Expectations

Expectations

For those of you that come to my blog frequently, I just wanted to apologize for not being here more, posting.  I’ve had a lot to say but find myself speaking quietly in my mind more often than sharing it with everyone.  So here is my attempt to share just a little piece of what I’ve been thinking.

I think I’ve been going through a bit of a downturn, if you will.  It has nothing to do with my RA.  My RA symptoms have been very easy on me.  I think what I take works well, which is Serracor-NK and Low Dose Naltrexone.  I think my feelings come from other things.  It comes from not getting everything accomplished.  It comes from trying really hard and still falling short.  It comes from working part-time rather than full-time.  It comes from an economy where everyone feels financially strapped.  It comes from spinning wheels but never going anywhere.  I can’t tell you how many irons in the fire there have been, how many high hopes I have had and they’ve fallen flat.  I know this is life.  I feel like I should be used to it, but I’m not.

Recently I was in a conversation with a family member.  I’ve been trying to build my website.  I’m not much of a website builder, but I do know basic html.  Building a website for me, is more than just writing html.  There’s the design aspect of it and preparing all the images.  I have many images that I painted that I’m sort of finally archiving.  I may or may not put them on my website.  But it’s important to me that I have them.  So to prepare them means I take a photograph of a painting and scan it in at high-resolution.  Then slowly but surely, I restore the image to the best of my ability to what it rightfully should be.  I get rid of scratches and marks that were not in the original painting.  And paintings that were taken at angles because they were already framed have to be magically put into a head on position.  Most of the images are tattered and ruined.  I’m great at restoring images but it takes time.  Anyway, she wanted to know why it was that I was even bothering with these old images.  Why had I not, simply painted more?  Why didn’t I have tons of new images to put up?  I do have some, but not tons.  Why don’t I paint as much as I used to?

Well plain and simple, life happens.  I used to paint more often but it was always in spurts.  I always sacrificed one thing or another so I could get a painting done.  I painted in Art School but I also worked full-time while going to art school.  This also meant that while I stood still, waiting in the freezing cold for the subway to come by, I would temporarily for just a single moment, fall asleep from time to time.  I never knew it was possible to fall asleep while standing and in freezing temps, but somehow it is.  Even though I was going to a government-funded art school in Massachusetts, the cheapest art school I could find, I still struggled to find ends meet and I certainly struggled to find the time to do it all.  Art school was time tasking, but working across from Fenway park as a waitress also took up much of my time.  When I was finally done with Art school and on my way to paying my wonderful school loans, I was more than thrilled to find a job in the career I had gone to school for.  And of course, at the same time that I found this job, I got RA.  It wasn’t until recently that RA became a side thing and not so much an all-encompassing, mind consuming, body consuming thing.  Painting is a side thing.  Art is my full-time thing.  I consider the making of my website as an art adventure.  And I consider my job as doing art every day.  Sure, it’s not tangible art that she might understand, but I understand it.  It’s definitely artistically stimulating and it improves my artistic, technical and mental skills.  But for someone who only knows my paintings, this is a hard concept to understand.  I am an artist, no one can take that away from me.  But yet I found myself explaining to her why it was that I wasn’t painting all the time anymore.  It actually made me feel guilty and it made me feel like I should be unfulfilled with myself….that I should have been doing more all this time.

I feel like we all get some sort of guilt trip from someone.  Or maybe it is us that makes ourselves feel guilty.  I feel like because we’re always being so hard on ourselves, the last thing we need is someone to be harsh on us.  But then there are times that that’s exactly what we need, a good kick in the but, someone who gets us moving in the right direction again.

Sometimes I wonder if I put too much value on what other people think of me.  Perhaps I’m just too sensitive. Perhaps I just can’t please everyone.  My husband feels like I spend too much time working.  Even if I enjoy what I do, that doesn’t seem to matter.  He’d rather have me home watching a good movie.  I had a person ask me recently, “What do you do in your free time?”  I explained that I had a blog, that I’ve been working on my website, that I go to the gym, etc.”  He said, “Oh, you work on yourself…that’s what you do.  You’re one of those people.”  Perhaps I am one of those people.

