Year: 2014

Methotrexate Injection

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Why injection?                                                                                                                                            To avoid side effects or to have more of the medication absorbed by the body. There is 25 mg/ml of medication The syringe is either tuberculin or insulin Both have a one ml capacity Both have very thin needles Have all your supplies ready Vial of methotrexate, syringe, alcohol swab. Also access to your upper belly or outer thigh. It’s easy as this Wipe off top of vial with alcohol Remove covers on syringe Draw back on the syringe to add about .5 ml of air Insert needle of syringe into vial Push in the air(avoids med leaks) withdraw the correct dose of your medication( …

Rheumatoid arthritis progression attitude

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Rheumatoid arthritis sticks to me like glue.  Severe.  Persistent. Progressing.    OMG!    I have a tough one.  But then, so do many, many others.  I am alive.  I am grateful. Life is good.  Every minute of life is a gift.  Believe it or not, the biggest joys in our life happen in our everyday life.  Stop and think about it.  What are the five best moments you have had this week? Remember, this week your life is ticking by.  Life is now and a daily experience. Love it. Life has changed dramatically for me.  My pace is about 20% of what it was.    Am I sad.    Not.     Probably  because I am spending  my time  managing my day.  I’m living today. A lot of the maneuvering is  about energy and pain control.  So life is about balance.  A little of this and a little of that.  Breaking time into chunks. Working on re-potting plants. Then reading a good book or writing articles for a while.  Lucky for me I can do many of the things I …

RA Drugs-Methotrexate

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I take my 10 little pills of methotrexate on Sunday afternoon.  I put the ten 2.5 mg tablets in a little white bowl.  I take them over a 4-5 hour period.  My little ritual makes a major difference.  I have no nausea from the medication. My first dose was 2/17/2013.  It was 10 mg.  My dose was increased gradually to 25 mg on 4/28/2013.  Nausea is the most common side effect.  I did have some initially  but as long as I followed my ritual,  I was fine.  Additionally,  for the first year I was  tired on the day following the dose. Low dose methotrexate has been the drug of choice for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis for 30 years.  It is safe and generally well tolerated.   It is a DMARD, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug.  It helps with pain and swelling.  It slows the progression of RA over time. Methotrexate was one of the first products of ” intelligent drug design”.  It was introduced as a treatment for cancer in the 40’s.  It was introduced to treat …

Yep, RA is progressive

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During the treatments for my cancers, my RA was uneventful.  Yes, I did have monthly flares that lasted just about 12 days.  Yes, I was always in a simmering level of pain.  I grinned and bore it like a good Irish Catholic girl.  Instead, I focused on surgery, radiation and life changing drugs.  I even completed a cancer rehab program. One day as I was starting a Zumba class, my ankles screamed in a pain that was the equivalent of trying to dance on joints full of shattered glass. Determined, I tried moving my feet differently (how many ways can you move your feet, you might ask).  After 10 seconds, I realized that it was futile.   I stopped.   Since then, it has been downhill.  It was a steep hill, I might add. Although I am on Methotrexate (a life saver for me), Plaquenil, (Sulfasalazine did not work for me), meloxicam, prednisone and all the supporting drugs, I am still progressing.  All the little joints in my feet and my ankles are inflamed and …

Mojo and down days

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My mojo is rising today. Feels quite good. As a professional photographer my skill set has been set aside for the last nine months. I still have not set up my tablet.  I have been making images around me and now I’m starting to use a few of my Photoshop skills. Feels really good. Soon I will have my Wacom tablet set up and I will dive deeper. Yesterday was tough for me. The frustrating thing about RA is the randomness of its systemic affects. I felt flattened and any effort was difficult. Awhile back I learned  a few RA tips from  WebMD(www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis). An important tip was to break activities into blocks. Alternating physical activity with restful activities is always helpful on a down day. Sometimes more is done and there is less frustration. There will be pleasures in reading a good book or in catching up with favorite programs and still doing those necessary little chores. It is a helpful process for all of us.

Rheumatoid Arthritis a training ground for cancer

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Rheumatoid Arthritis: A training ground for cancer. That is how I think of it. When I was diagnosed last year with RA, I read everything I could find on the subject. I was trying to figure out where I stood with the disease. My favorite book was M.E.McNeil’s The First Year Rheumatoid Arthritis. The value of this book is that it offers an approach, a way of thinking, to come to terms with a chronic, progressive disease. It gave me the same help when I had to come to terms with the diagnosis of two different cancers. • I journal regularly, expressing myself and establishing a timeline. • I think of my medical providers as my team that does include my pharmacist, physical therapist as well as the 6 specialists that I am seeing currently. • I see myself as the head of my team. I have confidence in my team. Each has a role. My role is to be proactive, to do my part. • I am able to accept my current situation, relaxing …

Radoactive Iodine treatment

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The pill come in a heavy lead container. The nurse has a glass of water ready. She suggests my son lift the lead container. He does. Then I do. We are both surprised just how heavy it is. She opens the container and tips the pill into my hand. I put it in my mouth and swallow it with the water. We go home. I am now radioactive. I don’t feel any different. I stay in my room for three days. I drink lots of water. I eat sour candies and lemon slices. I try to do all the right things. I also like being in my room so it is not hard for me to be there. My son brings my meals and won’t come within ten feet of me. He doesn’t want to suffer radiation side effects. He also sets his alarm so he can bring me my coffee at 7 am. Thoughtful and important to me. The radiology tech had made it clear to me that I was not to vomit for …

How to tell a charlatan

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I met my first  charlatan last week. I’m sure I’ve known other ones.  A charlatan presents as someone who is an authority on a subject when in fact she’s not. She often times is looking to profit from her faulty information, but not always. This woman approached me at a cancer class. She said my cancer was caused by an imbalance in my body. She could cure me. Doctors were clueless. Nurses were clueless, too. I really needed to go to her program and learn about the acid-alkaline diet. ( A friend had already given me a book on the subject.) I would be better. I would feel better. She didn’t have a card and mentioned she did a lot of other things. She wrote her info on the back of one of her other cards. Contact me, she said. To me the fundamental  sign of a charlatan is her attitude that she know best and that all the other resources in the world are bogus. There are too many good resources in the world. …

evolution of a cancer mind

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On Thursday I go to the Caring Hearts Cancer Support Group. This is at the Presbyterian Cancer Center in Albuquerque. It runs in blocks of six weeks. Lunch is served and discussion is 1.5 hours. Since I have been going, the hospital chaplain has been the facilitator. She is excellent. I have benefited immeasurably from my visits. The discussion turned to how we felt about our diagnosis. I never had the moment. I seemed to slide from one revelation to the next. I was not angry. I was too confused to be scared. I was always recovering from a treatment. I was exhausted and fatigued. My concern was having to spend my life in that state.  I am inclined to believe what people tell me and they did say fine fine fine. First  it was the severe rheumatoid arthritis (seven months to become manageable). Next was thyroid cancer. Not bad you will do fine. Next it was breast cancer(small but invasive) You will be fine. Next was more tests. More cancer. We need to move …