My RA Story

    I was diagnosed with RA when I was 29 years old. As shocked as I was I had this disease, it all started to make sense! All of my odd discomforts and pain that I have learned to deal with most of my life but that was my normal. I have had “weak wrists” for a few weeks every year but I would just wear a brace and live my life. As much as I loved large purses my shoulder would hurt anytime I wore one so I switched to the worlds smallest cross body purse even though it wasn’t half as fun or stylish. When my knees started to hurt like they sometimes did I would take some extra calcium (I still can’t figure out how this helped back then but it seemed to). I knew if I didn’t sleep 10 hours a night I could barely function the next day. At one of my annual appointments my thyroid levels were off the chart yet I had never had any issues prior a few months later there appeared to be fine and then 6 months after that they were high again!

I had a flair up 6 YEARS before I was diagnosed but was so confused with the odd painful creeping joint pain I waited a week before going to the doctor (I was also young and poor). When I did finally go, the doctor dismissed me completely saying I just wanted pain meds! I was so shocked and torn down by their response I decided I just had to ride out whatever this was. 4 weeks later after not sleeping for an entire week I dragged my worthless feeling body (that had appeared to age 50 years overnight) to the ER where I begged them to sedate me just so I could sleep. They ran ever test they could think of and tried to put me on pain meds but nothing relieved the pain so they gave me something to help me sleep. One week later all of the pain just vanished for no apparent reason. I chalked the whole thing up to some crazy virus and thought surely I would never have to go through that hell again.

Skipping forward 4 years other then those random issues I already mentioned I didn’t have anymore debilitating pain. All of a sudden I was extremely tired for 2 years straight for no obvious reason, nauseas, my hair started falling out. And then the “flair up” happened again. When that creeping joint pain started the first day I tried to brush it off to sleeping too hard on my hands but after another 24 hours I started hyperventilating when I realized it was happening again and I was going to have to go through this all over again for most likely another 6 weeks. My only saving grace this time was because of the last two years of being tired I had just gone in to meet with a rheumatologist and he told me if I have any pain like I had 6 years ago to call immediately and come in so that's what I did. I couldn’t stop crying the whole way there and in his office because now I knew what was coming (lots of pain and no sleep) which was so much worst!

After many X-rays my sausage fingers and I were diagnosed with RA and because my husband and I were/are trying to conceive I was only given 2 options for medication that COULD possibly help. The first they said I could only take for a year because it could make me blind if I stay on it longer and the other would suppress my immune system so much I would most likely be sick all the time. I was in my twenties and already had a crappy immune system and would catch a cold or flu about every other month even with precautions! I couldn't imagine being sick every two weeks or possibly going blind. I was angry at my doctor! What type of options were these? What kind of life was he leaving me with? I took a week before I make a decision and cried and prayed more then I ever have but neither option felt right which just made me angrier. I asked everyone close to me what I should do and no one really wanted to answer. My best friend finally said “You always know what to do, listen to your gut.” My first response was more anger because my gut is saying DON’T do either! For the first time in a week I felt relief! Could I choose not to do either? Is that an option? What could I do instead? I’ve always searched out alternative options to medication but I was still in so much pain for some reason that hadn’t crossed my mind (not to mention the doctor hadn’t brought it up)! It seemed so out of reach this time. Could something natural really make this pain go away and not cause further damage? I Googled my little heart out for days, researching and gathering everything natural that could help, which as many of you might know is not the easiest thing to do when you are in pain but I now had a goal, NO PAIN and NO MEDS.

It’s now one year later and while I am in no way a professional I have tried what seems like just about every possible option out there and would like to share with you what has worked for me so you too can live a pain free and med free life.

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