I just wanted to take time to give you all a progress report. Lots of things going on.

Mayo sent me home with a 4 week intense physical theraphy program to hopefully help with the sitting pain and to help me gain some strength. The result of all of this intensive therapy is that I drove myself to the beauty shop yesterday to get my hair cut. I haven't driven in almost two years. I still have several weeks to go on the pt and I can't say the sitting pain is any better, but..I have more strength in my legs, more balance and a much better outlook. We actually made a very brief foray into the local mini-mall and purchased me some sox. Hey..new socks for the first time in a couple of years. Yay!! I actually get up and feel better about my life. The physical therapy hasn't been easy and it doesn't seem to be getting any easier to do but I am doing it. I freely admit..it hurts..but I feel I have to do the very best I can.

The middle back strain has gotten better, I can bend now without it catching in my back so obviously I injured something with all the lifting/traveling/whatever and hopefully it is healing. Just have to be careful not to do it again.

I have also gained some weight. I'm hoping some of it is muscle. But some of it may be because I'm not so depressed. My appetite is better and I think the additional dose of Lyrica has helped cut down the pain in my tongue. The whey shakes (thanks Mrs. D and Melody) have helped with this. Now I just need to maintain and not get fat. I'm hoping I can do this with some of the good diet tips you all have posted on this forum.

Nothing has changed about my medical situation. No changes in testing at the rheumatologist two weeks ago. The inflammatory process is still neutralized and he is cutting out one Indomethecin giving me only a morning dose. This is to allow my ulcer more room to heal. He is recommending I have a followup endoscopy in two months to be sure the ulcer and erosions are healed/healing and to test again for the h-pylori bacteria. This is all just a safety precaution. I'll do this locally. Cutting the dose will give me an increase in overall pain but he thinks it is necessary because of my compromised immune system. He also feels that we should start cutting down the methotrexate and Humira doses to give my body the balance it needs. He plans to do this slowly so we can keep an eye on things. Mayo told us that they would not recommend I go any lower than 15 mg on the methotrexate due to the nervous system involvement. That means I can drop 5 mg and still have the protection from it. And dropping 5 mg means that I will be that much less likely to develop the cancer, bone marrow, etc. problems that can come from these drugs.

We still plan to go back to Mayo in late Spring to have the pelvic floor therapy. Dreading that trip terribly, but maybe I will be in much better physical condition and we will have learned from the previous trip what to do and not to do. And the therapy might help me with another serious problem.

All of these things add up to a much happier, healthier me. Now I just wish we could get my sweet husband's back/hip problem cleared up. He's not getting any better and physical therapy has actually made it worse. He's scheduled for a sacro. joint injection to see if that gives him relief or helps diagnose what is wrong.

Once again, I've written a book, but I thought I'd pass on the things that have come out of this trip for us.
Love to all,
Billye