Cooking with Arthritis

Acceptance may be one of the toughest things one faces in life. Some need to accept a new family member or a loss of a loved one, others a boss that is a real Jerk and then there are people like myself that have to accept pain and sickness. Whatever it is you need to accept it never seems easy. My Mother used to tell me you live to you die. I have adapted her theory to fit my situation, Yes you live until you die, but what you do in between is your choice. You can spend your time by simply existing or you can be productive and live life to its fullest. I personally have chosen the latter. I have not always felt this way. Being born with a birth injury and developing five forms of arthritis in my twenties made it really hard to see any light much less one at the end of a tunnel. But I found my light. Believe it or not having rheumatoid arthritis has shown me the way. When I first developed the disease I thought it was just an ache and a pain, no problem I will take an aspirin. I was so very wrong ! Pain is an understatement and deformity is a given! It was not only just an ache and pain it is a very debilitating and crippling disease that effects more than 46 million people in the US alone, 50,000 of that number are children and those numbers are rising,yearly.

RA steals the patients life slowly starting with employment and eating its way through the family and friends unit. RA , also causes the person to feel constant pain at some level and always being tired or having the feeling of being worn out does not help matters.

I think one of the most frustrating things about arthritis is people simply do not understand the disease. When you tell people who have no arthritis you have RA,or RSD, or Fibro , Lupus or one of the over 100 different forms of arthritis, the reply is I think I may have it , my elbow hurts when it rains, my favorite is hey I got an aspirin that will do the trick. Knowledge is power. It is our job to make the American public aware of the severity of arthritis and auto immune system diseases and who it effects and how they can help us in our battle against it. I got a little off track.

Lets get back to acceptance. It is really hard to accept the fact that you have this awful disease. A million thoughts running through your head on what happens now. Well; what happens now is up to you. You control your destiny not your disease. Yes, there is pain, deformity loss of job, friends and family members tired of you being sick. All of this is not only difficult but life changing . You are now at a point in your life where you decide what you are going to do with the hand dealt to you. You can not give it back or give it away, you are stuck with it for better or worse its your hand. The only thing you can do at this point is move forward. Reinvent your life. Take steps to turn your adversity into a positive. Use your disease to help others. The person you help may not even be handicapped or physically challenged in any way. The person you help may become stronger just by watching your strength. They may follow their dream just because you never gave up, you fought and persevered despite your disease. Remember someone is always watching you. It may be your son or daughter a friend or stranger, no matter who it is your actions could change their life. I have devoted my entire adult life to helping others. I am following my dream. I now invite you to follow yours. I would love to hear your story

This is so inspirational

There was a time when all I did was talk about my arthritis, how it hurt and how my life was over. The poor me consumed my entire life. I had pain that was constant and at a level of 9 . Walking was almost impossible. I began looking at photo sites and learning about taking pictures. My husband bought me a camera . I thought I could not walk so I never went anywhere to take pictures . One day my husband helped me to the back yard and I sat in a chair to take pictures . I did this for weeks . I wanted to take more pictures of different places so I began by walking very short distances . Every few days I went a little further. Over the next few years I was driving again and able to do alot more . I joined a beach walking program. I did it everyday . I could not go as far as most but I did get up to a mile a day. That all seems like someone elses life now. It has been ten years and I walk everywhere . I had pittied myself to the point that I could not walk . I still have daily pain , I just do not notice it as much, also my levels are down to a 2 or 3 .  Thats my story .

Hi, my name is Cindy,

I am an Independent Wellness Consultant with over 30 years of experience analyzing and evaluating life stories of my friends and family and their health. My oldest daughter had bladder infections, strep infections, headaches and fatigue from the time she was a baby. My son had childhood depression, a potassium deficiency, sinus, stomach, and joint problems. I have watched friends and neighbors with liver dysfunction, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis. My husband is the picture of health, ...and always has been that way. He rarely gets sick and has plenty of energy without requiring more than 7 hrs of sleep.

When I was 20, I was diagnoses with a gluten intolerance which nearly killed me. I have read and studied and gone to doctors, chiropractors and dietitians. Much of what I know has come from study, research, and trial and error. I am a student of too many doctors and other professionals to mention.

The one thing I have found out through all of this is that YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF YOUR OWN HEALTH. DON’T GIVE THAT CONTROL AWAY TO ANYONE. Too many of my friends and family have ended up victims of doctors or hospitals, addicted to prescription drugs, or dying from the side effects. And the alternative methods have not been the answer either, if you want a full and normal life. Life is eating. It is chocolate, candy and ice cream. It is steak and hamburgers and chicken. So what do we do? What can we do?

I found a way....

I went from looking like this:

To looking like this!

I learned you have to Learn to Listen To Your Own Body. Read, study and keep current on new medical advancements. Do the best you can, eat the best you can, and go to the doctor when you need to and integrate complimentary medicine with your traditional treatment.

When I got breast cancer a couple of years ago, I was encouraged to learn all I could, and do all I could to help myself. The list of doctors I went to included: a general practitioner, a surgeon, a radiologist, an oncologist, a support group (for emotional health), a cardiologist, and lab technicians, all of these to monitor and watch out for me. My oncologist was the one that told me, that years ago the medical profession thought they were doing a good job treating cancer, ...until they went back and evaluate survivors. It was then they found they had a long long way to go to be successful in treating cancer. Cancer survivors were left with almost no quality of life. Since that time, medical researchers and providers have gone to great lengths to learn and develop better ways to restore health along with killing the cancer. They have come to realized the importance of whole foods and herbs in building back the immune system. In my case, all my medical doctors agreed it was only smart to include good nutrition as part of achieving over-all, quality health before, during and after chemotherapy.

