Several hours later I sit in a wheelchair. My doctor gives me a shot of Depo Medrol and puts me on a maintenance dose of prednisone. By that night, I can roll onto my side and get off the toilet by myself, and by the next morning I go back to work.
The Doctor, Medicine, and Relief
People who don’t have RA say it causes stiffness and pain. Those words seem awfully benign compared to what really happens. The stiffness is incredible, it’s like something wraps you in invisible packing tape during the night. It’s not just morning stiffness either—for me it was like a heavy fog, lifting slightly in the middle of the day only to roll in again by late afternoon. And the pain…I didn’t know they made pain like that.
Even with the prednisone, I still had a lot of pain, but at least I could function. I started the biologic and was very lucky because I felt improvement exactly three days after the first shot. My life has quality again, and I feel lucky to have access to this drug that helps me so much. My biggest fear is that the drugs will stop working. My biggest frustration is all the people who think this disease isn’t serious.
I realize now how fortunate I was to be diagnosed and treated in such a short period of time. I cannot even contemplate what my life would have been like if it had taken longer to get relief, and I am forever grateful to my kind and caring rheumatologist.
For some of us, response is limited, the drugs stop working, or access to medication is not possible. For the first time, as I write this, I feel that something good will come from all that pain. More awareness of what many of us go through with this disease. Validation for a disease that changes lives and steals dreams.
Lisa Glavish lives in Reno, Nev.
