CindyFrench-stranger than fiction stories

about facing life with hope and confidence, no matter the diagnosis

Archive for the category “rheumatoid arthritis”

21 Jan 2012

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Posted in 4 spritual laws, Apostle Paul's Missionary Journeys, christian, chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis and tagged , , , , | Enter your password to view comments.
07 Jan 2012
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A Breakthrough

I thought I had all of the answers the last time I wrote. Oh, how wrong I was on that one! I thought we had understood and really comprehended what I have, what I need to do, the consequences when I don’t–but as I began to read about immunoglobulin disorder, I’ve found it’s not so simple-especially mine, since it is genetic. The one light hope is that a friend of mine is in the business and has great reassured me about the safety of the infusions, because to get one small little infection would be a catastrophe for me. My numbers in that particular area are so low, that I truly have no immunity and I have no stamina. I also can no longer be on Remicaid, the only thing keeping the RA pain under control so I am back to Vicodin of course you really can’t take it as often as you need to because you have to work. I also found out that Vitamin D has to do with your immunity and I don’t make it either! I wish I had had my docs really conferring together two years ago-might have avoided some of last year, but I know there were lessons that God wanted me to learn through everything. 

I have to admit to being a little overwhelmed this week. I’ve been trying to do what the doc said, trying to work, trying to be a wife.. I know that’s what they’ll tell me on Monday anyway.Each morning Dennis and I have prayed for wisdom and guidance, for strength and healing for me and I would just do what I had to do. Work through my day. Get it done. But today as I was driving home from a couple of errands, I started to pray as I passed a couple of churches and then the sun broke through the clouds. It was beautiful and the Lord began to tell me again that I could do all things through Him. That He knew that pain and would bear it for me. He reminded me that nothing touches me that hasn’t been filtered through the Father. I told him I was glad they had such confidence in me, but that I am not that sure of me at all. That’s when Jesus reminded me that he carries me when things get to be too much for me.

SO FINALLY, all of a sudden, I felt this release and I could then say thank you  for my circumstances, whatever they may be, because I know that when the Lord takes me places, He puts me with people that need to hear about Jesus.  Then I began to pray for those people that the Lord is going to bring to me. That He will be calling to them, preparing their hearts and minds for the Good News.

Posted in Christianity, rheumatoid arthritis, surviving major health issues, systemic diseases, Uncategorized
01 Jan 2012
2 Comments

More Reflections Isaiah 55:6-8 and Romans 8:37-39

As I read the notes from many blogs that come my way, one overwhelming theme is there for all of us. We don’t have to know  the future, because we know the One who holds it. After the year that 2011 has been what sane person is not ” seeking the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked (anyone who is not perfect) forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways, declares the Lord.”       They are higher and deeper than anything we can imagine about us. What  I am/have discovered this year is this incredible love of God the Father for me–as He has told me over and over how He loves me and then as we began to talk together what I should do, not do, how I wasn’t trusting Him (I am now) And as I face the uncertainty of 2012 as far as my health is concerned–I know without a doubt that HE has a purpose in this new, added on systemic disease too. At the least, it forced me to go to a new doctor who was able to tell me exactly how sick I really am. For that I am truly grateful. I was headed down the dead man walking path and somehow, I do think God still has things for me to do and people to talk to.  But please pray for me that there is something that can be done for the RA pain. To move around is terrible! I feel like an old woman.

I close with one of my favorite passages: …in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Come quickly Lord Jesus!

Posted in asthma, Christianity, chronic fatigue, life stories, Religion, rheumatoid arthritis and tagged , , , , , ,
04 Dec 2011
5 Comments

FINALLY, AN ANSWER! –OF COURSE, NOT THE ONE I WANTED

I had an endoscopy this last week. It was to check my reflux-in fact to put a little camera in to measure things for 48 hours. We also did it to make sure I hadn’t grown any new polyps this year. Last year, there were 11 of them between my esophagus and stomach.

