It's been a while since I've posted here. Mainly because I don't have a whole lot to report! Things seem to be somewhat "stable," although I am still swollen. So I'm not getting any better, but not getting worse. But only being 3 months in, I still have at least 3-6 more months until the swelling will be gone.
The fact that I've gained a few pounds hasn't helped any, I'm sure. But, it's the holidays, right? My New Year's resolution is to start exercising again! I think I am finally ready. I know it'll be hard and I'll be sore, but I'm really not doing myself any favors by being a couch potato.
A few people have asked me recently about my arthritis condition, so I figured I'd take this opportunity to share an update about that as well. (To get anyone up to speed who needs it, in May of 2010, I started getting this mysterious hand pain at night. I've had it ever since, without a definitive diagnosis.) If you are only interested in my tummy tuck news, no need to read further. :-)
Last February my rheumatologist put me on an RA medication to see if it would help my hand pain. Unfortunately it's one of those drugs that you have to take for 6 months before it actually helps (if it's even going to help at all). Within 1 month of taking it, my inflammation markers (blood tests) were almost at normal! This was a HUGE positive indication that the medication was working. I was very optimistic that after 6 months, my pain would be gone.
Well, 6 months came and went...still had the hand pain. Decided I would just give it some more time, so I sort of "forgot" to make a follow-up appointment with my rheumatologist. Unfortunately when I needed to contact her prior to my tummy tuck regarding the medications I was on, she was like "Hey, you need to get in here!"
In October I went back to see her, and told her I was still having the pain in my hands, but that I was still really hopeful it would help. So she said I could stay on it 2 more months, giving me 10 months on the medication. Well, sad to say, I still have the hand pain.
So last week I was given the news that, basically, the medication wasn't going to work -- and that it also would not make sense to try any other RA drugs since this one didn't help. Not as bad as a death sentence or anything, but being back to square one is really depressing. Basically I'm being told that I have to live with it.
We did the blood tests again, just to have a baseline before I went off the drug. My tests came back NORMAL!!! Still on the high end of normal, but I went from having a CRP of 36 (normal is 7 or lower!) to a 6! So why didn't the medication help the pain? Frustrating.
2013, here we come...
