Day 322 of 365

Three separate people asked me about my health yesterday. Two of the people have probably only ever asked me once - ever - so it seemed quite unusual to have three in one day. It was only after repeating my story more than once did it become clear. This drug cocktail I'm on for arthritis has gotten way out of control.

I have:

• A weekly injection that can cause TB.
• A weekly injection of a chemotherapy drug that has some of the side effects you would expect. It also causes a depletion in folic acid which requires me to take...
• Folic Acid daily
• The combination of the chemotherapy drug and the years I was on anti-inflammatories has torn up my stomach, so twice daily I take medication specifically for my stomach.
• A twice daily anti-malaria drug which, among other things, can cause blindness, hence my multiple visits to the eye doctor.
• An occasional dose of addictive pain medication.
• A couple other non-arthritis related long-term daily medications.

And I'm still waiting for the last ditch effort to come through. The thousands of dollars a month IV option, the one the insurance company has twice denied.

Going through the list then led me to some questions. What kind of person takes a combination of medications like that? How did I wind up on such extreme medications? And why so many? Thinking about it had me waking up this morning feeling kind of bad about things. Almost feeling sorry for myself. Almost.

I am so grateful and thankful I have things in place to keep me from lamenting my situation. There is always something to organize, but more importantly there is always something to make for charity.

I finished my Disaster Auction quilt. I'm happy  it came out the way I envisioned. I need to get my quilt label on it and it will be good to go.