News!! (sorta)

So, here's the scoop. As some of you may know (that is, if anyone actually reads this. Helloooo??), I had a relapse in my Takayasu's last September-ish and have been taking steps to make this better (i.e. going back on Prednisone and getting periodic CAT Scans/MRIs to check my progress). Just before New Year's I had a CAT scan that showed improvement, so my Dr. started a tapering regimine to eventually get me off the Prednisone (you can't just quit it cold turkey as it tends to do damage to the adrenal gland - man, have I done my research!). Well, during this time, I started experiencing a new pain in the same general area as my inflammation and was worried that my body was not reacting well to the tapering and the inflammation was coming back - or worse, spreading. This has been going on for about a month with good days and bad days (if I've cancelled some sort of social engagement on you, a bad day was most likely the cause, and I apologize for the wierdness of my innards), and about 2 weeks ago, I got another MRI. I was due for one anyway because of the tapering thing, and my Dr. suggested I get it sooner rather than later because of this pain. Well, after nearly two weeks of me nagging the hell out of the people at his office cause he wasn't calling me with results, he finally called me back yesterday (funny story about how my mom was involved in this - maybe later I'll tell it). The good news is that apparently there isn't any inflammation to speak of anymore and the blood flow in the whole area looks good, so he didn't see any reason for me to go back up on my dosage but wants me to stay put for a while (which I'm totally cool with). The bad news is, I STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHY I AM HURTING!!! Everyone has their theories. My mom says she's experienced similar pain before but it went away on its own. My dad said he's had pain in the exact same area and it was his trapezias (sp?) muscle, which had gotten tense from stress and developed all these little knots, and after he started getting massages the pain went away. My own theory (the TA rearing its ugly head) was just shot to pieces with the results of this MRI. Don't get me wrong, I'm VERY glad it's not that. I just wish I knew what it WAS!!

But anyway, I have another appt. to see my (not-so) trusty specialist in a couple weeks to see if he can't figure something out. If not, I guess it's back to the drawing board. Maybe I'll try massage (lord knows I could use a few of these anyway!) to see if that helps. Or maybe I'll just live on Advil for the rest of my life!! Hah!! :)

(BTW, I totally overuse parentheses, in case you couldn't tell!!)
H