Do You Have a Good Grip On Life?

It’s inevitable to go through life without faults or problems; we are not without them no matter our status or belief that we are faultless, error or problem free. It’s how we handle them that divide us from others and the outcome of our decisions that lets us know if we have a good grip or a weak grip on our life.

“Awareness of our weaknesses makes the difference in which we are.”

It helps us to realize that we may need to apply more pressure in order to prevent a fall or to maybe lean gracefully to one side or the other etc…. I know this because; I have had lots of falls in my life. Ha Ha!! I can be extremely clumsy. In fact, I know "Murphy's Law" really well…just like most girls do. My friends have bought me sippy cups to drink out of, made up nick names like “Messy Marvin" and family members have made jokes and wise cracks. But the sad part is some of the accidents are out of my control. On several occasions, due to my illness, and I’m sure other’s with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) can agree with me on this particular subject, I have fallen, dropped spilled and broke things without any control due to fatigue, unforeseen muscle spasms, crippling and freezing of body parts. Because you can’t visually see the deforming in my fingers or body parts, with the type of arthritis I have which is non-deforming to the joints, as you would someone with RA, people just assume you are fine and normal. It’s incredibly frustrating for people to think you’re not paying attention or just being a ditz. I don’t know how many times I have been made fun of. But as I said, it’s how you handle it. Sometimes, I’m less sensitive and able to just laugh it off and other times it really hurts my feelings. Two Friday’s ago, I was having coffee with my mom and I was trying to hold the coffee cup the same way she was “Thumb and first finger” and I almost dropped a very nice coffee cup, which was part of my china she gave to me as a Christmas gift. My hand totally crippled or froze up. I couldn't get it to function properly..damn that hand. I was trying to put the coffee cup back on the saucer and I had to take my left hand to sit the coffee cup back into place, so I wouldnt break the cup. I shouldn't have tried this at all because I know better; I know I have to couple it instead of trying to be pretty. My mom never even noticed what was happening and the event propelled a funny story about my late father and my husband that is so funny and I would love to share it with you.

When I was younger my clumsiness was much, much worse because I was unaware of what was happening and didn’t know I needed to take precautionary measures to prevent these accident spells, such as holding things a particular way. I remember going to the cabinets to get a plate and my wrist feeling like I broke it and my fingers feeling so stiff I had no flexibility at all. So needless to say I broke lots of plates, glass wear, good dishes and I almost fell down the stairs at the altar after saying “I do.” I believe that was pure clumsiness due to nervousness. Ha Ha!!

Before Mike and I took the leap of faith, or should I say, before I took the fall of faith, my father told Mike he needed to have a serious conversation with him before he decided to marry me. Mike was extremely apprehensive about what he was about to learn but he sat and listened to what my father had to tell him. With a serious look in his eye, his red hair pasted back to one side, and a scowled brow, my father said “Son there is something you must know about my daughter, something that is very important to the safety and financial well-being of your future with her.” Mike feeling a lump in his throat and probably one in his stomach swallows hard and prepares for what my father was about to tell him:

“Do NOT buy glass or anything breakable for your kitchen or house, you need to go to the Army Navy store to buy for your home “Plastics” everything needs to be Plastic” in your home. Do not buy any expensive dishes, she will break all of them.” Ha Ha!!

Eleanor Roosevelt - "No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent."

Now Playing Clumsy Fergie

The Colors of Life

I took this photo on the side of the road...there was a fire and I had to capture it. I love it, it's one of my favorites! I changed the settings on Picasa to enhance the color. If you click on the image to make larger you will see through the fire, in the middle of the two green trees, "A Bridge." I Love the elusive finding, isn't that what life is about.. finding the bridge through the fire? Enjoy!

INSIGHT TO LIFE'S BEAUTY

STRUGGLES AND CHALLENGES ARE SIGNS OF STRENGTH IN LIFE. OUR EYES MAY NOT BE AS ACCEPTING TO THEES MISFORTUNES AND FAULTS. BUT EVENTS TRIGGER THE MIND TO REFLECT, REVEALING A VIVIDLY GENUINE INSIGHT. PERMEATING WISDOM, WHICH PROMPTS GROWTH, BEAUTY, HAPPINESS AND WELL-BEING. WHERE EVEN THE MOST TARNISHED YEAR SPARKLED ITS BEAUTY.

Written by Jenece Austin

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What Road to Take

I took this pict in New Orleans while riding in the car.

Drive

If all of our blood vessels both large and small were stretched out like a road they would make up 60,000 thousand miles of driving.

This helps explain why treatments take so long to work sometimes and why it’s difficult to control a disease like Behcet’s that affects the small blood vessels. The treatments have to travel a long way in order to cover every inch and area of the body. So the possibility of running out of gas is highly likely. But what if there’s something else my rhematologist is missing with this particular disease, what if they have turned down the wrong road?

