This past Tuesday I had an appointment with my Rheumatologist. Of course Mother Nature decided that she was going to drop a bunch of snow on us that day, so I had the hubby drive me. I hate driving in the snow. I should be use to it after living in New England my whole life, but I hate it.
I got to my appointment late, thanks to this moron who was going 15 miles per hour. The roads were not that bad honestly and I only live 10 minutes away from the hospital that my doctor is at.
So, I get called in and my hubby decided to come in with me, mostly to make sure I tell the doctor everything and to make sure I tell him the truth. I have been in a ton of pain, but I am afraid of sounding like a hypochondriac when I ask for pain meds. I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I do.
The doctor asks how I feel. I tell him I am really sore. Hubby looks at me, then at the doctor and tell him that it took me 20 minutes to make the bed the other day and all I did was swear and make noises like I was in pain, which I was. He asks me where I hurt. I tell him my hips, back, elbows, wrists, ankles, feet, toes, hands, fingers, and shoulders.
When he was squeezing all my joints to feel any inflammation or whatever he does. I swear he enjoys doing that just to see me squirm and make faces. He squeezes the tips of my fingers and it really hurt. The tips of my toes have been hurting a bunch too and have swelled up so much that I have blisters on them thanks to my shoes.
He tells me that the tips of my fingers and toes are not normal RA inflammation spots. Same with my hips, back and my shoulder blades. He feels the rest of my joints, my elbows, my knees. My god was I horrified when he asked to lift my pant legs. I was so freaking hairy cause I hadn't shaved in like 2 months LOL.
He doesn't feel any inflammation and the joints are not hot to the touch. All nice and cool. According to my blood counts, my RA is doing good and pretty much under control. He did up my infusions from ever 8 weeks to every 6 weeks and the does from 400 to 600mgs.
He also said that I more than likely have Fibromyalgia, a chronic wide spread pain. Joy of Joys! Something else I do not want. It would explain all the pain in the wrong joints, the extreme tiredness I have and how the pain gets way worse at night. My sleep at night is really bad. I wake up constantly in pain and am always rolling over to try and get comfortable.
I have to have an MRI of one of my hands, my left one hurts the most, so see if there is any inflammation. If there is none, than he knows I do have Fibro. For now, I am going to look into alternative ways to treat the pain, like acupuncture and massage.
He also gave me a new prescription for Tramadol. This time it is the extended release 100mg with the option to go up to a max of 300mg. I took 1 pill (100mg) that night and it really did nothing. I tried the same does the next night, that again did nothing. So the next night I upped it to 2 pills, then I started to notice a difference. I am still sore, but nothing like I was before. I am going to keep it at this dose until I get worse. I seem to always build up an immunity to all my meds. I think most people do anyway.
I am still really tired and sleep still sucks. I have to take my naps everyday and try to take at least an hour long one. Two hours is better, but it depends on when I fall asleep.
A friend of mine noticed yesterday while we were walking, that I seemed to me a bit more chipper. I know it is because my pain was a ton better and so I wasn't so focused on how I was walking so I wasn't in so much pain.
First published 3/23/13
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