Gambling on Life: The Trials of Treatment

This post, like others that will follow it, is a continuation of my Gambling On Life series.

My last post you might think that my hope had waned; Numerous labs and scans and no significant results?

Yeah, that’s disheartening.

However, I am now 2 follow-up visits in post-results, and have to say, it’s not as bad as it seems.

The first follow-up was reassuring; my doctor told me it’s not uncommon to have inconclusive test results, and we’ll now move on to trying various medications to see what works.

Let me step back a bit: My concern has frequently been “will I be believed?”

A regular issue chronic pain sufferers deal with is folks not believing them when they describe what they go through every minute of every day.

To get test results that don’t indicate something is wrong? Well, that’s about the worst thing a spoonie can hear.

Thankfully, my doctor believed me.. And he told me just looking at my joints and the way I move that something is definitely wrong.

The joint thing was interesting; apparently my reddish, swollen joints are not normal looking, and I didn’t realize it until I started comparing them to other folks and realized.. Huh, yeah, that is weird.

Anyway, we’re starting with Hydroxychloroquin: Yes, that drug that was touted as a COVID-19 treatment that gubbmint was trying to hide from you (and the whole run on it absolutely fucked friends of mine who suffer from Lupus, so yeah, that was bullshit).

Unfortunately, so far, I’m not experiencing any relief.. However, my doctor wants me to keep trying it for a bit as it can take a while before patients respond to it.

I’m really hoping it does work, because my second follow-up we discussed next steps if it doesn’t, and a lot of the options involve things I’m not fond of: Regular labs, and injectables.

The reason for that is something we’ll discuss in detail in a later post.