Hello from North Padre!

Hello everybody!

My name is Isabella and I write from the beautiful Padre Island, where I moved running from the snow of the northeast. I was diagnosed with arthritis when I was 36 years old, but in retrospective, I think that the first symptoms reared their ugly head when I was about 20 years old. I recall severe back pains when I was 20 and boyfriends and family complaining that I slept too much. t took me a long line of hurried up and somewhat uncaring rheumathologists until I was properly diagnosed with PSA by my current and great rheumathologist. Because of PSA getting worse with the years and taking over parts of my life, I had to give up a pretty active part of my life. I always have been pretty self sufficient and now I find myself having to ask for help. It is frustrating and in moments like now, when I am flaring up, it gets old living in constant pain. I am seeking to share experiences with other people in a similar situation, to learn about potential alternative treatments and tricks to help me cope, as well as help others. My treatment is Humira and I use Reprexain for the pain, combined with chiro and acpuncture treatments. As soon as the flare calms down, I hope to go back to exercise and surfing. Namaste :)

Padre Island? Sipping Rum??? (your other post) Its gonna be awfully easy to hate you :-) :-)

Seriously I'm glad you have found us and welcome.................

Welcome Surferette!

You will find this board a great resource! Check out past conversations on just about any topic you could imagine. Sounds like you have some good treatment now, even though it is not helping 100%.

I'm sitting in the cloudy drizzly Pacific NW being a little jealous of where you live! :)

Welcome, Surferette! I was sitting here in the Northeast US this morning looking out at the cold, rainy day (thank goodness the weather has improved somewhat!!!) dreaming of being on an island somewhere. When the autumn leaves are at their peak and I'm sitting on the shore of Lake Ossipee in Freedom, NH next month, I'll be more than thankful that I'm here, though! :)

It sounds like you've found a rheumatologist who is working for you. How long have you been on Humira? How is it working for you?

No haters ! :) Mi casa es su casa, look at it like an opportunity:, new friend, new beach destination where you can save the hotel expenses ! :) We also have horrendous taxes, hurricanes, rattlesnakes, fire ants and...drum roll...sticker burrs!!! Better now?

tntlamb said:

Padre Island? Sipping Rum???(...)

Hello nym and thanks :) See, you are dreaming on an island and I am missing the beautiful fall foliage, crisp air and pumpkins. Mine rot overnight after carving no matter what I do. I will get my taste next week since I will travel to Connecticut, I hope to see some falls. Heck, trees would be welcome too :)

I am a recent Humira patient. I was on Methrotexate for a year and it was a rocky relationship. I had bad side effects in the beginning but eventually started working. After a year, though, it stopped working. I had 3 injections so far from Humira. The first two did nothing for me, so I have spent 6 weeks in really bad shape, taking Reprexain for the pain. I am starting to feel better after the third I had last week. So far, no side effects.I have my next dose next week. I missed one dose because I had a lot of trouble with the mail order pharmacy, it was not easy to get started. I am crossing my fingers, I have been a mess lately :(

nym said:

Welcome, Surferette! I was sitting here in the Northeast US this morning looking out at the cold, rainy day (...)

I have friend who used to live there and would send me a HUGE box of the sticker Burrs every year. I gotta tell you they make one of the best wines ever... (seriously) Jack Kellers recipe is great (and easy:)

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/sandburr.asp

Out of respect to seenie (shes our sommlier extraordinaire) I'd up the acid a bit (actually I do) as there doesn't appear to be any naturally.

Even when you can't exercise, have a backup routine of stretching yoga or similar that's highly repetitive its amazing how quickly we can rust during a flare maybe even faster in that gulf air................