We ALL got the surprise of our lives to see that I had a fungus ( candidas) growing out of control covering my esophagus all the way down to my stomach. When it is in the esophagus like that they call it, esophagitis. Traditional treatment is Nystatin. It doesn’t work.  I came home and promptly googled everything about the bacteria/fungus. Although it is a natural bacteria residing in the body, when it gets out of wack, it is very dangerous and can make a person very sick. This I know for sure. I believe, based on my reading that I have systemic candidas. Everything that has gone wrong with me this year can be traced back to it. Even the smell of the “bug” as I called it. I could smell it. I kept describing as a sickly sweet smell-yes, yeast! And candidas affects ears, the mouth, intestinal gas, bladder and kidney infections, asthma, RA–does any of this sound familiar? It’s amazing that when it gets in your intestines, it can release 70 different toxins. And of course no culture ever came back positive. Candida is natural to the body!

So I have a plan of action! I am not going to succumb to this! Now that I have a name to pray against and lock up, I will. When I see my pulmonologist next week, I will ask for a bronchosopy. It stands to reason that if its on my esophagus, its on my trachea, in my bronchii, maybe even my lungs–which would explain all the horrendous attacks…yet again why there was no culture. I have also researched a supplement that I have been told about that should really impact this problem-called Protamdin. I have a printout on it and am taking it to the doctor too. Finally all the websites suggested a complete nutritional change-perhaps something as radical as gluten free. I will work with a nutritionist on that. Those are the actions I can take. But mostly I am going to the throne room of my Lord God. I am going to ask for healing of this scourge. Again, now that we know the name, we can pray against it and bind it in Jesus Christ’s name.

I certainly believe it is worse because of my witness. I am out front and center in Linkedin now-this blog address is listed. My beliefs are listed. And when replying to any discussion, it is always whatever God tells me to write. But greater is He that is within me than he that is in the world.

 

Posted in asthma, christian, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal reflux disease, life stories, Prayer, rheumatoid arthritis, Spirituality, surviving major health issues and tagged , , , , , ,
07 Jun 2011
1 Comment

A New Nodule To Get Over

It’s been a month since that scary asthma attack in May, but I have had a laryngitis voice ever since. Too long, I thought, so to protect those precious cords that don’t work right anyway, I scheduled an appt with my Voice/ENT. I thought maybe I had a virus, but no, of course not, it’s a rheumatoid nodule on the cord, the most fragile cord, my left one.  I was surprised, but why? I think God is just taking my body through the medical journals and hitting on all the hot spots. This way I understand how anyone I meet truly feels cause I’ve been there. So now, between the RA making the asthma flare and it putting a nodule on my vocal cord, I think I might have to take this disease more seriously! I have been so fortunate to have found Remicade a drug that really takes care of my pain, so that I forget I have RA. But apparently my body hasn’t forgotten and the inflammatory kind that I have is doing a number on me internally where I can’t see it-but the blood tests show it and now the nodule does. So where do I go for my comfort in this “one more thing”? Back to my Lord Jesus, for has He not suffered more than I and yet He gave it all for me.

He will be my road map. He is the WAY. I can’t worry about tomorrow or the next day, but this day that He has given me to live and to bear witness. So I have a voice of sorts but so much better than the time of no voice at all.  I have much to be thankful for.

Posted in asthma, christian, rheumatoid arthritis and tagged , , ,
29 May 2011
1 Comment

My Latest Lesson-Freedom From Fear of Dying Of An Asthma Attack

On May 5th,  I woke up around 2:00 am, couldn’t  breathe well, and so did my nebulizer breathing treatments. Unfortunately,  that didn’t help at all, so after a few minutes of trying breathing exercises, I got my husband up to take me to the hospital.  FIRST MISTAKE! We should have called 911. We hurriedly put clothes on and he took off for the new hospital (SECOND MISTAKE) close to us. In the car, I began to have a more and more difficult time getting any air at all, but eventually we got there and they took me back immediately.  This is when the trouble really starts though.  I got oxygen immediately and a nurse started trying to get an IV into my arm. I am sucking air by now and pretty panicked. I had prayed on the way “Lord, if this is my time, be with me. If it is not, let me be a good witness”.  I knew my husband was over with the Doctor talking about why I didn’t want to be intubated; I could hear the alarms going off over and over and everyone seeming to either not know what to do or not be able to do it. Then, all of a sudden, I was back in the corner, watching what was going on in the room. I saw me sucking air, and the nurse sticking me for the 6th time, my husband having left the doctor telling the nurse on my right side, thanks, because she had gotten an IV started on her first try in that arm. And then I heard my Father’s voice next to me saying, ” see Cindy? I am here with you. I will always be with you. There is nothing to be afraid of-whether it’s time to go night or just get through the attack, I will be right here with you. And He was right! I was completely at peace where I was with him. I know my Father would never lie to me, and I nodded and then suddenly I was right back in it-sucking air, but now, no panic. I think my hospital records would confirm this too. And there was no intubation, they used a bipap machine on high to force air through my nose into my lungs.

