Posted 12/1/2007 1:51 AM (GMT 0)
So, since March I've pretty much been in a flare. My Dr. recently got me to try Methotrexate instead of all the prednisone. It's starting to kick in, I'm not quite as fatigued, but as you all know with Lupus fatigue is still going to be there. A few weeks ago I missed work due to pain everywhere in my body-it was awful and I rated it as a 9 on the pain scale. I had enough. I finally made an appointment to do accunpuncture at my local clinic, just to try everything. Well, I went yesterday and was surprised that it did not hurt at all. That is a major misconception. Everybody thinks that its like getting shots in your body all over, and really the needle is just under the skin. Getting a tatoo stings-this only felt like a little pressure. I had 45 needles in me between my legs, feet, arms, hands, and ears. 10 of those needles were in my ear. My ear did hurt a little bit, since it was in the cartlidge-and I did get a small bruise from it. I have to say though that I think it was worth every penny. I felt more relaxed last night when it came time to go to bed-so relaxed that I slept all night-I even slept through my fire pager going off (that's almost impossible) I haven't felt my muscles this relaxed in such a long time. Most people don't feel the effects from accupuncture right away, and the clinic is actually going to call me in a week to see how I'm doing, so I'm guessing I should expect more positive changes from this. My goal is actually to get off the prednisone and down to just the Methotrexate for now. If any of you have thought of doing this, I would recommend it. I paid for mine, but found out that my insurance company actually covers the cost and I will get reimbursed-and more and more insurance companies are covering at least a portion of the cost. I'm very excited for the future to get feeling better and think that I may be on the right track now!