RA RA Sis Boom Blah.

I haven’t written about my RA much.  Mainly because it’s not a fun topic, actually, it’s very sore subject, no pun intended.  When I feel bad, I don’t have it in me to sit down and type about it.  When I feel ok, the last thing I want to do is think about it.  But maybe if I write about this, it will possibly help someone else out there somewhere dealing with the same thing.

So it’s been 3 ½ months since I was diagnosed.  I have bad days, and not-so-bad days.  On not-so-bad days, I wake up stiff and feel slightly better after a hot shower.  The inflammation in my hands is not horrible and I manage to get through the day without wanting to cry or throw things.  I can go about my daily routine with only moderate pain. 

On the bad days, I cringe when I have to change Sarah Beth’s diaper first thing in the morning, and I struggle to put her little shoes on her wiggly feet.  Carrying her 30 lb self is exhausting, and getting her car seat buckled is accomplished only through sheer willpower.  I try not to make a big deal out of it and hope people don’t notice when I have to lift my glass with both hands or give up on cutting something because I’m having trouble gripping the knife.  It sucks.  It really really sucks.  The cruelest thing is, I always feel much better at the end of the day than I do first thing in the morning.  But every night as I go to sleep, I know I’ll wake up feeling somewhere between 6 and 10 on the crapola scale. 

So I mentioned I was going to try the holistic route, using diet, herbal supplements, acupuncture, and a myriad of other kooky Chinese medicinal techniques.   So far, success has been spotty, but I know with this method, it may take many months before I’ve got my body under control.  Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

Your body doesn’t do random.   The inflammation HAS to be triggered by something.  It makes no logical or anatomical sense that some days are worse than others unless something is triggering the inflammatory response.  So the key is, figuring out the “something” or more than likely “somethings” that are the cause.

The “something” is probably diet-related.  Food sensitivities are usually the culprit in these cases.  I have already figured out that I am affected by Nightshades.  No, Nightshades is not a bad eighties cover band.  Nightshades are a family of plant that includes tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers, including paprika.  These plants contain a chemical called Solanine which when ingested can interfere with an enzyme in the brain that is responsible for flexibility of muscle movement.  For people who are predisposed to joint problems, it is like adding fuel to the fire when these foods are consumed.  I’ve cut all of these foods out of my diet, but let me tell you how hard it is to do for this Irish lass who loves Mexican food.   Potato starch is found in tons of processed foods, even in some medications.  Red pepper and paprika are used in everything.  And any food where “Spices” is listed as an ingredient is off limits, because it likely contains pepper in some form.

Food sensitivities like to travel in packs.  If you’ve got one, you’ve probably got several.  The trick is figuring out what they are.  So right now, I am avoiding, gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, coffee, soy and red meat.  (Let me come clean right now and fully admit that this weekend was my birthday and I consumed everything that was on the above list with the exception of caffeine.  And I am paying for it now.)  On the bright side, I am fitting into clothes I haven’t worn in years.  However, avoiding everything is next to impossible.  If I could just stay in a bubble and eat my brown rice and beans all alone it probably wouldn’t be that bad.  But the world is full of delicious things, some which reside in my very own refrigerator.  I still have to feed Sarah Beth and Kurt “normal-ish” food.  There’s bag of shredded cheese calling my name right now.  But I will do my joints a favor and ignore its taunts. 

Even harder are social situations.  I mean, I’m going to have a glass of wine now and then, but you never realize how much of our social lives are centered around food.  You meet friends for lunch or coffee.  You go out to dinner on special occasions with your family.  When you have to be a super-picky eater, it’s awkward and slightly embarrassing to say, hey thanks for the dinner invite, by the way, I can’t eat the following 17 items...

Honestly, I shouldn’t even be eating chicken, fish or eggs.  But I can’t go vegan without soy or gluten.  I read somewhere that corn can also be a trigger.   I think I really would starve then.  I may have to try it at some point but I’ll warn everyone far in advance because I will be super cranky when that happens.

What takes the cake on food sensitivities is that it can take several months before you’re completely “free” of a trigger food in your system and start seeing significant improvement.   Ugh.  So why did all this happen anyway?  Who knows, food allergies are weird, but my theory is, I have a genetic predisposition for joint issues.  The pregnancy and c-section got my body chemistry all out of whack and combined with the emotional and physical stress of new baby, it created a perfect storm of sorts in my body and now I need to get everything back to normal. 

So as not to be such a Debbie Downer on this post, there have been some positives about this experience.  I have learned the importance of paying attention to what I put in my body.  My Holistic Acupuncture guy said to me, “I can treat you once a week, a doctor can treat you once a month, but you treat yourself every single time you eat.”

Diet is not just about staying thin and looking good, it is absolutely essential to your health.  Every time I eat or drink anything, I think to myself, am I doing my body a favor or doing harm by consuming this.  Again, there are times (like this weekend) where I say F-it I’m eating cake and I’ll apologize to my body later.   But the majority of the time nowadays, I can feel good about what I’m feeding myself even if it doesn’t satisfy my love affair with salsa or crusty baguettes.