Helly vs Arthur

What a difference 10 months makes!

Rewind back to last September... I'd not been particularly well and was looking forward to a tranquil week away in Italy.  Spending my days relaxing by Lake Iseo, sipping frappe's in a little cafe, reading the books I'd not quite got round to, and just absorbing myself in the Italian culture...

Arriving home, hoping my batteries had been recharged, I ended up taking a turn for the worse... A small mosquito bite turned into a fully blown rash and I went through a series of diagnosis'

My worst nightmare came true... the arthritis that had gone into remission when I was 12yrs old, had come back...

The journey then started to try and get the arthritis back under control (as well as keeping fingers crossed that it wasn't going to be as aggressive as before)

I went onto a drug that's used to treat malaria, hydroxychloroquine.  There were quite a few nasty side effects, but luckily they didn't go on for more than a few months...

Since then I've taken things a day at a time.  I have seen a slow improvement, enough to be able to start swimming again and be a bit more active...

Today I had an appointment with my rheumatologist to see how things are and the news that greeted me made me want to cry...... with joy!

My markers (ESR & CRP) are considerably lower and I don't have any excessive joint inflammation.... 

So what does this mean?  Well, it means the arthritis is being controlled and the activity has dropped considerably...

Now its onto the next stage, trying to reduce the medication and seeing how everything goes...

Thats the bit I'm nervous about but things are so far so good...

Guess this means it is officially Helly - 1 Arthur - 0