RA Chronicles- A Journey to Wellness

RA CHRONICLES – A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

I wish this could be a fictitious story packed with mystery and intrigue; of travels to far-a-way islands and adventures and it may be, but today I begin chronicling a recent diagnosis handed to me.

I have not felt fully well in so long I really cannot remember.  There are good days, bad days and some nearly perfect days; most of the time I make my days perfect regardless of how I feel.

I started writing this at the beginning of June 2016 and lost two weeks of continual journaling and the beginning of my personal Science Experiment…

The above is all that was saved from the previous two weeks of writing this article so I am starting fresh and obviously The Universe wanted me to go in a different direction otherwise I would not have lost all of those precious words to one click of a mouse button in the wrong direction.

The reason I call this a Science Experiment is because it literally is and I am experimenting with my own body and the power to heal myself by my own choices that I make.  I have not been feeling well quite honestly for decades always contributing it to being extremely active and hard driving; just a general malaise and chronic fatigue, but never really ill.  Oh I went to the doctor and was always told that I push myself too hard or it is typical of a young working Mother to be exhausted all of the time.  My friends started noticing for a while that now I do get sick quite frequently and it takes a long time for me to recover and then I am left for weeks or months on end with such fatigue and trying to get back to “normal”.  The normal days were growing few and farther between.

Years and years- probably two decades ago I researched Epstein Barr Disease (virus).  Intuitively I felt like this was what was making me feel so awful all of the time, but there was not much information on it and I just succumbed to me being overworked as I often (always) have worked more than one job at a time.  I am a Gemini, what can I say?  We like variety and we like to be constantly stimulated.  It wasn’t until a few months ago that luck and serendipity of being in the right place at the right time would land me right back to something that just may possibly save my life.

Now, I am stating the truth right here and now I AM IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, I AM STRICTLY STATING THE EXPERIMENT THAT I AM CONDUCTING ON MYSELF AND I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT IF YOU ARE NOT WELL THAT YOU FIRST SEEK MEDICAL ADVICE FROM A LICENSED DOCTOR.

O.K. now that I got that little nasty out of the way…. I was in my favorite shop in the world, Soulutions for Daily Living in Newtown, Pennsylvania picking up some candles and crystals; meeting up with some friends for lunch when I ran into my Shamama (female shaman) and she was purchasing Anthony William’s newest book “Medical Medium”.  She told me that she was having issues with her thyroid and that the book cam recommended to her.  Spirit told me to buy the book and I second guessed myself since I was going to see my Physician in a week.  I wanted to see what a professional had to say about my condition, get some blood work and go from there. I too that my chronic fatigue could do with a thyroid issue, considering that I am 50 years old.  I made the dreaded appointment with my Primary Care Physician, had a series of blood work conducted in late May, 2016 only to be told by my doctor’s secretary a few days later “You have Rheumatoid Arthritis and must go see a Rheumatologist- we cannot help you here”!  I did not and have not spoken to my Primary since and was left in the dark to seek out and find a Rheumatologist and figure out what all of this meant.  I was clueless and naïve.  I thought “oh, o.k. I have Arthritis, makes sense- I am getting older, I was an athlete for roughly 40 years, my joints and my body are tired”.  Little did I know the truth about this.

I have done my fair share of research, but the first thing I did was to make a phone call to Honey, the store owner of Soulutions.  When she heard my voice on the other end of the line and before I ever said the reason for my call, she replied “I have one copy left for you at the register with your name on it”!  She knew exactly the reason for my call and that I wanted a copy of Medical Medium.  This is one benefit of Tribing with intuitive company and friendships.  On this sun filled and warming day I hopped into my car headed for my book.  I could not drive the 5 miles fast enough so that I could get my hands on what I instinctively knew would be my pathway to better health.

I consumed the book like a five-star gourmet meal; sampling a little off each chapter trying to garner knowledge and figure out what this is and how to heal myself.  I went straight to the RA Chapter then the 28-day cleanse chapter that all of my friends were talking about.  The cleanse consists of strictly fruits and vegetables, preferably raw.  No gluten, no meat, no sugar, no dairy.  I was on board.  I had been in pain for months and when I started going “down hill” I gained 30 pounds in less than a month; something which doctors could not figure out why other than the diagnosis of Perimenopause, yet, my thyroid levels were fine.  I have to mention too that I generally eat very healthy and I walk 5-7 miles a day and do yoga 3-5 times a week in addition to extensive gardening, hiking, biking, kayaking – shit I am extremely active, so there is no reason why I would be gaining weight at a crazy rate for No Reason.

