This is a story of 25 year old vasculitis DADA2 Patient…

In June 2018, I started developing small lesions under my skin. With time, these lesions increased, and I would develop a fever every evening. At that time, I just took PCM whenever I had a fever. Then after some time, I felt as if my ear was getting blocked, and whenever this would happen, I would develop nausea along with it, but after some time, it would get better on its own. The severity of these symptoms increased with time.

In May 2019, my ear got blocked, and it didn’t recover on its own. I had to be admitted to the hospital because of the nausea. I was then advised to get my MRI done, which revealed that I had an aneurysm in the right side of my brain. I then underwent an embolization procedure. The lesions under my skin were still coming and going. I consulted a lot of doctors, but they were not able to identify the cause. I was then started on a course of steroids and many other medicines.

In September 2019, I went to PGI, where I was diagnosed with DADA2. I was started on Anti-TNFs in October 2019 and have been better since then. Everything was going well until June 2021 when I had missed 2-3 Anti-TNF doses due to some reasons. I developed weakness on the right side of my body. I then resumed my injections and felt my body recovering.

In September-October 2021, I started feeling pinching pains on the right side of my body. I was then started on methotrexate 15 mg/week, followed by folvid 5 mg on the remaining 6 days. I took this for some time, but the symptoms did not subside, so they increased my dose to 20 mg/week. Due to some confusion between folitrax and folvid, instead of taking folvid, I took folitrax 20 mg for 4 days and 10 mg on the fifth day. Following this, I developed nausea, mouth ulcers, and decreased blood counts, which required me to be admitted to PGI. I was then given the required treatment and felt better. During this time, I was suggested to stop my Anti-TNFs.

After some time, I resumed my Anti-TNFs, and a day after taking my Anti-TNF injection, I developed tenderness and numbness in my right upper thigh. I was advised to get my MRI LS + MRI thoracic spine done and consult with a neurologist. My neurologist advised me to get my NCS test done, which came out fine. The tenderness and numbness improved to some extent with time.

I am now able to live a somewhat normal life because of the Anti-TNF injections. I am really thankful to all the doctors at PGI for making the proper diagnosis and providing the required treatment.