We may have creative geniuses from time to time, but the Renaissance man is long gone.  I think that’s because if the Renaissance man existed today, people would be asking him to parties for both networking and socializing, expecting him to dress nice and be fit while holding an impressive job, contacting him on Facebook and twitter, and his wife would be complaining that she never gets any quality time with him.  It’s a wonder that anyone can get anything done in this day and age with all the expectations.  But that’s just what I’ve been thinking….

My 3rd and 4th Acupuncture visit in Culver City

Hi everyone!  Obviously, I’ve fallen behind in my posts that I promised!

I’m continuing on with a weekly visit to Culver City with Acupuncture.  I have another scheduled for this Friday.  Things are going quite well actually.  My third visit went extremely well.  I didn’t flare up quite as much as the times before during my third visit.  After the visit, inflammation seemed to really go down after about an hour.  And by the evening, I was loving the extra space between my fingers.  :)  I felt like this was really working!  The effect lasted for a few days.

That week however, I had been extremely busy and stressed out and it continued on for the next week and still continues on.  My sleep is more than deprived and my stress levels are at all time highs.  This economy has made me more than ever, stressed out about monthly bills and where my next paychecks will be coming from.  At the same time, acupuncture is very cheap and I figure things will fall into place somehow.  I don’t know what to say other than, I just have faith.  So I continue on with my part-time work, looking for extra part time work, and as well, trying my hardest to bring in business to the studio that I’m currently working part time.  It’s no easy feat, but I have been successful in the past and I have some irons in the fire.  This type of networking makes me lose a lot of sleep.  It required for instance, a 7:30 a.m. breakfast just last week and believe me, I never eat breakfast at that time!  Doing things like this, generally doesn’t amount to much, but every now and then one gets lucky.  Ok, I’ve completely side-tracked myself here.  I just wanted to give you a little background information.  Back to acupuncture….

Needless to say, my fourth visit with Michael in Culver City was filled with stress and my body was vibrating from a loss of electrolytes and sleep deprivation.  You know the feeling…  that exhausted feeling that makes you simply feel weird.  It’s like you’re not even in your own body anymore.   Still, I wanted to do the acupuncture.  Perhaps that would put me back into my own skin.  I have this gut feeling that it’s doing something great for me.  And because of that feeling, I don’t want to give it up.  And mind you, I don’t think every acupuncture experience is like this.  Like I had said before, my first ever experience with acupuncture left me with a terrible, three week flare.  Michael is making sure this doesn’t happen to me.  With each visit, he may add an extra needle.  My third visit had one extra needle on the top of my head.  And the fourth visit had two extra needles on each foot.

The fourth visit, I actually experienced some strange sensations.  My shins seemed like they were turning numb and tingling.  My ankles started to feel pain.  For those that don’t know, I have a skin condition that scars my shins.  So perhaps my body was waking up and trying to heal this.  Or perhaps my body felt it was time to ignore my hands and take care of my feet and ankles.  I may never know.  The inflammation in my hands did not decrease this week.  Do I assume that I’ve hit my point where this is, “As good as it gets?”  Or do I assume that it’s because of the stress and lack of sleep?  Or could it be that I keep forgetting to take supplements because of my fatigue?  Or do I just decide to keep on going because you can’t go through life full of assumptions?  My feet and ankles seem better than usual, so that was a nice surprise!  Perhaps that’s all it is, the body can only heal and take care of one thing at a time.  Again, I may never know because the body is so mysterious.  But I like to make lots and lots of guesses!  :)

Acupuncture: My Second Visit To Culver City

I just wanted to give an update to those of you following my acupuncture visits.

