A long overdue update...

Wow, I can't believe that just over three months have passed since my last post. How the time flies, eh?

As I had a check-up with my Rheumatologist last Friday, I thought now might be a good time to do an update.

Things have, thankfully, improved a lot since my blog post back in June. I'm now on a medication called Methotrexate which works by somehow altering a person's immune system to try and stop it from attacking their joints. I take it once a week on Fridays and then on Sundays I take Folic Acid to help alleviate the nausea that, unfortunately, accompanies the Methrotrexate. I'm still taking anti-inflammatories to help with the pain but the dosage has been reduced from three tablets a day to two. Even better news is that the blood tests I had to have once a fortnight have been reduced to once a month.

The other development is that I started physiotherapy in August and that's going well, too. I had my third appointment this morning and James, my physio, was pretty happy with the progress I've been making. I'm due to see him again in mid-October and he mentioned booking me into some classes that specialise in shoulder work as my upper body is where I've been experiencing quite a lot of stiffness/soreness.

With everything that's been going on, it's sometimes felt like I'm constantly at the hospital and there have been occasions where I haven't known if I was coming or going. The whole situation has been pretty overwhelming and, in some ways, pretty isolating. There's quite a lot of things I can't do like, for example, going to the cinema to watch a movie because sitting down for 90 minutes/two hours causes the joints in my knees to lock. Even sitting on the couch at home for more than twenty minutes can have the same effect and trying to get up from my seat is really awkward and makes me feel self-conscious and that's just in front of my family. Doing it in a cafe or restaurant would be even more embarrassing. I can only hope that at some point in the near future that will change and I can go about a more normal routine.

I still have my down days where everything kind of gets on top of me but, in an attempt to stop myself from feeling too low, I'm going to try and blog more regularly as well as getting back into writing. I've really missed it and now my fingers aren't as swollen as they were a few months ago, I can hopefully spend more time typing.

Thanks for reading!

Diane x