It's been an interesting couple of weeks.  You don't even want to know all
that I did this past week!  Now, once I get rid of this migraine which should
be up tonight and get through church tomorrow, I can rest more and start
catching up on housework some.  We don't have anything big again until we
take off again on Labor Day.  My newsreader's been having issues - I finally
got it to download all my newsgroups again, but it's still not sorting them
as it should.  Hopefully I have it to the point where I can keep up again
(just in time for college football season!).

I saw my RD last Thursday.  At long last, my albumin was *almost* in the
normal range.  The question now is whether it's a result of being off enbrel
or of the 2 dose packs I went through on our trip to Germany.  At least it's
bought us some time for me to enjoy the warmer weather.  I'm off enbrel at
least until my next appointment in latter Sept.  He gave me a script for
another dose pack if I need it, but I'll try to hold off so we get a clearer
picture of what's up.

Of course, I am slowing flaring more and more.  And, in that priceless way
RDs have, mine found a couple of flaring joints I thought weren't bothering
me.  Oddly enough, my energy seems to be improving a bit, so maybe I really
am absorbing protein more effectively.  I just don't know where we'll go
DMARD-wise though enbrel was the problem.  I still feel like someone's future
journal article.

I'd wanted to get my bunions fixed this fall, before the real snows start,
but I figure I shouldn't go to the podiatrist about this while my toes are
flaring.  Things are much worse toe-wise right now.  I'll talk to my PCP
about it at my checkup next month.  Right now I'm back to having to keep my
toes off the mattress at night .  If they rest on the mattress, it's painful
enough to keep me awake.  I've been here before and with a lot more joints at
that point, so I can live with it for a while - I'm just not sure it's the
right time to have the joints evaluated for bunion surgery!  This really is
NOT the way I want my life to be interesting.