Year: 2017

On becoming the bionic woman

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I wonder how many of us are walking around with replacement parts. Joint replacement has become common and it is successful surgery. I have several friends who have both knees replaced or both hips replaced and they are fine with it. And now, I am about ready to embark on my first joint replacement. My left hip will be first on the chopping block. This is a bad visualization. I am trying hard not to think about what the surgeon will be doing. It is scary and gruesome. A Frankenstein thing. Instead, I am focusing on the bionic woman thought. I will be in much better condition once I complete the rehab process. I will have a fabulous new joint. Won’t I be lucky? I will. I have spent the summer in extreme pain. My doc had a tough time identifying my hip issue. After all, my hip had good range of motion without pain. An MRI revealed my hip deteriorating badly plus a bad labral tear with pieces loose in the joint. My pain …

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The Gut RA Connection

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By now  most of us know  that our intestinal system is home to trillions of  bacteria busy doing their job populating their ecosystem in the lining of out intestines. Collectively they are called the gut microbiome or gut flora. The beneficial bacteria in the gut have names that we see on the list of ingredients in a good yogurt such as  lactobacillus acidophilus. These bacteria help maintain a consistent environment, protect the body from foreign invaders, communicate with the immune system and the brain. The gut microbiome is complex and gut imbalances have been implicated in the development of RA as in other inflammatory diseases.  “Larger-than-normal populations of  specific gut bacteria may trigger the development of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and possibly fuel disease progression in people genetically predisposed to this crippling and confounding condition,” according to Mayo Clinic Researchers. An imbalance in the gut microbiome coupled with a genetic predisposition to RA may be the initiating factor in the RA disease process. There is a lot of research being done. Using probiotics  medically as …

Real Life and RA

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Having a debilitating, chronic disease makes me much more aware of others who struggle to have a normal life with a chronic disease. For those who have RA,  pain is a central issue. The exhaustion that comes with inflammation is also the issue. Life becomes a daily struggle for those who wake up in pain, and who need to make that pain manageable so they can carry on with their daily duties of children and/or work.  Depression is common among those with RA. Easy to see why. I am not easily depressed. I can see too many of the little pleasures of life that make it worth the downside. But there are moments when the struggle to put pain in its place becomes just too much to live with. That is a big, clear signal for a time out. I can have a time out and so can many who have family to take the children or have a job where hours are flexible. But there are many who are  scraping by so need to …