I haven't posted in a long time, but no one else knows what I'm feeling or what I'm thinking so, I'm here to share/vent/etc.
I was first dx with RA last August.I started out with mtx ( got too sick) and switched to Arava. Three months later, I still didn't have any relief in any of my symptoms ( swollen/painful fingers, feet, wrists, ankles), nodules under my toes and fingers and a really odd feeling every night when sitting where I would have to constantly stretch and flex my feet because it felt as if the muscles in my feet were too tight. Another weird thing I noticed was my calves were rock solid- which also hurt. During this time I was also receiving weekly venofir injections because I was anemic ( I had gastric bypass 7 years prior).In December,I started humira injections and for the first time since the summer, I felt NORMAL. It was very shortlived however, because after each bi weekly injection, I would come down with one bug or another- two bouts of bronchitis and by the time I was over those bugs and resumed my injections, I did not get the relief that I had, in fact it was as if I didnt take anything. My doctor started the paperwork for my insurance company because I wanted to start Rituxin because I could not tolerate the pain nor the depression that I was living with due to my limitations. The next bug to get me was pneumonia- even though I had the pneumonia vaccine! By the time I was finally approved by my insurance company, I had another new " thing" - I had really bad spasms in my stomach ( for the ladies- it was as if I was 9 months pregnant and having braxton hicks contractions) that would not stop. I also had a bad burning on my left side, and when I sat down, it felt like an alien was trying to pop out of my left side. The worst pain, though, was a feeling as if someone had a tight belt under my breasts at the top of my ribs and was squeezing it tighter and tighter. My primary doctor had no idea what was wrong, so he sent me for a ct scan and ultrasound. The CT scan came back with a mass on the outside of my liver. Saw a surgeon who viewed some old films from two years ago of tests I had done and concluded that it was a calcified gallstone and that my pains were unrelated. I actually left her office and cried- I was so frustrated that no one knows what is wrong with me ( other than my rheumy) and I had no explanations for the pains I was feeling plus the new things that were creeping up. For example, I had been back in school since last year and I was having the worst problems with expressing myself when I had to write a paper. I could not get my thoughts from my head to the paper and there were many times that I would sit in front of my computer and not be able to do what I needed to do. Thankfully for me, I had professors who knew I was sick and gave me grace periods for extending the deadlines but this is happening with greater frequency and to that extent, my memory is declining rapidly and I often feel as if I am in a fog. I even take Adderall for my lack of focus issues and although I take a considerable dosage ( 20mg 3x a day) it is not helping me. My pains are 10x the amount they were last year, all I want to do is sleep, I'm a mess to be around, I've gained about 20 lbs since March ( heh even with a gastric bypass surgery!) and my skin feels as if it is stretched so tighthly over my growing body. My vision ( which I already wear contacts for) is getting worse and my handwriting stinks because I get the worse cramps in my hands whenever I am using them to do something of dexterity.
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