Hey there! I just wanted to stop in and say hello. I havent been on in a very long time and wondered if anyone was still around from way back.
Hey crunchy- have not been around as long as you have been but pretty near. How are ya?Hey Crunchy, what a surprise. I'm still here.......How are you, what's been happening in your life, still working hard and crazy? Glad to hear from you. Lindy<<<Waving Arms Wildly>>>>
My RA has been behaving itself...most of the time. I have noticed a gradual progression of worsening of symptoms over the past 6 months or so. Mainly my feet (which is old news) and my jaw and chest (which is new). Last year I had found a fantastic new RD, but she moved out of state and so I had to find another new doc. I am pleased to say that not only did I find one great new doc..but I found two in the same office! It turns out they all went to school together and did residency under the RD that diagnosed me 3 1/2 years ago. Anyways, my new doc sent me for baseline x-rays and she added in a chest x-ray as well. After a few days, I got a call telling me that I had some "spots" on my lungs and they wanted me to go for a CT. Now, I went through this back in 1999 when I was preparing for nursing school. Back then it scared the hell out of me, but in the end they decided that the spots were from chronic bronchitis that I had as a child and teen. Needless to say, I was not very concerned this time around. I went for the CT, and low and behold, the scarring from the bronchitis is still there along with a 7mm nodule from the RA. I go in tomorrow to meet with the doc, but from what I got out of the nurse on the phone, I suspect I am going to be walking out with an Rx for Arava or MTX. Seeing as how I loathe MTX, I am thinking I will try the Arava. I am just not sure what that is going to be like. I seem to have side effects from just about every medication that I take. Soooo..thats what has been going on in my world..lol. Oh yeah, we bought a house in March! I dont know if you remember, but we lost our house when I got sick in 06. We had been renting, but finally bought a new home in a quiet town just north of the town we lived in before. We are very happy with our house. My neice has moved in with us while she is pursuing her nursing degree and working her way through college. I am also still chipping away at my degree. My daughter is now in 7th grade and on the Volleyball team at school; my son is now in the 4th grade and still the class clown and honor roll student. Husband is still at same job, welding away. I had popped on briefly in Dec 07 when he had broken his leg. That has left him with 30% loss of function of the knee, but he works and can ride a bike. He cant run, well he can but he more or less jogs and looks like a pirate with a peg leg since he cant bend the knee all the way. LOL. Oh, he also had his lap band taken out due to complications. Then he developed a hernia where they took out the port and had to go back and have another surgery to fix that. But that being said, he is doing well. We still have the cats and the chihuahuas, and have added two tanks full of fish to watch when we cant go SCUBA diving. What's new with ya'll?Great update, and so good to hear about all of the good stuff happening. Congratulations on the new job and new house, all in one year! When you think back to how bleak everything seemed then, it is so inspirational for everyone to hear that there are better happier, healthier days ahead. You've certainly had to fight hard to get there, but that is the important thing, you were a fighter and never gave up!