My
outlook on these diseases is different than many people. I don't
complain about the pain or crawl into bed and hide from life.
For me, my diagnosis is a blessing, a gift.
My legs and my hips hurt me from before I was a teenager. I would wake up at 2am crying in pain. Mom kept the special pills for my leg pain separate from everything else. I didn't have to bother her- just go take one and wait for it to work. I walked up and down the long hallway in our ranch home waiting and crying. As a mother, I now know she walked every step with me even though she never got out of bed. It was best. I learned to deal with it.
I remember Mom taking me grocery shopping with her. I knew all the place where I could move stuff aside to sit on those bottom shelves. By the time we reached the checkout line I was in tears and sitting on the little shelf where the paper grocery bags would sit to be filled.
I was about 13 when Mom went to the podiatrist for B-12 shots in her feet for pain (huh? for Mom?). The doctor was so nice and explained it all to me. I asked why I couldn't have them. He checked me out that day. The doctor made inserts for my shoes that gave me years of relief and he explained part of why my legs always hurt.
Some of my pain was 'growing pains' but some was from muscles working extra hard to compensate for bent bones.
The interesting thing was I heard that doctor quietly say to my mother, "it might be the beginning of rheumatoid arthritis".
I got those B-12 shots by the way. Imagine taking a pillow and wrapping it around your feet -- actually imagine shoes made of pillows. That is how it made me feel. I saw a podiatrist a few years ago that was wonderful. We discussed my mother's shots. He said 40 years ago those B-12 shots also had cortisone in them.
I have never worn very high heels or pretty shoes. I should have known this when I started out with saddle shoes as a child for many years. As a baby those shoes were attached with a steel bar to help my legs straighten. I am a sneaker person. Not cheap ones either! I wore New Balance for years. Every 5 weeks I had to buy a new pair. Now I wear Nike Cross Trainers because they actually last 3 or 4 months. They cost twice the price also!
My children are adults now but childbirth remains a vivid memory. Pain. Lots of it. In my hips!!! Yes, I labored in my hips. Every 30 minutes the doctor would call back. My water had broken, there should be stomach pain. After 8 hours of steady pain, screaming as my poor dog walked me up and down those halls again, the doctor called again. He asked me if I was in any stomach pain. My mother whispered in my ear, "LIE!" so i did. I described my 3 minute apart hip pain but claimed that it was in my stomach. I was told to hurry up and get to the hospital.....my baby was born very quickly once we got there.
My second child labored the same way but I was experienced already. I knew how to lie. The dog knew what was expected also.
I am now 53 years old. I have learned to live with my strange pains and the 6 hour viruses seem to get. Now the doctors tell me I have all these serious diseases.
Get blood drawn. Try penicillin. Go to the lab for blood work. Try the infectious diseases doctor. Successfully lose weight. More blood work. Now try a Rheumatologist. First one sees me crying and says I am depressed like many people in January. Take this pill for depression. Same thing with the next Rheumatologist. More antidepressants. I don't take them. I am crying because I am tired of living in pain all my life.
Finally, I get a referral to a different Rheumatologist. I am hopeful. She is younger than I am and a woman. No more little old men doctors for me.
I start with Plaquenil. Six months later, we add one pill a week of Methotrexate. One pill? A week? What will that do? I have never heard of this.
I was still taking my advil. I grew up taking a lot of aspirin. Advil became my wonder drug because it meant pills were taken every 6 hours instead of every 3. I still do not take any narcotics or Prednisone.
Hurricane Sandy hit NY. I was living alone. I sat on my bed in the dark texting my daughter safely in Florida throughout the storm. No power meant no Facebook friends.
One week later, I was back online. I had been checking in when I could but just my close friends, my timeline. Now I started reading the group pages.
I realized I had been without pain throughout the storm. All that pressure and no pain.
My plaquenil had started working. When my doctor was able to return to her office, she saw me. We agreed that my body was showing signs of relief. My mind was too!!
This was October 2012. I saw the first Rheumatologist in January of 2012.
I am now on a lot of vitamins and herbs in addition to my Plaquenil and 3 tablets of Methotrexate. I take Advil on bad days or when I injure something. I have had a cortisone shot in my knee Ocotober 31, 2013. I had a Hyaluronic acid shot 3 months later on January 31, 2014. It is now June and my knee is still doing good. My shoulders hurt. My knees are bad. My hips are no longer alone. I have a bad toe. I have a bad finger or two. My hands swell. My legs swell. I have been dieting and getting that awful weight down.
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Sjogrens, Raynauds, and who knows what will be found next. I don't mind. These are all good things. With these strange words come solutions. I can plan my future. I know what to watch for. I wear a wrist support to sleep to prevent the progression of the diseases in my right wrist and hand. I am no longer fixing what is damaged but instead working to slow new damage.
For me, my diagnosis are a blessing. The medications I take help me to feel better than I have for most of my life.
