Well it's official. I am having a flare. Its been almost 7 years since my extended hospital stay leading to the WG diagnosis. I can't help but think the flare is my fault and how am I going to tell my children. I guess I should start at the beginning...
I'm August we took a vacation to the ocean. It was wonderful, the sun, warm weather and family time. I didn't want to return to cold indiana. But we did. And the kids went back to school and we went back to work. A week later, my kids were sick. Then I became sick. Of course I brushed it off with every logical reason I could think of. My favorite was telling myself it's just allergies. It was 3 weeks later and I was getting worse. My hands, elbows and knee joints were swollen. my toes began to turn purple! So I went to the Dr. Everything sign points to a flare except for the labs. Out of the 10 tubes of blood and 3 ct's only 2 labs were slightly off. The drs said and I agree, this is a flare. My numbers dont change Much unless it's a major problem. I've doubled my Imuran added prednisone and the symptoms are decreasing. I was so excited about being down to 50 Imuran after almost 7 years and doing reasonably good. So the flare has been upsetting. What did I do? Was it caused by my taking probiotics? Maybe I pushed the drs too much bc I want off the Imuran to avoid the high cancer risk caused by it. I may never know what caused it.
In the next few months, I get to start the Rituxan treatment. I have not had since diagnosis. It didn't work then. So one of my drs questions it. But it's worth the try right? If not, we Will try the cytoxan.