Re: newbie info Carol

[Guest guest]

Hi Carol:

Nice to meet you. Welcome to the group - these are

some of the most caring and supportive people you will

ever know, and there is great information here as

well. We truly all do understand what you are going

through - you are not alone in your pain.

I am 52, married for 23 years to a pretty

understanding husband, and have two children, 22 year

old son, and 19 year old daughter. We live on a small

farm in southern california with horses, dogs,

chickens, ducks, and various other fowl. The animals

are a lot of work, but do get me up in the mornings

whereas I would probably just stay in bed otherwise.

I was dx 8 years ago with RA, had Raynaud's before

that, and since then have been dx with OA and

Fibromyalgia too. In my bathroom there is a box full

of all my meds - never would have believed I would

take so much med. For my RA, I use Mtx, Enbrel, Mobic

and Ultracet. I have other meds for my Fibro. It's

hard to find the right combo of meds, but right now my

RA is under pretty good control, but my fibro is not.

It is hard to get other people to understand, when

they have not been through it themselves. They think

that it is " just arthritis " and we can take an Aleve

and dance the night away. I wish. I have gotten to

telling people that I have an autoimmune disease that

affects my joints, and they seem to get that more than

if I say rheumatoid arthritis, cause they just get

stuck on the arthritis part.

I am sorry for your financial situation, and will

definately be praying that your husband is able to

find a job soon, and you get med insurance again.

Stress is certainly a big factor in RA, and Fibro too,

and you have been under quite a bit of it. I don't

work either, hard to find a job with the limitations I

have in what I can do. My husband says my job is to

take care of the kids, house and animals (in that

order lol), so I do my best, even if my kids are much

better off than my house is lol. They are both in

college near here, so they are both still at home. I

like it that way. My daughter is a huge help to me.

Well, I think that's all for now - any questions just

ask - hang in there and prayers are winging their way

to you -

Kathe in CA

Carol Moss <sweetpeamoss@...> wrote:

> well i'm 47 years old married to my 2nd husband who

> is

> very supportive and helpful. we've only been

> married

> 5 years and when we got married i was fine but lots

> has changed. he recently lost his job of 21 years

> and

> with it lost our medical insurance. so we put our

> house up for sale (sob) got an apartment in

> lynchburg

> virginia and set off on an adventure (did i mention

> i'm to old to enjoy new adventures lol). he will be

> attending liberty university to get his masters

> degree

> in divinity and religious studies and hopefully will

> find a job this week that offers medical insurance.

> if you are the praying type we can use all we can

> get

> we haven't had a paycheck in 2 months and are

> getting

> close to the bottom of the barrell here. i was

> taking

> remicade i.v's every 6 weeks and it helped my

> writsts

> but did not help my knees and i take methotrexate

> (sp)

> every week (still have 2 months worth too yeah!!!)

> one

> of the things that really helped my hands was

> changing

> my anti depressent to cymbalta which they have had

> lots of luck with neropathy (sp?) in diabeties

> patients. anyway i think it increases the blood

> flow

> to the feet and hands or something like that. but i

> haven't had better success with that in my hands

> than

> the remicaide. also have fibromyalgia flares from

> time

> to time but lately haven't been to bad. it broke my

> heart to leave my mom, brother and 17 year old

> step-daughter behind. the daughter had been living

> with us for the last three years but she is a senior

> so had to move in with her mother. i also have a 31

> year old son, daughter-in-law and 3 beautiful

> grandsons in utah. a 21 year old stepdaughter and a

> 19 year old stepson who has been a marine for about

> 6

> months. other than my loved ones i don't know how i

> would do this without the companionship and love of

> my

> pooches. they always love me and are great company.

>

> since i'm new tell me a little about you too. it's

> such a joy to have people who understand and don't

> think i'm just lazy and full of it for sympathy. if

> they haven't had the pain they can not even conceive

> of how overwhelming and defeating it feels to want

> to

> get up and do something because there is nothing

> wrong

> with my mind and not be able to.

> then of course there is the weight since i'm pretty

> immobile my weight is heavy so there are those that

> say if you would just lose some weight you wouldn't

> hurt anymore. yeah right i'm sure my hands and

> wrists

> hurt because of my weight. okay i'll get off my

> soap

> box before you all fall asleep. just know i'm happy

> to have all of you.

>

>

> __________________________________________________

>