Fun stuff and medical stuff
May. 20th, 2011 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayToday there were donuts in the office courtesy of our team leader. There was also a bake sale. I managed not to have any flaily food panic so there was a lot of sugary stuff consumed. I probably ate more sugar today than I have in months. In fact, I may be feeling slightly ick from all that sugar. Now I remember why I prefer savouries!
Tonight's planned menu is home-cooked burgers (made by my lovely butcher) and that sounds really good right now as a counter to all that sugar.
I'd planned on baking this weekend and maybe making a Mexican chocolate torte. Except I'm a bit sugared-out, so I'm thinking more along the lines of making something savoury. Perhaps some cheese scones would be more like it? That's sounding really good right now, in fact.
It's a long weekend here! Woo! I'm thinking that I may dedicate one afternoon to reading and another to Netflix and/or the PVR. I'm now finding tons that I want to watch on Netflix and it's even more useful now that it's hooked up to my Wii as well as the PC. The subscription will be staying, I suspect. I'm hoping that I get out for at least one really good long walk, but that's entirely weather dependent. And I'm treating my self to pizza (from the freezer, but it's a really yummy one) tomorrow night and slow-cooker ribs on Monday as I'll be home. No idea on Sunday's supper yet: that will be decided tomorrow when I've taken a peek at my butcher's counter.
I Saw Awesome GI Guy yesterday and the news was almost universally good. White blood cell count approaching normal (down to 12.7 from 36 four weeks ago) and inflammatory markers in the normal range. At the high end of normal, but not sky-high anymore. My WBC should be under 11, but we're counting 12.7 as success right now :-) It means the horridly expensive Humira is working and backs up the anecdotal evidence of how much better I feel.
The only significant not good thing is my haemoglobin and iron. They're both still too low and have not budged since my blood work in early April. Darn. I'd been taking iron tables every other day, as they bother my tummy a bit, but Awesome GI Guy wants me to go back to every day with a glass of prune juice to help my tummy out. We'll see how it goes and how well I tolerate that. My HGB won't go up until my iron stores are replenished, so if my ferritin levels don't go up on iron tablets we'll have to see what other route (shots or iron transfusions) he wants to try next.
It's a huge relief to have confirmation that the Humira is doing its job. We'll have to keep an eye on things to make sure it doesn't cause any problems (it can suppress the immune system too much, shut down bone marrow or damage the liver, which we can all agree would be a problem) but it looks like this is my miracle drug. Phew!
The funny thing on my results is that my sodium is a little low. I suspect that not many people get told this :-) It backs up my argument that too little sodium can be as big a deal as too much and that cutting out all sodium everywhere is not helpful. Apparently I can relax a little in the low sodium diet thing because I really, really don't have a problem.
As with my arguments for eating red meat (animal heme is more easily absorbed than non-animal heme!), it may take some work to persuade my mother that I'm allowed to not buy the low sodium version of something while she's here. Heh.
Awesome GI Guy has also written a referral to a rheumatologist for me. As I've gradually cut down my prednisone (which he said that I can stop taking - woo!), my back/hip/neck pain has gradually returned. It's not as bad as it was before my diagnosis, but it's noticeable and while there's a chance that it's pred withdrawal, Awesome GI Guy thinks it's unlikely. I like this bit where specialists can write referrals for other specialists rather than having to write letters to my GP who then has to call me in before writing his own letter. My GP doesn't want to write a referral without "several months of personally seeing me with the back pain" so it's a relief that Awesome GI Guy would do this for me.
Mum is voting that Awesome GI Guy needs a Hero of the Year award :-)
Overall, despite my struggles to get my iron/HGB levels up, the news is really positive and I will apparently feel even better when I have the anaemia sorted out. It's good to finally feel positive about things :-)
Tonight's planned menu is home-cooked burgers (made by my lovely butcher) and that sounds really good right now as a counter to all that sugar.
I'd planned on baking this weekend and maybe making a Mexican chocolate torte. Except I'm a bit sugared-out, so I'm thinking more along the lines of making something savoury. Perhaps some cheese scones would be more like it? That's sounding really good right now, in fact.
It's a long weekend here! Woo! I'm thinking that I may dedicate one afternoon to reading and another to Netflix and/or the PVR. I'm now finding tons that I want to watch on Netflix and it's even more useful now that it's hooked up to my Wii as well as the PC. The subscription will be staying, I suspect. I'm hoping that I get out for at least one really good long walk, but that's entirely weather dependent. And I'm treating my self to pizza (from the freezer, but it's a really yummy one) tomorrow night and slow-cooker ribs on Monday as I'll be home. No idea on Sunday's supper yet: that will be decided tomorrow when I've taken a peek at my butcher's counter.
I Saw Awesome GI Guy yesterday and the news was almost universally good. White blood cell count approaching normal (down to 12.7 from 36 four weeks ago) and inflammatory markers in the normal range. At the high end of normal, but not sky-high anymore. My WBC should be under 11, but we're counting 12.7 as success right now :-) It means the horridly expensive Humira is working and backs up the anecdotal evidence of how much better I feel.
The only significant not good thing is my haemoglobin and iron. They're both still too low and have not budged since my blood work in early April. Darn. I'd been taking iron tables every other day, as they bother my tummy a bit, but Awesome GI Guy wants me to go back to every day with a glass of prune juice to help my tummy out. We'll see how it goes and how well I tolerate that. My HGB won't go up until my iron stores are replenished, so if my ferritin levels don't go up on iron tablets we'll have to see what other route (shots or iron transfusions) he wants to try next.
It's a huge relief to have confirmation that the Humira is doing its job. We'll have to keep an eye on things to make sure it doesn't cause any problems (it can suppress the immune system too much, shut down bone marrow or damage the liver, which we can all agree would be a problem) but it looks like this is my miracle drug. Phew!
The funny thing on my results is that my sodium is a little low. I suspect that not many people get told this :-) It backs up my argument that too little sodium can be as big a deal as too much and that cutting out all sodium everywhere is not helpful. Apparently I can relax a little in the low sodium diet thing because I really, really don't have a problem.
As with my arguments for eating red meat (animal heme is more easily absorbed than non-animal heme!), it may take some work to persuade my mother that I'm allowed to not buy the low sodium version of something while she's here. Heh.
Awesome GI Guy has also written a referral to a rheumatologist for me. As I've gradually cut down my prednisone (which he said that I can stop taking - woo!), my back/hip/neck pain has gradually returned. It's not as bad as it was before my diagnosis, but it's noticeable and while there's a chance that it's pred withdrawal, Awesome GI Guy thinks it's unlikely. I like this bit where specialists can write referrals for other specialists rather than having to write letters to my GP who then has to call me in before writing his own letter. My GP doesn't want to write a referral without "several months of personally seeing me with the back pain" so it's a relief that Awesome GI Guy would do this for me.
Mum is voting that Awesome GI Guy needs a Hero of the Year award :-)
Overall, despite my struggles to get my iron/HGB levels up, the news is really positive and I will apparently feel even better when I have the anaemia sorted out. It's good to finally feel positive about things :-)
