"M" is for mediocre

This blog post is brought to you by the letter "M".

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Well - mediocre, uninteresting, uneventful, and blah are all words to describe how medical journey is going. I had bloodwork done on Friday to check my inflammation markers. One inflammation marker, SED rate went down a little bit and the other inflammation marker, CRP, went up. These results led to two things: 1) Slowing down my steroid taper. (At least we are still tapering which is moving in the right direction).

2) Adding another medication into my regimen. I will now be injecting Methotrexate weekly. Methotrexate is an immunosuppressant that is often paired with biologic drugs (in my case, Humira). Methotrexate is also used as chemotherapy to treat cancer - so don't read into the side effects and warnings too much. I have been on methotrexate in the past.

In the whole scheme of things, there has not been a lot of movement toward my valve replacement surgery. I found out about the aortic valve needing repair/replacement on 12.25.2022 and I met with the surgery team on 01.09.2023. At that point we were estimating at least 6 weeks to get my steroids tapered to what the surgery team wanted (5mg). This would have put my surgery at the end of February. It is now March and I have tapered to a 16mg/20mg alternating dose of steroids this week. I knew in the back of my mind that this would be a slow process, but I wasn't fully prepared for just how slow things could move.

We appreciate all the visits, calls, texts, notes, gifts, and food that everyone has showered upon us, We feel loved and cared for.

Isn't this beautiful? My friend Laurie made it and it came with some encouragement cards already on it. I have added some more from you all, and still have a few empty clips.

I have also received several things from my Amazon wish list recently. I am looking forward to thanking everyone for how they have brightened my days. But there were quite a few things that came last week without a gift receipt or note. If you sent a ZZ plant, a Bamboo plant, box of chips. Jelly Belly jellybeans, cotton rope basket, bedside caddy, or Little Mermaid lanyard - thank you! Everyone's generosity is appreciated.