Aching Hands

Ay, my hands hurt.  It's 3:30 in the morning and I've been awake for at least 2 hours trying to get comfortable.  My hands are cramped and tight and hurt to close or open. There is a subtle pain in them that is just constant.

It could be that the two days of cleaning in my rental house did it...unusual exercise and all.  Probably not helped by the glass of wine I had before dinner (was that delicious beverage worth it?  Hmmm...).  It could be allergy season and histamines are rampant.

It could be INH exacerbating all of that.  It could be.

Missed a pill last night.  I wouldn't think that would have anything to do with it.

Ay, I can't wait to be off this stinkin' drug.

Catching Up - Month 8

Whew - eight months in and not feeling so hot.

BUT, I have myself to blame.  My diet is shot - I eat practically whatever I want.  While many people would say there is no correlation, I think that for my body and the symptoms I experience, there sure is!

Let me tell you what it's like - my neck hurts, my hands hurt, I have practically no energy and I am suffering from allergies this fall.  The arthritic symptoms in my hands are constant, I go to bed at 9:30 every day and find a general lethargy pervades my life.

Can I blame INH?  Possibly for a part of this.  But I know that if I was doing my best to eat, exercise and be healthy, I'd feel fine.  I KNOW IT.

I want to get this out on the blog because I appreciate all of your comments to me to GET IT GOING!  I want to share my remaining few months and recap the last four or five.  My slide into INH rebellion and my hopeful return.

Stay tuned, and thanks for all the prodding!

Corn Nut Addiction (Month 2, Day 38)

Today I woke up and reminded myself that getting up is a privilege.  I worked my hands for a bit, clenching and opening to get the blood flowing.  My two pinky fingers, spreading into my ring fingers on both hands are stiff and achey.  As I understand it, this is typical of Rheumatoid Arthritis, although I've had no diagnosis.

I'm concerned that these symptoms are progressing, not getting better.  Typical of INH-induced Rheumatoid Arthritis, the 2 month marker seems to be about when most symptoms appear.  Since I seem to have an early onset of symptoms, does that mean symptoms will continue to grow?  What if INH has just spurred an already latent disease in me and even when I stop INH, I'll still have the arthritis?

Hmmm...Not fun thoughts.

I'm also giving some thoughts to how my symptoms might play into INH-induced Lupus. Some of these symptoms include joint pain.  However, my symptoms seem to mimic the Rheumatoid side more, I think - Symmetrical pain in both hands, stiff and sore more in the morning.  No swelling or redness, though, thank goodness.

In a later post I'll explore Lupus so I can better understand it and the INH relationship.

My Diet today:
32 oz Water
Breakfast: Hash Browns (carrots, potatoes and oregano) and canteloupe (I used the Vitamix to "shred" the potatoes and carrots in about 3 seconds and then set it to cook - so easy!  I'd just come back every so often to stir it and by the time I was ready, so was it!  And I'd never had carrots in hash browns before, but I wanted some color so thought I'd try - delicious! See my picture even though it doesn't look that good!)
Lunch: Broccoli Soup, Brown Rice, Corn nuts (Broccoli Soup from last night)
Vitamins
Dinner: Cauliflower Dal (Recipe here) without tomatoes
Pre-bed: An arthritis inducing white thing

Possible histamine triggers:
I suppose I should double check corn, my new, crunchy snack friend.  I love CORN NUTS!!!
Also, one thing about histamines - leftovers grow 'em...I haven't been counting my leftovers, but suppose I should...sigh...

Month 1, Day 30

Eureka!  INH can actually induce arthritis!

But wait, let me back up...Last week I went to Public Health for my second visit and an INH refill.  My sweet nurse asked me a few questions, weighed me (I've happily lost 3 pounds) and then got me another bottle of INH.  When I told her that I think INH has caused me to have arthritis she was surprised.  "Really?  And you've never had it before?  Who told you that you had arthritis?"

Well, truth be told, I've self-diagnosed.  In the past, the only times I've felt these arthritic-like symptoms was when I drink wine or beer.  The next morning my hands and joints ache and are incredibly weak.  About my third week in to INH, my hands started aching in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.  But it didn't go away as the day progressed...my hands just ache all the time.

So I explained this to my sweet babushka nurse and she wanted to try B6 even though I get 1000% B6 in my multivitamin.  She teetered out and brought back a B6 that gave me 2000% in one pill.  "Try this without taking your multivitamin for a week and see if it helps.  If not, go ahead and start the multivitamin again."

