Good Moanin' HealingWell V66

That is why I think the Arava has something to do with my high BP...mine never faltered until this year...even though I've had 75+ pounds to loose for a few years, and I've had other issues where you would think my BP should have risien.

If plaquenil took any of my appetitie away, it was superceded by emotional eating I guess.

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Not sure about the Plaquenil and weight loss? When I first started seeing my rheumy, I weighed 112, and I've been off the plaq for almost 2 months and I haven't gained any weight, still the same as it was.  Maybe our bodies always fighting inflammation is cause for weight loss, rather than the meds?  Either way, I sure miss the Plaquenil!

Camama...My bp is normally 110/60,my husband always jokes that I was almost "dead" because it was always so low, but in the past few months it was going up to the 120/80 and now is higher.  I will keep an eye on it, and when I go in for my cystoscopy next Tuesday, I will see what it is then.  I do know that my body temperature is always 97.1, so who knows!

I hate getting old

The good news...it is finally Friday

Hi everyone,

Well....we made it to Monday...which is an amazing thing in this house.  We had quite the weekend.  On Friday, one of my nephews, 10 years old, was climbing a tree and fell when a branch broke.  Typical boy thing, right?  The problem is that when he fell, he ended up falling on to a branch which puntured his back, and went through into his pelvic area. He was treated at a trauma hospital, and after two surgeries, and a night in intensive care, he is well on his way to what the doctors believe should be a complete recovery.  The whole thing is truly a miracle, no major organs or arteries were damaged, and so far they don't believe there was any nerve damaged either.  Spent pretty much the whole weekend at the hospital, a real roller coaster of emotions waiting for test results, doctors reports, etc. But, so far, we have had only good news and very grateful hearts!

Bear!!! Didn't you have a birthday recently? It was beyond great to read your post...have missed you dearly...I did get an e-mail from Boo last week...she sounded good, but very busy with work stuff. She is anxiously waiting for the sale of the business, hopefully in January, and her son-in-law is doing great..didn't mention her hubby, which I'm taking to mean he is doing well? Erin, note sounded good too..she had computer trouble, and is painitng again, but her hands wear out, which is why she hasn't been on much.  But it was so good to hear her sound so up.  Thank you for facing down those drug people!!!!  We need you over here to take on the whole lot of them.  Have often wondered the same things myslef, about RA, diabetes, etc.  Do they profit too much from the treatment to really pursue a cure? Gosh, I sure do pray not...but does the money to be made negate any conscience?  Scary, scary thought.

We are changing our interner provider, so later today my e-mail address will be changing...I'm going to update my profile, so for those of you who e-mail me, the old one won't work anymore.

Well, need to run, kiddos need me..Monday hugs to all of you!!!  Hope you had a more relaxing weekend than mine was!

love,

Jody

cant write much but know i send hugs to all of you and miss the time i spent with everyone.  sorry i am so anti social it seems as of late but

between work and home and health it just aint happening.  no time for me!  well g2g2 hugs to all! yalls

A little quiet here this week?  Hope everyone is doing ok....

We are all doing much better.  My nephew came home from the hospital last night, and although he is in a wheelchair for a while, we are so glad he's not worse.  So very scary to think how this could have ended up.  Doctors said the stick missed his spine by 1/4 of an inch!!  Not sure how long he'll have to be in the wheelchair or out of school, it all depends how how the muscles heal, and the wound itself is going to take quite some time. This boy is the son of my brother who is the single dad, so saying he is a bit stressed by all of this is a real understatement. The last four years have been so very difficult for him, just pray he can keep holding up. We are all going to have to really pitch in to help him make this work.

On a lighter note.....any baseball fans out there???  Our very own Tampa Bay Rays started the World Series last night...Yeah!  Kind of a tough one for the local area though.  The Philles have their spring training camp just a few miles from my house, and they have been in our area for YEARS.  They have brought a lot of good to our city, done alot for our community, schools, etc. So, it's hard not to root for them as well.

