Knockdown and no clipper to be seen!

My apologies to readers.  I don't do well posting when things get bad, and the last few weeks have not been easy.  Just before that I was getting healthy to the point of thinking I was a fraud, in that pain and inflammation was diminishing and I was really coming together as a quasi-normal human being.  I was re-entering society and was beginning to look back on the previous year as a very bad dream.  Had it happened?  Had I exaggerated my own illness and struggles?  Had I at last overcome some major hurdles?  At this point I perhaps became complacent, possibly arrogant.  Perhaps I could begin to venture outside my safe food zone and experiment more with "normal foods."

And then my knock-back happened.  I quickly pressed dietary reset button (cucumber and celery juicing etc etc) and hoped that the fault was only temporary.  However it has been longer and deeper.  With significant pain, latterly and especially in my ankles.  Initially my left wrist blew up and looked like an exceedingly undesirable but well-risen cake, with pain to match.

Any hope of quick recovery seemed to disappear as days and then weeks seemed to have rolled by with very little venturing out of doors.  Are we at the point of recovery?  Only time will tell.  One thing I have learnt is predicting how well I will feel is not worth very much.  I can be lying in bed feeling comfortable at say 4am, and then by 7am I am struggling with pain to even get myself sat up on the edge of bed.

But recovery does happen.  The skills I have learnt about listening to my body, a very careful attention to its dietary needs and most of all patience.

As the days roll by I can feel the inflammatory blood serum travelling from one part of the body to another.  The soles of my feet, the ankles, the wrists, the hip joints, knee joints, elbows, and for one horrible day even my back.  Unlike, say 6-9 months ago, now I only tend to have pain etc in one place.  That's not nice, but at least most of the time I find my mind is clear.  I have very little brain fog - touch wood.

But I have to learn the lesson of the last weeks.  As yet I do not know what I have learnt except that I am far from clear of RA yet, and possibly if ever.

If I had a guess at the lesson it would be that when RA kicks in badly it is because of multiple trigger events.  So not just one meal, but a range of things.  Perhaps too much (or contaminated) oil or fat on one day.  Perhaps an inadvertent nightshade vegetable on another.   Perhaps some egg in a falafel on another.  Each of these takes its toll and then like a pack of cards I collapse.

This is not proven science, just my best guess.

What is true is I need more protection around myself.  To this end I have prepared a dietary card to show when I go to a restaurant.