A Young Wife’s Tale

Hallelujah! David’s bad rheumatologist refilled his Humira. He doesn’t believe David has Psoriatic Arthritis and wants him to discontinue Humira. I was worried he was going to give me a hard time about the refill. We’re still waiting for our new health insurance cards so we can start looking for a new rheumatologist. But, we’ve got another 90 day supply of Humira!

What a year it’s been for us! Moving from a house to an apartment, from Texas to New Jersey.

All of our Christmas decorations are in storage, so I made everything on our tree.

I have failed as a caregiver. This is really an epic fail. When David first went gluten free, I was so careful to read labels. I got a little more comfortable as time went on. When David went dairy free as a part of his anti-inflammation diet, I was cooking everything from scratch anyway, so I wasn’t as careful. There are only a few prepackaged items David eats now. One is tortilla chips, the other is cereal.

The cereal David has been eating has gluten.Thank you Arthritis Ashley for pointing this out to me. I completely forgot about malt.

I’m tired of defending David’s diagnosis of Psoriatic Arthritis. He was diagnosed, and rediagnosed by two rheumatologists. A family doctor saw copies of David’s labs and concurred with their diagnosis.

Every doctor we see wants to go over David’s medical history to be sure the diagnosis is accurate. Every nurse and dental hygienist*. It’s a good thing, in that doctors are paying attention. If there is anything else that could possibly be contributing to David’s joint pain, one of these medical professionals will catch it. (We are currently exploring the possibility that David has fibromyalgia in addition to arthritis.)

It’s a bad thing, in that some doctors don’t believe David has arthritis. One doctor even questioned the diagnosis because David is “awful young to have Psoriatic Arthritis.” With that doctor, I chose to ignore all of her comments on arthritis because she obviously knows less about arthritis than I do, and apparently has never heard of juvenile arthritis.

Today, during David’s appointment, the rheumatologist only seemed concerned that David is able to work. While the ability to work may be a good measure of health for some, it is not for David. David is a computer programmer. He could do his work lying in bed. It isn’t a job like say, a plumber or a paramedic, that requires a lot of movement.

The rheumatologist thinks David doesn’t have arthritis. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even believe David has psoriasis. He thinks David has fibromyalgia. However, David is not tender to the touch, and from what I understand you need at least 11 out of 18 tender spots to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Still, the Lyrica (a fibro medicine) is helping David significantly.