As you may know, I have been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Soon after I received this news, I received an email from a friend that is below. In the next post, you will see that I rewrote the post to reflect a more positive outlook.
Hi.
My name is Rheumatoid Arthritis.
I’m an invisible autoimmune disease that
attacks your body inside and out, making you want to scream sometimes and cry.
I am now with you for life. I’m so sneaky—I don’t always show up in your blood
work. Others around you can’t see me or hear me, but YOUR body feels me.
I can attack you anywhere and anyway I
please. I can cause severe pain or, if I’m in a good mood, I can just cause you
to ache all over. Remember when you and
Energy ran around together and had fun? I took energy from you and gave you
exhaustion. Try to have fun now.
I can take good sleep from you and in its
place, give you brain fog and lack of concentration.
I can make you want to sleep 24/7, and I
can also cause insomnia.
I can make you tremble internally or make
you feel cold or hot when everyone else feels normal.
I can also give you swollen hands and feet,
swollen face, eyelids, swollen everything. I can make you feel very anxious
with panic attacks or very depressed. I can also cause other mental health
problems. Do you know crazy mood swings? That’s me.
Crying for no reason? Angry for no reason?
That’s probably me too. I can make your hair fall out, become dry and brittle, and cause rashes, and dry skin, the sky is the limit with me.
I can make you gain weight and no matter
what you eat or how much you exercise, I can keep that weight on you. I can
also make you lose weight.
I don’t discriminate.
I can invade your skin, your joints, your
lungs, your thyroid, your brain, your liver and any other tissue, organ, or
bones I wish.
Some of my other autoimmune disease friends
often join me, giving you even more to deal with. The list of my friends is
quite lengthy. I probably have more
friends than you do because I've taken most of yours away.
If you have something planned, or are
looking forward to a great day, I can take that away from you too. You didn’t
ask for me. I chose you for various reasons.
That virus or viruses you had that you
never really recovered from, or that car accident, or maybe it was the years of
abuse and trauma (I thrive on stress.) You may have a family history of me.
Whatever the cause, I’m here to stay.
I hear you’re going to see a doctor to try
and get rid of me. That makes me laugh. Just try. You will have to go to many,
many doctors until you find one who can help you effectively. You will be put
on the wrong medication for you, pain pills, sleeping pills, energy pills, told
you are suffering from anxiety or depression, and given anti-anxiety pills and
antidepressants.
There are so many other ways I can make you
sick and miserable, the list is endless - high cholesterol, gall bladder, blood
pressure, blood sugar, heart issues among others. That’s probably me.
Can’t get pregnant, or have had a
miscarriage? That’s probably me too or the medication you take to try to escape
from me.
Shortness of breath or “air hunger?” Yep,
probably me. Are your liver enzymes elevated? Yep, probably me.
Teeth and gum problems? TMJ? Hives? Yep,
probably me. I told you the list was endless.
You may be given ibuprofen, get massaged,
and told if you just sleep and exercise properly, I will go away. You’ll be
told to think positively, you’ll be poked, prodded, and MOST OF ALL, not taken
seriously when you try to explain to the endless number of doctors you’ve seen,
just how debilitating I am and how ill and exhausted you really feel.
In all probability you will get a referral
from these ‘understanding’ (clueless) doctors, to see a psychiatrist. Your
family, friends and co-workers will all listen to you until they just get tired
of hearing about how I make you feel, and just how debilitating I can be.
Some of them will say things like “Oh, you
are just having a bad day” or “Well, remember, you can’t do the things you used
to do 20 YEARS ago”, not hearing that you said that you can't do things you
used to be able to do 20 DAYS ago.
They’ll also say things like, “If you just
get up and move, get outside and do things, you’ll feel better.”
They won’t understand that I take away the
‘gas’ that powers your body and mind to ENABLE you to do those things. Some
will start talking behind your back, they’ll call you a hypochondriac, while
you slowly feel that you are losing your dignity trying to make them
understand, especially if you are in the middle of a conversation with a
“normal” person and can’t remember what you were going to say next. You’ll be
told things like, “Oh, my grandmother had that, and she’s fine on her
medication” when you desperately want to explain that I don’t impose myself
upon everyone in the exact same way, and just because that grandmother is fine
on the medication SHE’S taking, doesn’t mean it will work for you.
They will not understand that having this
disease impacts your body from the top of your head to the tip of your toes and that every cell and every body system and organ requires the proper amount
and the right kind of medications for YOU. Not what works for someone else.
The only place you will get the kind of
support and understanding in dealing with me is with other people who have me.
They are really the only ones who can truly understand. I am an invisible
illness. I am YOUR Chronic Illness.
Always and Forever
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