Where's Your Hangover Today?
May. 2nd, 2004 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkferengiYesterday I spent far too much time on the computer, what with the extremely tedious creation process [new reality show: extreme tedium! Coming sweeps week!] & then trying to get caught up on some folks. In all, it was probably 3-5 times as long as I'm normally on-line.
I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis a couple of years ago. It's mostly the middle joints of the first & middle fingers on both hands, although knuckles have been affected at various times. I had been able to cut back to one celebrex a day, until recently, when arthritis guy [who's really a sports doc] put me on baby aspirin, for the old heart. Even going back up to two celebrex, the middle joints have been hurting more, since the aspirin counteracts the celebrex. Let's just say, when I give anyone the finger these days, interesting geometry is involved; I call them the "rollercoaster fingers."
And that's on a good day. When I woke up around 5:30 this morning, both hands were sore, & the left was closed almost completely & very reluctant to open. The most I could flatten it out to was about a 135 degree angle. Both feet were hurting at the base of the toes, & the left foot was swollen. Even bleary-eyed, I remembered the alphabet: WTF?! [:(]
Hobbling back to bed, I remembered when we first went on-line, my hand did the same thing, the mouse-clutch curve. The feet must've been injured perching precariously for too long on the edge of the cooler [to elevate the feet, so they don't swell]. I told Marty I was suffering the effects of over-indulgence & had my hangover in the hands & feet [from all I've read, better than in the head & mouth, but still *not* fun].
It's been hurting lots all day long, which is why I saved the word "excruciating" for this portion of the program. I've been limping worse than a badly-plotted thing & clearing far too much backlog on the recorded stuff.
The good news is, it's getting better. The main [mouse] hand can flatten out to at least 165 degrees now. It's nothing like bursitis, gall bladder, compressed disk, or other killer pains I've known, &, goodness knows, other folks certainly have worse every day, but I'm glad it's going away. It's a relief that it's a temporary embarrassment, rather than further degeneration [sounds like a wrestling tag-team or bad music group]. So, I'm off to find out whether another soaking in epsom salts will help.
Orry Voyer,
Filkferengi
I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis a couple of years ago. It's mostly the middle joints of the first & middle fingers on both hands, although knuckles have been affected at various times. I had been able to cut back to one celebrex a day, until recently, when arthritis guy [who's really a sports doc] put me on baby aspirin, for the old heart. Even going back up to two celebrex, the middle joints have been hurting more, since the aspirin counteracts the celebrex. Let's just say, when I give anyone the finger these days, interesting geometry is involved; I call them the "rollercoaster fingers."
And that's on a good day. When I woke up around 5:30 this morning, both hands were sore, & the left was closed almost completely & very reluctant to open. The most I could flatten it out to was about a 135 degree angle. Both feet were hurting at the base of the toes, & the left foot was swollen. Even bleary-eyed, I remembered the alphabet: WTF?! [:(]
Hobbling back to bed, I remembered when we first went on-line, my hand did the same thing, the mouse-clutch curve. The feet must've been injured perching precariously for too long on the edge of the cooler [to elevate the feet, so they don't swell]. I told Marty I was suffering the effects of over-indulgence & had my hangover in the hands & feet [from all I've read, better than in the head & mouth, but still *not* fun].
It's been hurting lots all day long, which is why I saved the word "excruciating" for this portion of the program. I've been limping worse than a badly-plotted thing & clearing far too much backlog on the recorded stuff.
The good news is, it's getting better. The main [mouse] hand can flatten out to at least 165 degrees now. It's nothing like bursitis, gall bladder, compressed disk, or other killer pains I've known, &, goodness knows, other folks certainly have worse every day, but I'm glad it's going away. It's a relief that it's a temporary embarrassment, rather than further degeneration [sounds like a wrestling tag-team or bad music group]. So, I'm off to find out whether another soaking in epsom salts will help.
Orry Voyer,
Filkferengi
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 12:41 pm (UTC)Did you like the geometry reference on the hand description? I put it in for you, professor. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-04 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 07:03 am (UTC)Have you tried glucosamine-chondroitin? It's good for OA, but I don't know about RA.
