Clarification

Real quick - I had a few emails from people asking me what hydroxychloroquin is and why I was taking it.

I was taking hydroxychloroquin (otherwise known as hydroxy throughout the rest of this post) for my Lupus. This is how my doctor explain it to me...

Having Lupus is like having a house fire inside of you. When the fire is raging out of control and there are flames everywhere, I take prednisone (a yucky steroid that is pure evil) to calm the fire down. Once the fire is contained again, I take hydroxy to keep the embers from turning into an inferno again. When I had my flare in 2003, they put me on both prednisone and hydroxy. Because neither drug can pass through the placenta, I was able to stay on both while pregnant with the boys. Prednisone is not something that you just stop taking. You have to taper down. Last March my doctor finally tapered me off of prednisone (thank you Dr. Wilson!) and I've been only taking hydroxy...to maintain the embers. Right now I'm taking nothing because my doctor has liked my blurred vision to the hydroxy. So I've got my fingers crossed that my body with cooperate and not start another inferno...or in Lupus terms...a flare.

This is also why I was soooo upset to have to take the 6-day prednisone pack for my back. It's an evil, evil drug that I despise! I was so proud when I was able to stop taking it last February. To be on it even for 6 days really upset me. This is also why I have to wait another 3 weeks before I can go in for blood work. Prednisone controls Lupus so any blood work done right now wouldn't give them a good reading of how I'm doing without the hydroxy.

Now for a picture of Jameson. This was taken in June during one of Ayden's baths. Apparently it wasn't exciting enough for Jameson so he slept through it.