Late night phone call

Last night while watching a DVR'd episode of Entourage, the phone rang. It was almost 9 p.m. I figured it was one of my friends and when I went to answer it I saw on the caller ID that it was none other than my rheumy. You could've knocked me over with a feather. I quickly told DH to pause the show and answered the phone. He apologized for calling so late. I was just damn glad he had called. My stomach did flip flops as he went through my test results worried that he was going to tell me that he couldn't help me. Instead he said that he believed something was going on--he just isn't sure what. Nevertheless, he has put me on Prednisone for two weeks to see how I do. Thankfully the dose is low (5 mgs. once a day for a week, then 10 mgs. once a day for a week) so I'm hoping to escape the side effects. Lord knows I don't need more hair growing in places that shouldn't have hair, or liver problems, or blood sugar problems, or, or...the list goes on.

The one thing that has me worried is that I asked him about my Leukopenia (low WBC and Lymphocyte counts) and my Alpha-1 being low. For the first concern he said he didn't know what to make of it. For the second he said he didn't know what Alpha-1 was. Scary? I don't know. I hope that he is as methodical as rumored to be and jumps on this shit and figures it out because I want to know. Granted, I'm really, really happy I am being treated and that is what is important. Yet I also want to be sure that we're not missing anything and it would be nice to have a diagnosis. For now I'll settle on trying something that could quite possibly make me feel better. I still have to take my Percocet as I thought I couldn't mix the Prednisone w/the Percocet and thus didn't take any tonight. BIG mistake. HUGE. While the Percocet does not stop, nor help, the inflammation it does take the edge off and makes the pain much more bearable. Without it my joints and muscles literally scream at me. Picture the worst flu you've ever had. One where you were sure your body would be turned inside out. Then take away the vomiting, high fever (a low one is okay), runny nose, watery eyes, or anything else that would say "Yep, that's the flu" but keep the pain. That's me. Not a good way to live. And I, a self-professed pill hater and who abhors the thought of being reliant on any type of drug to make me feel better, has given in. I'm not fighting it anymore. Not worth it.

Dr. B asked me to keep track of my symptoms over the upcoming two weeks. Should be easy enough.

I went ahead and sent off a request for my medical records from OHSU. We'll see what those have to say.

As a side note, I am taking Pepcid AC as a preventative for the Prednisone. The pharmacist warned me that it will be worse the NSAID's. SWEET! So long as the Pepcid works I'll do my best to pretend my stomach is not being ruined by yet another drug.