I continue to have wrist and hand issues, though they are mostly fine as long as I minimize how much I use them. Which mostly means a lot of dictation! Still, it would be good both to understand what is wrong with them and figure out how I can resume some of the activities I enjoy that I've stopped.

On 2022-03-04 I started taking 15mg of Meloxicam, daily with dinner. This is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID), which often reduces arthritic swelling. I continued for a month, with my last dose on 2022-04-04. Unlike when I tried Methotrexate, I didn't notice any changes either when I started or when I went off.

To understand whether there might be a more subtle effect, I also checked my level of finger swelling each morning on waking by clasping my hands and seeing how tight it felt. I rated this feeling on a scale of 1 to 10, and all days were in the range 6 to 9 inclusive:

I take this to mean Meloxicam is very unlikely to reduce my swelling, and may even slightly increase it.

Still trying to figure out what to try next. One candidate is to stop restricting activity, let my wrists and hands get really bad, and then repeat the bloodwork. The hope is that if there are markers that are only elevated when my hands are agitated we might see them then.

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