Rheumatologist...again

I was called last week saying that the rheumatologist wanted to see me again. After rescheduling from Wednesday because I had a cold, I went in today. I was so excited because I was having tremendous pain in my back from switching medications.

She was happy to find out that my hands and feet were feeling better from the steroids, but not that my back was hurting again. It's been hard for her to try to diagnose because every time it seems to be different because my pain is either in my extremities or in my lower back. (No kidding!) But this time it was clearly my lower back! I haven't been able to do pretty much anything the past few days. I've been curled up in pain and taking a lot of hot baths and using heat packs. Plus lots of panadol but not nurofen because that would destroy my stomach lining. Basically it's been a hard time in our house because all of the added stress of taking care of me and the house falls on Rohan. Good thing we don't have kids yet!

She told me to go back on my anti-inflammatories, so I took one as soon as I got home. Hopefully those will be working again soon. I'm also supposed to finish up my steroid regimen and then stop taking them, which is for another week and a half. The steroids were supposed to be short term and I wasn't supposed to take them with the anti-inflammatories because they can cause major stomach problems, but I'm weaning off them so it'll be fine.

She wants to me go get an X-ray of my back and then let her know when that's been done. Depending on the result, I have a couple options for my drugs. She first wants to see if I qualify to get these really good injection drugs. But they cost $20,000 so it's important that I actually qualify for them because we definitely don't have that kind of money! If my back isn't that bad yet, she may put me on Sulfasalazine. It's a drug used for rheumatoid arthritis. It can have a lot of side effects and I'd need to have regular blood tests, like every month or so. It usually takes a few months until it starts working, though.

After I get the X-ray, I'll just need to call and she can tell me over the phone which path she wants me to take. She already gave me the prescription for the sulfasalazine as well as all of the regular blood tests that I'll need. In that case I won't need to see her again until October. Hopefully this will be the answer!