I saw my rheumatologist yesterday. It was a pretty good visit. I had a lot of questions which he carefully answered and we came up with a plan for treating the joint pain in both hand and foot DIPs. Rather than change medications he wants to try upping the frequency of Humira to once a week or 10 days, depending on how I'm feeling. In the summer I could easily go longer than two weeks without a shot but as the weather changes and it gets colder (and wouldn't you know that it snowed in South Central Indiana this morning!) I get creakier, more swollen and suffer much more pain in the DIPs. I have one toe in which the swelling no longer goes away and several fingers that are painful if I tap them against something, anything. So, we'll see what insurance says about that request for extra Humira.
He also started me on nifedipine, a calcium channel blocker. I have Raynaud's which, in this colder weather, has gone berserk. I find myself having a bout at least twice a day, and sometimes more often. My hands are the usual culprits despite using gloves, even when working at the computer, although my feet and ears have not been immune. I'm hoping that this addition to my ever-increasing arsenal of medications will offer some relief.
And until the relief comes I plan to snuggle with my woolly mittens, my heating pad and this sweet furbaby who is also NOT READY FOR WINTER!
Okay first off, that is the cutest cat ever! Just a thought re. the Raynauds. When I was going through a really rough stretch with this (I had frostbite on my toes), my doctor started my off on gingko biloba during the cold months. It really made a difference for me, and had no side effects. I don't know if you want to talk to your doctor about it, but it helped. Since I've been on DMARDs, I've had less trouble with it. Hmm. I also don't get poison ivy anywhere near as bad. Interesting pluses, right?
I'm also wondering if your work station is set up ergonomically. If your wrists are at a bad angle, this could be playing into the Raynaud's attacks.
I hope that the insurance approves the increased Humira.
thanks for the gingko recommendation. I might give it a try. As for my workspace, I have had an ergonomic assessment and I have a sit/stand keyboard and monitors mounted to arms. My keyboard try has a negative tilt so the keyboard dips away from my wrists so that's a big help.
It was 18F on my way to work this morning so apparently we've reduced autumn to 3 weeks. Grrr.
And talking of ginkgos, these two are right outside my building.This year the campus facilities folks were VERY quick at picking up the fruit and fallen leaves. That meant the stench of ginkgo fruit was only in the air for about a week.
We had our first dusting of snow last night. Brr. Not as cold as you were though. It's funny, the cold doesn't bother me as much as it used to. Which is perfect, since I started dog-walking as one of my jobs last year, and sometimes it's really really cold in the winter. I've got my super gloves, but save them for super cold, usually less than 15 degrees.
I hope the boost in Humira injections helps! Idk if Raynauds is autoimmune? My daughter has that and her feet and hands are white as a ghost. She just can't get them warm enough! Can't sympathize enough about your cold blast! You might have seen on the news we got hit with a winter snow storm in central MN early in the week. 13 to 16 inches of snow in our area in one day and the temperature plummeted. I think overnight Wednesday it was near 0 Fahrehheit. I'm not ready for this! I was hoping after our mild summer a mild winter would follow....but all bets are off now. Last winter broke tons of cold records--pretty sure we've broke records already this week and it's only November! Ugh. Oh well, it'll be easier to take this year--now that I have my pal, ENBREL !!!
