Halving the hydroxy has helped the nausea!

[marmaduke]

Cut my hydroxy by half a week ago and it has definitely helped the dreadful nausea I was experiencing. It hasn't gone completely, but I can live with it. I've just got an appointment to see the rheumatologist between Christmas and New Year, so I'm hoping that she is happy with the current level of drugs I'm taking and doesn't want to 'up' them. Still got sore hands and feet and two of my knuckles are a bit swollen; right wrist is probably the worst, but I haven't taken any Naproxen for the last two weeks (trying to give my stomach a bit of a rest), and I certainly couldn't have functioned without it two months ago. At the moment, they are sore rather than painful. Hopefully that means the DMARDS are beginning to work. Anyway, I'll see what she says in a fortnight.

Love to you all

Helen

xx

[Hidden]

That's really good Helen. Halving my Hydroxy lessened my nausea too but now I find I keep forgetting to take it and am wondering if that's why my hands and wrists feel hot, swollen and achy and SO stiff again. It's a bit of a balancing act isn't it?! Tilda x

[marmaduke]

Although I*'m fairly new to all this, I am quickly learning it is very much a balancing act Tilda, and the meds we are taking now are not just about how we are feeling now, but hopefully affecting how we would have felt in the future without them; something we will never be able to measure of course. Pain free would be good, but I'm a realist and know that people suffer stuff, and as long as I can function nearly normally (whatever that is!!) and don't get progressively worse, then I'll be happy. As this site shows, there are ALWAYS people a lot worse off than ,me. I just hope I'll be able to pick up a paint brush again someday fairly soon

Helen

xx

[mistymeana]

Hi Helen, know how you feel about the paint brush! I'm a bit of a demon knit (others might say the alternative spelling) when the mood strikes. Started knitting myself a cotton sweater in summer before things flared and at the moment will be lucky to get it finished by next summer. Had a go last week out of sheer bloody-minded determination and managed one, very painful and slow, row. Have you tried ginger for the nausea? It's completely safe with meds and one of the things suggested to expectant mums for morning sickness. Peppermint tea can help too. I use both and find they help knock the edge of the sickness and grotty tum. Might help you keep your meds to an effective level without you feeling to grotty x

[earthwitch in reply to mistymeana]

Have you ever looked at trying to use a knitting belt (knitting sheath) to help your hands a bit? Its what the Shetland knitters use, and it really does take the weight of knitting off your hands and means you don't have to grip the needles so hard. You can find youtube videos on using a knitting belt, and you can buy them from Jamieson and Smith in Shetland (online ordering) as well as ebay sometimes and other places. Also, ravelry.com has groups of folk using knitting belts and they will help you out with instructions and hints. I do know of someone who had a stroke and not only has use of one hand that can still knit with one. It definitely takes a bit of practice to use, and you do need to switch your knitting onto long double point needles, but once you get used to the technique you wonder why you ever knitted the ordinary way.

[mistymeana in reply to earthwitch]

Thanks earthwitch, I'll have a look x

[mistymeana in reply to mistymeana]

Ha a look and not sure it'd make a lot of difference for me as I knit the european way(mum is German) and it's the discomfort of holding the needles at all at the mo Many thanks for the suggestion though x