Saturday 11 December 2010

Mixed feelings

Christmas is my favourite time of year :D This week I've been to a few christmas markets around the country, the atmosphere at these places has been amazing. I'm off to London next week, I can't wait to visit the Winter Wonderland and Harrods Christmas department, and no doubt relieve my bank account of some pennies!!

I've really been suffering with joint pain recently, caused by the Omalizumab injections. The knee pain has gotten so bad that when I kneel down, I need to hold on to something to help me stand up. Also, the longer I walk around, the stiffer and more painful my knees and lower back get :( There are other side effects too (mouth ulcers, finger and toe joint pain, headaches, indigestion) but I can ignore those as they seem to ease off, the knee and back pain is persistant and seems to be getting worse.
I had an injection a few days ago where I mentioned this to my respiratory nurse. She thinks that the side effects are outweighing the very small improvement in my asthma, and wants to talk to my consultant before I'm due my next dose. I'm due to see my consultant in the new year anyway, a few months back he told me that he'd taken some of his patients off Omalizumab as their side effects weren't worth the negligable improvement in their asthma, sooooo it looks like Omalizumab isn't going to be my miracle cure :(
On one hand I don't really want to take a medication that is causing me so much pain without any noticable improvement in my lungs, on the other hand I had high hopes that this medication would help me - help both my asthma and my fight to return to nursing, so this is all rather disheartening.

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