I saw my doctor again and filled him in on all of the drama with the kidney stones and the dizziness. He found it very difficult to believe that the calcium would have caused these problems this quickly. He told me to discontinue taking the calcium supplements just to be safe but he still wants me to take the Fosomax.
We discussed the Methotrexate again.
He asked how it was impacting me and I told him that I missed Easter with the kids because I was down in bed. He was really surprised and told me that I was on a child’s dose at this point. He told me that he didn’t think that this low of a dose would really provide any help and if it was causing me so many problems to discontinue it. (OH YAH!) I can’t tell you how happy this makes me! I am so excited to have my weekends back! Many people take Methotrexate without much of a side effect, but for me it has been hideous! I am so excited to be off this stuff and am looking forward to actually being able to feel good at church again! I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.
I have been feeling pain in my ankles and knees just as it comes time to take my medications again, so he didn’t feel like we could lower the Prednisone. I’m really okay with that because the Prednisone is at a low enough dose that it doesn’t affect me as badly as it has in the past. Although I do hope by next month’s appointment I’ll be able to reduce it another 2.5 mg’s.
We think that the reason I am feeling the pain is because the Methotrexate levels are getting low enough in my body that it isn’t really providing the benefit it did in the past. Instead he has prescribed a new medication called Imuran, or Azathioprine (50 mg). It is an immune suppressant that is used for organ transplants, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune hepatitis and autoimmune disease such as Sarcoidosis. Here is a link with more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azathioprine
It looks like the side effects aren’t too bad, or at least better than Methotrexate as long as you are not on it for a prolonged period of time. I have taken it for a few days now and I really haven’t noticed anything bad. I am still in the ramp up time though. It is strange. You take 1 tablet per day for a week and then you start taking it two times a day. I’ll let you know in a week or so if I start seeing any bad side effects.
All of the kidney pain is done! Yeah!! I don’t really believe in home remedies, but I found one for kidney stones that even doctors were recommending. (This works
primarily for kidney stones made of calcium.) You take 10 lemons and squeeze out all the juice (about 2 cups) and drink it all down at once! Yup straight, no sugar. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be and it didn’t actually taste half bad. You just have about 15 different after tastes that hit you like waves. Anyway, after that you drink normal lemonade about every hour. The acid turns the stones in to a substance similar to gummy bears. Soft and squishy is WAY better than sharp and pointy. It just comes right out and doesn’t hurt! It was awesome! Check it out on Youtube, they have a bunch of videos on it. Glad to be done with it and I’m going to remember the lemon juice for the future.
Lately I have really been feeling weak. Doing the smallest things knock the wind right out of me. This morning after I slept in I was sitting in the shower feeling bad for myself. I was really sick of watching my house turn into disrepair around me because I don’t have the energy to tackle it. I finally reached a point where I couldn’t take it anymore, so I said a short prayer asking for strength, then got out and charged headlong into the day’s chores. We raked up a ½ acre yard, burned all of the debris, worked on my car that broke down, fixed some parts on my truck, hauled a bunch of junk to the dump, then took the family out to Pizza! And you know what… I really don’t feel that bad. In fact I am feeling strong! It was an amazing day. Now don’t get me wrong, I am nowhere near back to full strength but I really did a lot today and it didn’t knock me down! I hope I can keep this going. I’ll let you know.
Here is hoping.
=)
Well I am feeling a lot better. The pain in my joints has all but gone away, although I am not sure why. At first I thought that it was the Imuran, but I’ve been doing a little reading up on the drug and it should take a number of weeks before the benefits are felt. I am also concerned because it turns out that Imuran increases your risk of skin and other cancers, something I really don’t want! Sarcoid is bad, but cancer is MUCH WORSE!
