Hello from Norway

[Havellen]

I am a 19 year old boy from Lier, Norway who have been diagnosed with WG for about 3 months! Before you continue to read, I must say sorry if there are any grammatical errors, english is not my first language...

I have been having weird sinus problems for maybe 3 years, but only a runny nose who wouldn't go away.

It all started in may, when I participated in a graduation party called "russetid" in Norway, basically people buy a van or a buss, upgrade it, and drive around partying for a month! Under the last week I started getting joint pain, but an Ibux (same as advil) made it go away for the rest of the day! This lasted for a month with increasing pain so I went to the doctor, and they gave me something like advil, but stronger. At the end of june I went to a festival in Norway called Hovefestivalen, and there I partied for a week! I was a volunteer in the security-group of the festival, so I was watching over a bar when my other symptoms started to appear. My ankle started to get red with a weird bruise, and my right eye stared hurting.
The next day I want to the medic-tent where I got sent to the nearby hospital. There I met a doctor who gave me a cream to apply to the rash and some Antihistamines for an allergy she thought I had. I went back to the festival and continued to party with my friends. Later that night my right eye got much worse, I couldn't focus on things close to me. My joints also got much worse, and I had to skip a concert with Calvin Harris because my joints was so painful.

After the festival was over i went home where my dad said I should get to the doctor to check out my eye. I went and got diagnosed with a iridocyclit on my eye. I got some eye drops and a cream to apply to my eye. 2 days later my family went to the other side of Norway, (Lakselv), on a vacation to visit some relatives. There i continued to have joint pain and eye problems. My other eye also got an iridocyclit, so both my eyes was red and painful. I was a week there and then I went home. Mu mother and father went on a vacation in our boat, and me and my brother stayed home. When i was home my joints was extremely painful, I had started to cough blood,and i had gotten a weird rash at my elbows so I went to the ER, where my regular doctor was on vacation. I got sent to the doctor on call, a nice female doctor. She took some blood and a urine sample and an hour later i got called into see her again. She told me I most likely had WG, and said I was being admitted to the nearby hospital. In the 40 years she had been working there she had only seen one other person with the same symptoms as i had, and she thought it was most likely I had WG.

I got sent to the hospital where I was put into a bedpost and got some pain meds and some of my blood was taken. It was really late by then so i went to bed without any more test get taken. The next day I got woken up by a nurse who wanted some of my blood. I got sent to take CT of my lung and sinuses. By then my mother, who had been on our boat 150 miles away, got home and to the hospital. Later that day I got the news that it was WG, and I got started on 1g of prednisolone for 3 days. When the meds kicked in I had very much energy and the pain in my joints went away. it was very difficult to sleep that night, but I managed to get some hours of sleep anyway. I was at the hospital for 5 days, and they must have been the most boring 5 days of my life! Thank god for my mothers ipad and netflix! By day 4 I asked the doctor for some free time to go to the city and eat with my friends, before everyone went there different way to study for the fall. They said yes, and I went and saw my friends! I think i might have been gone for a little too long, because I got a stern telephone from one of the nurses asking where I was (I forgot to take some meds :O). The last day of my hospital-visit i got Rituximab infused and I went home.

The next day I went to another town because of moving to another school. I spent 4 days looking for an apartment while I was there, and then I went home again. A week after my first Rituximab infusion I got to take another one. An hour later I was on my way to my new apartment with all my stuff packed in a car. The next days and weeks was pretty uneventful, just regular doctor checkups each month and taking my meds! I went from 50 mg of Prednisolone a day and 20 mg of Methotrexate a week to 20 mg Methotrexate a week and 15 mg of Prednisolone a day.

To conclude I must say I got diagnosed pretty fast, and because I take my meds, I don't feel sick at all. The doctor says I do good progress, and there are almost no signs of damage to my organs. For me the diagnosis haven't altered anything about my life, except from taking some medication each morning, but that is no problem! I feel like I have a really positive outlook on the whole disease, and it really doesn't bother me!

So yeah, thank you for all the information on the site!