Drug cheat....

....It's been three years since I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), an arthritic condition in my back. I've had back pain since I was 17, but it was only as I turned 24 that it became acute. A bad bout of pain culminated, oddly, in a steroid injection in to my eyeball. Since then I have been on numerous drugs all taken orally every day - the only injections were blood tests taken on what were to become regular trips to the hospital. Last week, I finally found out that I was eligible for the anti-TNF drug, Enbrel.



From now on, once a week, I have to inject myself with this drug to help curb the pain caused by AS. I rotate the entry point of the needle between four locations - the top of either thigh and each side of my belly button. This is where there is meant to be the most fat in to which to inject....but the nurse seemed a little concerned that I didn't have much!



Tonight I gave myself my second injection, but crucially, the first by myself - no nurse present. It is a strange sensation as you feel the cold, (refrigerated), Enbrel solution enter the body.....but it is over in a flash. The first week hasn't had startling pain killing effects as yet, but I'm hoping the more injections the better.