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CONTENTS:
LOTS
of Resources re Health and Healing
Health Story
Healing
Health
Resources
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HOPE IN THE MIDST OF A LIFETIME OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
-- by Grace Wiebe (April 2000)
After nearly 30 years of continually getting worse with Rheumatoid Arthritis,
it has seemed like a miracle to finally begin to see positive changes
taking place in my body and in my life, and to experience my deteriorating
health actually beginning to reverse over the past months as I've begun
to take some products that some loving friends of mine began to provide
for me! Here is my story:
I'm now on the verge of turning 40 and have enjoyed a full life with
many blessings. Yet here are times when I wonder what life would have
been like for me if I had known then what I know now.
When I was about 9 or 10 years old, I began to experience early symptoms
of Rheumatoid Arthritis, though I wasn't diagnosed until I was in my
mid-late teens. My initial symptoms were that my right hand would go
to sleep easily and many times at night my arm would turn numb and in
the mornings I couldn't feel my hand, etc. The doctor pricked my hand
and did some tests but basically concluded that it was growing pains.
Over time my right elbow was no longer able to straighten out and again
I was told it was probably growing pains. Slowly I began to experience
swelling of the joints and morning stiffness and pain.
Over the following years as the symptoms continued to increase, my parents
continued to have me tested at different doctors.
One day I went to a doctor who took my bent arm and tried to straighten
it over his knee! I nearly hit the roof in pain! Needless to say, I
never returned to him.
The next doctor I went to was a well-known Rheumatologist in Greater
Vancouver. He diagnosed me as having Rheumatoid Arthritis (I was about
17?) and immediately put me into the hospital for a couple weeks of
intensive physiotherapy, education about the disease, and he began my
weekly blood tests and many years of medications, which began with high
doses of Entrophen and Indocid.
I was also told that it was likely that I would be completely crippled
by the time I was 20! and that I should spend a lot of time in bed.
(They've since changed their approach quite a bit!). Needless to say
that was a lot to try to work through emotionally just when I felt my
life was about to potentially take off! My big dream had been to become
a world famous piano-player (I had played piano since I was a very young
girl) and suddenly it seemed like that dream was dashed.
Also I wanted to have a husband and children and suddenly it seemed
like that dream was dashed because who would want to marry me if I was
totally crippled? How could I make my way in life if I was totally crippled?
How could I get myself a career? How could I survive living in a wheelchair?
I began to go through severe depression which lasted a number of years.(there
were other reasons as well but this was also a big one).
It was also difficult to see how hard it was on my family, they seemed
so helpless. They wanted to help me but didn't know how...I wanted to
comfort them and tell them I was going to be fine, but when I looked
at my future I shuddered.
I began to overcompensate in many ways which exacerbated the problem.
I caused a lot of unnecessary stress on my body and emotions, trying
to pull MORE than my fair share of the load. Stress management became
one of the things that I had to begin to learn through trial and error
and which has been an important part of my life ever since. The more
stress I would experience, the more pain and stiffness I would experience.
So I began to have to learn to organize my life in ways that could help
me to avoid unnecessary stresses in the midst of the stresses of life
that are unavoidable.
One of the things was hard for me to deal with for some years was that
I increasingly seemed to be introduced to people (when I wasn't around)
as 'the girl with arthritis'. And so when the person I didn't know would
meet me, they'd go "oh, YOU'RE the girl with arthritis!".
Thankfully, since then I have come to realize that there is much more
to my life than the fact that I have arthritis, and it seems it's been
years since folks have referred to me as 'the girl with arthritis',
so I think that my perception of myself has also changed their perception
of me.
In my twenties I had two surgeries on my fingers in order to scrape
off the 'bumps' off my finger joints and to fuse one of my thumbs so
I could still use it because it was quickly becoming non-functional.
Thankfully these surgeries were both very successful.
When my body began to increasingly become disfigured due to the arthritis
my fingers, elbows, wrists, ankles, feet, knees, toes, etc., I went
through major self-esteem struggles. I'm sure every woman wants to be
attractive to people, and I wanted to be as well, so whenever a new
disfigurement would begin to come into being, I would have to again
work through this emotionally. The medications, especially the cortisone,
also began to change my whole appearance (and body shape) and I began
to look like I was always swollen and puffy. My cheeks began to look
like "chipmunk cheeks" and my face began to look like what's called
a 'moon face', for example. My middle section has become larger and
distended. I began to hate what I looked like and didn't want to accept
that this was 'me'.
I have taken almost every arthritis drug known. I have been on Entrophen,
Indocid, Penicillimine, Cloroquin, Methotrexate, Gold Shots, Prednisone,
etc. etc. For a number of years in my early twenties I was on even more
than I'm on now. As I have been researching the effects of these medications
the past few years, I've been totally amazed again and again that I
am still alive! For example, a couple side effects of one drug, which
I just recently found out, is 'sudden blindness', 'sudden death'.
Doctor and nurse friends of mine through the years have marveled at
the fact that I'm still here, and I give credit to God's preservation
all through the years and the prayers of sooo many of my friends, family
and churches over all these years!
