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
