http://thetruthaboutjra.blogspot.com

See you there!

Also found a few good blogs with interesting info and recipes:

www.cheeseslave.com

www.nourishingdays.com

http://visionarytrainers.com/blog

Lots happened with the chiropractor/diet changes/life in general today, but I’m way too busy to write it all now. Tomorrow…

I’ve decided to try eliminating nightshades again. I talked to a woman last night on the phone who had written an article in conjunction with a professor who both had awesome results with the elimination. The woman told me that now that she doesn’t expose herself to them she has no joint pain or stiffness. When she is around someone smoking (tobacco is a nightshade), the next day her whole body is stiff. That is awesome. I was actually in awe of this tangible evidence, and I’m sure she was too!

Here is another example:

I was putting up flyers for my RA support group the other day and on a whim turned into the parking lot for the chiropractic group in my town. While I was there I thought, what the heck, I should set up an appointment because I know that the last time I was seeing a chiropractor he really helped. So my appointment was last Monday and, let me tell you, I’m glad I turned into the parking lot on a whim.  She spent about 30 minutes asking me about the pain in each location. Then she took x-rays (they do it in the office and if insurance doesn’t cover it, each one is only $25) of my wrists and neck. If I haven’t told you, my wrist bones have started to fuse in my right side and I can barely move it. So, at the end of the appointment, she finally adjusted some of my joints. She used a little tool that “punches” small bones back into place on my wrist and after she finished, I COULD MOVE MY WRIST!! I couldn’t stop moving it. There was so much potential for new methods of picking things up! It was AWESOME. It was A-W-E-SOME. I sat in shock for a few seconds and she just chuckled and told me to come back on Thursday.

So, that’s my story about the word awesome. Use it, but only if you’re actually in awe. Otherwise I might come find you and thwack you on the head.

I am adding some links over in the right column, so when you have a lot of time on your hands, grab some tea and start exploring!

“Great discussion, I don’t know if I would laugh about having RA, my child has systemic JRA, and as a parent all I want to do is cry. Its not funny at all, our lives are miserable. My child is only 7 years old and can’t play, she can’t even put on her cloths to make it to the bathroom. Yeah real funny. What’s funny is that I typed in hot tubs for JRA, and ended up on this loser blog. Nice! Yeah, nice about dreaming of cancer. Because my child has Systemic JRA, her lymp nodes were 2 inches in diameter. Just talk to a Cancer Doctor. She just had a biopsy done.

Why don’t you people spend your time educating yourselves and log onto http://www.raceforcarra.com and find out how children with JRA suffer. Its not funny trust me!

I know that you have to laugh at yourself, but for children is sad and they aren’t laughing and neither are the parents.”

This was my response:

“Liv,
I have systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and was diagnosed when I was 11 years old. After 10 years (6 different meds, life-threatening side effects including pre-lymphoma, bone marrow biopsies, infusions, re-learning how to get dressed, having to quit lacrosse and ballet, thousands or tears, hundreds of doctors appointments and a decade of disappointment), all you can do is find humor in a disease that ruins (or changes for the better) your life. You will see in time what I mean. I am sorry that you haven’t found a way to laugh at life’s injustices yet. In time it will come. I’m sorry to hear that your daughter is suffering so much, hopefully she will not be in this flare for too long. My mother and I understand yours and her pain as it is a very difficult thing to go through childhood and adolescence without the ability to laugh, play, and move with your friends. Luckily, I was able to keep a smile on my face and know that life would give me happy moments despite the overwhelming emotional and physical pain. Perhaps we who responded to this discussion are all disappointed with our life’s challenges and feel that we were served an unjust slice of life’s pie…and now we deal with it through laughing at how unjust it really is and how much pain it causes us. I can say from experience, after I fall into the tub from two feet because I can’t bend my knees enough, I have to laugh at myself instead of cry to ease the pain. Laughing eases the pain whereas crying perpetuates it. I hope you all find a way to live happily with this disease, which is what we here are trying to do. I am here to talk if you ever need support or a laugh -Robin”

