RA and The Chance of Heart Attack Doubles with the Disease

Study: Rheumatoid arthritis nearly doubles risk of surprise heart attack - Since I've has 2!!!! Already One at 40 and another one at 50- I don't want a repeat for sure. My first one at 40 years old, my doctor told me then my chances of surviving a 2nd on were not good at all. So happened I was in the hospital in Dallas when I actually had the 2nd one. Or I may not be writing this today... my Rheumatologist always reminds me of just how high my chances are since I've had 2 already and now to have RA, Lupus and so on, that makes my risk extremely high... I do all I can to "help" avoid one. But, that was how I was BEFORE the first one! I was only 40 years old, I was in great shape, walked 5 miles daily, along with other types of exercise, I ate as healthy as anyone could, my cholestral was not high at all, my blood pressure was under control with medications... so you would have thought I would have been the "poster" person for NOT having a Myocardial Infarction. Yet, I did. My doctors back then had not discovered my Autoimmune issues. Had they known, they may have blamed it on that. But it was another 8 years before I was diagnosed with RA, Lupus etc. My 2nd one, at 50, I had been extremely ill. In fact, we just talked about that a day or so again. The doctors here and in Methodist hospital in Dallas, never really KNEW What was "wrong" with me. They blamed it partially on a nick in my liver from a gallbladder surgery I had in Ennis. But, then they kept telling us that I had a "collapsed bile duct"... whatever was going on "poisons" from my system were literally pouring into my abdominal cavity all around my internal organs and so forth. I continued to get more ill by the day, and after SEVERAL surgeries, they had hoped I was out of the woods, and improving. I went for over 6 WEEKS that I could not eat one bite or take a drink of anything. They had me on a liquid "nutritional" bag of "white liquid" and that was my "food" for weeks and weeks. About the time I began to be a bit better, and more able to be "coherent" - they were trying to send me home with all of these tubes running out of my side and I was not even able to really eat yet... so I got what they thought so totally "heart broken" over being so ill and feared coming home at the time, it caused a 2nd heart attack. Fortunately, I've avoided any type of surgery and I don't have any stents at the time, so far. Medications continue to control it, but believe me there is not a day that goes by that I don't think about "what if".... so never take any symptom pf an MI lightly. Even if your "young" 30's or younger, it can happen.....


http://www.news-medical.net/news/20150505/Study-Rheumatoid-arthritis-nearly-doubles-risk-of-surprise-heart-attack.aspx

Taking A Moment Away from the Griping and Fussing over illness and pain to say " Happy Mother's Day" to All!

Before I get back to my griping, fussing and being "sick and tired" of feeling "sick and tired" I thought I would stop and take "inventory" of Mother's Day, coming up on Sunday. It used to be a "tradition" of ours, to take my Mom, and the three of us go to one of the casino's. The last several years, we usually go to Oklahoma, to Winstar, because it all has you could ever want or need, plus it is quite a bit closer than going to Louisiana. :)

After my husbands accident last year in March, that kind of put a damper on things. In fact he was still in the hospital at Mother's Day last year, and Mom and I went together, just the two of us, and had a wonderful time. We usually have a blast together, whether it be at a Casino, or just a day away for a "window shopping trip".... so not being able for the 3 of us to go right now, kind of changes the scheme of things. Yet, life is like that. We never know when within a breath's space our entire lives can be changed forevermore.

This year is going to be a real challenge for me. Now I face yet another round of tests on my lumbar/sacral spine. They just called to sit up a "discography" to be done in Dallas at Medical City. I chose to wait until the last part of the month, on the 27th, which now I am wondering why I decided to wait that long. Today, I feel like I've been ran over by a train, and then backed over and ran over once more. My back had been feeling "somewhat" better. And of course between our freaky weather, and all I've been doing, my back hurts like hell right now. But, so does the rest of me. So, I figure I've either came down with a slight "bug", or it is a "flare" trying to come on... fatigue, pain, lethargic, nauseated, my head feels like it could explode and our humidity has to be at 100%!!!!

