I do apologize for how little I’ve been posting lately, folks.
See, my joints and muscles have been troubling me something fierce. I wake up in agony, and an hour or so later I’m only just able to move about without flinching at every motion.
It’s not helping my state of mind that they’re having trouble pinning down what is causing this.
My rheumatologist is now saying that I have ‘some form of arthritis’, but he doesn’t know what’s causing it. I’m so frustrated! I thought that scan, that showed thickening of the lining of the bones everywhere they looked and ‘flow’ (active inflammation) in one joint would be enough to get a diagnosis, but apparently not. Right now, there are several ideas being tossed around. The arthritis might be caused by hypothyroidism, because I was very low when I got checked a few months ago. That one just made me roll my eyes, because here’s what happened: I was trying to take my synthroid in the morning, like you’re supposed to, and I forgot more often than I remembered. So I stopped that and started taking it in the evening again, at the dose I’ve been on for quite a while, so by now, my thyroid should be back in balance. If my thyroid balance is restored, any symptoms it caused – like this theoretical arthritis – should be clearing up (and indeed, the other low thyroid symptoms are). I think he’s thinking psoriatric arthritis could be on the table, as he wants me to get a dermatologist to look at the rash/breakouts on my arms. I’ve only been asking him about those rashes (which started a few months before the joint problems and have slowly spread and gotten worse) since the first visit I saw him back in April.
I’m also frustrated because the meds aren’t helping much. He has me on salsalate, but I have a delicate stomach, so I can only manage 2/3 of a normal dose. Mobic didn’t seem to help much at all. Nabumetone made me throw up, so I wasn’t really on it long enough to figure out if it worked.
What’s especially frustrating is that the first time I was on salsalate, it was a wonderdrug – taking it for a day showed a significant decrease in the swelling and pain in my hands. Now…now it’s a lot harder to see if it’s improving things at all.
*sigh* So I’m sorry I’ve been so silent, but it’s because I’m not well and I’m short on good news.
Brilliant Mind Broken Body 