Gosh, @Grandma_J, if it doesn’t rain, it pours… so they say.
All the best to you both!! I understand it’s holiday time and docs are having a break too… but please don’t leave it too long… being stoic can be a good thing, and help us get through, but it’s not always the best thing to do.
It’s rough having to deal with this at any time, and worse that’s it’s interfering with holiday time!! 
Wishing you both all the best for a speedy recovery!!
Went to the regular clinic this morning and they did a chest x-ray. The PA thought she heard noises in my right lung, then she told me the x-ray showed no pneumonia in either lung, but I do have acute bronchitis, which means my bronchial tubes are inflamed and that’s why I have the terrible cough. I haven’t had anything like this for many, many years and I feel lucky my immune system is good.
Thanks, janson, Poo and Cynthia–I won’t blame Enbrel for weakening my immune system, but I do plan on missing at least one dose (last Saturday). She put me on Azithromycin, and told me if I feel worse instead of better over the next few days I should come back in.
My biggest problem is I worry when I get sick that the biologic had something to do with that and, on the other hand, I worry that missing a dose or two of the biologic will enable my PsA to flare! Hopefully, this will fizzle out quickly and it won’t be a problem taking my Enbrel shot this coming Saturday!
Hug!! At least it’s not pneumonia… although bronchitis isn’t fun either…
I’m so pleased you got that checked out again Grandma_J… bronchitis is no fun, but the Azithromycin should knock that pretty quickly!! (cross fingers)
Yep, it’s a bit of a quandary when it comes to what has caused what, and which is the best approach to take with the meds… Will keep fingers crossed for you that it all sorts out quickly and easily!!
Hugs!!
Lots of lung issues going around, couldn’t still be flu related? Those lung issues are the worse, hope if clears out for you soon!
Please get to feeling lots better soon GrandmaJ. More hugs from me.
How are you? I hope you’re getting lots of rest and starting to feel a bit better. What an absolute pain this must be.
I’ve totted up your score & I reckon you have now exhausted your quota of health problems for both 2017 and 2018. Hell, lets add in 2019 and beyond. So that’s that sorted!
Here’s to much better days ahead for you Grandma_J.
Thanks for all the nice thoughts…really, I’m quite the baby about this because I’m so spoiled with a good immune system that I haven’t had anything this bad in at least 20 years! I’ve had strep throat a few times, but antibiotics take care of that right away and I never considered myself very sick with that.
The worst thing is my mom seems to have caught this crud and she lives alone and sounds awful on the phone! I stayed away from her the whole time I’ve been sick, but she’s been visiting people and shopping–who knows where she picked it up? I wish she’d stay home in the winter–she’s the only 92-year old I know that runs around like she does! I’m hoping some other family members will step up to the plate and take care of her. My daughter’s 5-month old baby is fighting something off right now, too, and my daughter (even though she’s a nurse) should not be expected to come to my mom’s rescue - the baby would have to go with her - and we don’t want the baby ending up in the hospital!
What an awful beginning to 2018!!!
No Grandma_J, you are not being a baby about it at all… bronchitis makes you feel miserable, end of story
Yep, it sure is an awful beginning to 2018!! Here’s hoping you are getting all the nasty things for the year out of the way early (for you and your loved ones) to make way for all the good stuff the rest of the year has in store for you!!
I’m with @Sybil on this… That’s your quota for 2018/2019 and beyond sorted!!
Take care of yourself!!
I hope! I imagine there are a lot of people in this forum not complaining but probably fighting off some kind of bug this time of year—or is it just rampant in Central MN? I’m pretty sure we’ve had the coldest weather so far, so maybe the viruses are getting more of us here, too!
Holding off Enbrel is always stressful because you never know how long it’ll take before PsA symptoms flare. And then never knowing if it’s really necessary to stop the injections. I feel like when the virus involves the lungs it’s probably safest to not inject.
Here is the map, showing the concentration of the flu bug:
I wonder what it is now—7 weeks later? I’m hearing there’s a lot of flu in our state, but luckily we don’t have it. We just have some other virus—I s’pose there’s tons of different strains.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/usmap.htm Just hit the play button, you can watch the spread through the states…
Well, the week is winding down and getting close to Saturday. I’m thinking I’ll have to hold off doing my Enbrel injection again! I heard bronchitis can take 6 weeks to clear up, and the icky feeling in my chest hasn’t changed even tho I’m on an antibiotic.
Has anybody else had bronchitis? How many weeks did you delay your biologic injection? I worry I’ll start getting PsA symptoms and it’ll screw up the good results I’ve been so lucky to have had with Enbrel.
I think I’ll ask for a white blood cell count soon—depending on the results maybe I’ll know if it’s safe to resume Enbrel.
It is tricky, because if you take it, it may prolong healing, if you don’t you have the danger of the body making antibodies to cancel out the biologic.
Can you call your reumatologist to ask what you should do?
The biologics nurse who came out to the house for the first two shots made it clear to me not to take the injection if I had any kind of bug or infection - whether it be a cold, tummy bug, skin infection etc. Not much you can do about it once you’ve taken it if you get a cold the next day, of course. As it happens, that’s what’s happened this week. Cold or sinus infection or something along those lines anyway. If i still have it Tuesday, I’ll play safe and not take the injection. I can always take it a few days late and then start it weekly on that day instead. Oddly, though, I normally suffer from chronic mouth ulcers, and yet have had none since I started the biologic. That seems very strange - you’d think I’d get more!
Not if they were part of the disease Darinfan! I had these at the start of onset - before treatment - and they disappeared once I was on even low dose steroids and I’ve never had them on biologics.
I’m sorry my memory is not that good - do you get tummy problems often as well?
To be honest, I’ve had mouth ulcers since I was a toddler. So don’t think it’s part of the PsA. Same with IBS - had it for decades, alas!
Hmm, my stomach issues preceded my PsA by 20 years - but both my Rheumy and I suspect they are linked (steroids = no stomach issues). Be interesting to see how your mouth ulcers and IBS go with the biologics 