It was another early morning for me, on a Saturday, to which I’m not used to. Of course, to the average person, 11 a.m. is not early. But I’m working part time right now and my hours do not require me until later in the day. This is a farther drive than my work, so it’s even earlier than I’m used to getting up. Since I would normally sleep in on the weekends, getting up at 9:30 to make it to the 11 a.m. appointment is not easy for me. I’m hoping I get used to this. And for those of you that don’t understand why I would need so much sleep, let me explain it like this: My body works hard at destroying what it can during the day. It tries to damage my joints, ligaments and organs. So sleeping is a chance to undue some of that damage, or if nothing else, give my body some time to rest from RA’s damaging effects. So yes, because I’m a natural night owl, waking up with to the loud “BEEP, BEEP, BEEP,” is fairly hellish.

But I’m on a quest. And that quest is to find out if I can stop the inflammation in my hands and feet. And if the answer is acupuncture then GREAT, and if it isn’t, then I’ll keep looking. I think Michael is a talented physician and if nothing else, he’s very sympathetic and caring. When I first sit down for evaluation, he takes a look at my hands and feet, and without hesitation, touches the inflamed joints trying to feel for any improvement. He asked me if there was any change in my joints after my first visit. I told him that for about one hour, my joints in my hands, not feet, were stiffer and more painful but after that hour, they seemed to have less inflammation than normal. He told me this can happen and not to worry and this is part of the natural healing process. Knowing this already, I wasn’t worried. I know from all the supplements I take that getting more inflammation at the beginning of a treatment can and often does, make you temporarily worse. So the fact that this had made me worse for only an hour, I thought, “Piece of cake”. Again however, he chose to only do acupuncture on my hands and feet, in fear that I might experience what I had the very first time I visited a different physician, which ended up in a three week flare. He wants to take things slow with acupuncture so that not only do I get improvement, but don’t have to deal with unexpected inflammation.

Again, two needles on each hand were placed in the raised parts of my palms. And again, needles were placed in my feet but in slightly different spots. I experienced pretty near the same thing as the last time…. Pain and inflammation seemed to increase during the treatment in my hands. My feet again, for one reason or another, did not experience any pain or inflammation. This time I was surprised that the inflammation in my hands lasted only about a half an hour (after treatment) and for the rest of the day I experienced less inflammation and more relief than my average day. My feet seemed to be unchanged. I do have a couple of spots on the outer parts of my feet…the bunions that are inflamed ever since RA began. So I have no idea why these spots aren’t “awakening”.

I believe in giving everything a good shot and at $25 a session, I can’t refuse this kind of opportunity. I plan on sticking with this for at least one month, if not two, depending on my finances. I hope sometime soon that I can share with all of you, a story of amazing relief from the acupuncture. But if that doesn’t end up happening, then if nothing else, I’m relaxing, truly relaxing for that hour each time I visit. I have a good feeling however, that I will experience tremendous relief from this, so I’m keeping my hopes up! If anyone has a story to share, please do!!

Gene Varient in Parkinsons Affects B6 Metabolism

I found this article interesting and thought all of you might appreciate it as well.  Here is the link.  (click here)

2nd Shot at Acupuncture

This morning I drove half an hour to try Acupuncture again.  I had tried it once before for $50 at a Korean venue located near Hollywood, California.  That experience had been very relaxing.  The needles for the most part, didn’t hurt and I was hopeful that this could reduce inflammation in my Rheumatoid Arthritis.  At the time, I was taking Methotrexate and Prednisone.  Soon after my appointment, I started to flare up.  At that time, I knew nothing about how alternative medications can and often cause an exacerbation of symptoms.  My flare lasted three weeks and I did not go back.

In hind-sight I realize that my flare was just the healing process when using natural therapies.  It was just an average day and I felt like looking into acupuncture again because it’s something I wanted to try once more in the future.   Before I got to far into my research, I came across an acupuncturist who was offering services “at an affordable sliding scale”.  For me, I hadn’t even considered going back anytime soon.  My full time job has gone down to part time and I’m currently looking for more work.  But with services being offered for as low as $25, I took it as a sign that maybe I should go in for treatment.  After all, I don’t HAVE to have conditioner for my hair for a couple of weeks.  I could just survive on saved bottles from old visits to hotel rooms of both shampoo and conditioner.  I could cut back on spending for groceries, etc.  Reducing inflammation in my hands is top priority for me, so why wouldn’t I figure out what I could do to make it happen?  I decided it was worth the tighter squeeze in my budget to give acupuncture another shot.

