Description of the HUMIRA Shot

I thought I'd write this, mostly for friends/family who want to know why taking the shot makes me cry normally.

When you take the HUMIRA shot, it is automatic so someone clicks the button and the needle shoots into you. It stays in there for ten seconds and then pulls itself out.

Imagine that when the shot is clicked, someone hits you with a baseball bat in the stomach. The baseball bat dissolves into burning poison acid and thrusts itself into your middle. It keeps pushing into you, burning and stinging everywhere. Even that's not an accurate description... It is like a chemical burn, not a heat burn. And the stinging is like being stabbed, not like a little, "Oh, my foot fell asleep and now it tickles!"

Finally the shot yanks out of you but the pain is still there. The spot hurts without anything touching it, but it hurts really, really bad if anything comes in contact with it. For about a half hour it continues to hurt on and off. It still is tender that night.

There you go.

Eye Doctor

Saw the ophthalmologist a few days ago. My mom was worried I was losing my color vision, but we did all the tests and everything's normal. I do need to get a new prescription of glasses sometime... Not sure when I'll get that done.

Humira and Methotrexate

I started Humira two weeks ago. The shot is very painful - it burns pretty bad. So far the one time I tried to give it to myself, I yanked it out as soon as it started injecting. Laura has been doing it for me so far. I'm hoping I can ask a nurse to do it at Berry, at least until I get more used to the feeling.

Today I went in and got another shot in preparation for Methotrexate. I spoke with my Rheumatologist, and he says that as I up my dose (every week it goes up until I'm taking six pills once a week) I'll probably start feeling sick. Mom says that her friend who's on it plans a day of the week where she doesn't do anything, and that's her sick Methotrexate day. I'm trying to figure out how I can work this while working part time and doing college work. I was going to do it on a Saturday, but then if I wanted to hang out or if I was going somewhere for the weekend I'd be pretty useless. I guess I'll have to see how my schedule comes out.

My doctor said that if I get sick and it persists, it wouldn't hurt to call/come in. If I'm running a fever, I should definitely come in. I was wondering about that, since all these drugs are messing with my immune system.

So far I'm feeling better, though not perfect.

The Neurologist: Second Round

Today I met again with my neurologist. This was mostly a follow-up, and it went very fast.

Basically: He doesn't know what's going on. He thinks it could be the syrinx causing my tremors, or it could be a side effect from one of my medicines, or it could be something else. But because of all the other junk going on, he doesn't want to give me medication that could possibly do nothing but add more side effects.

He does not think it is a result of my autoimmune system attacking my nervous system, because something would have shown up on my MRI if that was going on.

He wants me to do what the neurosurgeon said and return in October for another MRI. From there we'll see if the syrinx is bigger or smaller or the same. If my symptoms get worse, or I start having heat/chills, confusion or numbness when I have the tremors, I'm supposed to go in immediately. When/if it gets worse, I'll talk about having the surgery - until then, I should be able to cope without it.