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From arthritis and fatigue to joy and vitality
by Sonya Green
Rheumatoid Arthritis Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia It seems to me that there is a similarity between these three. No one seems to know what causes them, there is no cure for them and they all rob you of energy, fill you with aches and pain and make life nothing more than an existence. A good day means you exist well enough to function in a most basic way and can accomplish the most fundamental tasks. A bad day takes you hostage and simply having air on your skin can hurt. Sometimes the pain can be so bad you feel like you have drain cleaner or acid travelling through your veins. Sometimes the fatigue is so severe you feel that when you drop, it will be into the black hole, into the abyss, and a dull panic sets in. I used to refer to it as "the living dead" Being alive without having a life.
This page is, to me, the most important page on the website and is in fact the motivation behind my putting the website up and recording the healing CD. I have finally got my life back and it's better than ever. I feel and look years younger. I am pain free and have enough energy to live a better than normal life. The information I wish to share with you today is Simple, Free and Effective. I am indulging myself here and giving you my life story. However if you wish to skip ahead and read the summary first, then go right ahead. I usually like to know what its all about before I commit to finding out how it came about myself.
I was diagnosed with RA around 15 years ago. This is my story and although to many people a lot of this information will not be relevant to them I am going to include as much of my own story as I can recall because somewhere, someone is going to make a connection that may change their life or like me Totally reinvent themselves
For many years I suffered fatigue and every time I mentioned it to a doctor they simply concluded an iron deficiency and sent me off to eat more meat or take supplements. I was usually pretty conscious of diet as I was working in a weight loss clinic at the time and had a very healthy respect and knowledge of good nutrition. I’d take the Iron and sure I would pick up and life went on but I never really had energy. I simply managed to get through each day and get what needed to be done attended to.
I used to love to party. Loved the dressing up (it was the eighties and boy did we know how to dress up and party) I loved to drink and had a great bunch of mates that would play and laugh and dance all night long. One night we had a large table booked at a Greek restaurant and it was one of those funny crazy nights where we drank champagne and cocktails until we were almost legless. (Excuse the pun- this story is leading up to me literally becoming legless) I was wearing strappy little stiletto shoes and dancing like a mad Greek to Zorba. Spinning faster and faster while plates where thrown at the wall and laughing so hard that I fell. There went my knee.
A few days later I found I couldn't stand and my knee was as large as a rock melon (cantaloupe) my guess was that I had torn the cartridge and went off to the Dok. He wasn't sure and suggested it could be twisted or sprained or torn and recommended I have X-rays, they came back o.k. and I went home to rest and ice pack it. Two months later I was still walking with crutches and my knee became bigger and more painful.
Many specialists, tests and finally an Arthroscopy later I was told it wasn't conclusive but I had a pre-disposition for Rheumatoid. Who knows what that means? I was sent to a Rheumatologist who advised it was Rheumatoid and further went on explain that arthritis has over a hundred disguises and they did not know what caused it and they did not know how to cure it. He did believe he knew how to stop the pain and swelling and repress its progression. Back in the eighties Aids was big news and at the time they had ads on TV showing the Grim reaper. This Rheumatologist looked and sounded just like the Grim Reaper. I was stunned and angry. Pictures of my mother came into my mind and I was suddenly an old lady whose destiny had just been dramatically changed forever.
The Rheumatologist outlined a course of drug therapy and casually mentioned Id be taking these drugs indefinitely even though the disease would in fact progressively get worse. He called it management. Now I've read enough and know enough to know that drugs always have a down side and my first line of fire would be some form of natural therapy. He mentioned the name of the drug he was prescribing and I asked him about side effects. He said in rare cases you could go blind. I laughed nervously for a minute and then screamed at him. (I was actually blaming him at the time as I felt that prior to seeing him, I did not have arthritis and in fact I didn't have it right up until he said I did. In my mind, at that moment it was like he had actually handed me a ticket and said now here- this is what you have for ever)
My last words to him were "I came in here unable to walk and now you say you can help me walk but I won't be able to see where I'm walking to". I got into my friends car and said, "That guys a Lunatic" and burst into tears.
