medical update

Another medical update is necessary.
We went and saw a Rheumatologist here in town the middle of Aug. He readily admitted that he has never seem GM, let alone GM and EN together. However, after having visited with him a few times, we are confident that even though he has never seen it, he is doing all he can to understand it. He really wants to get me off Prednisone. So, in order to do that, I need to take a different anti-inflamatory medicine. The medicine of choice is Methotrexate. It's a medicine that cancer patients use, and Dr's even use it as an abortive drug. It's a pretty scary choice for me, but after a week of studying, worrying, and talking to 2 different Dr's about it, I have decided that the side effects of the Metho are less than the side effects of the prednisone. The prednisone has not done my body well. My face is starting to swell, and I have a never ending appetite.
Over the next few months, I am slowly starting to taper down the prednisone. In addition, I am taking the Metho once a week, along with a Folic acid tablet.
The Rheumatologist decided that I should see a Dr. at a teaching hospital. I now have an appt to see a Dr. in a neighboring state(about 8 hour drive away) at the end of Sept. Hopefully he will have experience with GM and EN(together? even better) and he will help us to understand how, and why it happened, whether it will go away, and what do we do from here?

The best part? I get an entire weekend away with my DH, just him and me. We don't get away without kids very often, so I can't hardly wait.

In the meantime, I am vigilant about taking my pill regimen each morning. The local Rheumatologist believes I will be taking them for 1-2 years. My breast surgeon is thinking closer to 6 months. I am curious to see what the other Rheumatologist will say about a timeline. The sooner the inflammatory mass goes away the sooner I can get off all these drugs. It is getting smaller, only at a snails pace.