Hi Everyone!

Thought I'd drop in real quick to say hello and to see if any of you
know about the new meds that are coming down the pipeline for RA!

As most of you know, I got pretty sick over new years and landed in the
hospital for 8 days. Whew, haven't been that sick in a good long while.
Doctors ended up diagnosing me with pertussis, also known as whooping
cough!    Naive me, I didn't even know you could _get_ whooping cough
any more!   The doctor in the hospital told me that even if you've been
immunized, the immunization tends to wear off to some degree as we get
older.  That combined with the immunosuppressants we take, set me up for
this god awful disease!   In any case, the cough that comes with it has
been just horrendous to deal with.   I still can not sleep at all laying
down.   In fact, laying down causes immediate coughing spells that leave
me totally unable to catch my breath.   I have at least gotten to the
point where I can sleep for an hour or so at a time without coughing by
sitting upright and just leaning my head back against the back of the
couch.   Thank goodness I have high back couches.   I have been on cough
syrup with codeine, tylenol 4 with codeine, tesslon pearls, and throat
lozenges and still get into these nasty coughing spells that I can
barely catch my breath from and oh how my every muscle hurts from
coughing so hard for so long.  Needless to say, it has not been fun and
the doctors say it can take up to 8 weeks for the cough to disappear
completely.   Uggggggh!    Of course, my body didn't think we were
having enough fun with all of the above, so broke out in a rash and
hives all over last weekend.   Can we say hello benedryl and 100 mg of
pred so that my lungs wouldn't end up spasming more! The rash/hives are
just now starting to disappear completely.   We think the rash is from
an allergic reaction to the antibiotic they had me on.

I also had some new moderate interstitial fibrosing that showed up on my
chest x-ray, which is not a good thing.   Saw the RD yesterday and he is
continuing to hold both my enbrel and my mtx until the lung doctor can
figure out what is going on.  If the lung doctor thinks this is
rheumatoid lung or if he thinks it is from the mtx, my RD will pull me
off the mtx and enbrel permanently!   I just broke down and cried when
he told me that!    It is a bit scary to think I may have to come off
all my meds and be back to square 1 with the RA.   Thankfully my RD is a
great guy and he told me to cry and get everything out as he didn't want
me holding things in.   He said he knew I was one pretty tough bird, but
that I was also human and sometimes us humans just have to let it loose
and let the tears flow.   How sweet!   In any case, he also told me not
to get too freaked out if I have to come off the enbrel and the mtx as
there are at least 2 new drugs coming down the pipeline.   I think he
may have said one of them was called ?rituxin???    Any of you know what
the new meds are that are coming?   He said both are considered
biologics but that both new meds are far less likely to cause infection
risks.   Any info on these would be greatly appreciated!!!

I'm still pretty sick and still trying to get back to some semblance of
normal around here, so probably won't see me posting a whole lot just
yet.   Know, however, that I am thinking of you all and that I am
praying for all those who are also sick or who need the prayer in other
ways!!!

Hugs and blessings to you all and thank you so very, very, much to those
of you who have called, sent cards via snail mail, via email, etc!!!
You bless me beyond words!!!

happy new year to you all and may 2005 be a better year for everyone!!!

Donna G