One thing the Doctor did not warn me about !

One thing the Doctor did not warn me about.

 

It’s just after 2 am and I’m laying in bed with my iPad  trying to post pictures online. No matter how I position my hands the pain creeps slowly up my fingers and into my wrists moving up my elbows if I stay in one position too long. I shift around, rotate my wrists and pop my fingers bringing maybe 10 minutes of relief. My fingers are not working . My knees are bend but

need to keep stretching so the pain can be manageable.

 I keep thinking what will I do when my illness gets worse, no more beading, painting, cooking. The pain scares me and makes make me angry. 

 

2 weeks ago I saw two new doctor a rheumatoid/arthritis and Medical doctor. Dr. Mancerda (arthritis) order blood work, X-rays of my knees, hands, and feet and chest. Dr. Haber order a blood work and X-rays of my back.

This week I was sitting at Dr. Mancerda office by myself and he  explain why my body was hurting all the time. I was told that I have rheumatoid arthritis in my body,it's all over. Severe arthritis in my both my knees, the right is worse, and probably will need surgery.

 I sat and stared at the doctor and my eyes became watery he stated that it

Rheumatoid arthritis or RA is an autoimmune disease.

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s immune system begins to see the body as an enemy and attack it the way it would normally attack a virus or some other foreign material in the body. In RA, the immune system attacks the tissue lining the joints and breaks it down over time causing among other things pain, swelling, and often a deforming – particularly in the hands – due to the wearing down of the joints.

Autoimmune diseases frequently come, at the very least, in pairs. In other words, he will be performing more test on me.

 

I asked if I had Lupus he stated No it did not show up in the bloodwork.

 

 But I didn’t say anything. I quickly bit back tears and listen to his instructions and plans on how we are going to get this illness in remission. What in remission, he stated there is no cure for this illness.

Plans are to take a steroid shot to the knee, medication that could give me CANCER !

 

Unfortunately much of the medication also means I am less able to fight off normal illnesses making me more susceptible to colds and the flu. Taking this medicine I'm now considered a “compromised immune system” I now fall in the category of people for whom flu shots are basically mandatory. Which I cannot take. I should not be around people who have a cold, flue or any other contagious disease. If I do get a cold or the flu I will need to stop my medication until I'm healthy.

 

 My great grandmother on my Dads side had Rheumatoid arthritis and her hands-fingers were very deformed she stayed in bed because she could not move her body due to the pain. This illness can be hereditary.

 

With having this illness I have had several flare ups where I could not walk up the stairs , walk HEB to buy groceries.

“flares” in the disease, which means at times the symptoms will increase with no warning. I was completely unprepared for what a person experiences when a flare hits. My knees swell up, my feet begin to hurt, my fingers hurt, then the back pain becomes unbearable.

 

There are days that I just want to stay in bed because of the pain,  when you finally get out of bed several hours later I  still have pain but I could tell it was centered in my knees and lower back. In fact every bone, joint in my body were throbbing and burning with pain. I would take a over the counter the anti-inflammatory medication with a couple of Advil and over the course of the day the pain was bearable.

 

Dr. Mancerda explained that  Flares can be triggered by stress, foods, or a number of other things.

 

One thing the doctor did not warn me about is the emotional toll that comes with the diagnosis. During the initial testing and diagnosis process I would cry at night, thinking what is going to happen to me in a couple of years?.

 

 Once I was diagnosed, I felt like I should just be thankful that I knew what was wrong and had medicine to take for it.

 

RA does affect every aspect of your life once you are diagnosed and there is no way around that.

Once I start the medication in a couple of days because the doctor gave me a knee injection with steroids I can't start the new median till Wednesday.

I think that I need to know that I have a very serious disease and need to take the medication as prescribe, the medication he gave me is going to once a week and there will be side effects.  

 In the minds of people not knowing what RA is the pain does not just show up in the body at will – it either comes from injury or some normal illness such as the flu.

 

Remission. Remission is a word that makes me worry,hopefully the medication will but this disease at rest for awhile. Hopefully my body responds to this medicine  because my doctor explained that the body can stop responding to medicines properly without warning. Like any other drug, after a certain period of time, the body can become used to the drug’s presence and it will cease to provide the relief it once did. He would have to adjust the medication and also he stated that the medicine will not improve my illness right away, it takes up to 4 weeks to feel a change !!

 

I do not know what the future holds for me – but I take it a day at a time. One of the things I look the most forward to in life is  being with my grand-children, but with the RA there will be many complications.

#RA #rheumatoid #arthitis