Hello Everybody 😃

Landyloon
Landyloon Member Posts: 4
edited 28. Nov 2023, 14:06 in Living with arthritis

Hi,

I'm in my fifties, and have recently being diagnosed with RA; taken me a year to finally accept something was wrong, and having tried to hide it from co-workers for so long, don't know why?

Been taking methotrexate for a couple of months, have never been one for taking even a paracetamol all my life. Now I have half a chemists in my cupboard, none of which are without their negative and destructive effects ╯︿╰

Everybody I've told seems to have advice about what to not eat or stuff, and I have tried removing all the recommendations from my diet to absolutely no effect.

Perhaps some folk suffer from a 'Leaky gut' which is exasperated by certain foods, but for me spending hours in the free-from isles of supermarkets has been an expensive and complete waste of time. So now I'm just eating fresh everything, and yes everything lol.

However, I have never eaten so much fresh salad, and I do believe this can help, even if only to counter the effects of taking Co-codamol, which has the ability to really hold things back lol.

Forgive me, but one has to consider the funny side where possible, and Co-codamol being addictive and having it's effects reduce over time, does have me taking as few as possible.

Everything takes so long to do, and having been a single dad, I can only be glad my daughter is away to Uni now, which means there is more time for food preparation at least, and she took the floordrobe with her too, bonus!

I have always cooked from fresh every meal, because of all the bizarre ingredients, and chemicals used to preserve 'convenience' food. Oh and Chilli has once again become a favourite, my daughter was not keen on spicy food, so it became spag boll; but the chillies really do seem to help lesson my inflammation a little.

There are folk on here whom have been suffering for a long time, have much worse symptoms than myself and many are much younger than me. Getting this disease has really made me appreciate just what some people are working with on a daily basis, and it sucks.

I did have a few days a couple of months back, when my lower spine became inflamed and I could not even get up off the floor or walk for five days. However it slowly recovered and for a few days I was shuffling about with tiny footsteps and a stick. from what I read this is a most uncommon area to experience inflammation with RA, but my work had me hauling a trolley which had caused the initial trigger. Unfortunately I look super fit and strong, so colleagues have completely lacked any understanding or apathy.

This has been a wonderful albeit rather humiliating experience, which has given me a new found appreciation of other people, and what they may be quietly dealing with.

My doctor has signed me off for some time now and I have been lucky enough to have enjoyed many hours outdoors trying to keep active and loving this awesome weather we have been getting. Also I am luck enough to have my own small woods at the foot of the Cairngorms in the highlands, so have been able to spend entire days there with my very small Jack Russell. Being surrounded by nature just washes my soul clean, or so it feels.

I'm a super active person, so this disease is far from ideal. but It would seem 'keeping going can help keep you going', and my plan is to try to achieve something positive every day, in line with what my body permits, and changing how I do things to still be able to do big stuff like working my woodland and restoring my classic Landrover, which had been languishing in a field for a decade.

I wish everybody a good day, and hope you get to make at leas one positive memory.

Thank you

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