Are you always using the same hand for mousing? After having to have surgery for a repetitive strain injury, I switched to a mouse that I can use with either hand. I switch hands periodically. It does help!
I'm unclear on the reality show reference, though.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 12:15 pm (UTC)The reality show reference was a bad joke, as so many of those shows are. They have "extreme" everything else; why not tedium? That'd be truth in nomenclature anyway.
How're you guys settling in? I'll get caught up as I can, but it's slow going.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-04 09:34 am (UTC)I just discovered you last night - who *else* could "filkferengi" be? (g)
The RA sounds terrible; you have my greatest sympathy (and since I've been off of Vioxx for 3 weeks in prep for the elbow surgery *this* Thursday (avoiding sharp things like crazy), all kinds of things are starting to throb and swell, probably in empathy with you!).
One question: has your doctor ever mentioned methotrexate? It is one of the chemotherapy drugs that Alec took until this new round, but it is also used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A good friend who is a nurse practitioner was suddenly struck down - literally - with RA over a year ago. It hit *all* of her joints at once, which is very unusual, and she was in agony. Once the methotrexate kicked in, it halted the damage and bit by bit the symptoms. She was able to go back to practice and everything. I asked her how she was doing a week ago, and she had a lovely answer: her doctor has declared her officially "in remission." They obviously use a different dose of methotrexate for RA than for leukemia, and Lynn had no side effects ever from it. There may be other medical reasons why its use is contraindicated in your case, but it is worth asking Ortho Guy about.
{{{{{Hope you feel better soon}}}}}
no subject
Date: 2004-05-04 06:49 pm (UTC)Actually, my RA is fairly light. The recent trauma was purely stiff muscles, which are pretty much better now. My RA is like a bruise that's started to fade, so all the pretty colors are showing: enough to get you some sympathy, but not enough to be a major inconvenience. It's mostly 3 joints [out of how many?], & has been relatively stable the last couple of years.
I've never heard of the drug, but am glad it worked so well for your friend. Goodness knows, we need all the nurses & other heroes we can get; there aren't nearly enough. I'd be hesitant to try anything new, lest it goof me up worse.
Of course, the RA *did* have an unexpected consequence; see the next entry for that.
Actually, my RA is fairly light. The recent trauma was purely stiff muscles, which are pretty much better now. My RA is like a bruise that's started to fade, so all the pretty colors are showing: enough to get you some sympathy, but not enough to be a major inconvenience. It's mostly 3 joints [out of how many?], & has been relatively stable the last couple of years.
I've never heard of the drug, but am glad it worked so well for your friend. Goodness knows, we need all the nurses & other heroes we can get; there aren't nearly enough. I'd be hesitant to try anything new, lest it goof me up worse.
Of course, the RA *did* have an unexpected consequence; see the next entry for that. <tease, weg>
Re: Rheumatoid Arthritis
Date: 2004-06-04 08:46 pm (UTC)I was just browsing LiveJournal and came across your blog mentioning Rheumatoid Arthritis (yes, it does seem weird peeking into other people’s personal lives!). Sorry to hear it has been bothering you a lot lately.
I really hope it doesn't sound like a sales-pitch, but I am hoping to get more input from individuals who are dealing with RA on my non-commercial website called RemedyFind. I’ve had CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) for about 20 years or so and am now at about 80% of the elusive “normal” after a relapse in 1994. A couple of years ago I decided to start a website where CFS patients could rate the effectiveness of the treatments they have tried. The idea being that over time the most effective meds, supplements and other therapies might make themselves apparent. Hard to say if we’ll ever reach that goal, but the site has since grown to cover a number of other health conditions (including RA, Lupus, MS etc.), and users do seem to like seeing all the various treatment options that are available, and reading other people’s experiences.
Anyway, if at any time you do feel like doing ratings of some of the RA treatments you have tried – good, bad and ugly – it would be great. More than a hundred treatments are listed, from meds to supplements, alternative, self-care therapies etc..
Here is the page for the RA section -
http://www.remedyfind.com/hc-Rheumatoid-Arthritis.asp
(click on “All Remedies” to see the full list of treatments)
All the best, Brett Hodges