Where in the World has Autoimmune Gal been?

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Some of you might have noticed that I haven't been blogging as much.  My twitter and Facebook presence has also dwindled.  But I promise there is good reason for my less frequent communication.

It also happens to be a very exciting and wonderful reason--my husband and I are expecting our first child.  Yes, Autoimmune Gal is pregnant.

We didn't know that having a family would be a possibility given my multiple autoimmune and health issues.  It took lots of communication and coordination with multiple doctors to just plan for the possibility of trying to get pregnant.

Important medical questions and issues had to be addressed.  What medications would I be able to stay on?  Did I need to change medications or lower doses before becoming pregnant or was it safe to wait until a pregnancy was actually confirmed?  How would we keep my autoimmune disease in check, while trying to protect the baby?  Would pregnancy make my autoimmune manifestations worse, the same, or better? And these were just the tip of the iceberg.

With pregnancy many of these questions do not have clear cut answers.  Medicines aren't regularly tested on pregnant women so there is less data than one would like on safety and fetal outcomes.  The doctors have constantly reminded me that if I'm not healthy, the baby won't be either, but this is really tough complicated stuff.  And we've certainly added another big and of course wonderful variable to the careful health balancing act.  

Beyond my autoimmune issues, my pregnancy is super high risk so I'm being monitored you might say within an inch of my life.  I guess you could say I'm super super high risk.   My doctors appointments have more than doubled and every health issue that comes up has to be thought through even more carefully and methodically.  Right now, we're trying to enjoy the pregnancy while keeping our fingers double and triple crossed that everything will be OK.  We know this is such an amazing blessing, but we still have a long way to go.  

So that's my update on where I've been.  I love writing and communicating with all of you and feel like something is missing when I'm not.  I'll keep writing as much as I can.  I know when the baby comes it will be a whole new kind of busy too!

Living with Autoimmune Disease: Finally Some Eye Progress!

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Given that the trials and tribulations of daily life with autoimmune disease sometimes seem to fill my posts here, I try to make sure that I share the good news with readers as well. And I have some good news.

While it might sound like a small thing, at my most recent ophthalmology appointment my physician said "your corneas look good".  This was like music to my ears.  That never happens, despite my best efforts.  The news actually put me in a happy mood for the rest of the day.  I called my husband, my parents, and even some friends after my appointment to share the good word with them.  Now this celebration might sound like overkill, but for me this was truly exciting since I never seem to catch a break.  As many of you with autoimmune disease know, it is not that often that our doctors appointments involve unequivocally positive reports.  My eyes had been feeling better recently--but in the past that has not necessarily meant that I did not have corneal inflammation or uveitis. I have actually come not to trust how my eyes feel as an indication for how they look.

This news was particularly fulfilling, because I actually felt like I had done something which had the effect of improving my health.  I had made a concerted effort to follow a strict routine to care for my eyes, which takes an incredible amount of time on a daily basis, and it was paying dividends.  (I have written about my routine in multiple blog posts click here, here, and here).

It is rare at least for me (and I am guessing for others with AI disease) that our actions seem to matter.  I try to do all the right things my doctors tell me to do to help my condition. It is time consuming and sometimes I have wondered if it makes any difference.  Well, I guess it is currently helping.  At least my eyes.  So I will certainly be keeping up with it.  I know this bit of good news does not mean that my eyes will necessarily stay stable.  But for now, I will just keep smiling and hope my eyes remain cooperative for a while longer.