An Autoimmune Arthritic Systemic Life©

"Through my heart's work of writing, I share with you my complex journey a top the mountain, sliding down, crawling up, & living through the realms of Autoimmune Arthritic Illnesses. Taming "The Wolf" Thru each Day... One Step at a Time … Together We Are Learning to Survive. Please follow along, to New Beginnings - looking Thru the Window Pane of Pain in life where we shall find our journey leading us to - New Perspectives

Thursday, April 25, 2019

"Pet Therapy and "Chronic Pain" - Our Fur Babies often are what keep up moving, when we really want to give up....

Pet Therapy and Chronic Pain...

https://www.mychronicpainteam.com/resources/pet-therapy-and-chronic-pain

Pets can be mysteriously loving and accepting companions while we live with chronic pain. Pets can be intuitive, gentle, and comforting on bad pain days.... read more from the link above from "My Chronic Pain Team"...

(Open Letter) signed by over 300 pain specialists, other physicians and those in the medical profession to the CDC & how their "Guidelines" on Opioid Medication could drive Chronic Pain Patients to Suicide...

Are Federal Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids Hurting Patients with Chronic Pain?

(Open Letter) signed by over 300 pain specialists, other physicians and those in the medical profession to the CDC & how their "Guidelines" on Opioid Medication could drive Chronic Pain Patients to Suicide... (letter URL below)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RzQDSppUKhjiAsEmhW2WbTXlP5V8vJ4M_vBPQLKhK_8/edit

Information comes from the links here....
www.democracynow.org
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/27/are_federal_guidelines_for_prescribing_opioids

For many years my Mom would ask me "How did I stand the severe pain of Migraines at first, then later, Lupus, RA, Joint issues that turned into replacements, and all of the severe chronic pain she watched me have to go through... she told me several times, that there was no way, she could endure what she watched me go through, that she would have possibly committed suicide rather than put up with all I had to go through so many years BEFORE I could get some "real help" after searching for a decade or more for physicians, diagnosis, medications and things to help me not have to live with such horrid pain in my life....

I always tried to reassure her that things would someday "get better"... and yet here we stand worse off than a decade ago when it comes to severe chronic pain...

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Wednesday’s Addition of My Daily Newspaper “ Autoimmune Arthritic Systemic Life”

http://news.autoimmunearthriticsystemiclife.com/#/

One of the Featured Stories

https://pres5.com/women-and-arthritis/

Women and Arthritis

Arthritis affects people of all ages. Diagnosis of most forms of arthritis occurs between the ages of 40 and 60 years old. The rates of arthritis are three times higher in women than in men.

The disease is characterized by chronic joint inflammation. Stiff joints with limited mobility and pain are common symptoms of the disease.

Over 100 forms of arthritis are recognized with three of them being the most common: rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and psoriatic arthritis... (see URL for rest of article)...

Pacemaker Placement, Hip Bursitis both hips severe, shoulder surgery & fear of brachial plexus issues (after reverse shoulder surgery about 5 years ago)

I had my consultation yesterday with my Cardiologist about the Holter Monitor and the low heart rate about 17 hours a day... we DID decide to go ahead with the pacemaker... everyone and everything I've read, talked to etc... even a couple of my other doctors feel it's a good idea, and "may help" some of the fatigue, the weakness in my legs, even the spider veins in my ankles, plus give me back more energy that I seem to be "losing" in the past year or so... I just can't seem to be able to keep up with the house, going to the market, and just days in general. Even though I am up and around, I seem to just be so "slow" and feel like I run out of energy much sooner that things to do...

NOW I KNOW that some of that is the RA, the Lupus, "age" of course, the chronic pain and so forth, and there are no "guarantees" how much the pacemaker will help, but I feel it will give me back some of what I seem to have lost as far as stamina, especially outside doing my yard, flowers, and I so love being outside when the weather is nice (by the way I drove through the Cemetery yesterday and those HUGE OAK trees that looked like they just completely died that are in a row of about 10 where my Mom and Dad's graves are, THEY ARE COMING BACK OUT!!!

I was so thrilled to see them leafing out..I think when they were building all of the new apartments right next to there, they must have "sprayed" something or did something to really knock them down hard, so when I saw each one slowly but surely with the new growth on them, I knew my Dad was happy... that is why they picked that site... Dad always loved trees, lawn work, gardening and so forth... anyway, I think wrote that I got the left hip injected Monday, and even though I have to wait (this Orthopedic doctor) won't inject them at the same time and then he makes me wait three weeks before I have the right one done... which sucks... it would be better for me to have it closer together to SO HIPS are better at the same time. But I know due to injecting the joints with corticosteroids they like to be cautious....

I go to the eye doctor tomorrow, I am really "past due" since I take Plaquenil, and it can cause Macular Degeneration... & I usually go yearly and I've missed I think almost 2 years..jus due to everything else, it seems I never can find the time plus I can "check them at home and do frequently with a special chart I look at. But the double vision and my vision in general has also changed again... so I "may" need new lens and HOPE NOT! All of these doctor co-pays, and then the Outpatient charge for anything I have done like the Endoscopy and now the Pacemaker, have a larger co-pay now... and of course the hospital always wants is ALL up front.... and hell my glasses if I need new lenses, the "prism" in the for the double vision makes them cost even more...plus I got ready to make the eye appt and found out my "usual" eye doctor retired!

Luckily, I had been to another one last time, and I really liked him... and he is close, just over in Waxahachie, so at least it's not Dallas. But, I went to make the Endocrinologist appt that my PCP wanted me to see, and SHE CAN'T SEE MY TILL LIKE THE END OF JULY!!! So, I found a couple that take my insurance and they are closer to me, although still in Dallas not as far as this other woman... but I've got to get everything else "caught up"... I have to see my other Orthopedic Surgeon since we think my lumbar spine is causing a lot of my severe pain also in my hips and down my legs, plus the shoulder he replaced... it's not been "the same" and feels almost like that "brachial plexus" ball of nerves, are on fire...I can't stand to "touch my right shoulder" in many places..it was never "the greatest" but was so much better after the replacement BUT after that 2nd cervical neck surgery, (I know they had to have me lying in a very odd position) they must have had that shoulder in a position, that ever since, something is just wrong.... so he is the one that does the spinal surgeries, the shoulder replacement and so forth...

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Pain Patients Get Relief from Results Positive from on Opioids from U.S. Agencies!

from the Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pain-patients-get-relief-from-war-on-opioids/

By Claudia Wallis on April 19, 2019

Ever since U.S. health authorities began cracking down on opioid prescriptions about five years ago, one vulnerable group has suffered serious collateral damage: the approximately 18 million Americans who have been taking opioids to manage their chronic pain. .... Red rest of article on link above...