IT'S NOT GETTING BETTER

An interesting experience. It's loud!

Let's catch you all up since we last talked. Not a ton has happened, my symptoms have remained and seem to be more persistent. I haven't have the periods of "green" that I had before. Most days are a "yellow" now with the occasional "red." I did go on a four mile walk Christmas morning and on the third day after that I had a flareup. Almost like clockwork. I can't even go on walks or use the elliptical or anything without triggering it. It's definitely worse than this summer when I was doing PT and is becoming more debilitating by the day.

Two weeks ago or so I had an MRI on my right knee. Nothing special about the right knee, they just have to do one knee so they picked the right once since it was slightly more tender to the touch. The orthopedic doc doesn't seem to think it will really show anything, but I had hit my deductible and with the end of the year approaching it was a good idea to just get it done and rule anything mechanical out for sure. So I actually don't have the results from that back, but I'm expecting that it won't show anything. He'll be back from vacation soon and let me know for sure.

I did see the orthopedic doctor again just a few days after my last post. I mentioned the psoriatic arthritis thing and he seemed to think that was a good guess. His next step was going to be to refer me to a rheumatologist, and confirmation that I had psoriasis made that decision even more clear. He was pretty confident that MRI would rule out anything mechanical and referred me along even without the results of that. Which is probably a good thing, because the waiting list at the rheumatologist is two months!

That is the next step though, on February 20th I see the rheumatologist. Ugh. So far away with increasing symptoms. I'm on the waiting list if anything pops up sooner. Anyways, it just sucks, because I know eventually permanent damage can be done to my joints. Based on what I'm reading, exercise can't really make things worse, but I don't know about that, because it often causes the large flares ups. I don't know. Anyways, my plans to be semi in shape for Miami are out the window. Hopefully I can get two or three more short runs in and then just call it good. That race is going to put me in a wheelchair. After that I'll just lay very low until the 20th of February.

So that's the update. I just really want to see the rheumatologist and get this fixed. Assuming it is psoriatic arthritis, I can go on drugs and it basically should go into remission. I should be able to walk around like a normal young person again and not feel like I am 80 years old and in constant joint pain. I just want that day to be here already.