Shot Day - in more ways than one

All Right, so I just gave myself my Humira Injection, and I’m writing this with the hope that it will distract me for a little while. 

Every two weeks I have this nice little thing I call “Shot Day.”  I give the whole day homage because the psychological trauma, pre- and post-shot ritual, pain, and side-effects seem to make the entire day tremendously Sucky!

You’d think that after taking this medication for two years I would be an old pro, but sadly, I am not.  The truth is that every two weeks I dread Shot Day as much as I did that very first time.  I mean come on, getting used to sticking a needle in your leg should not be something that becomes old hat.  (By the way, Humira cutely calls their NEEDLE a Pen – give me a break.)

Now before any Diabetics jump down my throat and stomp on my liver, I humbly admit that your plight is much worse than mine, at least in terms of needles, etc., and I have nothing but the utmost respect and pity for you.  However, in my defense, I’ve been told that the type of medicine I inject, and the needle size I use, is different than any other types of medications out there, and that the injection is difficult (a gross understatement) for everyone.  But I tell you with the utmost sincerity, that does not make me feel one bit better.

I love how the manufacturer says the medication may sting.  May Sting!  It does NOT sting.  I was a beekeeper for over a decade, I know about stings, and I’d gladly welcome back my little furry friends in exchange for that stinking needle (yes, I have a thing about needles, but still).  The first time I gave myself the shot, I screamed so loud for my Momma that she opened the door to see if I was outside, AND SHE LIVES TWO STATES OVER.  I’m perfectly fine with my masculinity, so you can take my word that I didn’t break down and cry, but I did cuss like a sailor (to those sailors who do not cuss I apologize) for a while.  Sting my flabby fanny!  (Which, by the way, is not where the shot goes.  You can chose either the top of the thigh or the stomach below the belly button – yeah, right, I’m gonna jab a 3-foot needle in my belly and call it a day.)

I have learned, over time, that when I hit the button on the self-injector, and the massive needle rips into my tender flesh, one of two fates await me:  Either the shot will be excruciating for a couple of minutes and then fade into just a dull ache with lots of bruising; or the shot will sting (I use that word with heavy sarcasm), for a couple of minutes and then my leg will feel like I plunged it into a cuisinart, plus, it will hurt like the dickens (which I’ve heard is a euphemism for the devil) for the next few days.  Hard to believe, but I prefer the excruciating two minute pain, because the cuisinart thing is really unpleasant (yes, more sarcasm).

I’d tell you more about the process (like all the prep I have to do leading up to the shot, etc.), but sometimes it helps to walk around a while after the shot, really I mean hobble while dragging one leg and whimpering, and so I’m off to tour the house (and most likely call out for salvation each time I accidentally bump my leg).

In closing, for those of you who don’t know much about Humira, despite the rather unpleasant process of stabbing myself every two weeks, nothing has worked to reduce my RA pain as much as Humira has.  For the most part, the medication works by suppressing the immune system, which is where the bulk of the relief comes from (remember, with RA it’s your immune system that is trying to kill you). 

Sometime, when I’m not blubbering as much as I am right now, I’ll try to do a better job in discussing the benefits of Humira, but for right now I seem to be heading toward the cuisinart result I mentioned earlier, and so I’ll leave you with the only thing worth saying:  MOMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Can You Hear Me Snoring?

Once again I apologize for not blogging sooner.  I’ve pretty much been asleep for the last 3 weeks, and I found that seemed to conflict with typing anything.

I’m currently on 11 medications for my illness; yes, I did say 11.  There are actually a few more I could add to that list, but I only use them as needed, so I think just mentioning the one’s I take daily gives you some idea of what I deal with.

I’ve arrived at these 11 over a period of several years involving a lot, and I do mean a lot, of trial and error.  I’d say for every one of the 11 I’m on now, I’ve tried 3 before I found the one that worked.  In other words, I’ve been my pharmacist’s best friend for a while now.

However, in my overall therapy, I’ve still got some holes.  I especially struggle with medications for my Fibromyalgia and the depression that comes as a result of the weird chemical imbalances my RA causes.  So I’m still experimenting with finding meds for those areas, and especially looking at medications that do both.

Unfortunately, the best one I found for helping both, Savella, worked great for several months and then started giving me such debilitating headaches I just couldn’t stand it any longer.  My doc and I tried several ways to trick my body into accepting the Savella, but we finally had to throw in the towel when I started screaming for my mommy and crying like a baby about the headaches.

(By the way, if you suffer from Fibromyalgia, you should talk to your doc about Savella.  I don’t make any money from them, so I’m not a spokesman, and I no longer use the medication, but, and it’s a big but, while I was on the stuff my pain levels were consistently at their lowest point since being diagnosed.  I’m telling you, I had a little hissy-fit when I realized the most effective medication was out of my reach just because of a side-effect.)

So, last month, when I saw my rheumatologist, we picked another medication for me to try adding.  Intriguing enough, my doc’s fear of suggesting this particular medication was because it is known to have an “energizing” effect, and since I often struggle with insomnia, my doc was hesitant to prescribe something that would “amp” me up.

However, in hindsight, he had nothing to worry about.  I really don’t know why I’m so weird, but the medication had the exact opposite effect of what we expected.  The titration was to start off with a low dose, and then double it after a week, and then again after another week. 

About the second week I fell asleep.  And I’ve pretty much been asleep since then.

Okay, so I’m exaggerating a tiny bit, but I swear, that’s very close to how it worked.  Even when I was awake, all I wanted to do was sleep.  I would sleep for 12 to 14 hours, wake up to take my pills, stare at the tv until it went out of focus after a couple of hours, and go back to sleep for another 12 hours.  One day I slept for 21 hours.

Now I’ve mentioned in other posts that Fibro likes sleep, but too much sleep really ticks RA off, so you can imagine, or maybe you can’t, that by sleeping that much I really, really, really ticked my RA off.  So basically, I’d sleep while writhing in pain and dreaming about being tortured. 

Here’s the kicker though:  when I was awake, I was very relaxed, laid-back even, and my family agreed they loved that about the new medication (I mean, come on, was I that bad before?).  I admit, I was indeed laid-back, because the only thing I really cared about over the last month was going back to sleep, pain and all.

So, tomorrow I go back to see my RA doc, and have to explain to him how the medication that causes “excitability” actually put me to sleep for a month.  That ought to be a fun conversation.  Plus, we will start the whole process again, because I really do need something more for the pain I deal with each day.

So, I apologize for not blogging, and all I can do is entreat you to enjoy the silence while you can, because next he might prescribe a “sedative” and I’ll be so amped-up that I blog ten or twelve times a day.

New Reveiw at YABooksCentral

There's a new review of Davina's Magical Radio at YABooksCentral.  Right after the review went up they changed their entire website, so it took me a little while to track down where the review was at after the change, but the link above is the most recent one that is accurate.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately, I've been so down-and-out that I haven't even been logging on these last few weeks.  Sometimes weird things happen to me with all this RA stuff, and the last few weeks has been no exception.  I'll spare you the details this time, but again, I'm sorry about not staying in touch.  However, I will try to do a better job of blogging in the future.

The paperback copies of Davina's Magical Radio are now available here.  I have to admit, it's pretty exciting to have a printed book for sale, and just holding a copy in my hands is amazing.  However, with all my RA baggage, I've been slow getting the word out.  But I'm working on it, slowly but surely, and I could sure use your help.  If you've read it, or when you read it, please take the time to put up a brief review on Amazon or wherever you got your copy.  Thanks!