What a difference a year makes!

So,

This time last year I was running round like a blue arsed fly finalising my wedding preparations. I was also beginning to struggle with stiffness and pain in my hand and wrists. I put it down to stress and lack of sleep on the build up to our wedding day and carried on taking my Naproxen and the occassional paracetamol while working my butt off in the lab.

I figured the stiffness would ease off after the stress of the wedding was over but gradually the pain and stiffness got worse. By February this year (2012) I couldn't go on. I went into work one morning with the intention of getting an early start in the lab and setting up a very urgent experiment only to find that I couldn't grip a pen without being in excruciating pain. My neck, back, wrists and fingers were screaming in agony at the slightest movement. In tears I told my boss I had to go home and left.

My GP was great, I got an emergency appointment and he signed me off work for the week with instructions to rest my hands and wrists and he also sent a letter to the local rheumatology department to get me an appointment.

I followed the instructions of my GP and felt I was well enough to return to work after a week off. How wrong was I?? After 2/3 weeks I was in so much pain it wasn't funny. I struggled to hold a mug of tea or a pen, let alone cell culture flasks, pipettes and microbiological cultures. I went back to my GP and he decided it would be best to sign me off until I saw the Rheumatologist.... IN MAY!!

March onwards is still a blur to me... I was on such strong painkillers that I sat in my pj's most of the time and stared at the tv like a zombie. I tried my hardest to keep up with the housework, cook meals and keep myself busy but it was all too much. I was exhausted all the time, the Tramadol that I had to take every 4 hours made me flaky, gave me horrendous constipation, brought my skin out in spots, and generally wiped me out. As if all this wasn't bad enough I was also dealing with pending redundancy. Guess a lesser person would have been depressed and maybe even suicidal but not me. I took up jewellery making to keep my hands active in an effort to stop them from seizing, I went for long walks (in my lucid moments) with my dogs and I generally tried to keep everything as normal as possible.

I was made redundant just 2 weeks before seeing the rheumatologist.

Since June (took a while for letter from rheumy to get to my GP) I have been taking 10 mg of Methotrexate on a weekly basis. That's 4 months under my belt now. Initially I noticed a decrease in the stiffness in my joints after a couple of weeks. There was still some pain there but that began to ease off by the 1 month point. At this time I was still taking 500 mg of Naproxen twice a day and on my review appointment with my GP I told her I would rather take the NSAIDs than increase the dose of MTX unless I really had to. She agreed, MTX can have some particularly bad side effects and we would both rather minimise those risks.

In September I did something I haven't done in a long time... I forgot to take my NSAIDs for a day... Imagine my surprise when I realised that although I hadn't taken them I had no pain or inflammation in my hands and wrists. That was the day I decided to just let the MTX go it alone. One month on and I feel as if there has never been an issue with my joints. I have full motion in my hands with no pain, swelling or stiffness.

My blood tests are all coming back clear... No drop in RBC count, no elevated White cell count and no Liver enzyme issues. The only side effects I appear to be having with the MTX is that I now contantly run warm (was always cold before) and, because I take it on a Friday, generally feel quite tired on a Sunday.... When that's all said and done though I can live with those side effects!