LEFLUNOMIDE UPDATE

From last Tuesday's Sunstone run (Indy Mini hat!)

I've now been on leflunomide for two weeks. The first week has a half dose and I've been doing the full dose for seven days now. The verdict? Still nothing on the side effects front. That's good news! I feel like if the medicine was going to cause fatigue, nausea, or gastrointestinal issues I would have felt them by now. Knock on wood, but zip, zero, nada for side effects, which is encouraging. I suppose I could still see my hair fall out...

So half of the puzzle is working out well. Side effects wise this stuff is SO MUCH BETTER for me than methotrexate. It's a non factor, whereas I was dreading my weekly dose of methotrexate practically all week. Symptom wise I am still symptom free! My knees and other affected joints feel great. The methotrexate is still somewhat in my system and the leflunomide is building, so we'll see if there is a point where I have a flare in the transition. However, so far so good. Let's hope once I am solely on the leflunomide I still have complete symptom relief. That would be the dream!

On the running front I am continuing to get better slowly. I was pretty pleased with the 10k turkey trot on Thanksgiving. Because I didn't want to push anything, I didn't go to any group run on Saturday morning. I didn't want to put 10 or more miles on my legs that close after a race - even though they felt pretty good. I figured I'd go out for a long run Sunday, maybe 8 miles, but by the time Sunday rolled around it was cold and rainy and I just couldn't motivate myself. So I had three days of rest in a row, which hasn't happened in a while.

Anyways, to somewhat make up for that, I am going to try running four days this week, up one from my usual three. I already have two down, Monday at PRC and Tuesday with Sunstone. I'll run with Sunstone again Thursday and then join their long run on Saturday. This weekend is actually the last weekend before the Holiday Half. Yikes! I'm going to extend the 10 miler with Sunstone on Saturday to 12 miles by running a couple extra after we are back. I could do 13 easy right now, but I think it would give me a little piece of mind to get those extra couple in just to be sure.

Later gators.