A Young Wife’s Tale

A day in the mind of a caregiver. On any given day, these thoughts may pop into my head:

Remind him to take his medicine.
How are we going to pay this medical bill?
Thank you God that the drug manufacturer pays for David’s Humira. We’d be living with our parents if we had to pay $1500 a month for that one medicine.
Do we have to do an injection today?
Quick! Pack a nutritious lunch that meets all his dietary restrictions!
I need a Diet Coke.

This is my first blog post. It was originally published on April 25, 2009.

I went for a physical a few weeks ago. My most dreaded day of the year. The doctor spent the entire time talking to me about David’s arthritis. He was really nice and encouraging. He had great advice, but when I got in the car afterwards, I couldn’t help but think, “Hey! That was my physical! Why were we talking about David?”

Maybe David does have fibromyalgia in addition to psoriatic arthritis. I was so skeptical when the New Jersey rheumatologist said David might have fibromyalgia, but David swears the Lyrica is helping. I guess maybe those doctors do learn a thing or two in medical school. We were so blessed that the doctor had six sample bottles of Lyrica to give us so we could really give it a good trial before we have to start paying for it.

The rheumatologist now has David’s file from the Texas’ rheumatologist, so I’m anxious for his appointment in two weeks. I can’t wait to hear what he says now that he has David’s original labs and bone scan.

30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know
by David (With comments from Ashley in parenthesis.)

1. The illness I live with is: Psoriatic Arthritis

2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 2008

3. But I had symptoms since: 2002

4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: Always making decisions based on my health.

Okay, so Psoriatic Arthritis didn’t really take a day off. David still had some pain. But he had a good day recently, and we went to Atlantic City.