Happy New Year!!!

Yes I know I've been absent for more than 2 months, and I apologize.  Today was Stelara day and since I'm in bed listening to what I hope are New Year's fire works with the post Stelara flare and headache I figured I'd go ahead and say hi to everyone.

It's been a roller coaster of a year for both my health and my personal life.  Part of my absence has been the end of my 4 year relationship with someone I still care deeply for, but well, stuff happens.  I didn't want to come here and use the blog as a personal bitch and moan forum with passive aggressive nastiness so I have kept to myself for the most part.  The other part of my absence has been that my laptop is in need of updating (it decided to take a 5 minute thinking break right when I was typing this)and since my patience levels are at about zero I didn't want the aggravation it brings to me.  Stelara has made a lot of improvement for me.  My skin is nearly totally clear, out of a 6 week cycle I have huge improvement in functionality for about 4 weeks, but I'm pretty sure I'm still getting progressive damage happening especially in my lower back region and my left shoulder.  I see my Rheum on the 7th and plan to discuss options with her from going back to the nutritionist to tweek my diet, start PT to attempt to strengthen my core and the muscles around my shoulders and possibly getting some massage therapy, as well as increasing Arava.  The Arava is standardly only given at one dose level, but I found a study that they did see improvement in RA patients with an increase so I will be discussing with her if an increase might be worth the risk to try to boost the Stelara impact and longevity  of efficiency in each cycle since it really starts waning about week 8 of the 12 week cycle

So there you have my life for the last months.  Not really much to report.  I have tried to forward new information on meds and studies to the Sausage Toes and Scales Facebook page, but even that has been pretty neglected.  Hopefully I'll feel inspired and get back on here on a regular basis, but in the mean time may you all have a safe and joyous New Year!  Here is hoping that 2015 brings us that much closer to a cure for Psoriatic Disease.

~Heather