My RA Story - Part 2

Part 2

Over the next 15 plus years, I was put on a variety of medications – Advil, Methotrexate , Celebrex, Imuran, Plaquenil, and so on. The only medication that helped was Prednisone and I was on that for years. I have gone to physiotherapy, often coming out worse than when I went in. Acupuncture didn’t help at all and the pain was excruciation – I should have clued in when the Acupuncturist pulled out his textbook to figure out where the needles should go. The only non-medicinal therapy I found that really did help was Reflexology.

Adoption

We were still waiting for a child to adopt, a brother or sister for Lisa, when we had a heart to heart with our social worker. Apparently, she had blackballed us. She had a grandmother with RA and did not feel I could be a good parent. By now, I was using a walker and my hands were beginning to deform. Still, how could she make a decision like that - saying I could not be a good parent!  Just because I was not able to be physically active with my children, it would not make me a bad parent. Most of parenting comes from the heart and I knew I had room for more children in my heart. The only way around this blockage was to move to a different side of town, which put us under a different district and a new social worker. We adopted our 2 sons, Dez & Ron (3 & 2 years old) in 1996, nine months later. Side note – I have found that since I do not have the mobility most moms have, my hearing and ‘mom intuition’ have both increased.

Hip Joint Surgery

In 1999, my right hip pain was unbearable. The Morphine I was taking barely touched the pain. I had x-rays done and it was decided that I needed my hip replaced. If you need a hip joint replacement surgery, don’t put it off. Ankle surgery, well …. I will get into that a little later. The night after my hip surgery, I did not need Morphine or any other pain medication. Shortly after that, I was sent for another 3 weeks of rehabilitation. There, the doctors and Physiotherapist decided I needed to use a wheelchair to protect my other joints. The Occupational Therapist suggested I get a long shoehorn, elastic shoe laces, a dressing stick, key turner, special jar opener, etc. All of these aids do help make life a little easier.

Wheelchair

Wheelchair life stinks, at least for me. I give kudos to those wheelchair riders who have not let it limit their lifestyle. I just do not seem to have that in me. I hate needing someone to help me transfer from wheelchair to vehicle and back again and having to be pushed everywhere we go. A wheelchair van would definitely make life easier, but as with most of us, it is not in the budget. When my GP said I could not drive anymore due to my RA neck damage in 2004, the independence I had behind the wheel was gone. It was around this time my Rheumatologist, looking at the amount of neck damage on an x-ray, said I must have had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis as a child. This explains all the braces on my legs when I was a toddler, special shoes, stomach problems, being diagnosed with mononucleosis every 2-3 weeks as a preteen and poor stamina for Physical Education. Leaves you to wonder, had I been diagnosed correctly, would I be healthier than I am now? Who knows and, at this point, it does not really matter.