Life with a Flare

No one will ever be harder on yourself than you are. When I was diagnosed with AMPS a couple months ago I was told I needed to push through the pain. This idea was reaffirmed when I went to see the PT and OT at CHOP. This is what I have been doing. I have not missed a single class because of my health yet this year. Besides for when the Mobic did not work I have not gotten to the point where I have called my Rheumy. I have not missed a commitment or scheduled event. I am proud of all these things but at some point the pain started getting even worse this week, something had to give. I did everything I normally do plus put some of the anti-inflammatory fancy cream on a few joints. It is homecoming weekend, I was going to push pass this flare, I had to push passed it. Two weeks ago I had decided I was going to go out this weekend, yet here I am writing this blog post instead (not that I don't enjoy blogging but...). The past couple of mornings haven't been pretty. I have ha...

I have been so bad about updating this blog! Mobic did not go well, I only last about two weeks on it, then I switched to Celebrex. Celebrex is supposed to be the easiest on the stomach of all NSAIDs, well cause I am me that is not how it worked out. About a week or two into taking Celebrex my stomach pain got a lot worse, I actually thought I had an ulcer. It was not fun at all. So I went to student health services and had to see a nurse before I could get a doctor's appointment. Right away it was agreed on I needed to see a doctor as soon as possible, but the next available appointment was not till the next day. When I did see the doctor he was really great and prescribed Protonix to replace Prevacid, but did say if I have anymore stomach issues I need to see a GI specialist which I would like to avoid. He also confirmed that it was probably gastritis and not an ulcer but went over all the signs to look for. The doctor also said he would try to do some reading on NSAID induce...

Okay guys I have been meaning to post this update but I have had no time to write it. Last week I had an appointment with a new pediatric rheumatologist , usually it is a long wait to see one but there was a cancellation so I got in really fast. During the appointment I was diagnosed with two things. The first is Enthesitis, with is an autoimmune disease were the the things that attach ligaments and tendons to the bones in joints become inflamed, it can also cause Uveitis. The first line of treatment is NSAIDs like like Voltaren but I had to switch to Mobic because I was having a lot of GI issues, so the new one will hopefully have less side effects. At this point we a re sticking to NSAIDs because it is hard to tell how severe the disease is because of the 2nd condition I have. The second thing is Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain, this is a nerve condition that is a result of the fact I have had untreated chronic pain for so long. Basicly my nerves no longer know how to turn off pain si...