Pills, Pills, Pills

It seems that if you have an autoimmune disease then pills are a common part of everyday life. We have pills that help us fight the disease and we have pills that help fight the pain.  We have pills to help us fight the side effects of the pills that help fight the disease and pain.  It seems we have pills for just about everything and our days are divided up into the times we need to take our pills.

Every Sunday I fill my pill box.  I take out 4 bottles and begin filling for each day.  Hydroxychloroquine to fight the disease, I take two Monday through Friday and one on Saturday and Sunday. Tramadol to help fight the pain, I take two for the morning and two at night. I take one multivitamin and one vitamin D recommended by my doctor, to keep healthy levels of vitamins and calcium.  There have been studies done that show that Vitamin D may help reduce pain in patients, but that's another topic for another day.   

I keep Tramadol in my purse for the middle of the day pain and Voltaren gel at home as well as at work to rub on my joints when the Tramadol isn’t enough.  I keep Advil and Meclizine with me because the side effects of my medication can cause dizziness and headaches.  I even have to have cortisone around because Tramadol causes the skin to itch.  

All of this pill taking can get a little frustrating to me. Especially on the days when it seems that none of it is working. When my hands hurt so bad I continually drop stuff or my knees and ankles are so stiff it's hard to walk. I have to keep remembering that takes a long time to figure out the right combination of medication with your doctor. I keep telling myself that somewhere down the road I'll find that perfect combo and start to feel better. But at times I do get cynical. Like when someone tells me that I'm lucky because “there's a pill for that”,  I want to plop down the 10 pills I've taken that day and tell them, “Does this look like luck to you?”