No one knew it then, but my rheumatoid Arthritis had flared and super inflamed all of the  lungs and I couldn’t get air in or out. I’m sure there is a more technical explanation, but that’s the simple one according to the blood tests. I didn’t react quickly enough, because it didn’t act like my normal bronco spasm asthma–which is a lot of coughing before I shut down. Very weird. I was in ICU for a day, once I was stable and then they moved me to a room. I was there until the 10th. When the pulmonologist (hospital) came in, I told him, I was still very congested and really didn’t feel well enough to go home, but he insisted.  I was not to talk on the phone, run around, work, do much of anything. I agreed and went home. To sleep, I have to be inclined about 45 degrees so I am on a lot of pillows.

We say my pulmonologist the next day and boy, did I get a lecture about waiting to go to the hospital! I relayed my experience and promised I would not be going back to the new hospital for any kind of asthma related emergency treatment. It’s just as well that I go to the main hospital. All my records are there. My doctors who know me are there and someone is always available 24/7  for an emergency like I experienced the night of May 5th. So I promised to really pay attention as to the future asthma issues, she listened to me. Told me I sounded ok, improving, and we went home.

I still kept to the light work schedule as I really wasn’t well yet–my voice definitely was strained. I did my breathing treatments and took my prednisone, but when I tried to lay down to sleep that Friday night, I had so much pressure and congestion that I couldn’t get comfortable. While I wasn’t in deep trouble with my breathing, I had promised to come with ANY problem with the breathing. So I said, ” I don’t feel very well”. That was all it took for my husband. He said, “ put your jeans on, we are going to the hospital”. I really didn’t want to go. I just wanted him to listen to me breathing, but he had had enough the last time, so off we went. We forgot about Friday nights at the ER! Because I was coming in before I was not breathing and gasping, they let me sit there a couple of hours, so that by the time they took me back, I was in distress–notice, I said distress. I did have major congestion again. No air coming in or out-they couldn’t hear anything moving. But I never panicked. I got the different things I needed–oxygen, solu-medrol-, they did a blood gas–ooh that hurt, ok, but still can’t hear any air moving. I simply can not take a deep breath either. So about 5Am, they decide to keep me. At that point, I sent my husband home and told him to go to bed and not come back that day. That visit was 5 days too!

Posted in 4 spritual laws, asthma, christian, life stories, rheumatoid arthritis and tagged , , ,
02 Jan 2011
2 Comments

Another New Year!

Survival, that’s what 2010 was about. That and hopefully starting a turnaround. Not just in business, but in life and all it touches. I will be 60 this year in June! I hope to celebrate with my sisters in St Simon. I hear all the time that your years are just a number and you are only as old as you feel, but I know that a certain amount of my energy, my will is gone. Sucked out of me by the stroke or the continuing health issues? Whatever it is, I can honestly say I will never be just what I once was. But then I look at that person and I am not sure I would want to go back to her either! Business ruled just about my every thought and was impossible to “turn off”. My corporate standings were always on my mind. Money wasn’t an issue (gee, that was nice) but again at what real cost of my spirit?

After 12 years of haphazard half done Bible studies, I have spent the last 5 years committed to formal study and what a change it is affecting! Continuous changes in me and hopefully my thoughts, behavior, work ethic, treatment of others sometimes surprise me and fill me with hope that God can and is working through me. One of my study passages in Isaiah 30: 20-21 “Althought the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more…Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, this is the way, walk in it.”  Surely this is God reassuring me of the last 2 very hard years, yet his promise for leading for my future. Happy New Year!

Posted in christian, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, life stories, rheumatoid arthritis and tagged , , , ,
18 Jul 2010

It’s Always Something

I got my cataracts taken care of and said great! No more to fix on me, surely not! It was almost as if someone heard that, because in these last few weeks, my right knee started hurting. At first it was just a nuisance, but then it started screaming at me when I got up from sitting or stooping. Finally it became painful to push on the accelerator on the car. I thought it my be my RA,  it was time for my med infusions. It did seem to get a little better after the first one and then came screaming back.  I iced it of and on-that helped a little bit, but the more active I was the more I hurt.

