Hi-
I'm wondering if any of you have every been in a flare that (?) goes in a flare?
I've been in a flare since surgery in October to re-anchor my morphine pump that I have for a back injury. Over the weekend, while on a trip to NY for a dinner concert with my hubby and friends of ours, it feels like my flare just went that much more intense. I was having a good time and I made sure I rested coming into the trip.
Looking back, the nosedive really started in the few days heading into the trip, but it really just got worse over the weekend.I know that the place where we went to the dinner concert and our hotel room were very dry, but I made sure I constantly had water to sip as well as lemonade pomegranate drops to suck on. I also used moisturizer for my skin after breaking out in rashes from dryness just prior to our trip. My eye drops were kept handy.
We found out last night that our son in Iraq, who had landed in a job where he was appreciated and that he loved, was moved to a field feeding team, which he hates, but I've been reminding myself that there's nothing that I can do from here and so far, the bad news doesn't seem to have made things any worse than they were, so I can't just blame it one stress.
As it is right now, the carpal tunnel syndrome that goes along with increased inflammation has reached the point where my index fingers have actually gone numb at times. My Sjogren's headaches are back with a vengeance and I can't take the medicine that helps because I'm having minor surgery on my knee Wednesday and it contains aspirin which is a no-no 5 days before the surgery.
My family doctor has been treating this flare with advice or agreement with my rheumatologist because my next visit isn't til April, tho they're trying to get me in sooner since I called and told them that the brain fog is getting worse - memory lapses, losing words, typing and writing problems, etc. But with surgery coming up, my family doctor wants my rheumatologist to take over. He's abaout 2-1/2 hours away and it sometimes takes a few days to get a return call, so I'm not sure I'll hear from him prior to surgery.
I'm not really worried about the surgery. I'm looking forward to finally having all of the fluid that's collected there and stayed for almost 3 months finally removed and perhaps a reason for the swelling discovered.
Has this happened to anyone else? What did you or your doctor do to get it under control? I'm already on 6mg of medrol a day, as well as 400mg of Plaquenil, 20mg of Arava, 900 of ibuprofen and so on and so forth. I hate the thought of having to go up on the medrol, but I really could use some relief at this point. My feet hurt so much in the morning I can barely walk to the bathroom! Help????
Tracy
Tracy,
I think I mentioned somewhere on the boards that when I feel a flare coming on or if one sneaks up on me, I have a prescription from my rheumy to take. It's for Prednisone and I only take it for one week, then stop. It isn't a high dose so I can just stop without tapering off. This seems to knock it out before it takes a good hold for me. (Most of the time)
As with everything we share, talk to your doctor first before trying it.
Pooh
tracy
i have no idea, im dealing with the same issues myself and still awaiting meds and DX, so my advice isnt great, but i just wanted to say im thinking of you, hope your docs get this latest flare up under control and you feel better soon, i know how little fun it all is, good luck with your surgery i hope your recovery is as uneventful as possible.
best wishes
T x