New Phase in My Life

As if having a newborn is not enough of a change right now, I am embarking on a journey to battle what apparently is Psoriatic Arthritis. This is something that has dramatically hampered my quality of life for the past several months and is causing me to make a decision to make several significant lifestyle changes. However, if it helps to reduce the pain I have been dealing with, it will be worth it. I hope that in addition to my family checking in on my pictures, that I will be able to help people who are trolling for information on Psoriatic Arthritis. My journey effectively begins today.

I am beginning one significant lifestyle change today, which is to take the medicine, Methotrexate. Frankly, I am a little concerned about taking this medication as it has some fairly gnarly side effects associated with its consumption. In my brief studies thus far, most of the people I read about taking this suffer from some sort of side effect. The most common seems to be dizziness and nausea. Many people also reported thinning hair, irritability, mouth sores/soreness, and forgetfullness. Hopefully, they are the outliers.

One additional impact of taking this medicine is that I must reduce my drinking to 1-2 drinks per month. While I don't drink anything like I used to, I still probably drink 8 beers per week.

Most importantly, however, is that I must reduce the pain I am experiencing from the arthritis. This pain, treated with twice the daily recommended dosage of Alleve, still registers in the 5-6 pain scale (10 being the most pain I have ever felt in my life). Further, with this type of arthritis being degenerative, I cannot afford at the age of 29 (almost 30) and an 8 week old son to lose any mobility or live in constant pain.

In addition to traditional medicine, I am at least going to give the Pagano Psoriasis diet a shot. Even though my doctor told me that diet would have no impact on my condition, it couldn't hurt. I am not exactly sure what the Pagano diet is yet, but I know it consists of lots of fruits and veggies and very little simple sugars and acidic foods (i.e. red meat). Like I said, it may not work on the arthritis, but if I can stick to the meal plan, I will probably lose a good deal of weight, which certainly couldn't hurt.

So wish me luck. And if you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to make a comment on this blog. However, I ask that if you are soliciting something, including ways to enlarge my, well, you get the point, please respect my desire not to be solicited.

Thanks for your understanding.