During my February monthly rheumatology appointment, my doctor tried to convince me to change medications. The Orencia hit its usual plateau and the inflammation slowly crept back in. I don’t really remember that doctor’s appointment. I don’t even know if I understood a word he said. I was so exhausted, foggy and painful nothing made sense. Life didn’t make sense. Well, if my biologic medication was no longer working it was a no-brainer to switch, right? Unfortunately, Saachi was still recovering from her emergency splenectomy (spleen and tumor removal) and would start chemo in the following weeks. With the cancer running rampant within her bloodstream I could not take the chance of getting any worse and not being able to care for my dog.

As the Orencia faded and the Actemra built up in my system there would be a period where I would feel worse of; mostly because my other medications were not doing enough on their own. I had to take care of Saachi. Reluctantly, my doctor agreed it was my call and we could wait.

I had a follow-up a couple of weeks after Saachi passed away and my doctor was still not pleased. I had more inflammation in my joints than in recent months. Something had to change. I had a little more wiggle room to try out new medication as my father was back in town so he could help me. I reluctantly decided to switch to IV form of Actemra.

Actemra is like any other TNF inhibitor. It suppresses the immune system at a specific spot. I was afraid my sinus infections would return. They were so debilitating. I could not care for my pets because my allergy to their dander set off these headaches. Since each biologic medications hits different points of the immune system there was an unlikely chance my sinus infections would return.

I tolerated the infusion well. It took about an hour since the technician wanted to make sure I did not have a reaction.

Even though I did not have any reactions during the IV I became very nauseous afterwards. The persistent nausea lasted about 24 hours but I still it intermittently. I did not notice a difference in my RA symptoms. I still felt painful and swollen.

Anyways, on to the nail art. I created a dry brush manicure topped with stamping. The infusion liquid is clear which is no fun for nail art so I landed on blue! I then stamped some molecules and bubbles.

I started with Essie Mademoiselle as my base.

I dry brushed with a mix of Orly Sec n Dry, China Glaze UV Meant to Be, Milani Power Periwinkle and Sally Hansen Blue My Mind.

I stamped with Milani Black Swift, MoYou London plate 3 from the Scholar Collection, Essie No Place Like Chrome and Pueen Cosmetics plate PUEEN36.

Hi, my name is Monica and I have RA.