Hello family and friends. Thank you for joining me again. I would like to start off by telling you about how I was first diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and how it affected me. My blog will not specifically focus on me and my RA all the time, but I felt that I needed to share my story, so that you would understand my perspectives and what prompted me to make the changes that I have.
I used to run track when in junior high school and I was injured. I was running a relay and towards the end of the race, I stumbled and fell on my knee. I don't really remember all of the specifics of that event because it was so long ago but that was the beginning of my issues. I remember waking up one morning shortly after that event and my right knee was swollen and I couldn't really walk on it. I went to the emergency room and got it checked out. There was fluid on the knee. The blood work determined that I had RA. I wasn't upset at the diagnosis, but it was difficult, because I had to get around with braces and crutches for a while. As I was on the braces and crutches for a while, I wasn't sure what my future held. Being a teenager you don't realize the kind of affect that it will have on you as you get older, and you don't think that when you receive a diagnosis like that, that it will be something that you'll have to deal with for the rest of your life. At that time, I thought that it would get better. I still wanted to participate in sports in high school like volleyball and basketball, but I ended up going to a vocational school and taking up clerical classes.
After high school, I worked in retail as a cashier and in sales. Working in retail, you generally stand a lot and can be on your feet for extended periods of time. My left knee started to have issues. I was depending on my left knee so heavily after the accident that most of my weight was on the left knee causing injury to it.The insurance provided by the companies that I worked for was not great as I only worked part-time. I was not able to afford the prescriptions that I needed and I had to rely on Aleve and other over the counter remedies. These remedies took away the pain, but only for a short period of time. It would treat some of the symptoms, but not really the disease. It was getting harder for me to get around. Harder to do the things that I enjoyed. I was beginning to feel frustrated with my situation. I started to pray about the situation and question God about what was happening to me. In my prayer time, I started to realize that what I was going through wasn't about me. God gave me the strength to push through the pain that I faced everyday, so that I depended on him more than I ever had before. This was the beginning of the journey that I didn't realize that Lord was taking me on.
I used to run track when in junior high school and I was injured. I was running a relay and towards the end of the race, I stumbled and fell on my knee. I don't really remember all of the specifics of that event because it was so long ago but that was the beginning of my issues. I remember waking up one morning shortly after that event and my right knee was swollen and I couldn't really walk on it. I went to the emergency room and got it checked out. There was fluid on the knee. The blood work determined that I had RA. I wasn't upset at the diagnosis, but it was difficult, because I had to get around with braces and crutches for a while. As I was on the braces and crutches for a while, I wasn't sure what my future held. Being a teenager you don't realize the kind of affect that it will have on you as you get older, and you don't think that when you receive a diagnosis like that, that it will be something that you'll have to deal with for the rest of your life. At that time, I thought that it would get better. I still wanted to participate in sports in high school like volleyball and basketball, but I ended up going to a vocational school and taking up clerical classes.
After high school, I worked in retail as a cashier and in sales. Working in retail, you generally stand a lot and can be on your feet for extended periods of time. My left knee started to have issues. I was depending on my left knee so heavily after the accident that most of my weight was on the left knee causing injury to it.The insurance provided by the companies that I worked for was not great as I only worked part-time. I was not able to afford the prescriptions that I needed and I had to rely on Aleve and other over the counter remedies. These remedies took away the pain, but only for a short period of time. It would treat some of the symptoms, but not really the disease. It was getting harder for me to get around. Harder to do the things that I enjoyed. I was beginning to feel frustrated with my situation. I started to pray about the situation and question God about what was happening to me. In my prayer time, I started to realize that what I was going through wasn't about me. God gave me the strength to push through the pain that I faced everyday, so that I depended on him more than I ever had before. This was the beginning of the journey that I didn't realize that Lord was taking me on.