I went back to him a few days later knowing I would not be taking his drugs or any of his advise but I did want to collect my x-rays and results of a blood test. He had a pen, which was floating above the desk and I asked how it worked. He said a Sales Rep had been in and it was a gimmicky advertising thing. The pen was being held up with magnets or something. The interesting thing though is that he mentioned the Rep was selling fish oil capsules. I had read about cod liver oil being beneficial to RA so asked him for more information. He said he didn't think it would be of much use and again pressed the importance of the "Going blind drug". I left and bought myself some fish oil. It was called Lipitac and I was advised by my Chemist, who was a Naturopath to take 6 a day. Since then Fish oil has become hugely popular as the importance of Omega 3 6 and 9 is now widely accepted as having major health benefits.
Fish oil is not a cure for Arthritis. It is a really good anti inflammatory as well as possessing a number of other health enriching properties. Decreasing the inflammation leads to decreasing pain. The pain was the biggest hurdle but the fatigue was now becoming a major problem. Prior to taking the Lipitac (which greatly helped the fatigue). I was still not putting the RA and fatigue in the same basket. I thought they were separate things and that the extreme tiredness was once again iron deficiency. I am not vegetarian so I don't know why I would be lacking in iron. At that time I ate liver twice a week to try and combat it.
One morning I slid off the bed and waited until I could put my foot on the floor and walk. This was now a morning ritual, you don't just stand up and walk. You wait a few minutes for blood to reach your foot and then gradually apply pressure until you feel confident enough to take a step. You then hold your hand on the wall to keep you from falling and make your way to the kitchen for a coffee. This morning I managed to take the twenty or so steps, only to find myself so extremely tired that I leaned against the kitchen cupboard and breathed like an athlete after a marathon. I thought to my self "Im F....d"
Later that day I took a raw liver and pressed it through the juice extractor. I was so desperate that all I wanted was instant iron and this was my idea of the biggest and fastest dose I could get. I knew it was going to taste disgusting so I poured a large glass of water with lemon juice so I could wash the liver juice down after I had drunk it. People, it didn't help the taste at all. Liver juice does not slid down. It grabs your teeth, tongue and throat and stays with you for days. You burp blood taste for days. It was the worse thing I have ever tasted. It did restore my energy level but I would never do it again. The next few years were broken down into ordinary days and bad days.
When your health goes everything goes. When you can't fight a good fight then everything goes quickly. I wasn't able to work and my shop wasn't making enough to pay the rent. I had taken a second mortgage on the house and the bank was ringing constantly threatening to sell my home. My eyes had permanent black rings around them, my hair was dry and I was so thin my friends thought I had cancer. Three months later and I was still on crutches. I closed the shop and had to apply for Government assistance to live. At the same time interest rates went up and my mortgage repayments were greater than my income. Each month the debt grew until finally I sold the house, paid the bank and actually came out of it debt free with some spare cash. But, with no home, no business and no way I could work at a regular job. I am mentioning this here because I later learned the role of prolonged stress in relationship to disease, fatigue and pain.
The fish oil was working pretty well, the stress level was reduced and I started to think I might have a chance at getting somewhere close to normal. At this time the swelling in my knee was greatly reduced and the pain was dramatically better. The knee had become rather deformed looking and large. I had lost all the muscle tone in my leg and the leg seemed thinner than my arms except for the giant knee. I took myself off to an Osteopath who was so concerned about it that he actually gave me free sessions for a few weeks (I was still on sickness benefits and couldn't afford to pay him). He had me off the crutches and walking within a few weeks. He insisted I sit in a swimming pool and move the knee as much as I could to get the muscles back. This was a real turning point and I highly recommend Osteopaths and gentle exercise in water. No matter how painful a joint is it must be moved to flush away the sludge and strengthen the muscle.