I told Michael, the acupuncturist, about my previous experience.  He decided we should take it slow.  For this trip, he inserted needles only in my hands and feet.  He said that acupuncture is sort of like, “stirring up the mud in the water” and it gave me a clear vision of a shallow muddy pool being stirred up until it was a thick, murky brown.  I also told him that I had been taking conventional RA drugs when I tried acupuncture before and that now I was on supplements to control inflammation.  He felt that perhaps this time I would not flare up like I did because I have already spent so much time detoxing my body.

The visit: My experience before was in a large building, set with a receptionist, several doctors on hand, ringing phones, a waiting room, and when I went in, I had a diagnostic machine that claimed to tell me which organs in my body were not working correctly.  To this day I wonder if there was any truth to that.  Since that had been my first and only visit to acupuncture, I was surprised but not disappointed to arrive at a quaint town-house and I settled in to a cozy room.  It was personal, lovely and I felt confident that Michael knew exactly what I was trying to accomplish.  The needles were chose carefully.  Just a couple were inserted into the palms of my hands and a few to each of the tops of my feet.  Michael told me the needles in my palms were points specifically found to reduce inflammation in arthritic hands.

Next time we would do more, but for now, no need to stir up the mud in the water too much.  As I lied there, I could feel some activity happening.  My feet weren’t changing in sensations, but my hands were stirring up the mud.  They started to become a little stiff and I could feel pain starting in on my wrists.  I was amazed that just two little needles on each palm could have such a big effect.  (My hands generally don’t feel pain but used to before my change in therapy).  I was worried that I’d have very swollen hands and wrists for the rest of the day.  I took some deep breaths and told myself, “give into the process”.  I finally relaxed, settling into a comfortable state, listening to the beautiful music and enjoying the ambiance.  When the experience was over, I set up another appointment for next Saturday and drove back home.

I was a little more swollen on my way home, just in my hands.  But as the day progressed, the swelling ceased, and my hands feel a little less inflamed than usual.  It could be a placebo effect since I know that acupuncture usually doesn’t work this quickly.  Still, I’m happy about my experience and excited about the prospect of fixing the tail ends of my inflammation once and for all.  Maybe THIS will really work.  In the meantime, I plan on telling all of you everything about it!

My first journal entry on Daily Strength: Aug 8, 2007

To those of you who wake up every morning in pain, or sit for a few minutes and have trouble getting up……or feel weak, tired…. depressed…….. or have people who don’t really understand……… to those of you who keep trying everything you can to get rid of your flare, hoping to just get back to your normal self……….. and to those of you who are saddened that you can’t do the things you use to do……..like pick up a child, or open up that bottle of water, or take off your bra. Yes, there are days I can, but plenty of days that I can’t. And to those of you that read online things like, “arthritis is possibly caused by poor diets, lack of exercise, unhealthy lifestyle…etc.” and get frustrated because you exercise everyday, eat healthfully and always have, etc…………………

I can relate………and, I want to hear from you!!!

I’m certainly not going to loose hope that I can’t get back a semi normal lifestyle. Plus, with medical advancements, you just never know.

But for now, I continue on my journey wanting to hear from all of you……..in our quest to improve the life we have and to share with each-other R.A. which I truly believe no one understands until you have it.