It hasn't helped...not one bit. So I'm taking my multi again slightly early.  It hasn't been quite a week.  Only 5 days.  My hands feel exactly the same.

The good news it that I've made some connections:
1. INH can, in fact, induce arthritis.  There are studies in which it induced acute arthritis, and when the patient when off, the symptoms disappeared.  When started again, the symptoms reappeared. (Source 1), (Source 2)
2. Since my symptoms pre-INH usually appeared after wine/beer, two high-histamine liquids, and since INH inhibits histamine metabolism, it may be that my histamine intake is exceeding my metabolism of histamine, and adding to the arthritic feeling in my hands. In fact, histamine has been associated with arthritis - causing the joints to become "leaky" allowing the arthritic process to start. (Source)

So from here - I'm going to try an experiment. Remove all (or as many as possible - nearly impossible to remove every bit of histamine - See the Histamine Page for more info) histamine foods from my diet.  This really sucks because I really like a lot of them:
* Certain vegetables: tomato, spinach, eggplant, avocado, mushrooms and canned vegetables as well as commercially prepared salads
* Certain fruits: strawberries, bananas, papayas, kiwi, pineapple, mango, tangerines, grapefruits, red prunes, pea
* Red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar
* Soy sauce
* Sunflower seeds
* Chocolate/cocoa
* Coffee, black tea
* Some fruits: citrus, bananas, strawberries, red prunes, pears, kiwi, raspberries, papaya
* Peanuts, cashews, walnuts

Yep - I'm going to be hurtin' because I have tomatoes and avocados practically every day.  I eat bananas and cocoa all the time.  I love balsamic vinegar.  I include strawberries, kiwi and oranges in my diet frequently. I drink black tea in the form of chai daily.

This sucks - but it sucks worse to have my hands hurt.  It's worth a try for a few weeks to see what happens.
I'll keep you posted.

Month 1, Day 21

This morning, I woke up on top of the world.  I dug out my old Tom Petty Wildflowers CD and blasted it on my way to pick up my son from Grandma's.  With the windows rolled down, the heater on and blue skies ahead, all of my problems seemed trivial.  I kept quoting a line from Tom Petty to everyone I saw:
People come, people go, some grow young, some grow cold.

Tonight, I'm tired, nay- exhausted - my hands hurt and I'm ready for bed.  Got up at around 8 and it's 9 at night now.  So much for long days.

The fatigue is really getting to me.  I'm not sure I can blame it all on INH, but certainly the aching hands and some tiredness is feasible.  The one variable today is that I had a big bowl of Mac N Cheese.  The cheese was fake so it was all still Vegan (here's the recipe, and yes it's YUMMY!) but not gluten free.  I gobbled the pasta down like there was no tomorrow.  It's possible that I'm having a reaction tonight to the whopping load I've put on my digestive track tonight.  Or, maybe I'm having a slight allergic reaction to gluten and my body can't handle the histamines.

But that doesn't explain my usual fatigue of late.  Either way, back to gluten free.  If it makes me feel better, then I'd like to keep it up.  Now, if only I could find a way to help my hands...

Month 1 - Day 2

Well, as far as I can tell, the only symptom I might have had this morning was arthritic fingers. Very often when I drink red wine I tend to get a bit arthritic the next morning and this was reminiscent of that. No, I didn't chug the open bottle of my favorite red wine to finish it off...just took one little pill.

I did, however, chug wine on Friday and Saturday night, as well as eating cheese, meat and chocolate. Hey, I'm going to miss my wine and cheese! I don't know if that would continue to affect my liver, or make it more difficult for my liver to process the pill. We'll see as we go along.

I'd like to research more how INH is processed by the liver.

Tonight, I will also spread out the time that I take the pill to 1 hour after eating. I'm nervous about the nausea, but experienced none last night. Ideally, from what I've read, I should take the pill 2 hours after eating to ensure maximum efficacy.

My Diet Today:
B-Ezekial with Avocado, Tomato, Spike and Earth Balance
S-2 cuties (tangerines)
L-Baked Sweet Potato loaded with Earth's Balance, 1/2 c. tabhouli, nuts
S- Carrots/Hummus, Chips and Salsa when home
D-Stuffed portobello mushrooms, rice and lemon bars for dessert.

I ate at around 7:30 but kept eating until about 8:30...taking pill right before bed.