Possible Flare!!! Yikes!!!

[elephant]

Glad everything went well for you Phil!

[cutecats2]

i wouldnt at this point .. it really plays with you .. or just call the doc and see .. before the apointment ..

[moyan]

Thanks to all you encouraging naggers. Had a great appointment with my GP and now in progress: Apps with ENT, Rheumy and plastic surgeon to see if something can be done about the hole where the toe was. Been 2 years so....Mon is infection specialist so I am really on the move thanks to all of you, Andrew not the least for organizing this site. Sangye, I brought the e-mailaddress for Vasculitis center and doc really appreciated that.
A good day when I most needed it!!

[elephant]

So gald you had a great day. Like I say one day at a time and one task at a time. We will all get there to see the rainbow with a pot of blueberry muffins.

[Sangye]

Yeah, Weggies ALWAYS celebrate with food!!! So glad to hear you're making progress, Moyan.

[pberggren1]

Well I saw my Rheumy on Friday. She figures that I have a sinus infection and that taking the Bactrim every day versus every other day should do the trick in fighting off further infections. My ANCA from last week was only 11 and she said that infections can make it rise like that.

[Jack]

I hope she is right, but it all sounds so familiar.

Personally I doubt that increasing the Bactrim will have any effect, but I am indulging in a little diagnosis via internet here! I take Bactrim myself every day and it has been helpful in keeping most of the infections down, but it is an old antibiotic and there are a lot of resistant bugs out there. When I get a difficult one, I have to change to a different antibiotic for a while.

[elephant]

Jack how much prednisone are you on now? Was wondering how your ears are feeling after bumping up the Prednisone to 10 mg. How long did it take for your ears to feel better?

[elephant]

Phil, I hope it is an infection. Hope you feel well. I feel a little nag coming on, but I am going to hold my breath!

[Jack]

Within a couple of weeks of going back to 10 mg all the pain I was starting to experience in my ears went away, unfortunately the deafness and tinitus did not. I have the feeling that an even bigger dose might improve things further, but I don't want to go there. I'm now resigned to the fact that 10 mg of pred is as low as I'm going to be able to go. It is the dose I have been taking for the past 10 years. Before that I was on 5 mg for quite a while, but more during flares.