Hey yall, its been a very long time and im not even sure if anyone here
will remember me, but i do know ONE kind person remember me and my
husband twice in the past few months (you know who you are, thank you
for the cards). My life has completely done a 180 from around the time
i remember last posting. I just started a new full time position
working as a receptionist. This is my last week of training and monday
is the first day. I can't wait. My doc hooked me up with duragesic pain
patches and that has changed my life completely. I dont have to down so
many pills. I rarely have flares and even when I do they are so muted
compared to the loudness and uncomfortable and painfullness of the way
it was before the patches. The doc did want me to try remicade, but my
husband and I decided that it just wasn't the choice we wanted to make
and financially couldnt, we had tried a few ways to get it, and then
just as we made the decision to NOT, we got word that we had funding if
we wanted it, but we turned it down. I am doing so well right now. I
sleep all night without sleep medicine. Im still on steroids, BUT, im
down to 5mg a day (highest was 20mg a day) and I've lost 37 of the 75
pounds that that daarn drug made me gain. Its a mix of me giving up
soda, fast food (though i do get a taco from taco bell every now and
then) and drinking water and of course the most important thing, my job
included me walking and for thepast month and a half I have been taking
so many more steps then the days I was just spending in bed. SO far,
I'm losing about 2-5 pounds every few weeks and I can finally fit back
into my old clothes and feel comfortable enough to go out of the house
socially. I had to leave my other newsgroup completely because of the
stalker. He was still posting things about me and my husband even as
late as last month. This is the longest he hasnt posted anything in
almost a year and a half. We now belong to a somewhat semi private
message board where we are moderators and all the members believe in
being nice to each other, and respectable to others if they have
different opinions( isnt that sad that we have to be semi private
because people wont be NICE?). I have also been posting on kickas.org
somewhat regularly so maybe some of you know how I've been doing.
Anyways...I wanted to stop in and say thank you for the cards and let
you guys know that I hope for a day that I can comfortably post on the
newsgroups again.

*big soft hugs and a bag of M&M's for ALL of you ;-)

marnie