Over the next few years I tried everything (except drugs) I spent vast amounts of money and discovered many things that were just plain rip offs and a lot of things that helped. I had more good days than bad days and I even had the occasional excellent day. I had learned to pace myself and I was very careful with diet and sleep. I came to the conclusion pretty early on, that most of the natural therapies had anti-inflammatory properties. Some were very expensive and no better than other cheaper things. The fish oil was great but cost a lot each month, I later got sensible enough to work out that I only needed to replace meat with fish and I would also gain the additional benefits of all the other nutrients in fish. Ginger also seemed to be a good anti-inflammatory so I would sip lemon, ginger and honey in water throughout the day. Chinese herbs were good as was homeopathy treatments but very expensive and not better than omega 3 or ginger. Green lip muscle and Glucosamine are another expensive way of eating seafood. I tried Minocycline for a while and it seemed to help the fatigue as well as the RA but it concerned me to be taking long-term antibiotics and I gave them away as well.
A few years later I became complacent and thought I was doing o.k. Until one night my entire body seemed to have ignited. I thought about that spontaneous human combustion documentary I had seen and waited expectantly to burst into flames. I imagined myself as ash in a pair of slippers. Instead I burst into tears and my girlfriend had to carry me to bed and call a Locum, as it was late at night. I waited four agonizing hours before he arrived. At that point I didn't care what drugs he put into me. At that point Euthanasia was an acceptable and even desirable possibility. He convinced me I must take prescribed medication as he noticed my feet were now becoming deformed, my hands were beginning to look gnarly and I was in big trouble.
I took the drugs for a number of years and went on like most RA sufferers, getting through the days as an almost normal person. Pacing myself and doing as little as I could. Every free weekend was an opportunity to sleep. I was back at work and most days were good days. In the back of my mind I resented it greatly. My searching and experimenting went on and I was convinced there was something else. Something simple and something that would permanently cure this thing.
I had finally made the connection that the fatigue was a symptom of RA. The fatigue was really my biggest problem at this point. The pain was under control but this fatigue was so overwhelming. I found myself having to explain myself to people and I avoided going out with people I didn't know well. In fact I pretty much avoided going out at all. I found myself, on a number of occasions sitting in a Restaurant and down would come the Curtin in an instant. This is not tired like "I should be getting home now". This is like a panic, you feel you have about two minutes to explain to people that you are about to permanently and totally drop through the floor and disappear forever. I would sleep for twelve hours and still take an afternoon nap. Around this time I had pretty much given up drinking alcohol and I had pin pointed it as a major antagonist. Red wine especially worked like a mogadon.
I ate well and paid attention to diet, I had a kitchen bench full of vitamin supplements and rarely ate junk food, and I had cut my twelve cups of coffee down to one. One day I was in a situation and had no option but to eat a Hamburger. I was starving and didn't care. Within minutes of eating it (It had meat, cheese, bacon and egg) I fell into a deep sleep in the car. (No I wasn't driving) I finally got it. I had read about food combining and sort of saw sense in it, but never really applied it. But in that moment I looked at all the protein and fat in the hamburger and considered the salt. I seriously sat and thought about where I was and what I was eating when I most seriously fell exhausted. It wasn't long before I saw the pattern. Bacon and red wine were instantly recognizable. Not only did these things knock me out but I also connected the pain the next day. Every time I had had a flare up in was linked to a fatigue meltdown. I had now become accustomed to calling them my "Crash and Burn moments". Other Crash and Burn foods revealed themselves and they were M.S.G. (Chinese food, Tomatoe past and most canned and packaged foods contain MSG) Eggplant aubergine all alcohol, white flour and pasta and anything cooked with fat.
I also saw another pattern and that was, if I ate fruit, salad, nuts, or seafood, I felt o.k. But fried foods, baked dinners, pasta meals, large meat meals or pretty much most cooked meals left me really tired. Luckily around this time I was living alone and working from home. I accidentally fell into a pattern of grazing through out the day rather than eating meals. It didn't take long to realize that every time I ate in a Restaurant I "crashed and burned" and yet on the days I grazed, I would not only get through the day but Id be up until late at night and only sleep until early in the morning. I was now getting up at 5am instead of 9am. I very rarely had pain and when I did it was manageable. I wasn't running marathons or jumping out of my skin but the quality of life was extraordinarily good compared to where I had been.
