Well who would’ve thought it, A personal update on here!… It has after all been ages!

So what do I have to tell you? Nothing that exciting in all honesty!

Let start with health Issues.  Anyone that knows me will know I’ve had Psoriasis since my mid teens, It’s never really responded very well to any treatments, Normally showing improvement for a few weeks or months before deciding to fight back.  I’m long past using creams and ointments and I’ve had my lifetimes fill of UVA Light treatment (Basically controlled use of a hospital sunbed). In the meantime I’ve developed horrible joint and muscle pains over the past few years which is a suspected combination psoriatic arthritis and Ankylosing spondylitis (I’m hoping for a proper diagnosis this week at a hospital review), which I’ve been using painkillers to try an at least take the edge off the pain. In the meantime some new biological drugs have been invented, All very expensive and difficult to be accepted for with many hoops to jump through.

Last year I finally met all the criteria to use Humira.  This drug is injected into your thigh once a fortnight using this automatic Pen thing, It bloody hurts like hell when it goes in!, This drug was like a miracle cure!! All my pain went away within 8 hours of my first injection, I couldn’t believe it… I was practically bouncing across the yard at work lol.  All was going well until about 3 months in when that was it, My skin suddenly went from clear to covered in a matter of days so that was the end of that.

Since then I have been using another type of injection called Stelara, Even more expensive that the Humira, and only injected once every three months.  It’s worked great for my skin but sadly it does absolutely nothing for my Joint pain so I’m back to square one with that and have been struggling along with the pain for the past 9 months trying various painkillers to see if they help.  None have really, with one having some particulary horrible withdrawal symptoms once I stopped using it.  I am now just using co-codamol with reduces the pain to muddle through until the next appointment with the rheumatologist, and combining it with Physio, Acupuncture, diet & exercise.

On the subject of diet & exercise, Last February I joined a Gym!! This was seen as many as very strange behaviour for me!  Even weirder, I decided with a workmate to share a personal trainer! :-O

To date I have lost 66lbs and gained a fair bit of muscle, Which I’m hoping will protect my joints a bit more by making them stronger and of course less damage to them by losing the extra weight I’m carrying.

So far I am actually enjoying it, and seeing some muscle form, especially on my arms, is quite a good feeling.  Still got a fair way to go but I’m still plodding along with it.

Can you see the difference?? (I can’t! lol)

There isn’t really a lot else to tell you.  I now do the same split duty at work every day so I can go to Physio and hospital , So I am on the same timed buses Monday to Friday, Which I guess is ideal for anyone looking to stalk me lol.

Tell me what’s been going on it your lives in the comments. 🙂