This time, its personal

I have never really divulged into all too much personal information here on the Heisman Run, most of the time I won't even use the first person. For some reason, I felt like this may be a short form of therapy for what is on my mind lately.

I have been in and out of doctors offices for the last three years. I finally got a damn straight answer three weeks ago. I have psoriatic arthrtis. Yep, arthritis at 25. Actually, the best way to describe psoriatic arthritis is a case of psoraisis (reddish looking, flakey skin lesions scattered throughout the body) and arthritis (unusual swelling of the joints) put together.

To my recollection, the skin condition has been around since early grade school, mistaken for dandruff at that point. I was lucky that it almost disappeared during high school, I was already akward enough as a teenager. The skin conditions got worse during college, but they were still scattered enough to control effectively and it only got bad if I stopped using the topical creams that I was prescribed or some over the counter medicines. It was about three years ago when it became soemthing that changed my life.

It started with ankle pain, but not like a sprained/strained ankle - this hurt much deeper and much different. It was actually a stale pain that hurt while walking, but actually hurt more standing still. Most doctors that looked at it just told me to take a couple of Ibuprofen when needed, ice it down each night and try to stay off my feet. At the time, it was great news to ignore. The ankle soon became the other ankle soon became the knee and then the other knee, all from readjustments in the distribution of my weight while walking. One doctor called it bursitis, one called it cartilidge tears, one called it weak bones, one called it being overweight and one tested me for rhumetoid arthritis (same symptoms/different cause).

First it was Ibuprofen, then naparasin, then phsyical therapy, then Celebrex (the miracle drug). All of which are no longer in my medicine cabinet due to ineffectivness or concern for future heart problems. Then there was Mobic, another anti-inflamatory that did the trick if I took an additional dose when the pain became bad and too often it did. The pain continued to get worse, some mornings I fell out of bed because I coudn't put any weight on my elbows/shoulders and it was just easier to roll off the bed and hope that I landed on my feet for support for the way up.


Three weeks ago found my wife, who has been so supportive through this, and I in a rhumetologists office describing the pain, the frequency, the past medications and a number of questions that I surprisingly had not heard yet. She did have news - I was a fairly textbook case and treatment would be able to start out in a farily routine manner. We were going to treat things differently this time, start attacking the problem not trying to live with one of the symptoms. The cause of psoriatic arthritis is an overactivity of the immune system, resulting in both the skin condition and the inflamation. We were going to put my immune system in check, and get it working as it should. With the end goal in mind, the doctor prescribed a drug which is a very light dose of the same medicines used in chemotherapy.

I have been on this medicine for three weeks now, good news is that I seem to be taking well to it and we even strengthened my per week dosage. I haven't had a drink since. The doctor asked me how much I drank in the initial consultation and I told her that at most one drink/week, maybe a couple a month on an active month. She told me that would be too much. I do admit to enjoying a good drink occasionally, but I am nowhere near a regular drinker but now that I am being told that I have health reasons not to drink a Coors Light sure does sound good. But once again - the end goal is on my mind and for that some sacrifice is necessary.

The pain has subsided some, but the destination has no shortage of road ahead.

Thanks for reading... and my wishes for the best 2006, for you and me!