This is that fantastic topic that I have been dodging here recently. Well, I may as well get past it, eh?
Let’s step back.. In 2005-ish my baby sister was diagnosed with having Rheumatoid Arthritis and has been fighting it ever since. It’s been hard to watch her fight it knowing there is nothing that anyone of us can do for her. It’s also hard watching her, knowing that I didn’t have much of anything wrong with me.
A few years back I was having some aches and pains that the doctor could not pinpoint. Finally I swallowed my pride and asked for an arthritis panel. It came back saying that I was borderline for having what my sister had but nothing to freak over. I moped a bit, told no one except my mother and a few friends, then moved on. I eventually told the rest of my family but I didn’t want them to panic over it.
I had an appointment with an RA doctor, walked in, waited an hour, and since they had yet to take me back I decided to leave .. and not come back again. The pain went away and life went on.
Back in November a female driving a Ford Expedition decided to make me her hood ornament as I was crossing the street, on a walk signal, in downtown Louisville. After that I almost immediately started having wrist pains. From that point on I have woke up most mornings with a bit of an ache in my hands. About a month ago it got to the point where the wrist aches weren’t going away during the day and I was having trouble doing certain things, especially in the mornings. I made an appointment to see he doctor and the first thing she suggested was RA. Oh fun ..
A week or so later and I get a call from the doctor’s office with the test results. When I answer this phone it’s the doctor on the other end. That is never good.
They ran an Anti-CCP test on me. From what I remember she said that normal was something like 20 or less. Above 59 they consider you having RA. The test stops at 250. Well .. my results was something ‘in excess of 250.’
Not cool.
So .. I spent the next week kinda ‘moping to myself over this.’ Apparently my mother broke down over it and my middle sister is probably a bit nervous now because two out of three of us have it.
I have not read much into it but I know a decent amount because of my sister. The good thing is that they encourage people to exercise and so that makes me very happy. They don’t necessarily love high impact or hard on your body exercises so I decided that I needed to make a choice. I decided to give up my running shoes for good because I don’t want running to affect all the other high impact exercises I do. I am hoping that I can keep going with one thing I love and we’ll see how it goes.
Anyway .. I moped .. I had a bit of a lazy week at the gym. I slept in quite a bit on the weekend and took a few naps. I was definitely ‘down’ about it. Then .. I woke up one morning and decided that I wasn’t going to let this dictate my life.
I got out of bed and went back to being me. Actually, I think that lately I have definitely been a stronger version of myself. More focused. More energy. More determination. I have had an amazing week this week and feel like the sky is the limit with what I can do lately.
I attribute this in part to the fuel this has given me but also from the changes in my recent diet. One or both .. and I’m pretty sure it is both. Funny enough I have been waking up in the morning and actually feeling better where the achy-ness has been. Go figure.
I have an appointment in the first week of March so we’ll see how that goes. Until then I am going to keep living life and not stress over something that is out of my control.
Anyone who knows me knows that I won’t go down without a fight. Besides, it’s going to take more than a few ugly numbers on paper to slow me down. I may mope but I won’t fall.
We are all handed crappy news all the time. Some we can control. Others we can’t. What defines us is how we handle adversity when faced with it. Keep standing.
