A Young Wife’s Tale

Some of the simplest remedies that help him are things like over the counter heat patches, heating pads, and hot baths with epsom salts. Another thing that has helped David is chiropractic care.

I’ve blogged before about the Back 2 Life Machine. It was very helpful when he was flaring so badly the muscles in his back would spasm. You could actually see the muscles in his lower back twitching. The Back 2 Life Machine helped stretch David’s lower back very gently.

At different times David’s rheumatologists have given him injections in his back of things like methotrexate and cortisone. They typically only offered mild relief.
Doctors have prescribed many different medications to help David with his pain. Some of the medications that have given David significant relief are hydrocodone, Lyrica, Flexeril and Cymbalta. There was only one time when David asked a doctor for pain medication, and the doctor didn’t want to (but he’s the horrible rheumatologist who didn’t think David had Psoriatic Arthritis). I convinced him to give David the medicine, and we found a new rheumy ASAP.

David saw his New Jersey rheumatologist again last week. He still doesn’t have David’s file from his Texas rheumatologist. They’ve sent a second copy, but I’m tired of calling back and forth between the two offices. I want the offices to talk to each other. We signed a release form. My TMJ specialists can talk to each other. Why can’t rheumatologists? I want the NJ doctor’s office to call me when they receive the file so I can quit calling them to ask about it. And if his file is on CD, why can’t they just email it?

It was a frustrating visit all around. The NJ rheumatologist thinks David doesn’t have arthritis. David has never had swelling in his joints. David’s blood work and new x-rays looked “perfectly healthy” to the doctor. David is on “one medication from almost every classification of drugs”, but he’s in extreme pain. He’s not in remission. The rheumatologist thinks that if David has arthritis, he should be responding to all the medication. He thinks David has fibromyalgia. But, the rheumatologist is hesitant to take David off of anything until he sees David’s complete file and bone scan.

Coppertone Sport Sunscreen Clear Continuous Spray is awesome! David and I have been using it this summer. It’s SPF 50, Ultra Sweatproof and it’s waterproof.

Today, April 25, is my one year blogging anniversary. What a year it’s been! David’s arthritis is so much more stable now, and even my jaw is better than it was a year ago. I got a part time job. David got his Humira. We put our house on the market hoping to sell it [...]

I am not an extremist. The reason I decided to write this post is because I read and heard that people who attend TEA Party rallies are extremists one too many times. I attended a TEA Party in Dallas. (It was great because they didn’t let any political officials speak at that particular rally.) However, just because I attended that rally does not mean I think violence against our elected officials is acceptable.