Weaning

This is the first night in well over a year that I'll go to bed without first taking a pill.

My joint pain has eased up enough that my rheumatologist thinks I can try tapering off the anti-inflammatories that have kept me mobile in the post-ovary era. For a while now, my knees and feet have been feeling perfectly fine, but my hands were still very stiff for the first 10 minutes or so after I woke up.

I didn't realize it until yesterday, but that stiffness has mostly abated. I wonder how long it would have taken me to notice if I hadn't had a follow-up appointment scheduled for today.

When the doctor first diagnosed my symptoms as the result of acute estrogen withdrawal, he said the joint pain would very likely "resolve on its own," although it might take a year or two. Right now we're at 17 months.

The plan is for me to take half my usual dose—500 milligrams once a day instead of twice—and report back in a month. If that goes well, I'll try discontinuing the meds completely.

And if that works, I'll also be able to stop taking yet another drug—the one that keeps the anti-inflammatories from eroding my digestive tract.

That'll still leave me with an aromatase inhibitor and a synthetic thyroid hormone.

And a multivitamin.

And—at least on the days when I don't get 1,500 milligrams of calcium in my diet—a calcium-and-vitamin-D supplement.

But it will be progress nonetheless.