Living with Rheumatoid Athritis

Unfortunately the last couple of days have not been so good - I have had some pain in my knees and in my calf muscles. On the plus side it is not nearly as bad today so maybe this flare up is over. It is still early days and the Methotrexate and Folic Acid may take around 12 weeks to kick in. From now on I will talk about Meth and Acid - it sounds waaaay cooler. Today is a particularly warm and sunny day but because of the Meth I have to be careful in the sun so I am taking a break to write this. I may even have to buy sun cream, something I have never needed in the past. There are several side effects of Meth according to the booklet I was given. These include feeling sick, headaches, vomiting, diarrhoea, shortness of breath, mouth ulcers and rashes. The only one I have experienced so far is shortness of breath - but I was like that before so it probably doesn't count. I have found another, less known, side effect - flatulence. I fart quite a bit and my farts are foul according to...

  A reasonably uneventful three weeks or so has passed as far as RA goes. I have now taken three doses of Methotrexate (to be known hereafter as Meth) and am still on a reducing dose of steroids. I had my second of the regular blood tests today, much less painful than the first one which left a massive bruise. There is another one to follow in a fortnight. After that they reduce to one every month - or three depending on results. Painwise everything is much the same - just twinges under my thumbs - whether this will go when the Meth kicks in is anyone's guess! I was hopeful that the warm, dry spring weather would improve things but I am still waiting for the warm dry weather! Hopefully we will get that soon. Apart from that it has been a reasonably busy time. We went down to Stirling to see the wonderful Anthony John Clarke and Julia Porter and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Then came the saga of the mini cruise when we found ourselves in Birmingham with our passports in Aberde...