For instance, I love to exercise and I always have. When I exercise I do feel better. But during a time when I’m not having a flare……..I still can’t do….say… yoga. There are just simply things I can not do. I can’t bend my wrists like I use to……and I’ve lost a lot of strength. When I’m not in a full blown flare, I excersize as much as possible while I can. When I am going through a flare (which I am now) and just so you know, I’ve been on prednisone for 8 months………and now I’m on methotrexate for the first time as well as still on the pred. I’m having of course nausea and hair loss. It sucks and I’m not sure I really want to be on this medicine. At first I thought I did, but I just don’t know anymore…….even though I don’t have any better ideas. But anyway, exercise baffles me. Because now that I’m flaring again hard core, I’m still going to the gym. When I get there it takes all of my effort to get myself moving. But once I start moving, it gets a bit better……and continues to improve slightly (never like it use to) but enough that I’m feeling more confident and happy. The moment I stop…..like literally take a step off the elliptical, I feel as though I’m right back to normal again, meaning pain and stiffness, and it takes all of me to get myself out of the gym and back in the car. Sometimes I have to pull on my legs to get them up on the elliptical.

How many of you have tripped on your way into the shower because it’s too hard to lift your legs? Or how about…..how many of you have worried about your driving skills now that it’s difficult to turn your head and the steering wheel? Any of this sound familiar?

On my last day to drink for a long time which was Sat when I went to this amazing wedding. I drank too much of course, champagne, etc. I exercised that day already so I could feel better in the evening. I took prednisone and plenty of pain killers. I know, I know, terrible on my liver. I didn’t start Methotrexate until last night which was on Doctor’s advice………he knew I’d be bingeing on sat. Anyway, my point: So there I was at the wedding, tipsy, dancing, and having a great time…..the most limber and energetic I had been in a while. And a woman I know who is a friend of mine and knows of my R.A………we were walking partners and with my last flare I had to stop the early mornings… Anyway she said, mockingly, “Your rheumatoid isn’t bothering you now is it?” and it felt so……….you know, like you must be faking this sort of thing.

O.k. now you heard me vent. Ahhhh, this is what a journal is all about.

Health before Wealth

Recently I was talking to my mom about the newest thing I’m thinking of trying. It’s suppose to balance the pH of your water, along with add electrolytes and minerals. (see link) She asked, “How can you afford to take all of these things?”

The truth is, financially I can’t really. I’m stretched as thin as a rubber band, ready to break at any moment. These are hard, economical times.

On the flipside, can I afford to NOT keep trying new therapies in hope that remission will soon be giving me a high five at my doorstep? Sure I’m feeling great in a sense that I’m completely functional with RA. But as long as I’m not in remission, there’s still damage being done. I’m thinking long term. It’s the same as keeping up on your teeth cleaning. If you don’t, you could end up with some serious tooth decay, along with heart conditions and toxins invading your body. What kind of damage is happening to my hands long term? And there’s no guarantee with conventional drugs either that you can skip out on the deformities. Just clue into a recent post and you’ll see that hand deformity is just like the disease itself in that it varies from person to person. So you have to do your best to get inflammation under control no matter what you’re taking. Even if you’re taking DMARD’s and Biologics, you have to consider that eating right and exercising would be a wise, helpful choice since these medications can raise cancer risks, among other things. Our bodies are long term investments.

From time to time expense comes up as a topic in my RA support group. The idea of going organic, buying fresh food vs packaged, and taking supplements that can improve overall health seems too expensive to some. Most people embrace the burden of the extra costs, but a few need encouragement that long term, investing in the right foods and supplements will save money. This is particularly tough when a lot of us, including myself are living paycheck to paycheck. What you pay now at the grocery mart will help determine the costs of your future medical bills. Just like I am spending money on supplements, rather than movies or haircuts, I’m figuring that the money I spend now could make for a less expensive health bill in the future. Not only that, but the better I feel and the more that I can do, the better chance I have at making more money in the future, simply because I’ll be able to keep up a career and hopefully advance in that career.

So my motto is, when you’re trying to decide what to eat for lunch and your choice is a hamburger on the doller menu or that organic salad with grilled, free range chicken that were raised without antibiotics….. choose the latter. Because in my opinion, you’re going to be paying for your health in one way or another.

