I haven't forgetten about my blog! I actually think about writing every night, but then I get too tired to open up my computer and am not good enough with my phone yet to type a whole post while lying in my bed.
It has been a busy couple of weeks for us. Every day after work we would work on the new house -- installing molding, patching up holes, painting, cleaning, etc. Then when it got dark, we'd head to the old house and start packing up for the move. We'd work 'til late at night, wake up the next morning, load up the car with some of the boxes we packed, go to work, go to the new house to unpack the boxes and do more patching/painting/cleaning. It made for some long days and nights, and I couldn't wait for it to be over.
I am very lucky to have the best Mommy and Daddy who helped us every day. Not only did they help us paint, clean, move boxes, and unpack, but they even brought us dinner every night so it was one less thing we would have to worry about. I don't think I could've made it through the week without them.
Saturday was our big moving day. We rented a U-Haul truck and a bunch of friends helped us load up our furniture and the rest of our boxes. I also had a Rheumy appointment scheduled this day, so I snuck out for a little bit. I have to admit, it was nice to get away from the house stuff for awhile...even if it was for a doctor's visit.
Rheumy asked me how I was doing with the azathioprine, and I shared with him that it still made me feel nauseated every day. He asked if I wanted to try something else, and I asked him what the results of my bloodwork was. I haven't experienced any joint pain since my last visit a month ago, so if the medicine is helping, I would try to push through the nausea. But he said that my lab work actually got worse. My white blood cell count dropped significantly, along with my red blood cell count. The one good sign is that my platelet count was stable, which is one thing they look for when on a medication like azathioprine.
I asked Rheumy what my other options were, and they were the same as he mentioned before. Methotrexate would probably be the next medicine to try, but if I am thinking of getting pregnant anytime soon, it wouldn't be a good option. It can also cause nausea and hair loss. The other option is sulfasalazine which would only treat the joint pain and not any of the other symptoms of lupus. Since joint pain hasn't been a problem recently and the pill has been described as a "horse pill", it wasn't a good option for me either.
I asked Rheumy if the nausea caused by the azathioprine would go away, and he said it might, but some people are just sensitive to the medication, and it might not ever go away. I also mentioned that we've been really busy with the house move and asked if that could have an effect on my lab results. He did say that stress could play a factor. We decided to keep my medication the same for another month and see how things go. We didn't want to drop my prednisone down yet since my blood count dropped.
Current Rx: 200 mg plaquinel, 100 mg azathioprine, 2.5 mg prednisone, 50mcg levothyroxine.
- a little lupie -
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