And another infection after taking Humira

To be fair, Humira really didn't have a chance and wasn't really to  blame.
After the last flu, I went back on Humira and methotrexate.
A month after I started the medicine again my "flares" were gone.
You know, I don't like to call them "flares".
It makes it sound like fashion accessories.
It, actually, feels like I have a little crew of dwarves who consider my body a mine, and are busy drilling and blasting away at all my joints.
So let's call them dwarves.
Okay, so the dwarves were gone and I was a happy little clam.
Then, suddenly, (this is where the scary music starts), I started feeling 'not well'.
I was nauseated and my abdominal area was uncomfortable. It wasn't bad, and I deal with side effects from all the stuff I take, so I ignored it.
Then my kidneys started feeling sore. So I did an over the counter UTI test. Inconclusive.
Then I found lots of blood in the toilet.
Well, that's embarrassing, which is why I posted it on this blog for the whole world to see.
So, of course, I didn't tell anyone for two days.
Then my fever started. At this point, you'd think I would go to a doctor.
Nooooooo! It's not that bad, I thought.
The fever was only 101.
I didn't have severe pain, just discomfort.
My kids wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo and Disneyland.
So, of course, I went to California and got worse.
So I finally went to the doctor when I got back.
He ordered a cat scan.
Whamo!
7mm kidney stone obstructing ureter with acute kidney infection.
Go Directly to ER, do not pass GO, do not collect $200.
So, of course, I went off the Humira and methotrexate, and three bouts of antibiotics later, I'm well.
At least, my kidneys are well.
My joints on the other hand ... dwarves.
Yesterday the dwarves mined into my shoulder.
It felt like they were inserting little pieces of glass in my shoulder.
After further research, I deduced that the medical establishment calls this "bursitis".
Today, the dwarves moved to my hip, where they are blasting away at the bursae there.
Tomorrow, I see my rheumatologist.
I hope he doesn't put me on a immune suppressant, but on the other hand, I think the dwarves need to go back into hibernation.
I have AP's to prepare my students for, Peru to go to, 30 students to take care of while in Peru, weight to lose.
Maybe if I sing a lullaby to the dwarves, they'll sleep.
Let's see if it works.

Grades are due! So apparently my joints have decided that this is the time to act all needy and beg for attention

So trimester 2 is over.
Grades are due by midnight tonight. 

I have about 5 hours of grading and 6 different classes to prepare for before tomorrow. 

Why did you procrastinate Marizza, you ask.

I was sick, is my excuse.
At this point, however, I don't accept that excuse. 

So now that I'm totally stressed out! 

As if to corroborate my naturopathic doctors claim that stress is really the trigger for my flares, I woke up today with FLARE!!!!!!

Yes! I had flare! Fashion sense, style, .... 

wait .. no! Not that type of "flare!".  The other kind of flare. 

Oh, Right! I have no style. 

So , here is the list:

Heels feel like I'm walking on glass ... check!

Ankles tender and feel like someone has decided to punch them ... check!

Elbow tender .. check!

Wrists swollen .. check!

Knees swollen ... check!

Yay! 

Leave no joint unnoticed. 

All joints will have equal representation!

Anyway, I'll de-stress on Wednesday. We'll see if I get back to normal.

In the mean time... back to grading!

You win today RA, but next time.....

I'm back

So, I started working again, and never found time to write in this thing. I mean, who cares really. No one will read this except me, but since my RA has been misbehaving, I should probably figure out what triggers the "flares".

So here is the summary of the last few months. 

I went on the crazy diet, and it made me feel great. 

Unfortunately, various joints in my body would still swell up randomly and unexpectedly every single day. 

This made it very difficult to teach math. 

So, I went to see a new Rheumatologist and he put me on Humira along with injectable 1 ml of methotrexate (an increase from my last prescription). After 1 month, my flares were gone, my knee pain was gone, my wrists barely hurt. I felt like my old self again. Something I hadn't experienced for years! I started walking my dog, going on hikes. It was beautiful. 

Then, I went on a business trip to San Antonio, and on the first day of the trip, came down with a fever of 103. By the time I got home, it was 104. The intriguing thing about this was that there were no other symptoms. Just a high fever. When it went up to 105, I went to see both my primary care physician, and my rheumatologist. The primary care did all sorts of tests and couldn't figure out what I had, so he gave me antibiotics and antiviral medicine. The rheumatologist told me to get off Humira and methotrexate until I was all better. He measured my CRP at 337 and my RF factor at 112. Apparently, this was pretty high so everyone got nervous. But, my fever went away, and after a couple of weeks, my flares returned. Yay!

Back I went on Humira and methotrextate. A month later, my flares were gone. Then a month after that, I got a flu. Again I had to stop the Humira and Methotrextate. Again my flares returned. Now I'm back on the meds. It's been a week. I have three more weeks to wait before my flares go away again. 

So what is flaring. Right now, they just started again. So far I had 

Sunday: Wrist flares, and heel bursitis (until 9am)

Monday: Left shoulder bursitis heel bursitis (until 12 pm)

Tuesday: NOTHING!!! YAY!

Wednesday: heel bursitis (until 9am)

Thursday: heel bursitis (until 8 am)

Friday: Right Shoulder bursitis (not that bad though)

Saturday: heel bursitis (until 9am)

Sunday: heel bursitis (until 2 pm)

The naturopathic did some labs and found I have hypothyroidism, Vitamin D deficiency, and low adrenals. 