Trusting Your Doctor

I was speaking with a friend who just got results from her doctor, saying her liver enzymes were raised. The doctor advised her not to drink any alcohol. I immediately asked, “Are you taking Ibuprofen?” I knew her knee had been hurting her, and she wasn’t one to avoid over the counter medications. Her response was, “but my doctor said Ibuprofen would not raise my enzymes like that.”

I feel like I’ve heard this type of story a hundred times. You or a friend go to the doctor and something is wrong, and the doctor never gets to the bottom of it. Why? In many cases, I think the reason is because some doctors fail to listen or ask questions. They’re on a time schedule. They do a quick assessment. They make assumptions.

Though I’ve had some great doctors in my life, I’ve been disappointed just as many or more times. One of these visits was when I was fifteen. I had my wisdom teeth out. They weren’t quite in yet, but because of previous braces,it was suggested to remove the roots of the wisdom teeth before they formed, so my other teeth wouldn’t become crooked again. And despite how many times I went to the orthopedic surgeon to tell him I was in severe pain and something wasn’t right, he disregarded it, handing me heavier pain medications. He gave me codeine. The codeine didn’t help much, the pain was so severe. Finally, on my last visit, the surgeon realized I had an infection.  After a few days of antibiotics, my pain was gone! Had I simply believed the doctor was right and my pain was just a result of recovery, what could have happened if the infection had lasted longer?

For my friend, I knew she had gone in to see the doctor because her knees were bothering her. She’s a dancer and her dancing is very hard on her knees. I asked her how much ibuprofen she was taking each day. Knowing painkillers don’t work that great when you’re having chronic severe pain, I knew it was highly likely she was taking too much. It turned out she was taking over the maximum dosage. If the doctor had taken the time to really listen to his patient and ask questions, he would have figured this out. Instead, a patient with ill advice will continue taking the high dose of ibuprofen, further damaging her liver and her intestinal tract, later to find other chronic diseases up ahead.

I feel like our health system severely lacks preventative care. Without a doctor’s listening ear, problems go on unnoticed and as a result health care rises because ailments continue to spike. And when someone gets an ailment such as damaged intestines due to too much NSAIDs usage, autoimmune diseases like “leaky gut syndrome”, IBS, Crohn’s, Lupus, Fibromialgia and RA might be the result. Then what comes next? More painkillers, steroids and other various drugs that will further damage the body, causing more and more harm.

I’m not a doctor, so I can’t say what’s best. And because everyone’s chemistry is different, it’s hard to say how some people will react. But I do think that other choices are out there before you hit the drugs. Exhausting those choices first, in my opinion, is your best bet. For my friend, I can think of a few options off the top of my head that could help. Strengthening the muscles around the knee offer as a natural knee brace. I would suggest that she stops the painful movements in her dance class for a while and instead, works on reinforcing the muscles surrounding her knee. I would make this physical therapy a top priority and a continuous effort. Next, I would use a cream that’s great for the knees and will help bring down the inflammation. And when she’s resting at home and in pain, I would recommend that she elevates her leg and wraps an ace bandage around her knee to help push the swelling out.

Beyond that, of course there’s supplements that will reduce the swelling in her knee instead of using painkillers. For her liver, I would suggest considering three supplements that help the liver function. That I know of, those are milk thistle, N-acetylcysteine and SAM-e. SAM-e is particularly great because it would help her knee and her liver. N-acetylcysteine is a little more complicated because it pulls out toxic metals and requires additional vitamin C. Taking a supplement like Ultra Antioxidant from pro-health would cover the basics of what’s involved with this supplement in particular.

In the end, it’s important that you trust your doctor. If your doctor is not listening and not asking questions, life is too short…find one who will!

The Ripple Effect

Getting older is tough enough.  Watching your body change as you get older is a gradual process.  A gray hair here, a gray hair there.  A wrinkle here, a wrinkle there.  As the days move forward, at least you know everyone else is in the same boat.

