Friday, 3 August 2012

A clinical coincidence?

While I was yet in my 40s I was diagnosed as suffering from rheumatism and the consultant I saw at the local hospital cheerfully informed me that I would be almost crippled with rheumatoid-arthritis by the time I was fifty.  I started taking cod liver oil capsules and the Old Bat made sure that I was eating a suitably balanced diet with plenty of natural oil.  I was also prescribed anti-inflamatory medication.

(The instructions said to take one tablet twice a day but nobody told me just how to manage that.  I tried tying cotton round the tablet so I could pull it back out to take a second time.  I will spare you the nasty details and just say that didn't work!)

I the fullness of time I considered I could probably reduce the medication as I had gone weeks or maybe months with no problems.  One tablet a day seemed quite sufficient.  In the end, that one went by the board as well and I just took the tablets when I felt stiffness coming on.  This way, a month's supply of tabs sometimes lasted my a year or more.

Until last summer.

When my cancer scare turned out to be no more than hypersensitivity to the aspergyllosis fungus in the lungs, I was given a couple of inhalers, one to be used twice a day (the preventer) and the other to be used as and when necessary (the reliever).  It wasn't long before I felt the need to use the anti-inflamatory tabs increasingly frequently and, within 6 months or so, I started on the two a day every day lark.  Now even the full dose does nothing for me and for the last four weeks I have been in increasing pain.

I went to the doctor and asked if the problem could be either two drugs fighting in my body or - more likely - the preventer inhaler setting off the arthritis.  Then I was informed that the preventer is steroid-based and steroids are used to treat arthritis so that should, if anything, be improving the situation.

I am now awaiting the results of blood tests before the doctor decides what to do next.

Maybe it's not the result of one drug having side effects - but it does seem a might big clinical coincidence.

~~~~~

Just before we return from our photographic trip to France, here is a picture of the Place de l'Eglise in our village.


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3 comments:

  1. (not necessarily your) Uncle Skip3 August 2012 at 15:44

    "...for the last four weeks I have been in increasing pain."

    I'm sorry, my friend, and hope it is sorted out soon.

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  2. Brighton Pensioner3 August 2012 at 17:57

    Thank you, Skip BUT let's not get this out of proportion. When we visited the Riding for the Disabled group we realised how small our problems really are.

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  3. (not necessarily your) Uncle Skip3 August 2012 at 18:29

    It is good to keep things in perspective isn't it?

    I occasionally moan about the difficulties with my left hand, the lack of feeling in the thumb and such. Then I remember my cousin, Paul, who had polio at the age of five and has had absolutely no use of his left arm for the past 60 years.

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