So, I'm on all these supplements.

Zing, Magnesium, Fish Oil, Vitamin D, Oregano Oil, Folic Acid, Naturthoid, Vitamin B-12, B-6, and other B's. 

So my job is to find out what flares when.

Okay, so I skipped a couple of days. It's day 7 of my diet. All I've had are fruits and vegetables: lots of strawberries, broccoli, spinach, bananas, avocados, zuchinni, cucumber, lettuce, peaches. Really, there isn't anything interesting here. I did cheat once and have a couple of tablespoons of rice.

I've lost 7 lbs, but I feel like I should have lost 20 because I'm hungry so often..

The weather has been hot (wow! that's surprising in phoenix during the summer), and somewhat humid (actually, that is surprising).

I was doing better until I decided to clean the house and do a bunch of stuff on the computer. Now my carpal tunnel is coming back. :(

So today,

I ate 2 peaches, some cherries and bell peppers. What an awesome breakfast!! Wooooohoooo!

Diet Day 3: I'm starving!!!!

So I woke up at 2am with a splitting migraine. 

I tried to go back to sleep, but it's hard with 12,000 monkeys playing the bongos in your head, so I finally succumbed to Excedrin. No one said if I could or couldn't take Excedrin on this detox thingy.

After half an hour, the monkeys quieted down, but now I was wide awake. 

So after staring at the ceiling for an hour, I decided to read some more of Lisey's Story by Stephen King (great book, by the way).

I was fasting for the blood tests my naturopathic doctor ordered for me, so I was starving. 

It's very hard to go back to sleep when you haven't eaten since 7pm the night before and all you'd eaten for two days was fruit and vegetables. 

So at 8:00am, I blearily shuffled into the shower and went to get my blood drawn. 7 VIALS!!!

Tons of errands later, I didn't get to eat until 11am. :(

Food Diary: 

Brunch: Canteloupe, Watermelon and grape salad and an apple.

It's going to be 106 with a 20% chance of rain. 

My pain is at a 3.5 (not bad)

and my stress level just shot up to a 7 because I realized I left all my medical data in the car that's in the body shop. :(

Oh well. 

Okay, so day 2 of my diet is almost over and I have to fast because I'm up for an oober amount of lab tests tomorrow.

I have to finish what I ate:

Dinner - Salad with avocados and red bell peppers
Strawberry, banana, apple fruit salad with honey.

I went swimming for a few minutes, then went on a thirty minute walk with my lovely daughters and adorable dog.
We saw a few coyotes. One was very curious and kept getting closer to us.
Korina thought it was adorable and kept telling the coyote how she felt about it.
Luckily, the coyote took this as a threat and ran off.

I'm supposed to write about my pain level.
It's actually better.
I could barely pick up an I-phone but I can type! yay!


So I'm saying, we started out at a 6 pain, by mid day it was a 4.5 and now it's a 3.

So we're progressing.

I'm going to try and drive tomorrow for the first time in a week. Wish me luck.

The first day of my RA blogging

So, since my RA came back full force a few weeks ago, making it difficult to type this stupid sentence,
my parents, husband, kids and new doctors have been asking me to do all sorts of things.

My dad reserved this book at Barnes and Noble called
Arthritis by Ellen Kamhi, PhD, and Eugene Zampieron, N.D

I thought, "Really, more stuff to read?" but it wasn't bad. And so began my "detox" diet.
Only raw, steamed or grilled fruits or veggies. No nightshades or citrus. That means no tomatoes (waaah!), no potatoes, no eggplant, blah, blah, blah.
But the absolute worst thing of all .....

NO COFFEE!!!!

Can you believe it? I still can't. It's horrible. :(

So this began yesterday:

Breakfast: Nectarine and green tea
Lunch: Carrots and grapes
Dinner: Grilled Cauliflower and Kale Salad

Recipe for Kale salad (in case you're interested)
Grapes (cut in half)
Kale (cut into itsy bitsy pieces)
Avocado
Mushrooms

Let everything marinate in olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

It was very good. Then I stupidly tried to carry the salad from the refrigerator with one hand. It was in a tupperware. I thought I could do it. But my RA said "Nope!" and down went the kale. :(

So today I had (this is so boring):
Breakfast: Watermelon (1 quarter) and green tea
Lunch: Kale salad (what didn't fall on the ground)
           grapes, banana and nectarine

I haven't had dinner yet.

The naturopathic doctor says I have to describe the weather every day, so according to weather.com

It was 113 degrees yesterday and slightly humid and is only 105 degrees today, but not that humid.

I'm taking all these pills that everyone tells me to take.
Vitamin D (2000 mg)
Vitamin B complex (no idea)
Folic Acid (800 mcg)
Omega 3 (3000 mg)
Probiotics
Magnesium
L-Argenine
L-Lysine
Blah blah blah

I've been trying to swim in my new pool, but unfortunately my wrists and knees won't allow it.
So I've been reduced to kicking along on a noodle.
The kids find this highly amusing.
They keep telling me how silly and sad I look on the noodle.
Sabrina even went as far as showing me what I look like, with occasional "Owws." for realism.

Oh well. I'll come back and tell you what I had for dinner.
I have to go tutor some girl who doesn't want to do any of the work I assigned for her.

Oh yeah. I'm supposed to tell you my stress level on a scale of 1-10.
I said 5, but my husband says I'm at 7.
I think maybe I let my stress get to 15 and still think it's at an 8, so I'll take his word on it.

Bye.