October 28, 2011 • 1 Comment
I am leery of a premature celebration (mostly because I am afraid I’ll jinx myself!), but I am comfortable reporting that I am probably in the clear! This morning I had a follow-up appointment with my Rheumatologist. She reported my x-ray’s were normal and all of my lab work came back negative.
My 6 week steroid regimen ended Monday and I haven’t had any return of symptoms. To top that off, I didn’t go through withdrawal this time, which truly was a less-than-stellar experience. I’m not sure how long steroids stay built up in your system, but the Rheumatologist seemed fairly confident that this confirmed some kind of bizarre, long lasting virus.
My parting instructions are to make another appointment if symptoms return. If this were to happen, she thinks I may have seronegative rheumatoid arthritis. Basically, a trixy version of RA. Thankfully, I don’t think my body is that sly.
October 16, 2011 • 1 Comment
This weekend Sharla, Tayden and I drove down to Des Moines to celebrate with Kristine and Bobby at their baby shower. Unfortunately, it was a quick trip, but it was nice to visit with them and see the enhancements they’ve done to their house.
Instead of a traditional baby shower, they had a combined shower with friends and family. If Sharla and I had known, we would have invited the husbands along! As it was, Tayden filled the role as ‘the man’ of our group. To my surprise, he did very well on the trip down and back (considering the distance) and was a ball of giggles at the party itself.
Kristine and Bobby, I hope to see you guys again soon and best of luck with the rest of the pregnancy!
October 15, 2011 • 2 Comments
Well, things are finally starting to come together. Construction on our basement essentially finished several months ago – we’ve just been dillydallying on the final little touches. Imagine that.
We passed all of our inspections, had our final pass through for touch ups and are now moving on to getting things set up. The bathroom is completely put together, we have the guest bed out and ready (anyone wanna come for a visit??), we’ve hung quite a few cinema themed pieces in the main area and just had our game table delivered!!
Our blinds have been ordered and will be installed in a couple of weeks. I still have some decorating and setting up I am itching to do, but first we really need to focus on getting seating picked out and a projector/screen purchased. Finding furniture is much harder than I remember.
One of the most exciting steps yet to come (at least to me) is to have our duct work blown out. We didn’t have it professionally cleaned after the original construction, and given the amount of drywall dust that flew about during the basement finish, I’m looking forward to some air purification! Allergy sufferers count down the days. 
September 16, 2011 • 1 Comment
This morning I had a consultation with a Rheumatologist regarding the joint pain I’m experiencing. After it was all said and done, she noted there was inflammation and I walked away with a diagnosis of “inflammatory arthritis.” There’s nothing like receiving a diagnosis meant for the geriatric population to solidify ones feelings of awesomeness.
I follow up with her again in 6 weeks. To help control symptoms in the mean time, she put me back on steroids. Instead of doing the burst and taper pack like before (for quick relief), I am on a consistent low dosage (for constant relief). In 4 weeks I go in for a bunch of tests (labs and x-rays), because she is trying to determine a cause for the inflammation. If it’s viral in nature, I have hope that it’ll eventually subside and I can carry on with my life. If not, I’ll need to determine what that means for me long term. Wee?
