The THING

[FourLife]

I call RA “The THING”. In late November 2012 I was putting something up in the closet. All of a sudden my back locked up and I could not raise my arms. The pain was horrible. I literally had to crawl to the couch. I called my mom, a registered nurse. She prayed for me and eventually the pain went away…for that day.

Pain & Swelling: It started in my fingers especially my index finger of my right hand. Spread to my thumb and middle finger of my right hand then to the index finger and middle finger of my left hand. My right hand was extremely swollen during Christmas of 2012. My husband had to help me get dressed for about one week. My right foot had this weird scaly thing near my ankle….The mornings were the worst. My hands wouldn’t always straighten. My husband starting calling them the claw. I couldn’t sleep. Severe night sweats. Feet were swollen. Pain in my right shoulder. HUGE boils on my inner thigh. I have always had very large and frequent blood clots during my period, but now I also was having tremendous pain in my joints body right before my period arrived. I had never been one to take a lot of Motrin, but I started taking several every day.

Doctor’s visits: I finally went to see a doctor in about February/March. My GP is AWESOME! He listens to me and if he DOESN’T know the answer then he gets me to someone else. He referred me another Dr. During the first visit the Dr. told me that I needed to get a shot in my index finger and start physical therapy…oh of course the x-rays were fine. I told him that my GP said to start taking Vitamin D. He said that Vitamin D wouldn’t make a difference. I told him that it had. I came back two weeks later with the same problems. He repeated the “solution”. I told him that I was not getting a shot in my finger and PT. I RE-explained that the problem wasn’t ONE finger it was my whole freaking hand, both hands, my shoulder, and my feet. He FINALLY admitted that he didn’t know what was wrong with me, but wanted to be the one to

[FourLife]

Thank you“V” I’m going to try the one week juicing when I come back from the family reunions….three all in the span of about 30-40 days.

Spiritual help:
-reading and actively doing The Love Dare
-read Sharon Jayne’s book “I’m not good enough and other lies women tell themselves”

New things I’ve tried that have helped:
-detox soak http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=2116003
-Eliminated all grains except organic flax seed and organic sourdough bread (made from a sourdough bread starter Whole Pay Check sells it freshly baked)
-became gluten free
-turmeric cannot stress it and Bosweilla enough (you have to find the dosage of Bosweilla that works for you)

Other websites that have helped me:
http://rheumatic.org/
(a wonderful wonderful website that contains real and useful information)

Other things I am going to try:
-one week of juicing as suggested by “V”
-finding out what my blood type is and eat foods according to it (funny I get stuck every month at the doctor’s office, but I don’t know my blood type)
-allergy test
-staph test to see if there is another infection that might be “partnering” with “the thing”
-infrared sauna (one hour per month – found a place here in GA)
-looking to start AP after I dump some more weight…hopefully September

Living with “The Thing” sometimes feels like a Hulk experience…certain foods, stress, and emotions trigger it…I’m on a journey to find a cure…one day at a time…always with hope.

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