February Update

Happy Lent everyone! I never seem to make time to write blog posts when things are going smoothly, so my apologies for ending the long gap in posts with more less-than-good news. But I know some people want to hear what's going on, so here's the deal:

In my routine blood work at the beginning of December, my bilirubin levels were a bit high. So, my doctor asked me to come back in to retest them in a month. They were quite a bit higher at the retest, so she asked me to stop taking my Cimzia (the immune-suppressant injection I do every two weeks). Liver problems would be an unusual side effect of Cimzia, but it was worth checking to see if stopping those injections would help. (One positive effect of this hiatus is that I can say with confidence that the Cimzia had been helping. It's sometimes hard to tell, when my pain levels are so variable anyway. But I've definitely noticed my pain increasing significantly over the past month, and it's made for some pretty rough days and nights. So - the Cimzia does help somewhat. Good to know.)

Anyway, after a month off the Cimzia, I went in for a retest last week, and my liver numbers are still climbing. The upside: I am able to restart the Cimzia, since it seems unlikely that it's the culprit. Hopefully it will kick in again soon and my pain will be more manageable. The downside: neither my rheumatologist nor my primary care doctor know what's going on, so now I have to go see a liver specialist to see if we can figure it out and decide what needs to be done next.

It was going to take until late March to get in to see the liver specialist, which is way longer than I want to wait to get this resolved. Fortunately, the doctor has a physician assistant that I can see next week, so we'll start there.

As is always wise when you have undiagnosed medical problems, I've spent a fair amount of time with Doctor Google. (Actually, I don't have too much of a tendency to freak out about things I read on the internet, so mostly it's just helpful information gathering.) From what I can tell, and from what my doctor has said, it seems like high bilirubin can be caused by all sorts of different things, some of which are serious and some of which are not a big deal at all. And it seems like there's no real way of knowing at this point. So, I'm choosing not to worry about it. We'll just wait and see what I find out next Friday. I'm not turning yellow yet, so I think that's a good sign. :)

It's been a rough couple of months, but I'm trying to remember that this time of year is always rough in Wisconsin - chronic illness or not. Seriously, we all need some more warmth and sunshine! I'm hopeful that restarting the Cimzia will bring my pain back to "I can live with this" levels and that the liver thing will end up being no big deal. If not, at least I have spring and Easter to look forward to!

In the meantime, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving seem like a good way to pass the time while I wait:"Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God."