The Seated View

Wishing you and yours a very glædelig jul!   

In my last appointment with my rheumatologist, we discussed how most of the pain I have is related not to active RA (thank you, Humira!), but rather RA damage and fibromyalgia. And then she said something that’s stuck in my head since: “That’s the tragedy of Fibro. If someone has RA or lupus, we can treat it. We can’t do much about fibromyalgia.” Tragedy? Instinctively, I recoiled from the concept. It’s a really big word, a word I’d normally apply to devastating events in the news, such as the Ebola outbreak, the Holocaust, or the Australian woman who killed all her kids. Those are tragedies. My Fibro? Sure, I’d rather be without it, but it’s not on the same scale. Is it? I thought about it. I can see how, from a doctor’s point of view, an untreatable condition that causes high levels of chronic pain, preventing your patient from living their life to the fullest could be considered a tragedy. Doctors, after all, really like to fix things. Their goal is for you

I was out on the town yesterday, a mutual Christmas present between David’s sister and myself. We went to see Donny and Marie: Christmas in Toronto . Yes, the Donny and Marie with the last name of Osmond. From the varying reactions we had when we shared our plans, it’s obvious that this is not to everyone’s taste. Sure, the show was a bit Vegas, something that wouldn’t be noticed in Vegas, but is noticeable here in the frozen North. But it was also absolutely wonderful. Both showed that they more than deserve their reputation for professionalism and careers spanning 50 years each. I had forgotten how beautiful both their voices are. They also know how to entertain. There were trips down memory lane,   there were duets and solos, songs from each of their many Broadway roles and Marie absolutely killed in a beautiful rendition of How Great Thou Art . But that was in the second act. The first was mostly about getting us warmed up with familiar songs. We were in between so

I had forgotten about acidophilus. But I should start at the beginning. Which was my not-really heart attack in July , caused by an extra special flaring of GERD. Several factors contributed to this, including stress and the best gingersnaps I’ve ever had (and will now never have again) among them. The chief trigger, though, appeared to be my body developing an intolerance to meloxicam. This was not good news, as next to Vioxx, meloxicam is the most effective NSAID I’ve used in a very long time. Not only did the deal with pain related to 40+ years of RA damage, but it also had a good effect on my Fibro. I tried to do without an anti-inflammatory for a while, but it very quickly became obvious that this was a Very Bad Idea indeed. So, now what? Due to a previously developed intolerance, I can’t take anything that ends in -profen, excluding an entire subclass of NSAIDs. So I tried naproxen. Which is a good anti-inflammatory, but it burns the crap out of your stom