Remission Dawns

According to the website arthritis.org remission the American College of Rheumatology and the EULAR developed criteria defining remission from RA in 2011. These criteria are used by scientists when conducting clinical trials. They are:

• One or fewer swollen joints 
• One or fewer tender joints 
• An assessment by the patient that on a 0–10 scale, arthritis activity is 1 or less 
• A blood test showing little or no inflammation in levels of C-reactive protein, a key marker of inflammation 

I am very glad to report that my latest blood test (just last Monday) showed my CRP coming in at just over 9 mg/L. At its worst in April 2016 my CRP was over 170, and just last month it was around 25.

Since the other criteria are largely true, accordingly I will very soon be in remission, possibly next month! I attribute my progress down to drugs to halt the problem, to diet and exercise to resolve the problem.

Apart from continually improving my health, I have two final goals regarding remission. The first is to remove myself from RA medication. The second is to re-introduce some foods back into my diet that I had restricted myself from. The latter I have already started with successfully eating "normal" potatoes (with no side-effects and some oils. I will continue with the latter by re-introducing foods back on a weekly basis, or thereabouts.

The medication reduction I will do after discussing the subject with my doctor. That will happen slowly because methotrexate is a seriously dangerous drug and is not to be treated lightly. But it will happen. I anticipate some blips of pain or inflammation as I reduce the methotrexate, but also anticipate these will be temporary.

We will see.

I'm back and I'm healthy!

Sorry to one and all for not having posted for a long time.  Like one of the vloggers I follow, "Healing Josefine", I needed a rest from blogging.  Not only that I decided I did not like the epithet, "the sick one."  Does anyone?  Finding people taking about you rather than with you is not pleasant, no matter how the words come out.

So, from now on, I am not sick.  I may not be fully healthy, but I am not sick.  That's not just me asserting some dreamed up alternative truth.   Quite often recently friends and family have told me how healthy I look.  So what changes have come upon me?

• I am walking much better
• Not quite running yet, possibly more hobbling short distances
• My daily yoga has helped enormously with flexibility.  I did not know how bad my body had become!
• Bowel movements have made solid improvements.  I can go into details...
• Brain is functioning.  For anyone who has not experienced "brain fog", let me just say you don't want to.  Hidden from view it is crippling.

In summary I am beginning to feel like I am re-entering humanity.  There are no easy guarantees of course.  I know that RA can come back and bite hard.  But there are differences now.

Now I have tools to aid fast and effective recovery.  My diet has turmeric in it every day.  If I ever feel RA has bitten me then I overdose on turmeric at each and every meal and every drink possible.  My diet anyway keeps me on the road to better health.  And so does my yoga.  And I have a goal...

My goal is to become more healthy each and every day.  That's not just some blithe statement but rather a practical outcome of my whole-food plant-based diet, exercise regime, and outlook on life.

I feel sorry for people, we all know them, who say "I'm getting old" and "you'll have to make allowances for me."  Well that's them, and I am sorry for each and every one of them - and their families who have to put up with a poor second best & foreshortened lives.

That may be their attitude, it's not one I share.  And unless I get knocked over by a bus etc, nor will I share it in forty years time when I am still enjoying an active and healthy life even though I will be over a 100 years old.