Feeling much better these days, although another weather front is heading our way, bringing some rain and much cooler temps.....so keeping my fingers crossed that it won't set me off again.  See the doc on Monday, so we'll see what she has to say.  You're so right Raven, we really do need each other...it's such a comfort to know all you guys are here...don't know what I would do without you!!  Don't worry, we'll make it through another winter together.

Gotta go, almost time for the little ones to get up from their naps, and I need to make a casserole to bring to my brother.

Hugs to you all!!

Jody

Post Edited (babyplace) : 10/23/2008 11:37:48 AM (GMT-6)

BEAR! So good to hear from you!

Jody - I"m glad your nephew is okay, that is so scary....and my own 7 year old son was just showing me how well he climbs our backyard tree this past weekend.....I'm not sure I'm gonna let him do that anymore! Not that I was the one allowing him to do it in the first place. (yeah, I'm a bit overprotective.)

Only a few more days of work, then I'm taking about 8 days off....boy do I need it! I'm just a rollercoaster these days when it comes to how I'm feeling.

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yeah!  It's Hump Day!!!   I think we just might make it to Friday afterall... usual crazy hectic life here in  not so warm-and-sunny Florida.   Record cold temps this morning in my part of the south.  My fault really, I think, I said I wanted to wear sweaters and jeans and voila!!   From what I see on the weather though, our low 40's are nothing compared to what some of the rest of you are dealing with, so I really shouldn't be complaining.....snow up your way Yally and Joan?  Looks like maybe Erin, too?   Can't been too warm for you either, Raven.....Wow this is really early, isn't it?

Oh Mom, sorry you have all the insurance mess, what a pain!!  My personal soapboax......insurance companies who won't let the doctors be the doctors and just do their own jobs..which is to INSURE us for the medical care our doctors feel we need...OY!!!   I've had so many run-ins with them through the years over our son's care..you would think we were taking money out of their own personal pockets instead of just trying to get the coverage we have made so much money to have.  Sometimes I think that their plan is that if they give us enough grief, we'll just quit and pay instead of continue the fight. Either that or there are a lot of people who need to justify their jobs and do so by making us jump through all these hoops.  Sorry, my cynical rant.

Doing ok here, I guess...still helping my brother as much as possible...making meals...etc. . Our mom has been spending as much time as she can there with my nephew, so that my brother is able to work.  My nephew is still in a wheelchair, but the wound is closing nicely, and sees the surgeon again on Monday.  He needs to be able to use the leg more and have less pain or they need to do further tests...so we are praying for that.  He can't return to school until the wound is closed, so also praying for  that as well. We are all holding our breaths to see what these medical bills are going to be!  My brother has insurance but it's not the best......

Went to see the doc on Monday, and although things are ok with me, she wants me to try the enbrel twice a week, 25 mgs to see if I get better coverage.  Isnt' that what you do mom?  Does is help? By Wednesday night or Thursday, mine is usually worn off and can make for some sore days until I take my next injection.  Then it takes  a couple days to kick in, seems like I'm sort of always behind the eightball on this.  So, she thinks twice a week may help.  I'll take my normal dose on Friday, then start the 25 on Tuesday.  Keeping the plaquenil also...

Well gotta run....children are starting to arrive...so the day begins!!!    Hugs to you all!!

Love,  Jody

Happy Halloween!!!!

I hope everyone is well and have a great weekend

We had our share of trick or treaters and decided to put a bowl of candy with a note saying please take a piece of candy and wishing the treaters a Happy Halloween, now keep in mind it was fairly large bowl of candy, and when we returned from taking my daugther around the neighborhood, the bowl was empty and someone had thrown it into our front yard and the paper was wadded up into a ball.  I guess they were upset the bowl was empty? Anyway, we had to tell the next group of kiddos that we no longer had candy to hand out but they understood and moved on to the next house.

