A reduction in symptoms

Now that it is nearly a decade later, I have to share what has worked for my Rheumatoid Arthritis.

I used to take a lot of supplements to decrease inflammation. Occasionally I took prednisone when things got really bad, but I would try to keep this for emergencies only.

One year, I had an opportunity to sleep-in on a regular basis. I slept probably 9 to 10 hour days for the full year. I still went to work, but it was something I had worked out with my employer and I wanted to test a theory.

My theory was that sleep would eventually heal me.

And for the most part it did. I still have to take it easy, get enough stress and not overdo anything. I can’t eat a bowl of pasta unless I’ve come to terms with myself that I’ll deal with the extra inflammation it will bring on. But that’s extra inflammation, it isn’t extreme inflammation and disability. I certainly won’t eat pasta for a week or else I might get myself into trouble. I have to get rest, take naps, whatever I have to do to catch up on sleep. If I don’t I’ll most likely suffer some consequences. But I no longer have Prednisone in my cabinet. I no longer take oodles of supplements like I once did. I no longer need to take baking soda and epson salt baths to feel as good as I do. I do of course try and eat healthy, meaning, the more organic vegetables I can get in me, the better I feel.

But I can’t just get a weight trainer and start weight training my body, or training for a marathon. I stepped onto the elliptical the other day. I did a 30 minute gentle workout. I have been walking for an hour every day for two years. But the elliptical works out new muscles, so I knew to be careful.

Sure enough, even though I made sure to keep it gentle, that evening I woke up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water and I realized I couldn’t walk on one foot. The tendon in my left foot was so inflamed that I realized I would have to go without getting a glass of water. My husband was asleep. I took one last sip of what I had left in my glass and did my best to fall back asleep.

The next morning, my ankle had healed some and I walked to go get some water. And by the end of that day I was fine. But I certainly knew I couldn’t get back on the elliptical for probably a few days just in case.

I once got a trainer at the gym. I don’t know what I was thinking, except that his ongoing sales pitch had worked. I was especially healthy so I figured I could handle it. I told him about my health issues and to take it easy on me and that I couldn’t work out in the sun. But although he said he would be gentle, he didn’t truly listen and I didn’t put my foot down. After that I canceled. I was out of the gym for three months as a result of too much too fast.

Sleep is my go-to whenever I’m inflamed. I have a second go-to as well.

But that is for the next post.

Best of luck to you all in these trying times.

.

It’s nearly a decade later.

Dear readers, this will be an unusual post.

For those that have followed this blog, you noticed at first I didn’t write much towards the end, and then I didn’t write at all. But I never could explain why. Now I’m about to.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten how to write in a blog too, but hopefully this is like riding a bike.

First, I am still alive, still well, and I’m sorry I haven’t logged into my site until now.

A post I had written long ago caused quite a stir. So much of a stir that, a big stack of papers came in my mail, threatening to sue me. At first, I did not worry. I considered what I had to say an act of freedom of speech and that this giant company wouldn’t get very far. But the reality was, I was broke, and I was trying desperately to manage my career and manage my autoimmune disease, and I was in denial. The blog was a place to decompress, but for the first time, it added to undue stress in my life.

Over that year, new paperwork came, threatening me more and more. Calls came in. “Take down your blog” it read. But I did nothing and hoped they could do nothing to me.

A year later, a bigger stack of brand new paperwork came. This time, a new lawyer put their name to it, and this time they threatened they would put me in jail for giving advice on my blog. What? Can they really put me in jail?

I took the paperwork over to someone within my network, as a one time favor to ask for advice.

Yes they could sue me, of course, anyone can sue anyone for anything. But she didn’t think they would win and she didn’t think they could put me in jail because I occasionally gave advice. Still I felt scared and confused. All I wanted to do was be well. I didn’t have money for a lawyer and I was only starting to get control of my autoimmune disease and my career. I felt morally responsible to keep my blog visible, though I was told to take it down. To compromise, I took the original post down that caused so much trouble and stopped allowing comments along with responding to them. All of my writing energy disappeared in an instant.

Without even trying, a year or so passed. Every time I wanted to write, I stopped myself mid-sentence. And then Life happened. Stressful life changes impacted me deeply.

Eventually, I came back to my blog and the accounts associated with it, and realized, I didn’t know my passwords anymore. I didn’t know my usernames because I had changed everything to become “forgotten”. I had let emails expire. I didn’t connect back up emails to send “reset password” info to. There was no one to call. I couldn’t find any of the information I needed to get help. My twitter account was hacked and some other person or bot using my name took it for political propaganda. With all control lost, it seemed the world wanted me to stop writing and just hide.

And then yesterday happened.

I got an email that said one of my emails would be closed if I didn’t log in. I had thought that email no longer existed. I reset the password to the long forgotten email and wondered if somewhere in my emails, can I find my account # or other valid info for WordPress? I had been seaching for years and I was pretty sure I had searched here before.

But sometimes things change because maybe stars aline? I reset the search filter because something was wrong with it. Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t find this info before? I searched for WordPress. Ooodles of WordPress emails come up so I hit the arrow key for ten minutes or so until I got to the very first email that was ever sent to me from WordPress. And that’s all I ever needed.

Now that I have access again to this blog, I’m not even sure what to do with it. Should I even write at all? How much should I share? Is it possible to be anonymous? Do I ever give advice again?

It’s only been a day and I figure I’ll just take baby steps. I’ll figure things out one day at a time. I’m happy to at least now, have a choice.

I’ve decided to sign with the name, Sarah May, because she is the old me, long before I wrote this blog. She’s symbolic because RA once had ahold of me, and it no longer does. It’s still here, but it’s not invading my thoughts or preventing me from living. It still however, prevents me from a cartwheel, and I’m hoping in time I’ll change that too.

To my readers that never heard from me again, I’m truly sorry it happened, and any grief it has caused you.

Many gentle virtual hugs to you all,

Sarah May

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