fight my arthritis

at consistently taking my supplements and drinking cherry juice. The pain comes and goes, and the worst part is that I can’t take Aleve all the time because of the toxicity. The weeks when I’m taking tylenol are pretty bad. So I’m supposed to get a cortisone shot this Wednesday. I hope it helps, and I hope I’m not making a mistake.

On some -mornings- ...err, on some days, I notice when I wake up, my hands are notably more sore and stiff than on others. My knees and bag feel week and achy. Something just isn’t right.

Last week, I was experiencing exceptionally stressful neck pain which stopped me from getting to sleep. I caved and, against my better judgment, took a TylenolPM I found in the medicine closet. I woke up the next day, achy, swollen, stiff, and quite frankly, afraid. It wore off. When it happened again a few days later after not having taken any meds, I decided I should start writing down the details of everything I subject my body to to draw conclusions from the patterns that arise. So I’ve started keeping a log of the food I’ve been eating. In it, I also keep track of the way I feel each morning, whether I’ve exercised or practiced qi gong, and what adjustments or treatments I’ve received that day. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some dots big enough to connect, or at the very least, improve my handwriting, however incrementally.

Again, acupuncture is helping me greatly. I’m still suffering from some mild limitation, but I am so, so much better than I was 6, 9, even 12 months ago. I can grasp things, I can run more than a mile…. I can run, for fuck’s sake. That’s new. Late last summer, I couldn’t peel an orange, and my boyfriend had to tie my shoes.

Acupuncture is bloody amazing.

from Montmorency cherries is, believe it or not, the most helpful thing I’ve found. Not counting Aleve.

I’ve also been taking a supplement that contains glucosamine, chrondroitin, and methylsulfonylmethane. I haven’t noticed much from that, but I’ve been taking them for only about 3 weeks and the package says it can take 4-6 weeks to notice results.

I’m a 24-year-old woman. I shouldn’t have the bone system of an octogenarian, but I have since I was 14. My joints, they just love to get hurt, and the ones that don’t get hurt, they just love to ache for what would seem to most of my peers to be no reason.

So I’m fighting the symptoms of my arthritis, because if I don’t, I can’t work out, knit, write, garden, paint, you get the idea.

I’ve been taking Flex-a-min to cushion my joints—mostly for my knee. It’s been helping, but I have the feeling I won’t get the full effect for another couple of weeks.

My boyfriend and I have also started preparing gin-soaked raisins. They’re supposed to do wonders for people with arthritis, so, we’re giving it a try. I have high hopes. I love gin. I love raisins. I hate pain. I can’t believe how much the reviewers say gin-soaked raisins does for them. The only people who seem to object are the cats in favour of selling you arthritis medication that won’t work.

So, I’m on this thing.