My Journey with
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Whenever I look back and try to remember when my symptoms
started, I can’t help but wonder if all that severe joint pain as a child was
more than just growing pains. Maybe the
severe fatigue and migraines all through high school were not normal and maybe
all those times I got sick in college was more than just stress related. It wasn’t until losing three pregnancies and
experiencing four years of extreme suffering that I was finally diagnosed with
three autoimmune diseases, one of those being Rheumatoid Arthritis.
I was official diagnosed in 2012. I was on my sixth pregnancy
and feeling sick all the time. My sister was diagnosed with Rheumatoid
Arthritis a few months prior to me being diagnosed, so I had already googled
everything I could and knew a little bit about what it meant. The initial
diagnosis was a relief on top of extreme sadness. I say it was a relief because
being sick for so long and not knowing what was causing it, was
frustrating. Finally having a name to
what I was feeling felt like a new begging for me. Little did I know, it was
just the start of a total life change.
My Rheumatologist began treating me and ordered a Vectra DA
blood test. This was a great way to reference the level of inflammation that
was present in my body. It also helped
my Doctor understand what kind of pain I was feeling. It kind of validated what
I was telling him, when other blood work couldn’t do that. I also set a goal to lower my test number. My
first plan of action was to start taking medications, recommended by my doctor.
I did not know that I had any other options. I spent the next four years on
twenty something medications and injections.
Nothing really worked and the side effects were sometimes worse than the
actual RA symptoms. If the disease didn’t kill me, the drugs I was taking
would, and I could feel it.
Fast forward to December 2015, my intuition and body was
telling me that taking these medications was wrong, and they were causing more
harm than helping. I decided to try something different. I went to see a
holistic doctor at a clinic here in Lubbock. I slowly got off all medications,
including anti-depressants and heavy pain meds. I began to change my diet. I
studied nutrition, started a probiotic, and practiced Paleo. I did a sugar
detox and started taking supplements based on what my body was deficient
in. To my surprise, I started to feel
better, a whole lot better! I knew in my
heart that this was a better way. I know I am not cured and that all my
autoimmune diseases are still present in my body. I still have hard days. The
difference now is that I have very few hard days and they are not even close to
where I was before my lifestyle change.
My Vectra DA score moved from the High to the Moderate range
and I expect it will be in the low range if I continue doing Paleo. My whole
family has benefitted from this change. We use to get strep throat one to two
times a month, along with other illnesses. My poor kids were on thirteen to
fourteen antibiotics a year. My whole
family has been antibiotic free for seven months now and it feels amazing. We
stick to organic, gluten free, and GMO free foods. We also do not eat a lot of dairy and use
only natural sweeteners, like honey. My grocery bill has gone up, but we no
longer have the medical bill we once had.
My journey has just begun. I am doing all I can to teach my family a
healthy way of life, so maybe they will not suffer the way I have for so long.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine by
thy food.”
Hippocrates
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