Anyway, I said no "griping" on this post :)  So, again below is what I posted to all of the Mom's on Facebook. Thus, here it is for all of you also.

Enjoy your kids!!! They grow up much to quickly. Just turn around once, blink your eyes, and within a breaths space, they are grown, often married, with family's of their own, jobs, and all that life entails for them. So, everyone with little tot's please enjoy every moment of the funny, silly, and sometimes messy things they do... for it won't be long, they will be out of high school, out of college and out into the world all their own....

And you shall be wondering where the time went....

With Love, Honor and Wishing All Mom's out there a very Happy Mother's Day!

I wanted to post a "shout out" there to ALL MOMS! Mothers Day is here on Sunday, and before I get too wrapped up in things I want to make sure to let every Mom, Step-Mom, and so on know just how incredible you are. The many nights we've stayed up with them when they were little, or ill, to the days of school, lunches and parties. From the PTA meetings, cupcakes for the class, all of the special birthday parties, holidays and decorations we put out for our kids to enjoy. From the days of worry over them as they grow a bit older, and pray "we've raised them right... those times we think "they didn't come with an instruction manual, and that pain we endured when they were born, and how quickly it melted away as soon as we heard that first cry. They always remain "Our kids" no matter if they are 3 yrs old or 35 years old... kids still are kids to parents... I am so proud of my two "kids"... although both grown, my son 35 soon to be 36 (I think) and my daughter 31soon to be 32 (I think);) and her awesome husband and my 3 great and wonderful grand kids. I so wished we lived closer, we just don't get to see one another as we would like. Yet, life is life, and sometimes things are not exactly as we would like them to be. So, thank goodness for FB, so she can keep me up to date, with pictures of all of their events, and I have got to watch them "grow up" via Facebook! :):) For that I am elated. I wish each and every Mom out there an incredible Mother's Day! Whatever and wherever you get to go, or stay home, visit, rest, and however you celebrate, may you be well, free from pain, if only for that day, and know in your heart, you are a fantastic Mom!!!! 

"World Autoimmune Arthritis Week" Race Around the Globe! Are your Ready! by the International Foundation for Autoimmune Arthritis

WOW! May 2015 is going to be a very busy month for all advocates!

We have several "awareness" things going on for May and one of them is the "Race Around the Globe" for a week of spreading awareness about Autoimmune Arthritis!


The International Foundation for Autoimmune Arthritis (IFAA) is putting this week on. It begins on Ma15th, and around the Globe many entities will be participating in it.

Here is a link to the official "PR" release:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/WAAD/prweb12684750.htm

For More Information about This Amazing Race Around the Globe - Host by IFAA, where you can also sign up to participate see:

http://www.worldautoimmunearthritisday.org/home.html

Lupus awareness Month Started May 1st"

Here we are, the time flying by. It seems like just yesterday was the beginning of the new year. Now we are already experiencing "spring" in the air, Fall has faded, Winter has "winterized" and with Spring Comes "Lupus Awareness Month"!

There will be MANY activities this month from walks, to all types of other advocate projects that you can help with.

The most important thing you can do is "Spread the Word" and educate others about Lupus!

I have literally been surprised at how many people, including  Medical Professionals, are not familiar with Lupus. Difficult to believe with all of the information out there about treatments, medications, new medications on the horizon, social media, U-Tube, and many, many of us are continually "hooked into" being online in some realm.

So, it is time to tell your story about Lupus. Tell a friend, post it in your local newspaper as an Op-Ed, or send a Letter to the Editor. Post a poster on your Facebook, or blog.

There are many ways you can reach out and let others know about this serious, life altering, life taking illness.

The "New Addition" the the Royal Family in Britan - New LIttle Girl is here!!!

