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In February of this year I started to feel - well - not so well. In hindsight, I'd felt this way for at least a year, but a minor accident, and an injury and suddenly I couldn't move.
I had committed to doing 200 Minutes of Cardio a week at the beginning of the year. I have the advantage of working for a business that has a gym on site. I was doing great. My minor accident happend on February 7th. Over the course of the next few weeks my body started shutting down, but I figured - eh? I just turned 36. I'm getting old. Deal with it! :rofl:
February 26th I was at the gym on a water propelled bike. I could tear it up! But that night, 8 minutes in I thought I was going to die from exhaustion. I got off of that machine and decided to do the cross-elliptical. This is a machine I could do at level 36 off the bat if I was well warmed up. I got on - cranked up to 36 in about 5 minutes - and then had to crank down to level 10. About 11 minutes in my body just shut down. Still not sure how I got home . . .
Over the course of the next week I began to lose mobility. I had an annual physical scheduled for the first Friday in March. My physician is all about the natural, healthy eating, exercise, and treating the whole person. She couldn't believe I was the same person she had treated for 3 years. Let's put it this way - I'm a former ballet dancer. I've measured my fitness in my flexibility. That day - I was upset I had to take my shoes off to get on the schedule - because just TYING my sneakers was a struggle. Forget bending over. Blood was taken, tests were done, and nothing. I get referred to an Oncologist/Hematologist and a Rhuematologist.
I go to see the R.A. doctor on a Thursday. He does an hour consultation, the bending, looks at my hands, looks at the high white blood cell count, slight R.A. factor and sends me with a few blood test requests on my way. As I'm about to walk out the door of the office - he cmes charging out of the office and says wait! I want one more thing. It's a long shot. Very long. But I'd be remiss if I didn't test for it.
I go to see the Oncologist/Hematologist the next day. He hasn't seen these symptoms in a woman before. We meet for about an hour - and he says - NO WAY! We are getting to the root of this. I give 17 vials of blood - yes - SEVENTEEN - including the few tests from the R.A. physician in one afternoon.
It takes two weeks to get all of the results back. I go BACK to the R.A. who says, "Remember when I said wait? There's another test?" Turns out he was testing for the HLA-B27 Gene which is normally present in people who have Ankylosing Spondylitis. This is a type of R.A. that attacks your spine. You can imagine the exttreme pain I lived with for several months.
With the help of a stellar physician who is at the top of his field, researching nutrition, HEALTH INSURANCE, and a little drug enbrel (took my sixth dose this morning - once weekly shot) - I'm getting back to good. Fortunately I make a decent salary and could pay the co-pays. Because at the end of the day - women - women who are half black - are NOT supposed to get this disease. The population in the US is small - so it is globally. But it takes one doctor doing his job, without interference from a Health Insurance company, treating his patient one on one - to get answers. With answers to obscure conditions/diseases comes treatment.
But imagine the pain. Imagine I don't make six figures a year. Imagine I live in NJ, a single woman, making 50K a year withOUT health insurance. She can't stand walking in crowds because if you LIGHTLY touch her skin while in flair it will be painful.
She can't hold her toothbrush in one hand.
She can't carry a bag of groceries from her car, up two flights of stairs and into her apartment.
Forget buttons and zippers - in the morning you cannot manage them.
She gets up at 4:30 in the morning.
It takes her 15 minutes to half an hour to physically be able to stand up and get out of bed.
She runs her hands under hot water in the kitchen sink for half an hour.
Then the baths start. Two to three hot tubs. Remember - she has to limber up her spine so she can put her underwear on.
At 7:00 she's ready to start getting dressed. This can take 15-20 minutes.
Forget your contact lenses, make up, etc. etc. you do not have the manual dexterity.
You wash off an apple - you can barely hold it but you know you have to eat.
Your car is park 50 feet away. But it takes about 5 minutes to get there.
You drive to work pulling out at 8:00 a.m. - if you held to your schedule.
My passion is not get sympathy and tea. Oh no! I don't want that. What I want is for you to all imagine how much pain I was in - and then realize why JustAnotherGen went silent for awhile (she could barely type) this past winter/spring.
Now I want you to imagine that woman out there that is suffering from this but can't afford the testing, the doctors visits, the basic stuff she needs to get better - Including an ALL organic diet, fresh foods, raw veggies, soy milk, etc. etc.
I'm thinking about her - or him. I'm thinking about a DU member in North Carolina who reached out to me on PM who is SUFFERING. She's been sick! Think about our fathers who suffer from strokes, our mothers who survive breast cancer.
This is the time for those of us who DO have to stand up for those who DON'T have. And I'm smart enough to know - that at any given time GIGNA could drop me. At any given time.
We stand on a precipice between haves and have nots. If it's only money or a ride that keeps you from going to a march - reach out! To me! To another DU member. But please - aside from my caring for other HUMAN BEINGS - it's time we stood up loudly and say: We DON'T WANT TO BE AN AMERICAN WHERE EVERY HUMAN BEING AND THEIR WELL BEING IS NOT VALUED!!!!
No more. Do it for yourself, your loved one, your friends, the anonymous person who struggles, for Hillary Clinton, for Harry Truman but for all things good in this world - let's do it!
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