From Huskies To Husbands

Here is a brief recap of the visit with the PA on Monday…

A lot of things were mentioned, discussed and such. I was in with him for about an hour!!

I may or may not have sacroiliitis but he will not rule it out at this point.

I definitely have some massive inflammation going on in my sacroiliac joint.

I might have a problem with wheat since I seem to have so many other food issues and wheat issues can cause systemic inflammation which is what the PA thinks that I have going on. So we are talking about eliminating wheat from my diet in the near future. This totally freaks me out BTW - As most of you know I already can not have any dairy already. How do you live 120 miles round trip from the grocery store and not be able to have any dairy or wheat products - Those two things are in EVERYTHING it seems!!  Plus we can’t really see if that is an issue right now on all the steroids since that can mask the symptoms that the wheat could be causing.

Since toughing it out didn’t work (like that was by choice) the first plan of attack is steroids.

I got a steroid shot - Ouch those things burn for HOURS after!!

DH has to pick up a prescription for oral steroids which I will be on for an unknown length of time. Oh joy!! I hope that they don’t turn me into a raving emotionally ragged eating machine like they typically do…

I have a follow-up visit with the PA on Tuesday next week to see how things are going and if the steroids are helping and if we need to adjust the dosage.

Also, seeing a chiropractor was mentioned and going to physical therapy too but both only after we get the inflammation calmed down some so that the pain isn’t so unbearable.

The PA was really big on you are what you eat and very big on the whole wheat issue. He doesn’t allow dairy in his house due to the issues that many people have with it and it sounds like they limit wheat at their house too. He didn’t come right out with it but he seems very homeopathic and into natural remedies instead of medications when possible, which is fine with me as I already take a boat load of medications on a daily basis. The reason he pushed for the steroid shot today is that this pain has gone on so long and now seems to be spreading to other parts of my body so we have to attack it hard to try to regain some control over my body and the pain. He also said that he will be reviewing my massive chart, and asked that if possible I get my records from the GI specialist, the OBGYN, and any new allergy/asthma stuff sent to the clinic to be added to my records so that he is aware of the BIG picture.

OK I think that is the highlights of it, but I do think that progress was made and that working with him will lead to results. *fingers crossed*

Last night the pain was just so crazy intense that I just wanted to cry. I could not find a place for myself. Sitting hurt. Standing hurt. Walking hurt. Lying on my back hurt. Lying on my side hurt. Lying on my stomach just doesn’t work for me. Everything hurt worse from the manipulations he did in assessing me, and the steroid injection area was just so tender and had the wonderful burning sensation still.

Today the pain is still there at the injection site, but the overall joint pain is reduced some about 25% less I would say.  The lower back hurts worse than the hip today so that could be a good sign.

The PA also called to check on me today!  Holy Cow!!!  What a change from the rest of the doctors and nurses that I have been dealing with lately.  We talked about doing a 3 day juice fast when I get to feeling better and about eliminating the wheat.  He agrees that I can be a little less strict right now as the steroids will be masking true results.  Depending on how I am doing on Tuesday when he sees me again we will decide whether to continue the oral steroids and then allow those to clear and do a full blood work up since one of those has not been done since I eliminated dairy from my life.  He is leaning towards me being on wheat for that series of testing as a point of reference too.  Then depending on what the blood work shows I might be sent off to see a new specialist - a Rhuematologist.  Hey at least he is open to helping me and can actually see that there is real pain and inflammation going on that is only getting worse.

Oh and the latest twist on things is that yesterday my temperature was running at about 96 and 96.7 F all day with spikes up to about 99.3 F…. Compared to the running at about 99.5 to 99.7 F all day with spikes up to about 102 F that we had been seeing.