Kate and William brought out the little bundle of joy for all the world to behold today. This is after delivering yesterday!!! Kate looks amazing, but I bet she is give out tired.... ;) and running on "that after glow and excitement".... I am thrilled it was a girl... I had hoped it would be... it will be awesome to watch how they dress her....

So, Congrats to the Royal Couple, their Little King and their latest Addition of the "Princess"....

Where do you Go? Hip, lower back pain - CT Scan shows "something" yet it seems like now enough to cause this type of pain...

I've been going over and over this stupid CT Scan from a month ago. I wished I could get more information, but when I look up what is being told on it, I am getting a "google" search of all types of issues. Some of them may pertain to me, and others I am not sure of.

I am sure of a couple of things. I almost am to the point I cannot sit at my computer. If I sit here more than 10 minutes, my hips, butt and lower back just throb, burn, ache, and it feels like very deep bone pain.

Nothing has really changed since the injections (Transforminal Epidural Steroid Injections) which were two weeks ago, as of tomorrow. I thought I had felt a bit of relief that first couple of days afterwards. But, then I began to notice my hips once again feel like they are on fire if I sit for very long at a time. I can get up, walk around for awhile, then the pain comes back, resonating kind of from my tailbone, down into my hips, around the outer part of my thighs, and often into my calves and down into my heels. I notice if I try and get out in the yard to pull weeds from the flowerbeds, pick up things and put them in our trash cans outside, try and break down small limbs from the trees and also trash them... after a bit, again that deep down kind of like a burn starts again. So, if I sit for too long, especially here at the computer, or if I go and walk or stand is the worst for a long time, my hips and very lower back just hurt like hell.

I am still in the thinking that I have two problems... the hips and then my lower lumbar spine about where it joins at my tailbone. That is actually where the CT picked up some issues, I have vertebra I think, that has "slipped forward"... plus I have the Retrolisthesis


which is also meaning it has slipped the opposite of what many of them do... plus I have known about my "crooked spine". Now the levoscoliosis I guess is enough that it shows on the scan. All of which even though don't appear on the CT as being horrendous, as before they have done Scans, X-rays, MRI's that show not so bad. Then they decide to open the joint up and take a look, and sure enough the "arthritic" degeneration and damage was where it was not seen on those scans.

http://www.spinal-foundation.org/conditions/vertebral-slippage... 

It has been exactly two weeks ago today, since I had the "Transforminal Epidural Steroid Injections" in my very last Lumbar spinal vertebra L-5 and then I believe S-1 shows issues also.

I thought right after the injection that it felt better. Yet, after a couple of days, I began having the same types of issues, pain when I sit for very long at the computer, pain if I stand too long in one place, or even if I walk for a long distance, especially like shopping... where you stop, then walk a few steps, and over again....

My thoughts are that I have two issues, as I've said all along. I feel both hips are a part of this, simply because this is what has happened a couple of times over the past 6 or so years. It seems about once every two years my hips act up, probably more like bursitis. Which, my orthopedic surgeon seems to think that "bursitis" of the hip would not cause all of the pain I am having! WELL, I have news for him. I've had it before and it hurts like hell. So, where he gets off thinking that my hips are not the issue and my back is, I am not sure...

Anyway, I am headed to Dallas in just a bit to follow up on those injections. While I am at my pain specialist, I will ask him what his opinion is on having this discogram/discograph... that the ortho doc seems to think I should have....

When I return, I will update everyone on the situation!

WEGO Writer's Challenge! "You have made it!!!! 30 days and 30 posts! #HAWMC

Wow! What a fast month this has been. I realize I post on my blog daily most everyday of my life. Unless I am sick, having surgery, or out with myself or family at the doctor's I keep my blog very current. Often times more than once or twice in a day. Depending on what I am finding online, there maybe several posts in a days time.


This has been a wonderful and thrilling April 2015! thank you WEGO Health for the chance to be in this "writer's challenge" and I hope to be able to do it "annually" for as long as you offer it. The prompts were fantastic and it really gave me a much broader sense of what to write about. Sometimes as an author and writer, and blogger, I feel I get "stuck" saying the same things over and over again.

