Life with a Flare

Yesterday was the first night of Passover and there was about 35 people at my house for a Seder, since I live in a split level house, our living room (where we ate) and our kitchen are half a flight of stairs apart. Bringing food and plates and what ever else up and down said stairs really took a toll on my already flaring joints. Happy Passover! Since I wrote on Thursday the flare got worse on Friday and Saturday but started to get better Sunday. Well the whole Passover thing threw that away. Now my shoulders are deadish, my knees are just slightly better.  Also Friday was like the first time since about 1 week post op I had any pain in my right hip, which is pretty good I guess. I think it was just trigger by my hips trying to make up for my knees. Also my knees are completely holding me back from getting farther in hip surgery recovery which is really frustrating. Today I got up really early to go see the eye specialist to check for uveitis, and for some reason I ...

Because I am me, I could not go a full 2 weeks without a doctor's appointment. Over the weekend I started to get a cold, the worst of it was Monday night. Tuesday I was feeling pretty lethargic and my knees were really killing me so I just went to PT in the morning but not school. Today I decided I really needed to go to school ignoring the fact I could barely walk, well I made it 45 minutes before I went home sick. I went to see my primary care doctor. He just suggested I go on Relafen for a few days. My OS wants me to go back on an NSAID as well, but did not clarify which one. He is also sending me a script for PT for my knees. I ave no faith in PT to help my knees at this point...at all. It is not that I am not willing to try PT, it is just I have done so much PT for my knee and not seen a ton of improvement. I want to talk to my rheumy, but yesterday she wasn't there, so I only got to talk to the covering one, and today the phones were down or something because they...

Today marks week six, and besides for the scars and PT my life is pretty much back to normal, just with one less painful joint, which is great. My knees have been really bad for the past few days so it has been hard to use the exercise. Plus I started gym class, and I can't participate so I get to walk laps around the gym by myself. Tomorrow it is supposed to snow, so I think that is making my flare worse, killing my knees even more so. I spent one of my free periods today lying in the nurses office with ice packs on my knees and shoulders. On top of everything else I have a terrible cold. I think I am going to stay home from school tomorrow, although I still have a 6:45am PT appointment that I need to go to and I will have to go in during my free period since I need to plant seeds for my AP Bio research project.

I am going to Temple University! I finally made a decision! I am so excited! I knew Temple was my 1st choice since I visited but I only told a few people so I wouldn't jinx it. It works out perfectly for me for many reasons. First off they have the 5 year Bachelors/Masters Special Education Degree program I want to go to. I also really wanted to be in a city so that is another plus. On the medical side it works out well because I can take a train from Philly to NYC to go to HSS, or even find specialist in Philly.

My life is almost normal. I am done with crutches (for now but I will take that)! My PT is very happy with my flexibility and ROM. I can not believe I am walking on the same hip I was 6 weeks ago, it really is amazing. I also get to go back to work this week! I am so excited, I love my job so much and I have really missed it! Although since I am me one joint could not do this well without another one having a complete fit. Actually a few having fits. My knees are out to get me, they are! My right one swells anytime I use a exercise bike and well my left knee was the joint that started this whole mess. My OS was hoping that the knee pain was mostly referred pain and would be fixed when I had hip surgery. I am here to say that as my right hip is pain free my right knee is doing the worst it has ever done! At least my shoulders seem a bit happier than they did when I was on crutches, although that is not a high bar. Putting my hair in a pony tail still takes more skill than i...

On Monday I hit the 4 week mark, so that makes now 4.5 weeks. My hip still feels really great. Its amazing to think a few weeks ago my hip constantly hurt and now I forget I had surgery on a regular basis. I can not wait to no longer have pain in my other hip too. On Tuesday I got the ok from my PT to walk without any crutches at home, but not school which was disappointing. I had another appointment yesterday and asked again and was given a lecture about how I just had a major hip surgery and need to slow down. I was told if I argued again he would e-mail my mom, so that was the end of that and I am stuck with one crutch for a bit longer. I also got an exercise bike as my OS suggested at my last appointment. Today I spent 15 minutes on it, which is 5 more than I usually spend on the bike at PT, and my right knee blew up, which is always lovely. The irony of it is the reason my OS suggested the bike was because my knee was swelling when I used the CPM machine. I think...

That is the question I am currently grappling with. (No I have not forgotten that I am 4 weeks post op but since I won't have an exciting update on that until tomorrow I decided not to bore you) Today I had a rheumatologist appointment. It was pretty routine. My left elbow hurt during the exam and that was not expected but has never hurt before or after so I am going to try not to worry about that. She commented on how much better my ROM was in my operated hip then my un-operated one. My last set of Lyme tests came back negative, so we have finally ruled out Lyme after the one false positive. Since my most problematic of my joints currently are my shoulders and my knees, which could just be acting up from the hip surgery as well the crutches, she wanted to wait to re-evaluate when I have been off crutches for a little while to see if they calm down. On to the Relafen thing. I told her about the fun side affects I had from Naproxen and she said I could go back on Relafe...

Before I had hip surgery I had been taking Relafen with is a prescription NSAID and it had a helped a little bit, definitely with my knees (along with the euflexxa). However I had to stop it two weeks before surgery. After surgery I was put on Naproxen, another NSAID, which is basically prescription aleve. While Naproxen does just as good of a job as Relafen, it can be harder on the stomach and more likely to cause problems. About a week after starting it I realized if I did not drink a full glass of water after taking it my throat would start burning, and starting a couple days ago I would drink two cups of water and eat food and my throat would still burn, even though I was even taking a prescription antacid with it. And I don't mean burn for a few minutes, it would for a few hours. After e-mailing with my OS's PA I was told to stop taking the Naproxen and I could take regular aleve if I wanted instead. Of course I have a really big debate tournament ...