One day my rhematologist explained to me that the treatments are like a dam in our body to hold back inflammation from flowing into the body. The key word here is INFLAMMATION. If he can control 80% of the inflammation from getting into my body it could help to eventually put this disease into remission…so he thinks! This is a great analogue in explaining what he is trying to accomplish with the treatments I’m getting and how a connective tissue disease works on the inside of the body but just not sure it could be the right one for me.

My thoughts about this are, what if it’s not all inflammation controlling this particular disease and that’s why it's difficult to control? What if it’s another variable that they need to control in order to put this disease away and the inflammation is only one road to getting to the end but we've missed a couple of roads prior?

Because they don’t know what fuels this disease, it’s very difficult to know what could put the disease out. Of course many illnesses such as cancer, viruses and inflammatory processes, happen on the B-cell. If you view the B-cell as one of the 60,000 thousand miles of blood vessels you then get the picture of why it’s difficult to know what road to turn down.

Good news is, we are now traveling on the B-cell road. But there are no guarantees that this is the right key to start the car, the right avenue to turn down or enough gas to make the journey.

When they pulled blood work to check for antibodies (my stamina) against my new Rituxan treatment, they did an Inmmunoglobulins blood test. Immunoglobuins have many small avenues inside this particular cell; IGA, IGM, IGG, IGE and IGD. My antibodies IGM were highly overactive, this is one of the biggest antibody cells. So by treating this particular cell, maybe we can make-up that mileage we lost going down a different road. Once on the right road we could possibly shut down the overactive highway, so that we can pass and put the car in neutral/idle in hopes that we can shift one more gear forward to park and remain there indefinitely. My rheumatologist has his work cut-out in finding how much of the gas (medicine) my body needs to make the journey, but since we now have this marker it could be a good landmark for his direction.

Now Playing - Shut-up and Drive

Searching

Behcet's

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Get Some Rest

Padre Island, Texas

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When I was around 10 years old, I would have trouble going to sleep at night my legs would ache and hurt so bad I could not get any rest. To resolve this as a child, I used an instinctive approach by rolling over onto my stomach and kicking and bouncing my leg against the bed eventually this would help me to fall asleep.

Now I use a heating pad to help relieve pain but it’s only localized to that particular area and lacks movement. Another alternative, I've used several times, is a good portable folding massage cushion that you can buy for about $25.00-$100 dollars . This may be an option to people who have RLS. It works great just roll it out onto your bed like the heating pad and it works from the bottom of your neck down to the base of your thigh. It doesn't just heat it vibrates your whole body.

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The Buzz on Pollen

My Third Cousin’s Bee Farm in W. Virginia

Pollen and Allergies

Allergies are a pain in the eyes, ears and nose and sometimes the lungs. They can turn into more serious conditions and aggravate existing ones if left untreated, such as Asthma an inflammatory condition to the lungs.

Pollen is a powder that consist of microgametophytes (pollen grains). The bees extract this from many different flowers and convert it into honey.

There are other options besides taking over-the-counter or prescribed pills in treating your allergies. Or just being pro-active about your health is a great reason to try the following:

Ingesting Hometown Honey

My mother’s cousin in W. Virginia owns a bee farm and if you ingest honey or wax from your local bees, it helps with the allergies. You can probably buy this at your local Farmer’s Market. Just make sure it’s from the area you live in.

How she extracted the honey for us was quite fascinating. It’s really a strange process. They look like little cabinets and framed drawers each one sectioned off.

Adding honey to your tea or coffee could make life that much sweeter!

Now Playing Mariah Carey - Honey

Now Playing The Bee Movie

Now Playing Faith - Just Breathe

Fatigue Causes Focusing Problems

Turtle Power

Fatigue is one of the main symptoms of chronic and acute sickness. Not only do you have other things going on to distract your brain besides the pain, but you may not have had enough sleep the night before because of the pain your body was in. Your brain is suffering chronic pain that doesn't stop. It's a compacted, exhausting experience!

Vitamin B-12 - A great source to help boost your energy level. There is a tricky secret that you may not know about, I would like to share with you. Pay close attention to the labels because they offer different micrograms (mcg) and millograms(mg).

It goes all the way up to the 2000 mcg which only equals two milograms, it sounds like a lot but it doesn't convert to much. I had been taking the B-12-200mcg, which is only .2 milograms . It's just not enough when you're struggling with a chronic illness where inflammation and pain zap it right out of you.

Don't de-shell yourself for not being that bright, witty, active elephant you may have been long ago or just yesterday. Sometimes the turtle wins the race by keeping at a steady pace. Modify and edit, don't space. You can make it to the end of the race, it could be your saving grace not having to place.

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