The Enbrel should be arriving today. Woo hoo! I'm getting the pre loaded syringes which should be no big deal as I am used to hypos as my 13 year old is a diabetic.
In the meanwhile I've been dealing with worse than average fatigue by inventing some goals. I am enjoying the increased range of motion offered by month-long prednisione dose that I started on 7/31 by doing some work around the house I've been wanting to do for months. It is perfect timing for this task as we have not gone back into full-blown homeschooling schedule yet (though we still do light school throughout most of the summer), and hubs is in American Samoa on business until the 11th. I am cleaning out the garage, assembling shelving, and organizing the attic and workshop. The goal of this is helping to keep me from wanting to lay down continuously - yay! I love how much better I can move with the prednisone. I still hurt, but it is manageable. The taper will end on the 22nd, but meanwhile I plan on getting tons done around here. Can you tell I'm a type-A neat freak?! Hurry, give me my P-Touch label maker, quick! LOL I Love the container and storage sections at the stores. I am a container junkie!
Note: physical goals seem to work better for me because the brain fog combined with fatigue are not good combination when sitting down and trying to do desk work like grading papers and such.
Two things I've learned about the fatigue:
1) There's nothing like a goal to get motivated to get up and moving even though you feel tired, swelled, and are in pain. The accomplishments make you feel pretty fantastic at the end of the day, even if you did get more help than you're used to.
2) There's nothing like a minor emergency to get you going My poor little Baby (4 year old pug dog) started having seizures yesterday. An afternoon rain storm stressed her out when I was organizing the garage and she started to convulse. She came to us with a history of siezures, but had only a minor one in April. She was adopted by us from another family this past February. The kids and I packed her into the van and spent 2 hours at the vet. She is to be back on phenobarbitol. I'm glad the previous owners had given us what was left of her prescription, even though she'd not been needing it for several months because Walgreens had run out. She started seizing again at 8PM. We took her to an emergency clinic and they gave us liquid valium to administer if she had a very long seizure to allow time for the phenobarb to build up in her system. She had 5 seizures last night, then slept peacefully until 6am when she had another episode. This one was shorter, so the phenobarb must be starting to build slowly.
Man, I may tap into that valium at this point!
She is snoring and resting comfortably at the moment against my foot as I type this. : )
The up side is that they do not think that it is PDE Pug Dog Encephalitis which is fatal, instead calling it ideopathic seizures which simply means they don't know what the cause is.
So, If she remains stable after some serious cuddle time, back to work for me in the garage and attic.
Now, where is that label maker!