Azathioprine anyone?

Mat48

Hi - been off ill after nine months off Methotrexate. Before Christmas I struggled with prescription dosage of Aspirin and coming off Duloxetine after five months. I found the former worsened my nose bleeds and made me sick and the latter was terribly hard to come off. In the end I had to open capsules and empty a little more every day. Even coming off it slowly seemed to reduce me to a pulp of nausea and terrible head pain.

Since then I have had flu followed by pneumonia. Meanwhile my rheumatologist agreed that my immune system seemed to have gone a bit desperate so we decided that once I was sufficiently well again I should start Azathiorine as my fourth DMARD to date. I still only have a few tender and slightly swollen joints and still suffer much more from nerve pain thought out my body. The main reason my doctors think this is inflammatory rather than an idiopathic neuropathy is because my ESR fluctuates according to how I feel so I can predict it pretty perfectly now. Last week I wrote down that it would be 58 and it was!

The main pain I'm struggling with is in my teeth. It isn't toothache specifically because it affects all my teeth equally. It could be just my confirmed bruxism or it could be TMD. I use a night guard which I've already chewed a hole in! The oral specialist I saw has put me down for an X-ray in June but my physio thinks it's unlikely to be arthritis/ RA as I don't have a problem opening my mouth widen - just with chewing food and a general ache and this deep ache in my nose and ears very similar to pain in my peripheries. All a bit baffling as are most of my symptoms to be honest!

Anyhow I have felt pretty okay on this new DMARD for my first week. Had my first weekly blood monitoring test today and not heard anything yet to disturb my new found positivism. Oh yes and also we have a plan to move to Fife as soon as we have sold our house. Another reason to feel excited and optimistic that Azathioprine will turn out to be my miracle drug!

I see a local surgeon about longstanding upper abdominal issues. I haven't really had the awful gnawing pain in my gut since coming off Duloxetine but I do find all NSAIDs make my tummy ache and bloat me up badly despite the tummy protectors. Not sure whether he will want to investigate further as I don't have many problems just now but they have always been intermittent and it would be typical to say everything is okay and then all the trouble starts again - it's taken about five months for this consultation to arrive. I do have gallstones so even if these are checked out again I guess this might prove useful.