Had my rheumy apointment today.  That is, it was scheduled for 10:15 am two hours from home, and didn't happen until 12:45 - glad I had an apple with me, my stomach was really rumbling and I wouldn't have been feeling very good.  We talked about my two infections that happened 2 months ago.  Nothing terribly dangerous, yet the fact that they happened within days of each other kinda made me nervous, so that's why I took the month off. I didn't even bother to call the rheumy's office, I've been doing this long enough to make that decision for myself.  Plus, at the end of the month, I wasn't even feeling that bad, strange to say!  Though I was definitely ready to be back on the injectins.... So - after the 5 years I've been taking it, this is the first time he said, well, we might want to think about switching to ORencia, it has less risk.  It works differently, goes after the T cells (to which I added, "instead of the B cells" yada yada).  The thought of switching to another treatment had occurred to me at other times, but not now. I was happy I was taking it only every 6-7 days and not feeling too bad.  I DON"T want to be locked into a doctor's schedule rather than my body's schedule (which are usually about 50% different), and even he noted it "would not be as convenient for me" to have to drive the 70 miles once a month.  Once a month!  I only get about 5/6ths of day of sick time per month!  On and on.  SO I get home and look up Orencia, because I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to that particular variety of med.  And the first caution is about INFECTION.  I think I'll stay with my KNOWN risk factors, thank you very much!  Well, anyway, I won't be seeing him again until September... but because I'm stretching the shot intervals (which he does now agree with), I didn't even need a new prescription yet!

The research is SO RIGHT when it says that being in control reduces anxiety and needs for meds!