I figure since I haven't been on the blog since October, I might as well update, although things seem to be going very well when it comes to my RA. The Enbrel has been working wonders - I finished my first term as a doctoral student while working my butt off and really haven't been feeling too bad. Although right before the holidays, I caught a cold and it eventually required antibiotics and a week of skipping my Enbrel to get through it. In the meantime, I lost my voice, which for a teacher is the worst thing possible.
Also in the middle of that, I had a doctor's appointment (which was good because I needed the antibiotics anyway...). During the appointment, I had another ultrasound of my right hand - the knuckle at the base of the middle finger is the one joint that won't respond to any of my drugs. It was looking better, but during the ultrasound, there was still a significant amount of fluid in the sinovial sac, and it also looked like there was some bone erosion going on (not good). My doc prescribed more steroids, but between the missing Enbrel and the antibiotics that week, they did nothing. So today, I got my very first cortisone injection! I also got to be the guinea pig for two fellows working in the office. They were both very nice, and very interested in my case. One of them actually performed the injection (My joint was apparently an easy one seeing as there was already a lot of fluid in the joint). It was the oddest feeling though: as she injected the steroid into the joint (I could see it on the ultrasound), it felt like someone was slowly (and painfully) pulling my middle finger back. My doctor explained that that feeling was normal because we were injecting fluid into a fluid filled sac that was already filled with too much fluid. So now, I'm typing this with a semi-tender hand (I don't know if the local anesthetic has worn off yet or not) and hoping that this may be just the thing needed to stop damage to that finger - I kinda need my right hand to do stuff, like write!
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