Now, at this time we in
the middle of August. My vacation is way in the past, but my story of pain and
suffering are still continuing. At this
point, I was taking other medications in addition to the Vicodin for pain
including methotrexate. Methotrexate is a pretty toxic drug that is actually
given to cancer patients (at much higher doses than I was taking). You take it
once a week, and you take multiple pills. Methotrexate has been known to help
with joint pain though so that is why I was taking it. I took three weeks of
the drug (the first time I took it, my lip swelled up like I’d been stung by a
bee, but no other reaction after that one).
On the third week is the week that I started having some other pain in
addition to the joint, and this was on my right side.
It started out as a
nagging twinge, but became much worse very quickly. One of the things my rheumatologist had said
about methotrexate as a side effect is toxicity which can cause breathing and
lung problems and to notify her immediately if I had any back pain. When the twinge became more so, it started to
radiate around to my back, and so I found myself back at the doctors’
office. My rheumatologist was not
available, but her partner was. He had
me do a CT scan, and confirmed that I had pneumonia. He started me on a 5 day dose of
antibiotics. In addition to the back and
side pain, I was having issues breathing, and became winded doing the simplest
things, like having a conversation at work.
Taking a deep breath was nearly impossible and would cause spasms that
almost brought me to the floor.
I finished the 5 day
dose of antibiotics, and then the fun really started, sarcasm laced. I started spiking fevers of 100 or more on a
nightly basis, and now, instead of the pain on the right side, it was one the
left. I broke down and called my mom. I needed her. Just to be there, to rub my
back, and brush my hair, and make cinnamon toast and to tell me it was going to
be ok. She came out on a Thursday and got to see me first hand and how I was
feeling. She knew I was in pain, as she could see it in my face. At this point, the pain on the left side was
putting me on the floor when I had a spasm, to the point where I couldn’t
breathe for about 30 seconds or so. And yes, in addition to all this, I still
had the joint pain.
I called the doctor,
again. And she prescribed a 10 day dose
of antibiotics and gave me a referral for a pulmonologist. So, now, my arsenal
of doctors were my PCP, my rheumatologist, my gastroenterologist, my pulmonologist,
and my Boston based gastroenterologist who was getting updates on a periodic
basis and was providing advice and suggestions.
I went and saw the
pulmonologist, and he made me laugh. He reminded me of Cramer, coming and going
with a flip and a flop and kind of all over the place. He asked for a Chest
X-ray to be done, and confirmed that the pneumonia had moved to the other side.
The right side was cured, but the left was not. He also spoke to my GI and
together they determined that I needed to stop the Humira until the pneumonia
infection was gone. Now, Humira is a drug that wipes out your immune system.
That’s its job. Crohn’s is an autoimmune disease where the body determines that
foods in your intestines are a foreign body and it attacks it. By wiping out your immune system, your body
doesn’t react that way but it makes you highly susceptible to infections. Now, Remicade is in the same boat in terms of
how it works, but I didn’t experience too many infections with it in the five years
I was on it, except for some occasional sinus infections.
So, now we’ve added an
antibiotic to my medicine regimen and removed Humira, for now. I finished the antibiotics…..
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