Arthritic Critic

The other day my mom and I were out shopping at Old Navy when the most adorable little girl rounded the corner. She stopped in her tracks and my mom and I proceeded to smile and wave at her. Now I have a 7 year old so I know the "don't talk to little children you don't know rule". Apparently my mom wasn't given the updated rulebook and went on to give a cheery, "Hi Sweetheart!" Which would have been totally normal if the 16 year old boy stocker hadn't thought she was talking to him. He immediately turned red and stared at my mom as if paralyzed by her words. When my mom finally figured out what was going on, she became very flustered and blushed herself. She turned the the boy and told him, "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to her" at which point my mother turned to the little girl who had conveniently run back to her mother... And of course you all know me, I replied, "sure mom, you're just trying to pick up boys...we al...

Yes, I shall henceforth be known as Chicken Little... Last week I finally decided to chuck my therapist and psychiatrist. As you can imagine that wasn't a very easy thing to do. Ditching the psychiatrist alone was a 20 minute argument which was not pretty...funny, you would think when I said this isn't working for me there wouldn't have been 20 minutes to argue about... I have found a new therapist who deals with patients with chronic illness/pain and I'm looking forward to seeing how she can help empower me to finally come to some kind of terms with my illness. That said, I've had a serious week of breakthrough's (who knew I needed to get rid of my shrink to have this happen). For the past 3 years I have had a love/hate relationship with the word CAN. You wouldn't think a three letter word could make that much difference in someones life and yet you would be wrong. Every time I think "I can do this" it turns out something more like "I can...

Hope and I were playing a guessing game the other day. She was describing animals to me and I was trying to guess which one she was talking about. She described a lion, elephant, giraffe and then we moved on to this animal. "Mommy, what animal is pink?" I scratched my head and dug deep into the recesses of my mind and pulled out "flamingo" feeling pretty proud of myself. Hope giggles and says, "No mommy, this animal lives on a farm.." and before I could get my thoughts straight out of my mouth came, "PORK!" I guess I see most of the animals on the farm as yummy meat...oops!

Today we finally said farewell to my scooters and put them in the attic. It's been about 3 weeks since I've been back on my feet and it's getting easier everyday. So as I bid a fond adieu to my recent best-friends (sorry, Sarah) I will leave you with this story. About 3 weeks into my recuperation Joe and I were joking around and picking on each other, as tends to happen when this starts one of us pushes until the other is screaming for mercy. Turns out this time Joe managed to push me. I looked at him and said, "you better watch out, I'll hit you with a frying pan while your sleeping tonight." He then turned to me with a big smile on his face and said, "How will this work? Will you carry yourself down the steps, grab a pan, climb back up the steps, roll across the floor, run into the door with your scooter (of course taking a chunk out of the wall), back up over your foot and as your saying a choice few 4 letter words then run over the cat?" By this ...

Yesterday Hope and I were watching Food Network as a chef was preparing a meal. The chef was listing ingredients..."oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, scallions and hot pepper flakes." Hope stopped in her tracks, turned to me and asked..."Mommy, why are they putting POISON sauce in that recipe?"

I talk a lot about going to the doctor but I don't talk a lot about why I need to go. I was diagnosed when I was 2 with JCA...a million years ago my arthritis didn't act like RA and they didn't quite know what "category" I fell into so it was JCA for me. I spent most of my childhood in remission, battling flare ups here and there. I have one strong memory of having my knee drained while in elementary school and then I had a really bad flare when I was 19 that took us about 6 months to get under control. Fast forward to '98, we're under the impression I'm dealing with PA due to family history, I start taking Enbrel, I'm miraculously cured and I lead a charmed life until I give birth to my daughter in '02...and then things quickly start to go bad. In '08 I'm diagnosed with RA after an elbow surgery. Now please don't misunderstand me, I'm not dying but the last 3 years have been extremely difficult. If it's not one thing it...

7 weeks ago tonight I was getting myself ready for my ankle fusion surgery due to my RA. While I was scared and worried, I was quite blissfully unaware of how difficult the next 7 weeks were going to be. The surgery went pretty well and a week after the surgery the incisions looked good, enter a double dose of Enbrel and Arava on the side and the incisions quickly took a turn for the gnarly. It's 7 weeks later and I still have a scab on my foot that is trying to heal. Needless to say the incisions have really done a number on me...it's hard to believe something that ugly can be attached to my person. I've worked really hard to get past it and embrace my foot and hope it heals quickly. I could have never guessed that I would also have a new disease to deal with. The day after the surgery I started to used the bathroom a little more frequently than before...before I knew it I was using the bathroom 7 or 8 times a day. I switched my diet back to gluten free, added folic acid, ...