This Should Have Been Done Sooner

First, I want to say thank you to everyone who has been concerned about me.  And yes, I am doing fine--knock on wood.  It has really been a busy time, so I didn't get this posted earlier, as I should have.  The Youngest and her husband were here for the weekend--they came in on Thursday night--so that he could participate in his first half-marathon.  While he didn't do very well, he also didn't come in last--he was more in the bottom of the middle of the pack--but I give him so much credit for actually FINISHING.  I wouldn't be able to do a quarter mile before saying "The hell with this!" and going home.  :D

Now back to the afterwards of the vaccination.  I have given myself four milestones that I feel I have to pass before I think I'm pretty much past any side-effects.  My first milestone was the 24-hour mark.  I figured if I could make it through that long without an allergic reaction, then it probably wasn't going to happen.  My next one is at the one-week mark, followed by the 2-week.  My final is going to be 4 weeks and I think I'm pretty safe after that.  (Of course, are we ever completely 'safe' when something is introduced into the body?  But, that is beside the point.)  I see my dermatologist after the 3-week mark, so we will discuss my going back on Enbrel--which should happen after 4 weeks.

A couple of days after getting the injection, I would up with an injection site reaction.  My arm got a rather large red, warm area to it.  This is not something that would be unexpected with me--after 2+ years of using Enbrel, I STILL get a reaction at the injection site.  The redness finally went away on Saturday and I can barely see where the color was anymore.  I also got a tremendous itchy feeling in the area, but that, too, is pretty much gone.  So far, that is the extent of my side-effects.  And I feel as if I can breathe a bit easier with each day that I am symptom-free.

Every day further from when I got the injection is a bit easier for me emotionally.  As I haven't kicked-off (yet), I am feeling a bit more confident that I won't because of this vaccination.  And I am actually feeling a bit more confident and pleased with my doctor.  I was very much thinking that I was going to have to find a new PCP after last January, but I am slowly beginning to change my mind.  While the woman is EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE in terms of medical advice, that isn't always a bad thing.  And I do give her a lot of credit to come and talk to me for 30 minutes--unscheduled--before I got the vaccination.  She really didn't need to take the time to do it.  And I feel as if she talked WITH me much more than she did in January.  In January I felt as if she was talking down to me a bit too much, but last week we had more of a discussion.  Of course, it wasn't exactly a meeting of equals, but she seemed to treat me a bit more like someone with intelligence than she did in January.  (All of this could very well have been a perception problem on my part, too, so I'm not completely blaming her.)  As of right now, I'm leaning toward keeping this doctor and seeing if we can work things out.  It's looking good right now.