Gearing Up For the 4th

The 4th of July is definitely one of my favorite holidays. All the cookouts and seeing family and friends is so much fun. I have three cookouts in three days to go to. I have realized that I can't go to all three, so I am opting out of the one today.

My lupus and exposure to the sun are very linked. It takes all of two minutes outside for me to get a sun rash. I usually get it on my legs, regardless of whether I am wearing shorts or long pants, and more recently on my neck and the underside of my chin. The rash is painful/itchy. I think in reality it is more painful, but my first instinct is to scratch it for some reason.

I also have a really hard time with sunscreen. I hate the stuff. No matter what it feels oily and gross when I put it on. Even when the bottle says "oil-free" or whatever, I can tell I am wearing it. So I tend to forgo it. This is bad. I need to get better about this especially since I just started a new job and I don't have any personal/sick/vacation time yet. I can't afford to have a lupus flare right now. So I guess this weekend will be filled with lots of food, family, friends...and sunscreen.

Lesson Learned: Still Not Recovered From Saturday

So I negotiated my way out of going to back to the Emergency Room tonight after speaking with my rheumatologist. She will not be in clinic the for the next few weeks and I have been pretty miserable for the past little while. Saturday was certainly no help and I now have fully learned my lesson that I need protection in the sun. I have been having joint pain, migraines, a flare up of the chest pain that's pretty bad and I have been completely exhausted. My doctor really wants to get a better handle on the chest pain since I am on 25 mg (!!!) of prednisone right now. So she told me she would try to have me seen by another doctor in the arthritis clinic tomorrow and if that is not possible then I will have to go back to the Emergency Room. Sigh.

So to all my online lupie friends, REMEMBER YOUR SUNSCREEN!!! This is so not worth it, even though I had a lot of fun.

Sun and Prednisone

I spent all day yesterday in the sun without any protection. We had a family cookout and most of it took place in the back yard of my cousin's house which has very few trees. It was a lot of fun, but by the time 11 pm rolled around and we finally left I was totally nauseated and achy. I spent most of the night up with my stomach and joints. If it weren't for my nemesis and savior prednisone, I'd still be in pretty bad shape.

I'm not completely over yesterday. I'm still achy and really, really tired. Being out like that was a doubly bad idea since I have been feeling "off" for almost a week now. I can't pinpoint the problems, but something has been up. Maybe my most recent blood test results will show something.

I am scheduled to have all four of my wisdom teeth out on Friday. They are all pretty impacted so I am not too thrilled about getting them out. I have been putting off this surgery for about 8 years now. The cost will be about $900 dollars and that's more than I can mentally wrap my head around spending to be swollen and in pain. But I was finally convinced I need them done and after rescheduling twice, the time has almost come.

I am a little worried about being on the prednisone now that I have decided to have the teeth pulled. I know prednisone can delay healing and increase risk of infection. Since my doctor is 2+ hours from my house (cheapest I could find), I would really rather not have any complications. I was going to stay at my aunt and uncle's for the weekend, but know that I would much rather be at home. The plan is to fill my pain medicine out there and then come home that night. If any problems occur, then we will just deal with them then.

I hope everyone has a great week!