Fatigue

In my opinion fatigue has to be one of the biggest pains to deal with when you have an autoimmune disease.  But having constant fatigue makes perfect sense.  The immune system of the human body is our own personal branch of the military.  It’s protecting us from invaders like bacteria and viruses that want our body’s limited resources.  When invaders are detected, the white blood cells head out and attack.  So think back to the last time you had the flu.  While your white blood cells were killing viruses like PAC-Man eats dots, your body was reacting by having a fever, a running nose, maybe even a cough and you were tired.  Your body is working overtime to fight off invaders and you were tired because your body wants you to rest while it replenishes those resources. 

So for someone with an autoimmune disease, the same thing is happening every single day, 365 days a year.  There is no day off from “feeling sick”.  The immune system of someone with an autoimmune disease has gotten its orders wrong and is now out attacking its own body.  The white blood cells are going after normal tissue and cells.  It’s the worst case of friendly fire you’ll ever see.  Talk about a publicity nightmare.


Here is a great article on Rhuematoid Arthritis and fatigue;

http://www.hss.edu/conditions_mastering-impact-fatigue-ra.asp

How Important is Your Doctor?

How important is your physician? I found out just how important this past month.

I was very, very lucky that my first Rhuematologist was one of the best. She explained everything to me. The pros and cons of the medications I was taking, the procedure we had to follow for insurance purposes and what all my test results meant. And although I sometimes had to wait over an hour to see her I never minded, because when I did she made me feel like she had all the time in the world for me.

Several months ago I changed jobs and with a new company I also received new insurance. I found out that my beloved Rhuemy was not covered which meant I could either pay out of pocket to see her or get a new doctor. Since I'm like most out there and don't have a lot of money I decided on the latter.

My new doctor turned out to have a completely different philosophy when it came to my care and after 10 minutes decided that I shouldn't be on the medication that I was on and refused to renew any of my prescriptions and wouldn't prescribe anything for me. Instead she wanted to redo all my tests again and then said that afterwards she would probably put me prednisone. A medication I already had experience with and knew would keep me up all night. Despite my husband's and I stating our concerns in regards to how this plan was going to help me deal with my pain and the disease she insisted that the disease just wasn't that bad.

She never asked me about my pain levels and I had to insist on telling her because the only thing she was taking into consideration was my blood test results and if I had swelling in my joints. At this point I should give you a little back ground. While my ANA test was positive in 2010 all other test results were normal, which makes me a seronegative. On top of that I have almost no swelling, so I'm atypical of a text book person with RA. For most doctors swelling is a sign of activity, so no swelling equals no activity. And my new rhuemy saw it as just that.

I ended up walking out of the office in tears.  I went home and made an appointment with my old Rhuematologist and now pay out of pocket to see her.  It's worth every penny I spend.