at the Water's Edge


Living life and learning all I can along the way!

A Sparkly Ring - 10 Month Humira Anniversary

This month marks 10 months now that I've been on Humira.  Overall, it has worked great, and I have not experienced any side effects.  It was a little rough getting started, but I really feel like I have continued to make progress since March and feel the best I have in a long time.  I'm continuing to take NSAIDs less frequently, without as much flaring in my wrists.  They still have a limited range of motion, but they don't hurt often and it takes fewer doses of Naproxen to keep them in line!  I mentioned back in August that I was able to slide my wedding ring off over my middle joint.  Well, since then, that finger has continued to decrease in size as the inflammation comes down, and I have consistently been able to take my ring completely off!



I feel kind of badly for being excited about being able to take my ring off -- I have no reason to want to take it off -- but it excites me because I use that finger as a measure of success in my RA treatment, and it is so encouraging to know that the enlargement of that joint was not, in fact, permanent.  I also told my husband that I prefer being able to choose to keep my ring on rather than to simply have it stuck on my finger.  But...I'll show you why I was really excited to be able to take it off....


I was finally able to thoroughly clean it (first time in 2+ years that I could scrub at it from all sides!), and now it looks so pretty and sparkly!  I'll tell you what -- a couple years of not getting that thing off sure wreaked some havoc on the inside of it.  I mean...think about it...my ring was on for two years worth of making pizza dough!  I cleaned as best as I could from the outside, but I definitely found some, um, leftovers when I was finally able to clean the inner part!  Yuck.

At any rate, I have my next appointment with my rheumatologist next Monday.  It's time to come up with my list of questions, but I'm anticipating an easy appointment.  I am not sure whether or not he'll want to do x-rays yet.  It's been almost a year since my last ones.  I'll be very curious to see if there's any additional damage that has occurred on my wrists since then.  I am also going to ask my doctor to prescribe a prednisone burst that I can take with me to this year's ACR meeting in November (yes...I'm going again this year...more on that later!).  I definitely learned last year that a whole day on my feet is not as easy on my feet and knees as I anticipated!  I'll be there for the entire conference this year, and I want to make sure I'm feeling my best!

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ABOUTME

Hi there! My name is Dana and I live in West Michigan with my husband, Tom and our dog Copernicus. I created this space as a place to share the things I learn along this journey I call life. I work in marketing and I'm a sort of Jane of All Trades, interested in all things nature, gardening, cooking, exploring and learning new things. This blog is a conglomeration of my interests, hobbies, life and life lessons. Thanks for stopping by!

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