Today I officially started an RA/JRA support group in my area! I’m really excited. I am still in the process of publicizing the group. I’ve set up a blog to post info about the group and meeting times and such. My plan is to visit my old schools and talk to the nurses to let them know about the group so that they can talk to any students who have JRA. I am also going to let all of my health practitioners know. I’ve already emailed all of my friends, family and doctors about the group asking them to talk to anyone they know in the area with RA. This part is kind of silly, but it was fun: I made little business cards with the contact info that I can keep in my purse and hopefully set in some of the health care offices I go to every week. And I’m going to make some flyers that I can put up.

I’m thinking that we’ll want to get to know each other for the first few meetings and then after that we could have some speakers come talk about things like foods that cause inflammation, we can start a group for the Arthritis 5K in May, do potlucks, water aerobics, etc. I hope it all works out.

I’m so excitedddddd! If any of you are members of support groups or have started a support group and have any advice for me, let me know!

The colonics are still going…not sure of the outcome yet, but I think it will be more of an overall increase in energy and decrease in swelling due to the energy work, colonics, and diet combined.

I’m still thinking about the herbal colon cleanse called Arise and Shine. I’ll probably start that this weekend.

Started painting today!

I’m just chugging along…

The farm was great this weekend by the way. I got to see my sister and brother who are both great motivators for me. Seeing all that they do makes me want to get up and get things done. My friend Kim who I’ve known for about 13, maybe 14 years, came to visit too and she always reminds me of what good friends I have. Being around those people helped me to know that I have a lot of support and love around me which I am so thankful for right now.

But, it was rainy all weekend, which was a bummer. I think the rain brings out the worst of my arthritis symptoms because I had it in my left ankle so badly that I couldn’t walk on it. I crawled backwards down the stairs on Saturday morning and the black cat hopped down each step one at a time with me! He was probably completely confused, but it was sweet. It wasn’t so bad though because I was making a birthday cake for my brother that day and I didn’t have to walk much, just hobble between cabinets.

Which brings me to my next thought…

I am now going to an “energy healer” or medical intuitive, whichever you prefer. I don’t think they’re interchangeable, but she seems to have qualities of both. An energy healer finds places in your body where energy is blocked and places a hand or two lightly on you while “moving” energy around to break through the blockage. Meanwhile, you are given instructions on visual exercises that involve imagining energy of different colors flowing through your body in certain directions. The medical intuitive-ness comes in when she makes connections between the locations of the energy blockages and certain emotional centers in the body. For example, my 2nd and 3rd chakras are completely blocked (they are the ones over you pelvis and belly button, respectively) which makes sense because I have horrible digestive problems and I feel sharps pains under my ribcage sometimes. So, she then related that blockage to some emotional things: The 3rd chakra correlates to your expression of yourself in the material world/creativity/and some other things. She basically told me that I need to find a reason to get up in the morning and be excited about the day. I started crying when she elaborated because she was basically telling me that the way my energy felt gave her the impression that I hold it all in the upper four chakras and have huge blockages that are draining my energy levels. I am not letting myself do what I love to do and I am not expressing myself creatively. I can’t hold onto my energy and it’s no wonder that I am not getting over this cold or digesting properly. So, the cake-making this weekend was probably a good good good thing. I love to bake!

Long and short, I laid on a table and she did some energy work. I left and felt like smiling for the first time in awhile. We decided that I need to paint more and write that book that I’ve been thinking about. I went straight to Michael’s, picked up some paint supplies, went to Whole Foods and got some good food., came home and made my bedroom and bathroom my own special spaces by cleaning up, rearranging things and putting some daffodils by my tub.

If you want to know more about energy healing and the connection between emotions, spirituality and disease, I really recommend reading “Anatomy of the Spirit” by Caroline Myss. I know she has others, but this is the first one I’ve read! I’ll keep you all updated on my progress with healing my energy.