If you had to choose?

If you had to have any disease, what would you choose? Let's say you had to live with it for most of your life, or you had to face challenges with it? What kind? Let's hope you said NONE...you are one sicko for even making me think that! lol.

I've lived with arthritis since I was two years old, and honestly, I don't mind. The reason behind that is because I have no idea what it's like to live without it, and live a "normal" life. I have no idea what it's like to be able to bend my wrists like all of you can, or to hmmmm, let's see? Really, I think that's all that I've been limited too. Oh, maybe move my neck like you all do, but at least I can still turn my neck. haha, so that doesn't really bother me at all.

My medication I take works just wonders on me, and no, it hasn't always. There have been times where has it stopped working on me, okay, lots of times. There have been times where it has made me terribly sick, I've lost my hair twice, (but I had tonnes of fun when I lost it and loved freaking people out with it), and I've even reacted a couple of times to some meds. One med I almost coded too. I had one nurse yell "I have the code cart right beside her", another two or three nurses pushing massive IV bags through my veins as fast as they could take them, with steroids and benadryl and just saline solution, trying to get the drug out of my system. All while one nurse was on the phone to the ER, another was on the phone to my Rheumatologist in Edmonton, another on the phone to my DR at my dr's office and one on the phone to someone else. And me, just wanting to say "Tell me parent's I love them", but not being able to get a word out. Phew. That was one scary day, let me tell you. Then they had me do it all over again two weeks later, but they had a family doctor come and sit with me, just in case I reacted and I did! But not as severe, because I knew what was happening and we caught it in time, but it was still scary.

I also had one doctor tell me "Well, there's nothing we can do for you, I wish you the best of luck". I remember crying and saying "now what, does that mean I go and live in a wheelchair next?" and I remember being told "YES, it could happen". I've always been one step behind the new drug, meaning, there is a new drug coming out, in case I can't handle the one I'm on, which happens very often with me, or there's none for me....most often, there's a new one for me. Just a couple of weeks ago, I reacted AGAIN to an IV med that I received called Rituximab. I was sleeping and woke up when it was time for me to get my blood pressure, temp and pulse rate checked (I get it checked every half hour) and I mentioned to the nurse, "I think I'm catching a cold" and she asked why and I told her that my throat and mouth and ears were very itchy. She immediately said "That's not a cold, that's an allergic reaction. And Stopped everything. Got on the phone to my specialist, who is in charge of this med and gave me more benadryl and more saline through my IV. They then got things going again in a half hour once I was feeling MUCH better and I made it through, with really no problems....just a small temp and a massive headache afterwards. This a harsh chemo med, and can make me quite ill. Blah.

So I'm going for it tomorrow again, and can't wait to feel ill again. :p The only good thing about this, is you only take it two times a year. I was very fortunate and didn't need it for 18 months, because my arthritis goes into remission AND because it's very stable right now and because I'm awesome. haha! :)

If I react tomorrow, then I have to stop the med, and we're now waiting for a new med to be approved in Canada. So as of now, there's no med for me to take...AGAIN. But there's hope! There are three other meds that other patients could take, but not me, thanks to my reactions that I've had to other drugs. Gotta love my body and meds. Yeah!

Migraines are another thing that I battle with, but let's knock on wood, I've been doing quite well lately and I'm super thankful for that. I can't wait for the day that they go away...if they ever do. Won't that be awesome.

Well, I sure didn't want to write this much and wasn't going to write about my drugs, but I did. Good thing no one reads this. :P Cause I'm sure it's super boring!

Have a great night/good day.