Stupid happy
It's the little things, you know.
Today's bi-monthly checkup went pretty well. My lab results last week were much better than I expected -- only one low flag on my neutrophil count, which has been consistently low for the last year or so. Not low enough to cause alarm, but low enough to keep monitoring. My hands are still a little red and inflamed, but that's due to all of the handwork I've been doing lately: building and painting sets, helping mastersantiago with his gambeson, scrubbing the bathtub, blah, blah, blah. Nothing to indicate a flare, so that's really good. Good enough that the doctor has decided to back off my weekly injections of methotrexate by 0.1 ml. I know it isn't much, but it is the most dangerous drug I take and it's effects are obvious (to me, anyway) in my hair, skin and nails. So being able to back down, even a little, makes me really, really, happy.
We talked about "cured" vs. "managed," and how some people with RA go into long-term remission and stop taking their drugs altogether. Not a course of action that he recommends, since flares can't be predicted and if one happens, the resulting drug cocktail of treatment is not pleasant. He'd rather back me down to the bare minimums and see how I do, then adjust up as needed. He's talking about getting me down to 0.3 ml of methotrexate every two weeks, or even once a month. Hey! Maybe then my hair would stop falling out! :)
As some of my faithful friends may remember, many years ago I testified in a murder trial --I was a correctional officer at the time, and overheard an inmate tell his visitor that he'd killed his wife. Several months ago, I received a subpoena to re-testify. The guy's conviction had been overturned, and he was being retried. The DA's office kept me on call, and the trial was rescheduled a couple of times. The last time it was supposed to start the same day I was supposed to report for jury duty, and I took a gamble that the trial would get delayed again, or at least I wouldn't have to go in on the first day, and didn't postpone. That worked out in my favor -- whoohoo!
Even better, though, I got a call this weekend from the DA's office, and they were able to resolve the case without a new trial, so I'm entirely off the hook! Maybe for kicks later, I'll see if I can find out how the case resolved.
In other news, I spent most of the weekend working on sets. I built a roof out of luaun, carpet tubes and hot glue. It looks fantastic! Our first full run-through is tonight. With luck, I'll get tomorrow and/or Wednesday night off, and then another rehearsal on Thursday. Saturday is the first run-through with the orchestra and Sunday is load-in at the theater. Monday starts Hell Week and then we're on! Two weekends of shows and then a week's vacation. I'm ready for some sleep.
Today's bi-monthly checkup went pretty well. My lab results last week were much better than I expected -- only one low flag on my neutrophil count, which has been consistently low for the last year or so. Not low enough to cause alarm, but low enough to keep monitoring. My hands are still a little red and inflamed, but that's due to all of the handwork I've been doing lately: building and painting sets, helping mastersantiago with his gambeson, scrubbing the bathtub, blah, blah, blah. Nothing to indicate a flare, so that's really good. Good enough that the doctor has decided to back off my weekly injections of methotrexate by 0.1 ml. I know it isn't much, but it is the most dangerous drug I take and it's effects are obvious (to me, anyway) in my hair, skin and nails. So being able to back down, even a little, makes me really, really, happy.
We talked about "cured" vs. "managed," and how some people with RA go into long-term remission and stop taking their drugs altogether. Not a course of action that he recommends, since flares can't be predicted and if one happens, the resulting drug cocktail of treatment is not pleasant. He'd rather back me down to the bare minimums and see how I do, then adjust up as needed. He's talking about getting me down to 0.3 ml of methotrexate every two weeks, or even once a month. Hey! Maybe then my hair would stop falling out! :)
As some of my faithful friends may remember, many years ago I testified in a murder trial --I was a correctional officer at the time, and overheard an inmate tell his visitor that he'd killed his wife. Several months ago, I received a subpoena to re-testify. The guy's conviction had been overturned, and he was being retried. The DA's office kept me on call, and the trial was rescheduled a couple of times. The last time it was supposed to start the same day I was supposed to report for jury duty, and I took a gamble that the trial would get delayed again, or at least I wouldn't have to go in on the first day, and didn't postpone. That worked out in my favor -- whoohoo!
Even better, though, I got a call this weekend from the DA's office, and they were able to resolve the case without a new trial, so I'm entirely off the hook! Maybe for kicks later, I'll see if I can find out how the case resolved.
In other news, I spent most of the weekend working on sets. I built a roof out of luaun, carpet tubes and hot glue. It looks fantastic! Our first full run-through is tonight. With luck, I'll get tomorrow and/or Wednesday night off, and then another rehearsal on Thursday. Saturday is the first run-through with the orchestra and Sunday is load-in at the theater. Monday starts Hell Week and then we're on! Two weekends of shows and then a week's vacation. I'm ready for some sleep.