#Rheumatoid Arthritis, #Lupus, #Sjogrens, #Raynauds, #autoimmune
For me, my diagnosis is a blessing, a gift.
My legs and my hips hurt me from before I was a teenager. I would wake up at 2am crying in pain. Mom kept the special pills for my leg pain separate from everything else. I didn't have to bother her- just go take one and wait for it to work. I walked up and down the long hallway in our ranch home waiting and crying. As a mother, I now know she walked every step with me even though she never got out of bed. It was best. I learned to deal with it.
I remember Mom taking me grocery shopping with her. I knew all the place where I could move stuff aside to sit on those bottom shelves. By the time we reached the checkout line I was in tears and sitting on the little shelf where the paper grocery bags would sit to be filled.
I was about 13 when Mom went to the podiatrist for B-12 shots in her feet for pain (huh? for Mom?). The doctor was so nice and explained it all to me. I asked why I couldn't have them. He checked me out that day. The doctor made inserts for my shoes that gave me years of relief and he explained part of why my legs always hurt.
Some of my pain was 'growing pains' but some was from muscles working extra hard to compensate for bent bones.
The interesting thing was I heard that doctor quietly say to my mother, "it might be the beginning of rheumatoid arthritis".
I got those B-12 shots by the way. Imagine taking a pillow and wrapping it around your feet -- actually imagine shoes made of pillows. That is how it made me feel. I saw a podiatrist a few years ago that was wonderful. We discussed my mother's shots. He said 40 years ago those B-12 shots also had cortisone in them.
I have never worn very high heels or pretty shoes. I should have known this when I started out with saddle shoes as a child for many years. As a baby those shoes were attached with a steel bar to help my legs straighten. I am a sneaker person. Not cheap ones either! I wore New Balance for years. Every 5 weeks I had to buy a new pair. Now I wear Nike Cross Trainers because they actually last 3 or 4 months. They cost twice the price also!
My children are adults now but childbirth remains a vivid memory. Pain. Lots of it. In my hips!!! Yes, I labored in my hips. Every 30 minutes the doctor would call back. My water had broken, there should be stomach pain. After 8 hours of steady pain, screaming as my poor dog walked me up and down those halls again, the doctor called again. He asked me if I was in any stomach pain. My mother whispered in my ear, "LIE!" so i did. I described my 3 minute apart hip pain but claimed that it was in my stomach. I was told to hurry up and get to the hospital.....my baby was born very quickly once we got there.
My second child labored the same way but I was experienced already. I knew how to lie. The dog knew what was expected also.
I am now 53 years old. I have learned to live with my strange pains and the 6 hour viruses seem to get. Now the doctors tell me I have all these serious diseases.
Get blood drawn. Try penicillin. Go to the lab for blood work. Try the infectious diseases doctor. Successfully lose weight. More blood work. Now try a Rheumatologist. First one sees me crying and says I am depressed like many people in January. Take this pill for depression. Same thing with the next Rheumatologist. More antidepressants. I don't take them. I am crying because I am tired of living in pain all my life.
Finally, I get a referral to a different Rheumatologist. I am hopeful. She is younger than I am and a woman. No more little old men doctors for me.
I start with Plaquenil. Six months later, we add one pill a week of Methotrexate. One pill? A week? What will that do? I have never heard of this.
I was still taking my advil. I grew up taking a lot of aspirin. Advil became my wonder drug because it meant pills were taken every 6 hours instead of every 3. I still do not take any narcotics or Prednisone.
Hurricane Sandy hit NY. I was living alone. I sat on my bed in the dark texting my daughter safely in Florida throughout the storm. No power meant no Facebook friends.
One week later, I was back online. I had been checking in when I could but just my close friends, my timeline. Now I started reading the group pages.
I realized I had been without pain throughout the storm. All that pressure and no pain.
My plaquenil had started working. When my doctor was able to return to her office, she saw me. We agreed that my body was showing signs of relief. My mind was too!!
This was October 2012. I saw the first Rheumatologist in January of 2012.
I am now on a lot of vitamins and herbs in addition to my Plaquenil and 3 tablets of Methotrexate. I take Advil on bad days or when I injure something. I have had a cortisone shot in my knee Ocotober 31, 2013. I had a Hyaluronic acid shot 3 months later on January 31, 2014. It is now June and my knee is still doing good. My shoulders hurt. My knees are bad. My hips are no longer alone. I have a bad toe. I have a bad finger or two. My hands swell. My legs swell. I have been dieting and getting that awful weight down.
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Sjogrens, Raynauds, and who knows what will be found next. I don't mind. These are all good things. With these strange words come solutions. I can plan my future. I know what to watch for. I wear a wrist support to sleep to prevent the progression of the diseases in my right wrist and hand. I am no longer fixing what is damaged but instead working to slow new damage.
For me, my diagnosis are a blessing. The medications I take help me to feel better than I have for most of my life.
#Rheumatoid Arthritis, #Lupus, #Sjogrens, #Raynauds, #autoimmune