Insurance companies are nightmares that is for certain and what is really scary is that we will have to switch once again at the first of the year to Aetna (sp?) and we have Coventry right now.  The next one has some kind of step program where they have you try other medications in lew of the one you are needing in order to cut cost and save them money.  So with this company instead of Lunesta an obvious sleep medication, they promote benzodiazepines such as lorazepam to treat insomnia rather than prescribe Lunesta so it is going to be a battle! To me this is just wrong..those are for anxiety and should be used under the care of a psych doctor not from a rheumy.  Sorry!! I will get off of my soap box now

I hope your kiddos had a super fun Halloween..my youngest daugther is going on 12 now and last night I wondered how many of these fun nights we have left.  I love Halloween and the pumpkins etc

Jody, Yally, Bear, Boo? Thinking of all of you

Hi everyone....greetings from the south... Ducky I'm jealous!!  We can't wear shorts here anymore!!  Been a bit chilly..not that I'm complaining, this is the weather we wish for in July and August.

Sorry I have been on much, haven't abandoned you all...just life gets in the way, and it seems there is never a dull moment here...feels like we just go from crisis to crisis...or maybe it's just that this has been a really, really rough year.  I'm worn out!! Can't even believe that the holidays will be here in a blink.  We're going to have a full house for Thanksgiving this year.  We usually go camping for the week, hubby loves to do that, but I really wanted to spend this holiday with the family.  Good thing we decided to stay home, too, because looks like all the boys will be here, with their girls, and maybe and extra dog or two.. Don't know if I told you this before, but our son in Memphis met a girl in Germany online and they have traveled back and forth to see each other a few times.  Well, he's bring her here for a few days over the holidays...yikes!  I'm a bit nervous about this one...plus most all the rest of the family should be here, somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 I'm thinking.

Started the two shots of enbrel this week...ouch!!  I sure don't like those prefilled syringes...the auto-injector was way more comfortable, and easier I think.  My son kind of laughed at me though, guess he was thinking of all those years I gave HIM shots....sure is easier to do that to someone else!Hurts way less too lol.   Mom, how long did it take until you noticed a difference doing the dosing that way?  This weekend I have to cat-sit my sister's diabetic cat...two shots a day for him...never did this before, have any of you?  I'm a little freaked.

My nephew is doing really, really well.  He's walking around alot more, though it still is a little difficult for him, and looks like he can go back to school on Monday, if the wound still continues to heal as well as it has been. Sure is a blessing that he wasn't hurt so much worse!

Have any of you ever gotten to see a Neil Diamond concert?  Is that groaning I hear?? ....maybe you are all to young for him? I was given two free tickets a couple of weeks ago to see him andI just couldn't believe how much fun the concert was..we had a blast! He really puts on a great show...and there was even a lot of young people there, I was really surprised. This weekend a couple of friends and I are going to see Michael W Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman,  just love both of those guys.

Well, as usual I've blabbed on too long......I hope you are all doing well, families too...Trying to get myself on a better schedule to scheck in here more often...but the days to get away from me.  Hopefully it will calm down again soon...haven't even had any time to do any baking marathons lately...I know things are crazy when I don't even have any baking time!   Hugs to all of you...think of all of you all the time!

Love,

Jody

I've seen Neil in concert and he does a great job. My mom and sister just saw him last month and said it was awesome.

Saw GI today, he wants to do an endoscopy to make sure I don't have any underlying issues that may be starting from all the immuno suppressant drugs I've been on. Does that sound familiar? He also wants to do a biopsy to see if I'm allergic to gluetin. But, then he very seriously says that "there can be complications" he mentions that they don't happen that often, but he needs to me to be aware of them....but the way he said it freaked me out. So, I asked how many complications has he had...and said, 'A couple...I have to be honest" and I then asked, "well, how many have you done?" he said, "plenty".....errgh, now I'm scared...I"ve been through WAY too much the last few months to go through anything else! Not to mention the anesthesia...will that affect my BP? I'm off the BP meds, but I"m still monitoring it since it does go up slightly now and again. 

UGH! I'm so confused!

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