It has been just under three months since Caleb had his last flare-up....and I cannot say how relieved we are that, although it has been a slow process, he is continually getting better! In fact, last week he began going up baby stairs at his work. (They are like half the height of normal steps.) Hopefully he will do regular stairs soon. And, better yet, hopefully he can start working out in May! He will be such a happy boy when he can finally be active and workout again.
But for today, our goal and prayer, is that we can get him off all medications so that one day we can have children. The drug that he is currently on, methotrexate, is a really powerful drug that is used on cancer patients and people with serious auto-immune types of arthritis.
Caleb's official diagnosis this last year has been Psoriatic Arthritis. Pretty much the general idea of his condition is that he has psoriasis of the joints, and his immune system is so reactive that it attacks itself and sends fluid to the joints, resulting in immobility and pain. The whole idea of his medication is to suppress his immune system enough so that it won't fight itself, and theoretically to prevent a flare-up. The downside of this medication is that, since it is so potent, we cannot plan on having children because of the high risk of birth defects.
Therefore, as those who know me well can imagine, I have been doing my research on how to naturally treat Caleb's body. The conclusion I am now working on: putting him on a gluten free diet (which can really help people with auto-immune diseases) and dairy free diet (because in my research I found that dairy can trigger psoriasis). Poor guy! He was raised on a cattle ranch and loves his meat and potatoes....and more than anything, he LOVES his cereal (ie., dairy and gluten).
For the last few weeks we can been weaning him off these things....and we are officially on a gluten and dairy free diet as of today! I am so proud of him that he is willing to take such drastic measures to get healthy. So I will be getting out all the creativity in making yummy, healthy food for him.
And so we are just hoping this helps in successfully taking Caleb off the medications. Until then...we will just be healthy one day, and do it again the next day....until one day he is medicine free!! That will be an amazing day and we will celebrate (but not the cake and ice-cream!) haha!
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