#5

I’m taking my 5th shot this evening. After the dizzy spells that followed #3 I decided to shift my injection time to later in the day and that seems to have improved things a good bit.  I still get the exhaustion but the other Humira specific side effects are much reduced. The day after taking my methotrexate the week of my injection is still rough though.

While these meds have reduced my pain by a lot I’m still dealing with regular pain. It’s actually hard for me to remember a time before pain. It’s just part of life now and even though the reduction is great it is still exhausting to hurt all the time and to wonder what will hurt next. This past weekend has seen the arrival of new stiffness in my back. From my SI joints up into my neck. It’s weird and unpleasant. I spent the weekend feeling like I just couldn’t stretch enough and worrying (without any evidence or real reason)about fused vertebrae.

But I give myself that injection tonight and hopefully that will help. I also have to try and avoid the snot that is currently covering approximately 95% of my child’s face.

And tomorrow I get to check out an exercise class conducted by the local branch of the NASS specifically for people with Ankylosing Spondylitis and I’m pretty excited about that. I’m trying to find better coping tools lately and i think this will be a good one. I’ve also been trying to do more yoga at home. I’m not ready to go back to a regular class but a friend recently shared and interview with Dana Falsetti that really struck a cord with me. As a result I subscribed to her series of classes and have been working on the first 2 videos and am trying to get back some control of my body. I feel like even a little control is better than none.

So things are positive, there is improvement. There is also still pain though. There may always be pain, the main goal right now is continuing to reduce it.