another Nibbal health update

[sistawendy]

Well, we still don't have a solid diagnosis -- the closest we've got is "seronegative arthropathy" -- but we did leave with a fistful of scrips. One's for an immunomodulatory that is supposed to take at least three months (!) to work, during which time Her Nibs will still be on the prednisone whose side effects she's learned to loathe. Another of the prescriptions is prilosec to deal with that very problem. There's also vioxx for pain, which the prednisone does nothing for. Got all that? By the way, we can't get the prescriptions filled today because the drugstore where we dropped them off was hit by a power outage a few minutes later.

So to summarize, not the quick fix I'd unrealistically hoped for, but hey, we've still got hope that this thing can be controlled.

Comments

[velvetknife.livejournal.com]

So you have a med to replace the med she's taking (but only after taking them together for a quarter of a year), a med to counter the side effects of the one she has to take for another 3 months, and a med to deal with the pain, which the aforementioned med doesn't actually deal with?

And people ask me why I don't trust modern health care. Jeeeeeezus.

Re:

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

That's right, but believe it or not Her Nibs says the prednisone (at the right dose, which seems to be about 20 mg/day) is an improvement.

[phyx.livejournal.com]

Is that a corticosteroid? From the immuno-etc. description you've given, it sounds lupus-ish.

Re:

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

She's had a lupus test (I forget the name of the antibody) but it came back negative. The immunomodulatory is an old anti-malarial, plaquanil. Her Nibs says it's used for lupus too.