So I'm sat in front of my laptop watching the Ironman World Championship in Kona. A new feature this year is the "Kona Inspired" athlete programme. The idea is to give people with unusual stories the chance to race at Kona... these were open submissions, judged by the public. The stories have been fantastic and the people chosen really are inspirational. This year the chosen few are mostly survivors - survivors of cancers, childhood abuse, severe burns - but some are representing others, including a firefighter competing for firefighters affected by cancer, running the marathon in full firefighting gear...
These people are fantastic. They are winners before reaching the start line and I hope the short segments getting airtime give viewers a window into their cause.
Of course, this also has me reflecting on my situation. It's been a little over 3 years since I heard of uveitis and started learning first-hand about its effects. Since my first ironman nearly 4 weeks ago I've had a lot of time off work (long story) and have been really quite inactive - almost to the point of going cabin crazy! I've really been acutely aware of how my body is reacting to the increased dose of methotrexate that I've been on for a couple of months now. The main side-effect I've noticed is the nausea. Oh yes, the nausea is plentiful and was really bad for the last two weeks. There have been other ailments that have popped up, all of which can be associated with a compromised immune system. To be sure, none of it has been serious, but it's all a strain on the system physically and mentally. Sadly I noticed a little blur appearing in my left eye again today... so it looks like the methotrexate isn't doing much for my uveitis (despite giving my body a hard time).
So what's next? Well, I'm out of the country at the moment - so no access to my usual doctors. In fact, I'm not even in my home country, so I can't just walk-in somewhere and get free care. I'm going to go to a clinic in the next day or two and pay good money for some medical attention on the minor stuff (most urgently what I think might be an abscess on my left ear - ugh). Then I may have to send some email to my uveitis specialist to ask about the medication. I'm inclined to just discontinue use so I don't have to worry about side-effects any more. When I get back to the US I suspect that my medication will have to change. The next option discussed was a different immuno-suppressant called CellCept. I have more reading to do...
There is a silver lining here. I've found that the dosage of methotrexate is too high for my body to tolerate. More importantly I've found that the methotrexate isn't beating my uveitis down. Moving to a different strategy is one step closer to remission...
