ActemRA Update

SUCCESS!!!  Sort of lol.

Actemra is working, for the most part, and I'm doing better than I've been since before going off of everything to start trying to get pregnant, and I've even been able to start a moderate, very low-impact workout regimen here at home.  I'm not doing as well as I did when first on Remicade, but I'm also not on my max dosage.  And that is the part of all this that has been a success.

On the "sort of" side of things, my liver enzymes are being stupid.  By that I mean they keep going up.  They aren't at "oh-my-god-stop-everything" levels yet, but it's definitely something that is concerning enough that Dr. C is continuing blood work monitoring every 4 weeks.  Additionally, he has decided to keep me at my current Actemra dose until/unless my numbers come back down.  Or, at the very least, stop going up.  The other "sort of" is that I am still on methotrexate, and Dr. C is not overly optimistic about me ever being able to stop taking that little brat of a drug.

All that said, I'm still feeling cautiously optimistic about Actemra.  I'm doing my part to try to get those pesky liver enzymes to come back down by cutting down my alcohol consumption--which I know I'm not technically supposed to enjoy anyway.  I normally don't have more than, say 5 drinks in a week; however, now I am trying to cut back to only 1-2 drinks a week.  So far I've been successful!  Additionally, in the trying to increase the effectiveness of my current Actemra dose, I've been refocusing on my weight loss efforts.  I'm trying to be more aware of what and when I eat, making the choice to be more active throughout the day, and by engaging in the aforementioned workout regimen (courtesy of Fitness Blender) in an attempt to boost my energy level, lower my stress level (sans wine lol), and, of course, lose some weight.  Daniel and Kelli, a husband-wife team of professional trainers, make and share free workout videos.  They also sell workout regimen PDFs organizing their videos according to specific health and fitness goals.  The one that I am following cost about $5 and is a 4 week low-impact workout routine meant for both beginners AND for people with health issues.  Hey look!  I'm both of those lol.  Anyway, they are very big on proper form, listening to your body, and working out according to your individual ability--all of which are attitudes that I would expect and require of in-person personal trainers.  I'm enjoying it so much that I'm going to cancel my gym membership--saving $42 a month--and I'm already seeing results after only a couple of weeks!  Suffice it to say, I'm very pleased with my $5 purchase.

For the immediate future, I'm going to continue to implement these health changes as consistently as I can, and hope that my pissy little liver calms down.  Ideally, I will be able to get on the larger dose of Actemra in the coming months and see even more improvement!  Fingers crossed!