i really feel like a pincushion today. my poor left arm was poked and poked and poked this morning, and now it’s not feeling too great. i had a glucose tolerance test this morning which, hopefully, will show that the prednisone i was on for several years caused my increased insulin production. that would be fabulous news because it will mean i am *not* prediabetic. yay.

this morning, though, was not fun. i arrived at the hospital a little before 7 a.m. for my initial blood draw. it hurt, but it was bearable. then i chugged down an 8 ounce bottle of a sickeningly sweet orange drink. that was the fastest i’ve ever finished it, which is probably because the nurse kept coming and asking if i was finished. obviously she has not tried to drink one of those before. they taste good at first, but then it hits. it’s just not fun.

i had to go back two more times to have blood drawn, and she took it from the same spot, which really made my arm hurt and bruise. sigh. i just hope it’ll be worth it!

joe and i also made a big decision today. we decided to have me go off my methotrexate in preparation for trying to get pregnant. my rheumatologist told me today that i will need to be off of it for four months and off my enbrel for at least one month before we can start trying. several months ago, i tried decreasing my methotrexate dosage by one pill and was in a lot of pain, so i’m dreading what the next four months will be like! at least i’ll still have my enbrel for most of it. and, apparantly, during pregnancy there is no pain from the arthritis. it’s just the period inbetween going off the medicines and getting pregnant and then the post-pregnancy that scare me!

my rheumatologist also will not let me go back on prednisone while i’m off the methotrexate because she says it tends to cause diabetes and other problems in pregnant women. this is bad because, while prednisone makes you gain quite a bit of weight, it really does relieve the pain. but, it’s good because it makes me think that the increased insulin *was* a result of the drug. and the *really* good news is that we’re going to try to get pregnant!!!!!!

and now that i have completely bored you, i will stop. 🙂