though she's always taken stomach meds with it, like tums and pepcid..... and then she just was taken off the Naproxen after 8 years of it, she was having a rare side-effect to that b/c of too many years of it, bad scarring on her face.
I hope this gives you some insight on maybe some of the better medications to take. She is only 9, so her little body may not handle the medication as well as an adult would, AND she has been taking some of them for 8 yrs. I hope this doesn't sound too negative but I wanted to let you know our experience with it. Good luck to you and I will keep you in my prayers.
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