They are just so very…ummm…talented.

The Invisible,

S.

I saw my PCP today so I could get a refill on my levothyroxine. He, of course, wanted blood work done to confirm my TSH levels. Since I don’t have medical insurance, I dread when doctors tell me I need blood work done. Dollar signs with exclamation points after them grow bigger and bigger in my mind.

But today my doctor told me about a company called DirectLabs. Essentially you sign up with this company and you can have any test you want done at the same reduced price that insurance companies pay. For example: The blood work I had done today was a thyroid panel with TSH. Normally (supposedly) this costs $174. I only paid $54. On a side note, I just now checked and the site is showing a price of $45. I emailed them to see if I could get a refund of the difference. Seems only fair, right?.

Anyway…the really interesting thing about the site is that you can order any test you want without a doctor’s order. This site is going to create hypochondriac junkies!  

At the lab, I used their restroom and saw an assistive device I’d never seen in a public bathroom before. My first thought: “Oh, that’s a cool one!” After a moment of horror, I quickly added, “But I hope I never need it!” The crazy RA really changes how you think.

This is kind of what it looked like. To my eyes it just looked so much more practical than the ones you normally see in handicapped stalls. Better leverage to get up and down with.

The Invisible,

S.

Food for thought…

The cure for rheumatoid arthritis might already exist.

As you read this, someone could be putting in his/her mouth the little pill that could end the suffering for RA patients forever.

Except that little pill they just took wasn’t some experimental drug. No…they took that pill for the flu or an STD or for seizures.

Just look at the two drugs I take to control my RA.

          Plaquenil was originally used to treat malaria.

          Methotrexate  is a chemo drug.

It makes me happy to think a cure could be closer than we realize.

The Invisible,

S.

Last night I walked into the bathroom, looked into the mirror, and burst out laughing. I’m really not THAT funny looking, so I’m sure you’re wondering why.

Well, about two hours earlier, I ate a banana. It seems that nowadays bananas need free giveaways to get people to eat them. I’m sure you’ve seen them…the stickers.

Well, last night my banana had a sticker that said “place sticker on forehead, smile”. I’m a complete goofball, so I did it. And a few seconds later…I forgot the sticker was there. Until I walked into the bathroom last night and saw it. Hence the laughter.

I realize I’m one of those people that’s easily amused. I think just about everything can be funny in the right context, including me. And really, it’s the little things in life (like finding a forgotten sticker on your forehead) that make life worth living.

So anyway, I’m filing this one under fibromyalgia brain fog. If you have fibromyalgia, you know what I’m talking about. Sometimes you’ve just got to laugh at yourself.

The Invisible,

S.

Has anyone ever heard of getting a rheumatoid nodule on a place that’s nowhere near a joint? I mean, I realize you can get them on your internal organs, but I think I have one on the inside of my lower lip. Doesn’t that seem like a weird place? It’s been there about three weeks now. I forgot to ask my Rheumatologist when I saw her a couple weeks ago.

The Invisible,

S.

I had my Rheumy visit today. She always seems so disappointed when she sees me. In all honesty my RA is not that bad, not compared to other people I know, so I always get the feeling from her that she’s upset that she can’t get me into a permanent remission. I always wonder if it makes her feel like she’s failing her patients a little bit when she can’t “fix” us. One of the difficult parts about being a doctor I guess.

My RA update:

My hands are sore with a few slightly swollen joints, but not too bad.

My feet are the worst they’ve ever been.

My immune system has now decided to add my ankles to its list of joints it has decided to over protect. Go Immune System!

I feel like my body has given me a big welcome-to-30-bitch gift.

My Rheumy is upping my methotrexate to 6 pills 1x week for the next two weeks and then to 8 pills after that. My folic acid will now be 2 mg/day instead of 1 mg. That’s what I was hoping she would do, so I’m happy with that. I really didn’t feel I was ready for a biologic yet.

So what does that bring my daily pill count to? Well, I’ve also started taking two different multi-vitamins, so Sunday through Friday I will be taking 10 pills/day. Saturdays will be 16 pills for the next two weeks and then 18 every week after that. I literally had to figure this out on paper because there were so many.

It’s hard for me to believe I now have to take this many. Just a few short years ago, I wasn’t taking anything. Then I found out I had hypothyroidism. That was one pill a day for the rest of my life. No biggie. I could handle that. But 18!?! Seriously?? I’m 30, not 90.

I’m sure my other invisible illness buddies are feelin’ me on this one, right?

The Invisible,

S.

I’m back in my own lovely little house. Now I have to unpack.

The Invisible,

S.

I found out a couple of days ago that my husband is coming. He’ll be here on the 7th. I’m not happy. My mom thinks he might have been afraid I wasn’t going to come back home. I suppose he did have a little reason to worry. This is Hawaii after all.

That wasn’t the creepy part of my story. What’s creepy is my mom’s van. Super Creepy! Yesterday we went to leave the house and the van was completely dead. What’s funny is that we were just talking before we left the house, about how we really should be taking my dad’s truck to get his tire fixed for him before he gets back on the 6th. But it was just too much trouble, so we decided to take the van. God had other plans.

The van was dead, but acting weird. After taking the key out of the ignition, the radio lights and one of the -ometers (I can’t remember which one) was staying on and blinking and buzzing and all sorts of crazy stuff. The dome light was all blinky and spazzy.

So we took the truck and got the tire fixed. We could take a hint. We half expected to get home and the van work fine, but no such luck. LOL

Today, we went out to see if the van was working (just in case), but it wasn’t. We decided to clean the van out so we could take it to get a new battery. An hour later, I closed all the doors on the van after I finished vacuuming it and went into the house to tell my mom I was done so she could help me bring some stuff in the house. We walk into the garage, and my mom says, “Where’s that music coming from?” I tell her it’s probably from a neighbor because it sounds so faint.

“Are you sure?” she asks, as she opens the van door.

The music stops! It was coming from the van! It had been an hour since the last time the key was in the ignition, and the radio had been off the last time the van worked.

“It’s possessed,” I say, only half joking.

See? Creepy.

Anyway, I’m sure it’s an electrical problem. It would have been so much easier if it had just been the battery. I’m guessing the radio came on sometime during the night, the other night, and killed the battery by playing all night long. Maybe we’ll get lucky and it will just be a fuse or relay issue and not a major wiring thing.

The Invisible,

S.

Bellows Beach. Can you say postcard? Yeah, it was that amazing. Can’t wait until I can upload pics for you guys.

That’s where I spent my day today. Six hours of my day. Yes, little ol’ pale me spent six hours in the sun. After repeated applications of a spritzer-type sunscreen throughout the day, I now have a stunning sunburn…with lots of white blotches. It seems the sunscreen decided to protect only PART of my sun-sensitive (thank you RA meds!) skin. I look sooooo sexy.

We went snorkeling (sadly there was nothing to see but seaweed) and boogie boarding. I have never been boogie boarding before, but I loved it. I was giggling like a little girl even as the waves tried to rip off the top of my bathing suit and replace it with sand. Hmmm, maybe I wasn’t doing something right. LOL.

Speaking of sand…the sand at this beach was like powder. It was so soft. I really wanted to take some home with me so I could sift my fingers through it forever. But I was a good girl and didn’t take any. But if we go to this beach again, I may not be able to control myself a second time.

Hope everyone had as good a day as I had!

The Invisible,

S.

Did you know that it hurts to walk on the beach when you have RA? Well, it does. The sand conforms around every crevice in your foot and presses each and every one of your sore spots.

My RA started flaring this week. Super snazzy!

The Invisible,

S.