RA news

In RA news, I saw my rheumatologist Thursday and he wants me to get a cortisone injection in my ankle because of the lingering swelling. Usually I'm the one pushing for these things, but he suggested it, after I get new x-rays to see if there's any damage yet. (Weirdly, he said my x-rays 2 years ago showed some slight erosions in my right ankle...yet it's my left, and only my left, that bothers me.) It has been bugging me more lately. Running tends not to be too bad for the most part, but walking AFTER I run definitely leaves me looking and feeling like an old lady. I love my ankle brace, but I want it to squeeze even more.

Here's the best way to describe the pain (in the joint at least...there's some pain in the soft tissue too that I can't describe): it's like the ankle really really really needs a good hard jerk and twist so that it will crack. The problem is that I don't have full range of motion and so actually doing that would hurt beyond belief. Sometimes I get "lucky" and I will have a few steps of intense pain followed by a spontaneous crack that makes me smile because it feels so good (after). But I have no control over when this happens which is frustrating! Although most of the time it just feels a little swollen, but not painful. Although my doctor believes I must have a super high pain tolerance to still be running, lifting, and (he just shook his head at this one) playing soccer. It's not necessarily true...though I did give birth without an epidural, so just maybe I can tolerate pain slightly better than average.

Supposedly this Thursday I will have my WebMD piece put up, 7 months later! I will link to it then.