As people who've read my previous journal entries know, I have recently had surgery on my left middle finger. The surgery went very well, with a minor infection scare. In the end, the scar healed nicely. I started going to physical therapy right after the surgery and have been amazed by my results. While it was extremely painful at first, I am extremely pleased by the results. My hand has improved its mobility incredibly. It is already better than it was before! I can no…[more]

So. I had a scare a little while back, which kind of relates to a topic that a lot of people ask me about: Drinking and RA.Anyone on methotrexate, a common drug used to treat RA, should know that the drug is really hard on your liver. (If your doctor has not told you this, talk to her/him. If she/he doesn't know anything about its effects, find a new doctor because yours isn't good enough to treat someone as special as you.)So, when I was first put on methotrexate, they had me on 15 mg. …[more]

I had my appointment with the hand surgeon Monday. It was really interesting. The surgeon explained how I have tenosynovitis in my left middle finger. It is slowly destroying the tendons I have in there. There are two main ones, the deep tendon and the superficial tendons. The deep tendon is what you use to bring your fingers down together when making a fist. The superficial tendon is used when you only bend one finger at a time, such as when you play the piano.The surgeon is not sur…[more]

As I mentioned in my earlier post about my diagnosis, I have had problems with my left middle finger since the very beginning. I lost movement in it about four months after being diagnosed with RA. I am now, five years later, looking at having surgery to fix the problem.I went in several months ago to a hand surgeon to see what my options were. From there I was sent to have an ultrasound done of my hand. (I know! An ultrasound of my hand! I did not even know they could do that.) The procedu…[more]

So, I was watching one of my favorite shows, House, tonight night and one of the doctors made an interesting comment about autoimmune diseases responding well to cold weather (aka cold weather helps you get better). Interesting, I said. And having an autoimmune disease myself, I had to investigate. (Because, of course, everything on House is always true...) So here is what I learned:Cold weather does not cause rheumatoid arthritis:"According to scientific evidence now …[more]

So we all have experienced the excruciating pain that comes from waking up with a flare-up. I've had flare-ups so bad that I've been brought to tears, had to go to the hospital and haven't been able to sleep. Flare-ups are probably the worst part of having RA (at least in my opinion). So what options do we have when flare-ups happen? Well there are several things you can do.Steroid shots: depending on where the joint pain is, a doctor may be able to use c…[more]

Prednisone. That little miracle drug. Most people with RA have been put on prednisone at some point during their life. When I was experiencing the symptoms of RA (before they knew what I actually had), I was put on prednisone. I remember hobbling out of the pharmacy and popping that first little white pill into my mouth, and it was like magic! I practically skipped the entire way home! I hadn’t been able to move like that for months! And that was only within a fe…[more]