Still an Eternal Optimist? Always!

My friends ~ it has been a while since I blogged ~ I was feeling a little exposed, to be perfectly honest. Not only that, but I was getting adjusted to this whole new diagnosis, new meds, new life. I like to view myself as the eternal optimist and I wasn’t feeling very optimistic, positive or hopeful. Actually, I was kinda grumpy. The meds (Mtx - chemo drug) orally, nearly ruined 7 weeks of my summer and my kids' summer. I feel so guilty being sick. Not that I can do anything about it. The medicine made it so I couldn’t eat and couldn’t go anywhere ~ I still had so much pain & fatigue. Thank God I had the option of taking it by injection. Yup, I am taking my meds with a shot now. All by myself. Was I petrified? Oh yeah. Why did I do it myself? I had a friend offer to help me every week, Derek offered too...but I have read that so many people with Rheumatoid Arthritis stop treatment, or don’t take the meds they should because of fear of needles. As a Life Coach ~ I wanted to overcome my fear ~ and fast ~ so I can help others. This disease needs to be stopped! It eats your cartilage, erodes your bones and tendons. If you don’t take the medicine, it will advance. I don’t want that for my friends with RA, I don’t want that for me. If you have RA and are reading this ~ don’t be afraid of the needles ~ it is quick and easy. Take it from a scaredy cat! Once I changed to taking my meds via a shot ~ my life, our lives, improved dramatically. I could eat again! I started to get the fog to lift (those with RA know). If you don’t have RA ~ think of how you feel when you have a hangover ~ that fuzzy feeling. We have that, but worse, every single day (without the benefit of a fun night out.) That is the systemic part of the disease,the fatigue and malaise. I started to get a bit more energy. The pain and stiffness hasn’t changed much, but this improvement in energy enabled me to take my son to our friends’ place on a lake! It took us until the end of the summer for me to have the energy to do something fun away from home ~ but I finally did it! Gratitude. So, my life is getting better! Whoo hoo ~ I wish I could do a cartwheel, but I have my shoulder in a sling! Oh well. :) You know, this disease has shown me so many things, I will share them with you. One of them is the power of friendships, new and old. Also, how my family is wonderful and I feel so blessed. Everytime I felt bad for not participating in life, my family would say, it’s cool. So let me know ~ can you relate? What is your story so far. Fill me in. I am in the learning phase. Am I still an eternal optimist? I always will be! Hopefully, some of that will rub off on others. Embrace everyday my friends, good or bad, easy or hard, painfree or painful. Somehow, somewhere, it could be worse. Be grateful for the simplicities of life. Healing Hugs, Alicia