So, having another party give me the "prompts" helped to open my mind and heart up to write about some things I may not have thought about. So, I commend all of you for the hard work, for the "tweets" for all of the other writers, bloggers, and authors out there that I have gotten to know over this past month. That is another awesome thing about the Writer's Challenge. I've been able to "meet" new people, and see what they say about some of their own battles with all types of health problems. I thoroughly have enjoyed all of what I've read and I have learned so much from each of you. That in itself is such a wonderful blessing.

Oddly enough, now that we have become an "online" world, where "everything" can be known within a few short clicks on the keyboard, makes our world seem to be a much smaller place than it used to be. So, I may make friends with someone right here in the North Texas area, or maybe someone in Australia. I love being able to know people from other states, and countries. To see how their health care is, how far ahead some are from us, especially the UK, when it comes to Autoimmune Illnesses. They seem to be several steps above us, with new medications, research, clinical trials and more.

It is difficult to pick any one thing about the "prompts" or the entire Writer's Challenge that I could say I was not that crazy about. I felt that you did an incredible job of really making us dig deeper, and really think about different things when it comes to our own health issues.

I loved ALL of the prompts. Of course there were a few I liked more than others. I have to say the "acronym" was one of the biggest challenges. I liked it, but it was one that I guess may have been down on the scale of being a favorite. Yet, I learned things from it also, so it maybe a "less favorite" but I did partially enjoy the challenge.

The product review for me is somewhat a difficult one. I feel that I may not really understand exactly what you guys and gals were looking for. I tend to write and blog more about medications, research, new clinical trials, and so on. So, it took me awhile to decide whether the "favorite" products should be something more on the "medicinal" side, like prescriptions, or more like things we buy over and beyond the physicians, medications and so forth. For instance what I use on my mouth, corners of my mouth, my skin due to the Lupus, discolorations and so forth. Some I am sure have other types of devices that may use, such as a "zipper pull" or something to help get things off of tall shelves, and so forth. I am sure many have types of gels they use for sore muscles and so forth. So, I tend to go into the "mini implanted titanium rods" that hold my dentures on the bottom very tight. After losing all of my teeth within a year to Sjogren's, those have been lifesavers for me.

I would love to see even more types of "prompts" possibly on a more personal level. You already have given us quite a number of those that required us to open up more about our battles with health problems. But, I could see maybe a prompt next year that asks us to open up and tell some of the even more hardships, and things we go through that we may not write or speak about much.

Other than that, hats off to everyone! From all of the gang, of gal and guys at WEGO Health, to everyone who participated in the Writer's Challenge for this year, I commend all on their awesome posts, and what they said and chose to say that truly gave me new insight to myself and other illnesses, medications and how many of us are so "near" one another with our stories.

I loved many of the prompts. The "word cloud" was new to me and I really enjoyed it. The "Hindsight is 20/20" I truly liked. Stress Awareness, "telling someone "off" when they hurt your feelings", and the "travel" prompt was great also. It is difficult to pick one over the other because all of them were enjoyable. 

 I will be so excited to see what you "prompt" us with for next year! "If I am here, able, and still kicking, I look forward to participating in April 2016!!

I do hope and pray that by the time we do this again in 2016, my 3rd book will be completely written and published!!! By the way, that is another thing doing this has helped me with... material to use in my book. It also has given me some very good ideas about what to say, how to say it, and gotten me in the habit of the daily writing. I hope to take that even further, so I can finally finish my 3rd book (my own autobiographical journey) through the madness of chronic illness, autoimmune diseases, chronic pain, and all in between!

Again, I am just elated, yet a bit sad that it is over!

#HAWMC

Again WEGO Health, I've had a blast with these this month! I appreciate ALL everyone does for us as patients! You guys and gals rock!  Rhia