autoimmunity

Why hello there, weekenders.

Well!

I only do autoimmune disease updates when there’s something to report for those of you who follow my autoimmune adventures. Adventures, we are having! All kinds of adventures! I’ve been navigating a flare these last few weeks. This time, the joints under attack are those in my left thumb… mainly its middle joint and the large joint at its base.

My rheumatologist ventured that she could put me on prednisone, but she’s in favor of my rejection of that option. I also want to avoid going back on methotrexate, because with my work hours, monthly visits to the V.A. hospital for labs won’t be possible… at least not right now. I’m still too new at work; I don’t accrue sick time yet. I wouldn’t enjoy having to ask for time off every four weeks, regardless. Not to mention, methotrexate nausea at work would really suck.

Instead, we’re doing a trial of topical gel medication (your basic diclofenac sodium) three times a day and a restriction splint that she ordered for me from the prosthetics department. I only wear the splint at night. It helps. Without it, the pain in my left thumb is excruciating in the morning, and the joints are locked up, and my hand is so weak, I can’t hold anything with it. Thankfully, I’m right-handed!

So far, I’m doing okay on this treatment plan. It’s alleviating the pain somewhat, and it’s helping to keep my left hand in working condition. My thumb is still weak, though, and its middle joint still locks up and pops. Its natural state is bent, and I have to pop it to straighten it out. When it’s locked up in a straightened-out position (the most painful circumstance in the flare… it just now happened, in fact), I have to pop it. Pop it to unlock it. That’s when the pain is the worst: when my thumb is straightened out and frozen.

Eh.

These things happen from time to time even if you take your daily dose of hydroxychloroquine without fail. If you know, you know. The medication is effective, but like many, its superpowers aren’t 100% all of the time. Flares will still hit. I’m hoping that the topical and the splint and the Advil will end the flare, because I cannot be going around at work with a methotrexate throw-up bucket.

On that note, I’ll leave you with a pic of the food I devoured for dinner tonight, because why not? It was simple and amazing. I was craving kimchee. This hit the spot:

Broccoli, vegan chicken from Gardein’s Mandarin orange crispy chick’n kit (without the orange chicken sauce), vegan kimchee, and brown rice.

The vegan chicken from Gardein’s Mandarin orange crispy chick’n kit, though! Highly recommend, my friends. Throw it on a baking sheet and stick it in the oven and call it good, because it is.

Happiest of weekend vibes going out to you!

Let’s start with an anecdote! You’re going to love this one. A nurse on the phone last week asked me to confirm my age at the end of our conversation. I didn’t expect her to be surprised when I answered, but she was. She exclaimed, “Wow! You don’t sound 51 at all! I never would’ve guessed!” Haha PLOT TWIST, guys: You can “sound your age,” or not. I thought, well that’s a new one. Callaghan thought it was amusing, too.

Anyway, the current state of affairs on my end is that I still have the plague, but it’s a different plague now. I caught Callaghan’s cold at the end of December, right, then thought it was over, then seemed to relapse. My symptoms worsened and branched out over the weekend (I started coughing up bloody mucus, lost my appetite, got headachy, got the chills, got out of breath walking down the hallway). Long story short, I was diagnosed with pneumonia today. Now my ass is on bed-rest for 10 days.

I’m grateful that I was properly and quickly diagnosed (thanks to my amazing medical team at the V.A.). I’m just looking forward to going to the gym for the first time in 2020. I’ve been told to avoid even cleaning the house, because the antibiotic I’m now taking – “the strongest one you can take without being in the hospital” – makes you prone to pulling a tendon, of all the weird side effects! Lifting weights is on the short-list of things you should not do to any degree during the 10-day antibiotic course. Not only that, but I’m contagious.

This brings me to today’s PSA: My fellow chemically immunocompromised friends, please take extra good care to avoid catching a virus. Plaquenil is effective in suppressing the immune system so it won’t attack you, and the drug continues to be effective for three months after you stop taking it. I just learned this today.

I stopped taking my Plaquenil a week before my gum-grafting surgery, but I needed to stop it three months ahead of the surgery. Sure enough, healing was slower than the doctor expected, and I needed an extra week before the stitches could be removed.

That was in November, and my immune system is still operating under the influence. My immune system is stoned. My immune system has been hanging out on a tropical beach all this time, and it wasn’t interested in fighting off the pneumonia that saw its opportunity to complicate my cold. Be SO careful, I mean, if you even think someone has a cold, do not touch them. Air hugs!

We had a cloudy day today that cast our home interior a beautiful, soft greenish-gray. Still, here’s the clearest of this morning’s badly lit, hazy selfies I took in front of the kitchen window. I think I look and feel less sick than I am, and that’s because I’m wearing makeup. I dislike putting it on, I dislike taking it off even more, but I have to admit that it’s good at tricking your mind into thinking you feel better than you do.