New Doctor-Old Medications

Tuesday the 13th, I went and met my new rheumatologist. She is at Christiana Hospital in Delaware. I admit, I was upset not to be going to the children's hospital anymore, but one must move on when they hit the age of 21.

What made me miss the children's hospital the most was the change in exam rooms. In the old hospital, there were butterflies painted by some of the children on the ceiling tiles and colorful posters, including ones with Mickey Mouse, in the rooms. At this new hospital, there was not much color and on the walls of the rooms, there were posters describing the disabling process that RA takes on the body, including this one terrible poster that showed the joint damage that happens to hands over time and I could not look at it because seeing what may happen to me someday upsets me and is something I do not want to think about right now. I just want to focus on what I am doing now and keeping myself the way I am right now, dwelling on the future and what may happen does nothing for me.

The doctor herself was very nice and I am quite excited to be going to see her! She explained everything well and did not cause any pain during my exam at all! She is definitely a good doctor to go to and am looking forward to my follow-up in 2 months.

Why do I have a follow-up in 2 months? First is because my doctor is pregnant and she wants to see me one more time before she takes her maternity leave. The second is because we may have to decide on a new medication to start me on. The short of it is that I am having problems getting the Enbrel because of the insurance plan that I have and I may not be able to stay on it. This really stinks because this medication was making me feel better than I have in years. Right now I am not on anything, this is the first week of being on nothing and we are gonna see how bad I am in the next couple weeks. Depending on how fast I decline will decide what the doctor prescribes me just to keep me going until the appointment. After that, we will decide what route to take next. If everything works out, I will be on the Enbrel once again and everything will be fine. If this does not work out, we are looking at 3 options. 1-Another type of shot just like Enbrel (Humira, Symphoni...) 2- A 3 hour infusion every other month (the medication begins with an R, but i keep forgetting the name of it) and 3- Back a step to the Methotrexates! My goal: Avoid the Methotrexates at all cost! It all depends on what happens in the next few months, so we shall see.

How am I feeling right now? So far, not much pain, I have just been feeling a bit run down, but this could also be because of school. The next couple days are going to be pretty cold here, so that will be a test on my body for sure, but we shall see what happens. I will keep this blog posted with what happens as this process continues.