The next step?
I don’t want to be sick anymore. I’ve had enough of it. I’ve had enough of the days where getting out of bed seems like climbing Mount Everest, where showering is my greatest accomplishment. I’ve had enough of the days where all I can think about is the pain as it consumes my body and takes over every aspect of my life. We tried treating my joint pain with plaquenil, a hydroxychloroquine used to treat and prevent malaria but also for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis so we thought it might work for me. It was the first step, with low risks and hardly any side effects and thankfully I didn’t get any, but it also didn’t work. So we had to go onto phase two, corticosteroids and chemo. This has been the longest and toughest of journeys with many side effects and sleepless nights that have left me wondering, “What the hell am I doing?” Doses were changed constantly and my body was put on a rollercoaster as it tried to keep up with all the medications. But some of them worked. The only ...