The medications I've been on have been a major issue for me in the past
few years especially. Although I was aware of some of the side effects
that these drugs could have when I initially began to take them, I thought
that the positive effects - anti-inflammation and less pain, thus hopefully
preventing further deterioration - made up for the side effects I might
experience. It was the lesser of the two evils as I saw it.
Through the years, however, I have experienced many of the horrible
side effects, and have come to find out that this was not the best route
for me to take, though that was about the only route folks knew of at
the time, and certainly about the only route prescribed by doctors over
the years.
Thankfully the past decade or more, especially, has given the public
freedom to also choose other options and alternate medicine..
Another aspect to this process of trying to find answers and solutions
over the years has been the fact that many well-meaning people have
strongly encouraged me to try this and that and the other thing which
seemed to help everyone else but me.
Eventually I got very skeptical of all of these options, and of the
high costs that usually go along with them.
HOWEVER, over the past 3 years there have been major changes in my health,
which have led up to me beginning to take some wonderful nutraceutical
products.
Some friends, out of the blue, told me they thought that these products
may be helpful for me (they knew that I had tried everything over the
years!). It was shortly after that they decided to begin to provide
the products for me so I could try them for 6 months to see if it would
make a difference. In July of 1999 I began using these nutraceutical
products and within two weeks began to notice some positive changes
beginning to take place! I had an increased level of energy, my allergies
were bothering me much less, the asthma symptoms were disappearing,
people started to note how much healthier I was beginning to look, etc.,
and within a few months I began to get out of the house more, my walking
improved, my ability to navigate stairs began to improve, etc.
After about 6 months I was getting out of the house almost every day!!,
my limp had almost disappeared, I could climb stairs without using the
railing (though not as fast as I still hope to shortly), etc.!!
I cannot tell you how excited and happy I have been and how encouraged
my family and friends have been to see such major improvements over
such a short time!! I firmly believe that God is answering another part
of my prayers and other's prayers for me for healing through my friend's
gracious provision of these products! I am convinced that they have
made a huge difference in my body and that as long as I stay on them,
my health will continue to improve and I believe that some of the damages
can be reversed!
I have felt like I finally have begun to get my life back!
Because I was feeling sooo much better and since there were such positive
changes, I decided it was time to begin to get off more of my medications
(which I'm doing under my rheumatologist's supervision). He has admitted
that the cortisone is destroying my body and it has done a lot of damage.
Some things it has done is that it's changed my body shape, deeply affected
my organ function, has messed with my vocal chords, and has (according
to my eye specialist) brought on early cataracts which I'm needing to
have removed this year. He says if I stay on cortisone I may be blind
in a couple of years at the rate my eyesight is currently deteriorating.
I cannot afford to stay on medications that are killing me, and my rheumatologist
agrees. I have been going to him for many years. He has always showed
concern and care and has done his best for me with the training he has
received. I continue to go to him and he is supportive of the route
that I've been taking the past few years, for which I am grateful!
Though the coming months I'm laying low and focusing on getting off
of more of the prescription medications, I have great hope that by next
year I may even be able to travel overseas again! A few years ago I
was speaking in various places and traveling all over for my work. The
past few years of living very isolated (in comparison) has been quite
a change, but the past months of major positive physical changes even
in a short time have greatly encouraged me and given me great hope of
what's in store!
If you have Rheumatoid Arthritis or know of anyone who does, I would
strongly encourage you to try these products yourself and see how they
work for you! It would give me great pleasure to know that I could be
passing on to you news that could potentially change your life and help
to bring healing to your body!
And I would also like to encourage you that Jesus Christ is a wonderful
Healer, Comforter, Encourager, Strength and Support and that He can
meet your deepest needs even in the midst of a debilitating disease
and all that goes with that. May you find great comfort in His Presence
and Peace as you put your trust in Him.
God's best to you,
Grace
CONTENTS
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FOR SOME EXCELLENT RESOURCES FOR YOU, CHECK OUT THE SITES
BELOW
GlycoScience- Nutritional
Science - excellent site!
...and more excellent web sites at the bottom of the page!
CONTENTS
HEALING:
31 Healing Scriptures
Grace Unleashed
http://graceunleashed.org
Healing:
The origin of sickness and disease
Healing in the Old Testament
Healing in the New Testament
Is healing in the Atonement?
Healing and the Kingdom of God
The Church and healing ministry
Healing Rooms
How
to Receive Healing
Rapha Ministries – Christian
Healing Ministries
Recovering the Father's
Heart for Healing
The Amazing Balm of
Gilead
The Wounded Healer
CONTENTS
HEALTH:
8 Biblical Principles
for Health
Chronic Illness
Support Newsletter and disabilities resources - web sites
http://www.ixpres.com/jlcopen
http://www.familyvillage.wisc.edu/worship.htm
God’s Ultimate Way to Health
– lots of excellent resources/articles, etc.!!!
The Early Church's
Health Plan
The Stages
of the Terminally lll
CONTENTS
FastCounter
by bCentral
Page added: April 2000
Anchors added: Feb2001
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