Time flies and I'm thankful

It's coming to a year since I did the standard chartered half marathon in 2013.  At that time, I pushed myself and the flare up came fast and hard, and I think that put me out of action for months.  Since then, I've taken things slow and this year has been a relatively good year for me.

I can't believe how time flies though.  The year is almost over, where did it go?  Right now I'm sitting in a cab, heading back to the office from an appointment. Passed by Singapore General Hospital and I was awashed with memories of sitting in the SNEC (Singapore National Eye Centre) waiting my turn for consultation.  In one year alone, I was hit by the iridocyclitis flare up twice.  And this year, I was free of those flare ups.  Indeed I am thankful!

This year, I had occassional flare ups of the joints.  But they were mild and extremely manageable.  For that too, I am thankful.

It has been a good year.

Iridocyclitis

Now, I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned that Ankylosing Spondylitis sufferers have a high chance of suffering from uvetis also.  Simply put, people who suffer from joint inflammation conditions will be prone to inflammations of the eye as well.

Last year, I had some serious bouts of red eyes and every General practitioner (GP) I visited all boiled it down to  conjunctivitis or some kind of eye infection.  Only when the eyedrops they prescribed made my eye worse & not better, I realized it was something more serious than conjunctivitis.  My left eye was red, swollen, teary and hurt A LOT. 

Finally, after visiting the eye specialist (Prof Arthur Lim) at Gleneagles Hospital, I was diagnosed with Iridocyclitis. 

Wikipedia describes it as:

Uveitis is, broadly, inflammation of the uvea. The uvea consists of the middle, pigmented vascular structures of the eye and includes the iris, ciliary body, and choroid.

Anterior uveitis, also known as iridocyclitis and iritis, is the inflammation of the iris and anterior chamber. Anywhere from two-thirds to 90% of uveitis cases are anterior in location. This condition can occur as a single episode and subside with proper treatment or may take on a recurrent or chronic nature.

I thought about it...which is harder to bear?  The painful teary swollen eye and blurry vision, that always causes me to have headaches?  Or, the intense pain throughout my spine and ribs that make movement difficult?  I can't decide, they are both just as bad.  They both somehow restrict me from leading a normal life. 

You must be wondering... Why a post after 3 months of silence? 

I admit, in good times, I never feel the need to blog.  I have been having a good spell and even participated in the JP Morgan corporate challenge last month, completing 5.6km, and doing myself proud with a time of 34minutes! 

As you can guess, a post must mean something bad has happened.  Well, my RIGHT eye went red and swollen yesterday, and it hasn't gotten better today.  I'm not 100% certain if it's just a sore eye or iridocyclitis coming back to haunt me.  I had 2 eye flare ups last year (or was it 3), and those flare ups got me really down.  It was not easy to bear at all.

I'm also experiencing some mini inflammation in my neck and spine, but this is easy to bear compared to the hell I went through last year.
 
Praying hard that my eye isn't going through relapse! 

Thankful

Thank you Jesus for this many pain free days!  Last week, I ran 4km on the thread mill. My first run since 1 Dec 2013, the half marathon. I had been battling a bit of a flare up since then, but these last couple of weeks have been pain free.  And free of medications and treatments.  

I thought I had forgotten how it felt to be a normal person. But now I am experiencing what it is like and I am grateful.  Thank you Jesus!

P is really for Pain!

I was testing out a theory with my last "p is for pain" entry, and I think it is absolutely proven.  First day today and sudden intense pain came upon me.  Hmmm... I wonder if the coming of my p has anything to do with my immune system? 

Crazy Day - Off sulphasalazine (8 jan)

I'm having the craziest day today.  The past few mornings, I'd been getting woken up by the pain.  The pain is not as bad as the previous times where I get woken at 4-5am but it is still very frustrating.  In the past, a nice hot shower would take away a percentage of the pain but these couple of days, a hot shower soothes me momentarily during the shower, but the pain is the same after.

I was feeling down and frustrated as I made my way into work today.  It took me a longer time to walk to the office from the train station due to the stiffness and pain.  In the office, I was anti-social and moody.  A colleague who is aware of my condition asks me how I was feeling today.  I told her - I'm in pain but I must remain positive!  However, tears of frustration came to my eyes as I answered her while trying to be upbeat and positive!  

A couple of hours into work, another colleague decided to throw a tantrum at me.  He had come to me consultatively and as I tried to understand the root of his query, he burst out at me in frustration and stomped off.  

That whole episode was a trigger for my tears! My tears got unleashed and I hid in a toilet cubicle for 10mins while I tried to keep my tears in check and get back to normal.  Somehow, I just couldn't. I think my emotional limit was breached by my frustration with the pain today and my tears just kept coming.

So I left the office early for my doctor's appointment.  At the doc's, I learnt that my inflammation markers have reduced. However, it was inconclusive whether it was due to Arcoxia or Sulfasalazine, as I was on both drugs when I took the blood test.  I posed several questions to the doctor regarding the side effects of sulfasalazine, as I had been experiencing a throat inflammation for over a month now (yes, it's still there!) and dry mouth.  Somehow, doctor seemed defensive of the treatment he had put me on and insisted that these side effects had nothing to do with sulfasalazine.  I then had questions about stopping the drug, what the repercussions are (if any) and if I chose to continue at a later stage, is it possible?  Without clearly explaining, doc says it's okay if I wanted to.  I had shared with him that I wanted to explore natural methods such as diet. He seemed to scoff at me, saying all other methods will never ever work and all his patients who had tried came back to him years later and still went on his recommended treatments.  His recommended treatment for me was anti TNF injections and it could be over a course of 2-3 years, with (according to studies) 90% chance of working.

That led me to question about the effectiveness of sulfasalazine.  If there's such positive statistics on anti TNF injections, I wonder what the stats of sulfasalazine!  Interestingly, there is zero success with spine problems based on clinical trials.  Doctor said he had seen some success with his patients, but he put success rate at 50%.  In reality, we are testing this drug out on me, without proof that it actually works.

I've decided to stop medicating and try more natural methods and TCM (acupuncture).  Have a blood test scheduled in 8 weeks time.  2 months should be enough to see any potential effects of TCM or diet... I hope.