I take Nikken Kenzen and Bio-Directed whole food supplements. All Nikken supplements are Pharmaceutical Grade. But, good health does not stop there. We need clean air to breath and water to drink, exercise more, and get a good, restful sleep. Nikken has technology for all of these areas that are certified and proven through double blind placebo studies with over 6,000 medical professionals using and recommending them. These products have been organized to create a Wellness environment: a place to relax, rejuvenate and renew.

I now live in a Wellness Home. It is much easier to create than you might think. Wellness is a way to live and enjoy modern day living, while still maintaining your health.

I love my Wellness Home.

visit my web site :

http://www.rheu-osteo-jra.com/index.html

WoW , what a change in you .

great story Cindy ! Wow !

I learned a long time ago there was not alot I could do about my disease except learn to live with it . I love Melinda's story for that reason. She says make the best of your life regaurdless of the pain . I do the same . I spend many hours in the out doors soaking up the sun it eases the pain for me . Food and cooking has always been my passion and  I refuse to give it up . So stay strong ansd true to yourself and you will make it , I did !

My story is simple. I have arthritis and I have pain  . I go on because I want to . I emjoy my life and pain or no pain , I am going to live it . I will not let my disease steal my life ! that is my story. So if you are thinking well she does not have alot of pain , yes I do about a 8 every day. I refuse to sit around and whine . It will hurt rather I am sitting or living my life ,. I choose live my life !  I hope you do to .

Growing up with a birth injury and arthritis

About one week after I started kindergarten, I quickly realized I was not like all the other children in the class. All of these children used their right hands to color; they could climb a rope in gym class and cut their own meat at lunch. On the playground children would tease me, calling out things like, “Look, she has a hook for an arm,” and, “Here comes the tree branch girl.” At first I didn’t understand why they were taunting me in such a cruel way. I remember feeling intimated by them. I would go into the girls’ restroom and cry. One day, while I was in the middle of a crying spell, I caught my reflection in the full-length mirror wearing a short-sleeve shirt; my right arm was deformed and four inches shorter than my left. Being born with a birth injury in the sixties meant there was nothing they could do to fix it. Don’t get me wrong—I knew my arm was deformed with very limited use, but I really did not consider myself physically challenged. At home I was just one of the kids, the baby of ten children. No one ever made a big deal about my arm. I just used other parts of my body to complete any task I attempted. Apparently it was a big deal to the rest of society.

The school district tried to send me to a school for mental retardation. My father abruptly put a halt to that. He said my arm was crippled, not my mind. I soon learned it was survival of the fittest, and I was determined to become the fittest. As young as five years old, I became a fighter, survivalist, inventor, problem solver, and a realist. Whatever was ask of me, I tried harder than anyone else to accomplish, and I succeeded. As the years passed, I became just one of the normal kids. People did not seem to pay much mind to my arm. I think it bothered me more than any of my friends. I guess I was about ten years old when I first decided cooking was my passion. I would make peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, cut the crusts off, and roll them to resemble a pinwheel. I never missed a day in the kitchen with my mother. She was one of the most wonderful cooks whom I had the privilege to enjoy the fruits of her labor. She was a Southern-born-and-raised girl that married my Northern father and set up housekeeping in the North. She was a woman who cooked Yankee cooking with lots of Southern charm; henceforth, my first cookbook, “Yankee Cooking with Southern Charm.”

I continued along the culinary path: attending college, working in restaurants and many other phases of food service. I was catering parties every weekend—some extravagant and others less extravagant. I was having the time of my life, married, and with three beautiful children. On top of the world, so I thought. There was a particular night that was like any other until two thirty a.m. I was awoken by a pain that was simply unbearable. As I rolled over in bed, or at least I thought I was rolling over, I soon realized I was not moving, just screaming out loud in horrendous pain. My legs would not move. They felt paralyzed; the pain was so bad, I could not stand to be touched. I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance only to find out they were also baffled. The hospital referred me to a rheumatologist, which later diagnosed me with rheumatoid arthritis. Looking back, I now understand that I had this disease for many years and did not know it. It took about six years to get to the point where a major flare-up occurred. I always thought of myself as a survivor, and my initial thought was, No big deal, I got this beat. I was so very wrong. Now twenty-three years later, I have a total of five forms of arthritis and a birth injury, rheumatoid being the worst and RSD running a close second. For those of you who do not know what RA is, it is an autoimmune system disease that destroys the joints and affects every major organ in the body. RA leads to deformity and disability.

I currently have active RA, osteoarthritis, RSDA, fibro and degenerative disk disease. I do have a lot on my plate. There is one thing for sure—I do not let it stop me or slow me down even a little. I strive even harder to accomplish my goals. Cooking is and always has been my passion. I cannot and will not let this illness or birth injury control my life. I will control my illness. My goal by speaking out , writing a self help cookbook and traveling across the United States to raise awarness for arthritis is not to help just one but the millions of arthritis suffers . I sometimes stumble and sometimes fall but I manage to get back up and keep on going . I also would like to help educate people who do not have arthritis to understand that it is not just an ache and a pain nor is it just an elderly persons disease . Arthritis causes horrendous pain felt on a daily basis and for some the pain is debilitating .

You are truely one strong woman ! I gain so much from you. !

Great stories ! My story is not so grand. I have pain , I go to work then come home and hrt, got to bed hurt and then wake up hurting and start over. I refused any meds. that is the reason for my pain, I guess I am going to give in this week and say yes to pain meds, I tried playing the man card, lol