Ah, the Tuesday after Memorial Day Weekend. YAWN. Would love nothing more than to be back home, doing nothing. The working man's a sucker. Figure to take some time out and discuss what has been going on with the 6 pill tapering. Today is the day I take my next dose for 6 methotrexate pills and as you can see in my blog title, my body needs it. I am so excited to take my medicine tonight because I am really swollen. My fingers are pretty bad - they really hurt today. This is a new kind of pain that I experienced on Easter too. I was thinking about maybe getting a paraffin bath but I am not sure if it really would work? I will do some research on it today. My back was also hurting last night so I used the heating pad to help put me to bed and also this morning before I got up to get ready for work. It helps. Tonight I will try to make yoga at 8:30 at my gym. Some stretching may help the fingers and bones. My ankles and feet hurt too but instead of staying behind the desk, I took about a 20 block walk today at lunch. Sometimes when you are in pain you just want to get into bed and not move but it's better for you to stay active. I have to remind myself to get up and stretch more at work. At some point I will get a mat for 10 minute stretch sessions. My job already thinks I am a lunatic, so what do I have to lose? A couple of years ago I walked around with a back brace on to improve my posture - I literally looked like a toy soldier (and FYI my posture is no different, so save yourself the time and money and just push your damn shoulders back on your own ).
Meanwhile, I am not sure if this has anything to do with the methotrexate but I got my period about a week early. I tried to research a bit on this and everyone is different but there are a lot of people who have irregular periods or heavy bleeding with being on methotrexate. I always was irregular, I mean it comes every month but definitely different days. However within I'd say a three day range. This was way earlier than regular and I do feel like it has been heavier too. And I am positive that when I wash my hair I am not losing as much hair than usual. This proves that for me - the high dose of methotrexate was very much affecting my hair and nails even though I was on folic acid. My nails seem stronger because even though I get gel manicures, they would still crack down vertically and then not only is your manicure ugly but it can crack so low that it hurts. As for my hair, I would sometimes wash my hair and I'd have to take a ridiculous mound of hair out of the drain. There is still hair that falls out now but its not anywhere near as much so this is all good signs. If only my fat fingers would calm the f down, I'd be in great shape.
Also, I am still trying to do the sugar free thang. I was getting headaches but this weekend we had friends over so I did indulge for dessert time but I did keep the espresso sugar free which is so strong but I am getting used to it. I looked up Starbucks sugar free options and today I treated myself to a Tall Vanilla Skinny Latte which is Starbucks terminology for a small skim milk latte with sugar free vanilla syrup. It's pretty good. That can be a treat here and there because I don't really like to have the milk.
I take blood next Monday so I will write after that. I am eager to see if my white blood cells rise because people who are on methotrexate (or just have autoimmune issues) will commonly have low WBC and my count is LOW. My WBC can vary between 2.0 - 2.6 thous/mcl and the normal level is 3.8 - 10.8 thous/mcl. My last hospital visit was so crazy that everyone had to wear masks because my WBC was so low I couldn't leave the room. I was like the boy in the bubble, minus the bubble. And now in regular life, I always have to be careful around anyone who is sick or take precaution when I feel under the weather. Having low WBC can increase your risk of developing a potentially life-threatening infection so with that being said I am hoping that with reducing my meds it will get a bit higher.
After blood - we go down to 4 pills!! Hip hip hooray! Speak to you then!
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