By now I felt I was pretty much on to of it, but also aware that it was still in my body and had the potential to rise and attack at anytime if I was not paying attention. I was also studying my mother who was in a really bad state. She interested me a great deal as she is a Vegetarian, has never drunk alcohol or smoked. It didn't take long to pin point stress. Every time she became upset about something she went down. I studied myself as well and noticed I didn't really get stressed but I did have a tendency to worry or obsess about things. I had previously done a lot of work with stress and had been running courses on Creative Visualization and Autogenic training. Over the years I had let all that slip as I became involved in a new relationship, a new line of work and just the day-to-day workings of life.
I pulled out all my old tapes and started meditating every day. Id go to bed at night and affirm over and over "I am now filled with perfect and permanent healing". I made myself some new meditation tapes specifically focusing on my joints and energy. In no time I was relaxed and energized. I felt calm and motivated all day. Nothing bothered me and life was actually handing me a lot of joy. I made more tapes for Mum and really pushed her to do it each day. She did and like me is just continuing to improve each day. Unfortunately she still needs the back up of drugs at this point but she was severely in a bad way. Her sense of well being has greatly increased she has reduced the dosage on the medication and for the most part has no pain.
The final piece to the puzzle came when I found an old tape I had made many years ago that encouraged deep, fast breathing. It was a little like Rebirthing or Connected breath therapy. Strong, fast, full breathing. I do not sell this tape as it can be a bit dramatic and should be done with a practitioner as it can release a big amount of emotional blockages. Anyway, I decided to modify it and slow the breathing down. As I inhale I state a positive affirmation like "I am filled with healing, joy and vitality" and as I exhale I affirm, "I am free of doubt, I am free of fear, I am free of pain" I change the affirmations according to what goes on in my life at the time. You simply think of what you need in your life on an inhalation and breathe out what needs to be released on the exhalation.
The breathing is done for at least 30 minutes and often through out the day. It’s easy and it’s actually pleasurable after the first five minutes. No matter how tired, stressed or not in the mood you are, I guarantee you that if you do it you will feel fantastic. This is powerful and it works immediately. I have gone on and done a lot of research on oxygen and breathing techniques to try and fully understand why its so effective and I have written quite a lot on another page. (See energy link) Rather than get all technical and academic about it, I will simply state that breathing deeply into your belly and exhaling completely will energize you, reduce or eliminate pain, create a great sense of well-being. Defuse stress before it gets unmanageable and give you back your joy.
That's it. Free simple and effective. I can't say Im totally cured but it’s only been a little more than a year. Arthritis took 35yrs to get in, so18 months is not a long time to eliminate it. I sincerely believe that in a small amount of time it will be permanently cured. I believe my immune system is functioning perfectly and that the wisdom within my body is diligently working away on that goal. In the meantime I am totally drug free, I look younger now than I did fifteen years ago and most of this website has been written between 4am and 9am. I then do an 8-hour day at my real job and feel energized, relaxed, calm and motivated. I have absolutely no pain at all.
One a final note, I will just mention that this does not work if you do not do it. Half doing it will be a bit good. Doing it until you feel o.k. and then returning to you old habits will simply take you back. This needs to be a commitment. Initially you will release a lot of "stuff" Physically and emotionally. Nothing you can’t handle but some people will experience a "healing crisis". That is simply the junk being lifted and shifted. Do not go off any prescribed Medication without working with your Doctor. Most of you will be having regular blood tests and the tests will confirm your improvements. You Doctor will adjust the Medication as the tests improve. You may need to be slowly weaned off some of the Medications, as many of them are really powerful substances.
In summary this is it:
Eat fresh raw uncooked foods as much as you can. At least 5 Vegetables or Salad, at least 2 fruits each day. Nuts Seeds Legumes and Grains. Seafood more often than meat. Limit dairy products.
