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By the end of this month, I will have made 9 visits to some sort of medical or health professional.
I also figure I'm now seeing a total of 11 medical and health professionals to deal with all my problems. There'd be more but between my executive function, limited income even with somewhat decent insurance, and not enough time, the count isn't higher... yet. There could easily be more for other things I need to deal with.
A number of people are now thinking I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and/or my skeleton is degenerating in a few places.
I feel my life right now has devolved to always being tired and in pain.
I haven't been able to write much of anything while dealing with this over the past week, although I have come up with a few ideas I managed to make notes of.
I just feel so ughhh right now.
Comments
You have my sympathy
rheumatoid isn't nice, neither is the pain it brings. I have arthritis through joint damage from injuries and wear and tear, mainly in my spine but also in other places and some nerve damage. Amazingly, it hurts when I lie down or over exercise but much of the time I manage to cope quite easily. Thankfully, cycling isn't too bad provided I don't ride too far or too long. Old age ain't much fun.
Angharad
But
It beats the alternative. To make a long story short, when I was racing off road motorcycles years ago, people would ask why I would do such a thing. I replied that when I'm seventy years old and in a rocker , I didn't want to say I wished I had done this or that, because I did. Now at seventy three, my knees hurt like Hell if I walk too far, but the trade off was worth it. I still work, but I have the young guys do the lifting, as they say, "It's good to be the king".
How Does It Beat the Alternative?
People always say that old age beats the alternative, but does it really? We live in a world that is infatuated with extending life. For what? As I slide into a steadily declining health I wonder.
Like you Arecee, I have lived a life others would reject as too risky. My risk was in taking on projects others branded as foolhardy and making them succeed. At this point I'm not sure anyone has the energy needed to make old age palatable.
I don't find anything regal about old age.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
It will sound strange, but
It will sound strange, but you might want to change your diet for two or three weeks. I'm doing that right now myself, at least to a small extent, because some of the foods I used to eat regularly are giving me signs of food allergies. (I'm going without potatoes, tomatoes, soy, and almonds for the next two weeks)
Things to possibly drop out of the diet for that period are
Tomatoes (tomatos?)
Potatoes (another "how do you spell it?" word)
Almonds/Soy/peanuts.
Gourd fruit (squash, etc)
Grapefruit/citrus.
Switching to lamb, rice, and some basic bean/peas for that two week period, if you can, is long enough to find out if your diet is affecting everything else. If it makes a difference, you simply start adding one food at a time until you figure out what's causing it, and quit eating that.
BW
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Food intolerance or allergy
My own experience has taught me that droping just a few food items from the diet is not enough to conclusively diagnose food allergies. Having a history of celiac desease on both sides of my family, I had a lot of symptoms for it. The lab tests where inconclusive. And 3 months of gluten-free diet showed no improvement. So I dropped it again, since gluten-free products are 2 to 4 times more expensive than the "standard" or "normal" products of the same type.
Then 2 years later I went to a different doctor because my symptoms got worse. He suggested as one avenue of attack a severely restricted detoxification diet for 2 weeks. And then add one new food item at a time for 3 days. If symptoms appear, drop that item definitely, otherwise keep it in the food plan. Surprise! Before I could even get to see a specialist, virtually all my symptoms disappeard after less than 2 weeks of this detox diet. The testing period confirmed that I do indeed have celiac desease, but that I also have intolerance to several other food items. One of which I had substituted on my previous gluten-free diet instead of oat and wheat cereals.
So, unless there is an obvious "smoking gun", it might be best to reserve a span of at least 3 months time for testing of food items for allergic reactions, starting with a severely restricted detox diet. Though I recommend consulting with a local (to you) dietitian for the best approach, based on what food is available in your locale.
Jessica
You misunderstand. For me,
You misunderstand. For me, dropping two items from my diet is enough for now. I _know_ I've had reactions to one, and the other is giving me problems in raw form. Two weeks is long enough for me to find out if they're making a difference.
I've seen it recommended to go on a _complete_ lamb and rice diet for two weeks, because those two items tend to be _extremely_ low on the allergen scale. (I just about lived on lamb for the first eight years of my life. My mother still won't cook with it much anymore)
Believe me, if you -have- food _allergies_, two weeks is long enough to find out if there's a difference.
(I'm basically classified as being allergic to eating and breathing)
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.