I decided to consume fruit and veggie smoothies as the basis of my diet for 28 days. I needed to get out of the habit of chewing all of the delicious and deadly foods that I had been eating.  Smoothies would be a way of changing my brain from thinking of food as comfort and realizing that it was for life and nutrition.  By day 4 I nearly passed out.  I was weak and felt really funky.  My body was cleansing at a rapid rate.  I knew I was getting sufficient nutrients and calories as I tracked everything via My Fitness Pal, but I needed something.  I went home and had some Wild Caught Salmon on top of a huge bed of nutrient dense greens.  Within an hour, I felt better.  I discovered that I needed some added protein, but since I was on a plant based diet chose peanut butter with apples when I was feeling this way since.  I stayed on the cleanse for nearly 6 weeks before incorporating fish protein and gluten back into my diet.  I then treated myself to ice cream once a week.  I have lost all of my added 30 pounds and I feel great!  I no longer had any pain or inflammation in my joints, sleeping better, feeling refreshed and getting compliments on my glowing complexion and as gross as this may be for some of you, my digestive system was a working machine again (if you know what I mean)?

Enter the Rheumatologist, late August, 2016.  She dispels that my diet has in any way improved my health and wellbeing; despite the facts that I listed above- I felt and looked great!  I left her office after a 2 ½ hour appointment with a referral for more blood work and referrals for x-rays of my body, CT scans so she could look for damage cause by RA, I was due back for the follow up within 30 days.  Like a good girl, I went and had my blood work and my x-rays and scans and I even had a mammogram for the hell of it!  The tests came back inconclusive; she could not really find anything except a few titers that MAY indicate LYME Disease.  Now I was even more baffled.  My RA numbers were nearly non-existent and there is no explanation she said.  I know that it has to do with the information that I gained by reading “Medical Medium”, but the doctor concluded that because of owning 3 dogs and my love of nature had led me to the LYME Diagnosis, surely anyone with my type of lifestyle would have been bitten by a tick at some point. I left the Rheumatologist with a diagnosis, a prescription for 30 days of antibiotics and a heightened state of confusion.

On the ride home my intuition was telling me that all of this was wrong, I had not been bitten by a tick, I did not have the telltale bullseye rash; I would have known.  I instinctively knew that I should not be taking antibiotics either; they are not good for our bodies, they lower our immune systems and leave us vulnerable for even more disease.  My family convinced me to take the course; convinced me that if I was wrong I could be hurting myself even more and cause long term damage.  I complied despite my intuition.  Rule #1- Always Always Always follow your intuition.

Each day that I took the Doxycycline I became more ill; the malaise, fatigue and pain that swept through my body was more that I could handle at some points.  I missed work and life as I struggled through each day.  My doctors told me that I was just experiencing Herxheimer Reaction; the die off of the disease and my body trying to process and eliminate the waste.  My joints were reduced to flaming knots five times their size and I was forced to ice them for mild relief.  Four months with no pain relievers soon went out the window as I was seeking alleviation any way I could get it.  That little voice deep within me kept screaming out to me to stop and do what I KNEW I should be doing.  With three days of treatment remaining a friend approached me and asked if I had read the Chapter on Lyme Disease inside the Medical Medium book.  No, I did not even realize that there was such a chapter, but what I discovered in that chapter confirmed everything that my Inner Being was telling me; do not take antibiotics, the doctors are 30-35 years away from truly knowing what Lyme Disease is and the tests are ineffective.  With each antibiotic I swallowed I felt my body dying and this book confirmed exactly that.  I threw away the remaining three days of pills and started super loading on Super Foods and back to the 28-day cleanse.

Large amounts of antioxidant rich foods are the answer that so many people are looking for to heal what ails them.  We all need to go back to basics and steer clear of processed foods among other things.  Think back to the early 20^th Century and earlier, people did not suffer from 90% of the diseases that we have today.  People ate whole foods from their own gardens.  Pesticides were unheard of; everyone was an organic farmer in a sense.

Some, many or all of you may think I am Bat Shit Crazy.  I am taking my life back and I am taking control of my treatment.  I am making a declaration that I will try this out for one full year and prove to all of you that I am right and here is some proof; within two or three days I was already pain free.  I no longer have been having to ice my joints in my hands and I can once again hold a coffee/tea mug (something I was not able to do a week ago).  I am still a little tired and have been sleeping extra hours, but it has only been 5 days.

I invite you to take this journey with me as I discover and prove a better way to optimal health so stay tuned for updates!  xoxo Kim!