A great Breakfast particularly for women. Blend 2 or 3 pieces of fruit (Blueberries, Banana, and Papaw are particularly rich in nutrients and antioxidants) S.L.A which is ground up Sunflower seeds, Almonds and Linseeds. Tahini, which is Sesame seed paste. Soy flour and water (you can but soy milk but its only soy flour and water and costs about 10 times more) Macca gold is a great supplement if you are Menopausal or have PMT as it balances the Hormones. Bee pollen is also good if you have Hay fever or Allergies. Im recommending this because I know women in particular tend to skip breakfast and this is easy to get down and fast to make. It has a huge variety of Vitamins and Minerals, Antioxidants Phytoestrogens and Omega oils. You will notice your skin improve and your energy lift considerably. I call it my youth elixir.
Lunch and dinner are easy as long as you get your vegetables in. A salad or sandwich at lunch is easy. Snack on Nuts Sunflower or Pumpkin seeds. Fresh Veggie juice is great if you choose what you like. Try not to cook or at least undercook as much as you can. Drink plenty of fluid as it keeps the toxins flushing out. This is especially important if you are taking Medication. Pee until it's clear and then you'll know you have enough fluid.
Creative Visualization; Your thoughts create you emotions and your emotions create your behaviour. Don't underestimate the influence your mind has over your body. They are one and the same. Think healing, think health. Don't talk about illness and don't think about illness. Go and read through the Soul mate page (link above) and practice some self-love. Visualizing health and happiness is programming health and happiness. Seems too easy to be so powerful, but powerful is what it is. Love and Happiness are the two most powerful emotions you can activate. Go out of your way to find things to love and practice staying with the feeling and expanding it. Your body releases endorphins and other chemicals that heal if your heart is full and open.
Breathe; Watching TV, driving to work, lying in bed. Breathe as often as you can. Long, slow, deep and complete.
Move; I used to get so annoyed with people who would tell me to exercise. I was so tired that getting to the kitchen in the morning would wipe me out. Breathing on me would cause pain and here was someone who knows everything, telling me a good old run around the block was all I needed. Well, I still don't run anywhere, I could but I just don't like running. I have learned that as you get better you do find you can do a lot of things that you may have thought impossible. The problem is that after a long period of not using joints or muscles they do take a while to get going again. Once you can do some simple movements you can then work up to rebuilding muscle tone and loosening up joints. Very easy yoga stretches are do-able. Gentle pool aerobics are actually nice to do with no weight and freedom of movement. Exercise balls are amazingly good; you simply watch TV and rock gently. Great for knees angles, hips and backs.
Respect Yourself; I once read an article on the Psychological make up or RA sufferers, in which the trials revealed that people with RA had a tendency to be high achievers, perfectionist or women who felt frustrated with their lives and pushed too hard to fight their way out of their limitations. My observations have also suggested that this is true. If you study your behaviour for a few weeks I think you ay also see a pattern of pushing yourself too hard. RA suffers must learn to pace themselves. Listen to the wisdom within your own body. Pain is not your enemy, pain is your body speaking and it is saying STOP NOW. Slight pain comes before Crash and Burn. The extra hours work you do today in pain will rob you of eight hours tomorrow. Being tired comes before melt down, allow your self to stop when you first become tired and stop this pressure to get things done. You must treat yourself as the most important person in your life. Find your voice and let the people around you know that you are as valuable as they are and that relationships work both ways. You are not the fixer of everyone else, especially if this concept is not a two way street. There is no point in being a martyr in a wheel chair. It’s not really surprising that more women have RA then men is it?
Well that's it: Its now up to you. Crash and Burn or Fly! Good luck.
About the Healing C.D.
This is the best of everything I have ever tried. I have heard some really annoying meditation tapes and a lot of quite ordinary ones. I have put a lot of thought into this one and although my personal interest is RA it is tailored to heal and energize on all levels and is effective for anyone looking to Reinvent themselves. Im not just trying to sell you something here I really believe this CD is excellent. Most of the people who have bought it and then called back to buy more for friends. I have included 3 different styles but made sure everything was included to release physical and emotional imbalances and then rebuild higher lighter states of well being. Working with this C.D. will greatly accelerate your healing process. I have kept the price very low because I believe that this is really powerful and effective and I need to get it out there and have it accessible to anyone wishing to find joy and health. www.reinventingmyself.com
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