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Thanks so much for posting this!! It's nice to know someone is thinking of us and working toward a cure.
K2View Thread

Somewhere in Time and Out of Africa are my favorites.
K2View Thread

I remember a few years ago when she joined our wolfpack as a college freshman who had to drop out of university because of lupus. I remember fun times in the chat room, and her irrepressible sense of humor through all this disease threw at her. And it threw so much at her.
Rest in peace my little friend. It doesn't hurt anymore.
K2View Thread

This med can cause some liver issues and can lower your white cell count, so your doc will probably want to run bloodwork every 4 - 6 week while you are on Mtx to keep an eye out for possible side issues they would want to address.
Here is a short explanation of Mtx and Lupus
http://lupus.us.com/lupus-methotrexate.html
Here is an explanation of several meds used in treating Lupus
http://www.lupus.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/new_learntreating.aspx?articleid=2246&zoneid=525
K2View Thread

My employer was kind enough to hold my job for me during a couple of months when I was in bed (that was before FMLA). When I came back to work it was on a limited schedule. At my workplace they consider 32 hours a week as eligible for benefits. So I went back to work on a five day a week schedule, but I got to leave a bit early each day.
Here's the kicker: my work outside the home became my sole contribution to the family. Single. Uno. The one and only thing I accomplished on a daily basis.
I literally went straight to bed each and everyday when I got home. I am not kidding you when I tell you that every weekend I hit the bed Friday afternoon and did not emerge again until Monday morning.And my wonderful husband never said anything to me other than "you need to rest." What a guy!
He took over the grocery shopping (an exhausting experience for me), laundry, and we paid a lady to clean the house. My kids were about 6 & 7 in age and they learned how to make their own breakfast and wash their own clothes.
If you are going to continue to work and provide insurance for the family, the rest of the gang is going to have to step up and do their part, too. If they don't help you, you will lose your job due to getting sicker and sicker.
Lupus doesn't strike a lone person, it affects the entire family. Hopefully with the right meds we can get you feeling better. Until then you may not be able to be a "working" mom in the sense that you continue your household duties while maintaining a career. You can work, or you can be the homemaker. Your choice, for now. Misbehave and Lupus may well make the choice for you.
I hope and pray your gang takes care of things.
K2
p.s. I'm in good shape now. I work full time, do the grocery shopping and I can even vacuum my own home! Let your family know you may get better, if they'll help you a bit.View Thread

# 1 was tempting as I would like to give this cold I have back to the office mate who shared with the class, but I confess to actually doing #4 more than once. If they send me that stamped, self addressed envelope I'm happy to send them back the junky inserts they just wasted my time on.
I hope you feel better soon!
K2View Thread

Because Plaquinel is such a slow starter many lupus patients are given Prednisone early on. Plaquinel is more of a maintenance medicine to try and lessen the frequency and severity of our flairs. When a patient is in a flair it is pretty standard to step up the Rx intervention.
You have to keep in mind that what lupus destroys you don't get back. Whether that's a damaged kidney, or a damaged joint. So it's very important to get out in front of the disease and protect your body parts.
I'll go a step further and give you an analogy my Rheumy gave me when I balked early on at the Prednisone and Methotrexate (which is a chemotherapy). He told me that lupus is like a snowball rolling downhill, gathering snow and rolling faster as it goes. He told me you have to stop the snowball early, because if it gets up a big enough head of steam you may not be able to stop it.
Good Luck,
K2View Thread

I have lupus and RA, so I can sympathize with the worsening arthritis.
I took Mtx for 5 years at 20 mg per week. That along with Plaquinel made a BIG improvement in my disease activity. Those two meds together literally gave me back my life, which at the time I started the Mtx my life was pretty much bed all day, with a few painful trips to the bathroom being the highlights of my activity.
The side effects for Mtx are a pretty scary read. However, you have to remember that we take a much, much lower dose of this med than cancer patients, so everything you read about this med isn't necessarily going to happen at your dose.
I lost way more hair from lupus before I started Mtx than I ever lost from Mtx itself. I took the med in pill form and I started at 12.5 mg per week and slowly worked my way up to 20 mg per week. Each time they stepped up the dose I got better and better.
I took three meds to combat the side effects. Folic Acid helps with the mouth sores. The day after Mtx I took leucovorin calcium which is a rescue med for my low white cell count, and I took hyoscyamine for the diarrhea. The day I took Mtx and the day after were guaranteed to keep me running to the bathroom, but this med helped my joint pain so much that it was a trade I made happily.
My disease is currently suppressed thanks to Plaquinel, but I would go on Mtx again in a heartbeat if my joints blew up again.
Good Luck!
K2View Thread

Lynn & Judy were doing some carpenter work
on a Habitat for Humanity House.
Lynn was nailing down house siding,
would reach into her nail
pouch, pull out a nail & either toss it
over her shoulder or nail it in.
Judy, figuring this was worth looking into, asked, '
Why are you throwing those nails away?'
Lynn explained, 'When I pull a nail out of my pouch,
about half of them have the head on the wrong end
& I throw them away.'
Judy got completely upset & yelled,
'You moron! Those nails aren't defective!
They're for the other side of the house!'View Thread

Thanks for focusing on this issue. I'm zeroing in on my GI tract as I seem to be deficient in D, Calcium, and Magnesium. That along with constant tummy troubles lead me to think I'm not absorbing enough nutrients.
My Rheumy has me on extra D and my Gyno has me on extra calcium, but as a person who has always chugged milk (with A & D included) from childhood on I have to think I'm just not picking up what I need.
I haven't had to take a lot of prednisone, so there's not a good explanation for bone loss; and at 2 - 3 gallons of milk a week for life I'm just not a logical candidate for the osteoporosis my bone scan revealed.
Many thanks for all your informative replies,
K2View Thread
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