But getting older with an autoimmune disease, in my opinion, is far more difficult.  You plunge head first into a scary world, and you imagine this must be what it feels like to be 90.  Losing abilities, taking pills daily, watching your body change at a very fast rate can be not only frustrating and painful, but detrimental to your mental health.  Each day is different.  You might notice new rashes on your skin, new bumps or bruises, or another task left uncompleted because of lost ability or weakness.  I remember clumps of hair falling out in the shower.  I felt sort of like a cancer patient.  The kinds of things you go through are just not meant for daily conversations.  So you feel alone and trapped in your own skin.

Luckily however, I have been able to get my Rheumatoid Arthritis under control with alternative medications that don’t have side effects.  My hair no longer falls out in clumps.  I rarely get new bumps or rashes.  And I am able and agile enough to once again live a full and productive life.

But that’s not why I’m writing this post.  This post is about the unknown and that gripping fear that although everything seems ok at the moment, the likelihood that more problems are in your future, especially as you grow older, is likely to occur.  And don’t say that I’m living life with a glass half-empty.  I am optimistic that whatever arises, I’ll be able to handle and possibly even get control of by taking more supplements.  But my point is, is that it is likely that if you get one autoimmune disease, there may be more to follow.

My first autoimmune disease was a skin disease.  It’s located on my shins and called Necrobiosis Lipoidica.  At first I was told it was Granuloma Annulare and the doctor showed me a picture of a woman with it all over her body.  This conclusion of course, was horrifying to me because for the next five years, I worried I’d be covered with shiny, scaly scars.  Fortunately, the doctor was wrong and instead, I was diagnosed later with Necrobiosis Lipoidica, which is a skin disease that only affects the shins.  Both skin diseases usually accompany diabetes, so the doctor was confused why not only did I not have diabetes, but it did not run in my family.  Later, in my research of Rheumatoid Arthritis, I learned that Necrobiosis Lipoidica sometimes is associated with RA.  Around those same years that I developed this, I also got pleurisy, which is a painful inflammation of the lining between your lungs and your ribs.  Antibiotics seemed to clear it up and it was probably a result of living in such polluted air.  Pleurisy, however,  is a frequent symptom of Lupus and it sometimes accompanies RA.  Fast forward four years and I’m diagnosed with Hypothyroidism.  My gynecologist caught it, otherwise this would have probably gone on for years without me realizing.  Then seven years later I was diagnosed with RA.

The reality is, most people with an autoimmune disease like RA or Lupus, usually have many more autoimmune diseases.  It can be a ripple effect.  Whether it’s the diseases themselves, the lifestyles that accompany the diseases, or the medications, more and more seem to pile up.  I’m glad to be on alternative medications because I know I’m taking things that might just possibly reverse the disease process.  But there’s always that side of me, that terrified side, like a voice in the back of my head that says, “What’s next?”  This time at least, I know that I’m doing all that I can do.  I’m armed with knowledge.  I’m taking supplements that improve my health.  I’m eating better, sleeping more and consuming fewer toxins.  There’s nothing more that we can do besides enjoy every day for what it is, knowing life is uncertain, so whatever each day may bring, let it be the best that it can be.

Joe Greer

If I were to dress up as a doctor for Halloween, perhaps I’d be Greer and add wings on my back.  Greer is an absolute angel.  He doesn’t just serve people with insurance, but he also takes in people who have nothing to offer him.  His services awarded him a “2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his 25 years of dedication, at a White House ceremony with President Obama.”

I wish a person like Greer didn’t surprise me that he even exists.  I mean, who heard of such a thing, a doctor who got into the business for the right reasons?  I’m shocked!!

I’d rather not be shocked.  I’d rather be shocked when people don’t help others.  I’d rather be shocked that a crime was committed on the street and there was one person who didn’t try and help.

It is comforting though that someone like Greer is out there, and that he is teaching.  Maybe just maybe the world CAN become a better place and that health care for all is right around the corner.  :)