A Young Wife’s Tale

The day David was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis we learned several things. One, David has psoriasis. He thought he merely had dandruff. Two, he had Psoriatic Arthritis, which we’d never heard of. David and I both felt pretty good when we left the rheumatologist’s office. We had a name for David’s terrible back pain. The doctor was starting him on medication, sending him for x-rays and a bone scan. The rheumatologist said he’d soon be in remission.

We were so naive. The rheumatologist was overly optimistic. (A year later he was fired.) Here’s what I wish I’d known the day my husband was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis.

1. Remission is not as easy as the doctor makes it sound. David was diagnosed in February 2008. He didn’t go into remission until December 2010. He got much, much worse than he was the day he was diagnosed before he got better.

2. Remission does not mean you’ll be doing everything you were doing before the diagnosis. David still has pain every day. He’ll probably never go back to playing softball, racquetball and wakeboarding. We are extremely grateful that he is doing as well as he is. But it’s not like it was before the diagnosis. Remission does not mean cured.

Not much to report. David’s not in remission, but he didn’t flare this weekend even though we had rain. We were very thankful for that, but I’m still anxious for his arthritis to be in remission.

It feels like we’re on hold. Just waiting for David’s back to be better.

David and I took a little weekend getaway this weekend. Well, actually it was a staycation, but we slept in our guest bedroom and showered in the guest bath, so it felt like a getaway. Because of David’s arthritis, we couldn’t go do all the fun Dallas stuff, but it’s okay, we’ve lived here all our lives and we’ve been to the Arboretum, Six Flags, Hurricane Harbor, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Dallas Summer Musicals many times. So, here’s an overview of a weekend staycation, chronic illness style.

David’s parents bought him a new gadget called Back 2 Life. It a machine that stretches your lower back. The machine just moves your legs up and down slowly and gently. This stretches your lower back.

“You need to get out there and wakeboard!” I told David.

“No, I don’t think I should. My back hurts. I’ll just make it worse,” he replied.

“You’ve got a brand new wakeboard! You have to!”