This coming week marks the 2nd week of knowingly ingesting toxins in order to slow down my RA. In other words, my 2nd week on methotrexate. So far, not too bad. I've been taking my medicine on Friday night (6 pills all at one time) so that if I do get sick or have side effects, hopefully they wear off before Monday. Both weekends of taking the medicine I've had nausea, tiredness, and just overall not feeling great. Last week, I felt a good bit better by Monday, but had some really weird, intense moments of nausea throughout the week. Most of the nausea moments came at the most inopportune times (like right in the middle of teaching my classes). I guess the upside is that at least it was not accompanied by vommitting. I'm not sure if the side effects will wear off as I continue taking the medicine over time or if it will increase or stay the same. So much about RA is so unpredictable. Apparently that is one of the most difficult things about the disease is that it is so different from person to person. There are definitely up days and down days. Most of last week was pretty good, but Friday hit pretty hard. Lots of joints are affected on the down days, but the worst seems to be my hips. The pain is intense and numbing and hard to get comfortable. So the goal is to reduce the flares. We'll see what this week brings. I'm excited about the upcoming visit I'm taking (solo!) to visit my sister Elaine in Rhode Island. It will be fun having some sister time (and Pat and SB too) and see a beautiful part of the country.
Also, my sweet friend Ashley took some great pictures at Jack's birthday party last weekend. I'm going to attach the link since they are from shutterfly. They turned out great! Thanks again Ashley. It was so fun to visit with family and friends and celebrate 5 years of Jack. It is so hard to believe that our little guy is getting so big. This time next year he'll be in kindergarten! What a blessing he is though!
Pictures from Ashley McFarland
