Irish in Japan. sorry, it's long...

August 4, 2004

> That's an intriguing combination, AnneMarie! Are you from Ireland? How

do

> you like Japan? I'm so curious now! Cary

Yeah, I'm Irish and came out here to work, oh, 11 years ago. Met someone and

got married after 3 years and have been here ever since.

I can't remember if I ever introduced myself here.

RA was first mentioned December 2002 by a rheumy here (The same guy has an

orthopaedic clinic and I went there thinking I had tendinitis or

something..., boy, was I in shock. My husband was with me and when we left

the hospital after X-rays and blood tests, I said : " I'll cry later. " We

went about our business, went home, had dinner, watched a film and hey

presto... delayed shock)

My symptoms were and are fairly mild (touch wood). Only in wrists and hands

and while my finger joints are achey and every now and then are painful,

(rather like a mole in the garden - sticks its head up every so often) the

continuous problem is that my wrists seem to be swollen. We went home to

Ireland at Xmas and I, out of stupidity or stubbornness, decided that I

could handle my own suitcase, thank you very much...

My wrists have been swollen and sore since then...At first I tried to

protect the right one by resting it (you should rest tendinitis, right?) but

then it froze on me. I couldn't bring chopsticks to my mouth without some

very bad table manners - elbow half way across the table, and the rheumy

said that yes, for tendinitis it needs rest, but if it is the joint, then

you have to move it - so I ended up with rehab. exercises. It was rather

funny, actually (the eating trials).

I'm currently on 5mg prednisolon, and 1500mg AzulfidineEN a day.

Ideally the rheumy wants me on MTX but as we're trying for kids, we're

holding off on that one.

After all that, Cary, yes, I like it here. LOL

We live down in Kyushu, the southernmost of the four big islands, it's

currently about 35C every day, 25C at night, very humid and that's killing

me. The air conditioner air is also really painful on my hands and wrists so

it's a matter of trying to find a compromise.

Japan is behind the States by a year or two on approving new medicines and I

don't know anybody else here who has RA so I've nobody to compare notes

with.

I joined here just after I went to the rheumy the first time.

Anyway, take care everyone

AnneMarie

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