In the middle of this time, my sister Marilou and I had planned a trip to Atlanta to be there for our nephew’s first birthday party and to meet his brother, just 2 weeks old. What a great time it was, seeing everyone! My brother, his wife, his son and his wife came so I had the 3 of us sibs together, along with my 2 kids, son-in-law and 3 grandchildren. Like my dearly departed Dad, I was in heaven having some of the family together!

I had to keep icing my knee during all this and then noticed that my feet and ankles were swollen like little sausages too. So Monday afternoon, I sat in the Doctors’s office while she wrote me a RX for an MRI and some lasix for the swelling.  I was very fortunate to get right in for the MRI.

I was devastated when they faxed me a copy of the diagnosis to find that my inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis was now a destroying bone in my knee under the kneecap. No wonder I hurt so much! So I had my self a little pity party that day. Cried and complained to the Lord, my God for my circumstances and the body he had given me. Did you think I never cried? That I am always strong? Not so!! This does get very old and is really beginning to be my identity-not something I want at all.

Posted in chronic pain, life stories, rheumatoid arthritis, surviving major health issues and tagged , , | Leave a Comment
04 Apr 2010
1 Comment

New Fish and Salsa Recipe

My anti-inflamatory diet has a lot of fish and seafood as ingredients. I needed to find something more interesting for Tilapia than just sautéing it or oven baking it! Since fruit is also a large part of this diet, I decided to put the two together! To do that, I looked through lot’s of fruit and fish/fruit salsa recipes and decided to combine and add as I had. Hope you enjoy!

1-to 1 /2 lbs of Tilapia

salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste over the fish

Place fish in pan lined with foil. Make the salsa:

1/3 chopped papaya

1 chopped mango

1/2 of banana pepper, seeded and diced

1/3 of small red onion diced or 1/4 if you don’t like a lot of raw onion

1/4 of small hot pepper (any kind) minus seeds and diced, again to taste

pineapple chunks-maybe a 1/4 cup

watermelon chunks-maybe a 1/4 cup

cilantro, just a few finely chopped leaves

juice of one lemon/strained

juice of one lime/strained

Mix all together and then pour over fish. Cover tightly with second layer of foil and cook 20 min @ 400 degrees.

I have also tried this salsa as a side dish with fish-so raw, not cooked. It is awesome! I have upped the amounts so that I make more at a time. It keeps well in the fridge, so if you have fish twice a wk, you’ve got it made already! It seems to get better with age.

This is great with brown rice made with either vegetable or chicken stock instead of water and whatever greens you’d like to serve.

 Read my blog at CindyFrenchblog and find out why I need this diet and how eating right helps!

Posted in rheumatoid arthritis, Uncategorized and tagged ,
04 Mar 2010

Anointing and Prayer

I guess it’s a terrible thing when we seem to go to God last for healing. I know I have certainly exhausted the circle of doctors, medical centers and the internet for help, treatment and information. I have prayed all along as have so many others been praying for me too, that I know we weren’t ignoring God or His Great Physician role, but I wasn’t exactly embracing it either.
So, today we got serious and with my pastors around me, they prayed specifically for my healing while anointing me with oil as it says to do in James 5:13-15 “Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master (Jesus Christ). Believing prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven-healed inside and out.” [The Message version]

We talked of how Jesus has used my infirmities of which there are so many-to connect with others suffering the same thing. I had just been praying to be stronger, thinking I could do more if I were stronger, but Pastor Craig pointed out that when I am weak, Jesus is strong! How could I ever forget that? Yet that wasn’t my focus-yes it was on me and how I felt. I am very tired of pain and nausea and very tired of being so tired! Sometimes I have to sleep most of a day just to keep up! I have certainly wondered to what purpose that was! However, I must acknowledge that when I have to take the time to sleep, God always seems to make up the time for me. Even today, working out of bed on my laptop and cell phone, I accomplished more than some days when I am in my office all day on the phone. So yes, I am blessed and humbled by His care for me even in the details.

I do know that God heals miraculously. He has healed me before as that was to His purpose. I hope it is again.

Posted in brain tumor, christian, chronic fatigue, Creativity, life stories, rheumatoid arthritis, surviving major health issues and tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

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