Update

   I went to see my dermatologist and we are going to do the Enbrel treatments again. I'm not really looking forward to this, but if it gets rid of the psoriasis, then I guess that's what I need to do. This time they are going to have me take the shots twice a week instead of once, and there is a pill I will be taking that has some awful side effects. One of them is severely dried chapped lips. If this happens I have to wing myself off the pills one by one until it stops. The second one is that I may have bad headaches that won't go away. I get rid of the headaches the same way.
   The swelling in my feet came back again and now it is in both feet. My clinic seems to feel that the edema and the psoriasis are aggravating each other and causing the swelling. My ankles are very swollen and I am wearing my house slippers to work. My dermatologist looked at my latest outbreak and agreed with what the doctors at the clinic had to say. He said that what is probably happening is the blood is only flowing so far down my legs and then backing up and the water is accumulating in my lower legs. All I know is that it's uncomfortable.
   In other news, the Bells Palsy is starting to get a little better. I notice it mostly when I sleep because I drool. Plus when I talk I still slur my speech. It is the weirdest thing ever to feel your face all scrunched up like this.

   The girls just got out of school this week. The oldest got honorable mentions in the Kiwanis Club's terrific kid award, a Presidential certificate and medal for Academic Excellence, A certificate in Language Arts and received another certificate for highest GPA average between 3.8 and 4.0. along with 9 others. She had straight A's this last quarter. Pretty darn awesome.
   Aly's school didn't have all the awards because she just graduated from 7th grade, but she also received A's and one A minus. I am very proud of the two of them.

   That is all.

Swell

   Today I had to get an ultrasound of my left leg. In the past week it has swelled up like crazy and it is very sore. I thought that perhaps I had edema that was going crazy and my coordinator put me back on water pills and potassium. The weird thing is that it is just in my left leg.
   My family doctor was worried that maybe I had a blood clot so he sent me to get an ultrasound and labs. The ultrasound turned out to be fine and my labs were off a little, but there was nothing seriously wrong other than my INR was a little low for the coumadin I am taking. My left leg is covered with psoriasis and it could be related to the swelling. We just don't know. Tomorrow I have an appointment with a rheumatologist because I also have psoriatic arthritis that has been causing me to limp in my right knee. We will see how this appointment goes and see if this swelling could have anything to do with my psoriasis. Right now my family physician is a little stumped and if the rheumatologist can't come up with anything, I will schedule an appointment with my liver clinic. In the meantime, it hurts to walk and after working a 12 hour shift it gets enormous. I simply must stop saying, "What next?"
   Thank you all for checking in with me since my last post. I appreciate everybody's support and prayers.