Just can't let me be...

I am so happy to have had what turned out to be a very life altering surgery this past fall. My life is so much better for it! So nice not to have to battle with Ulcerative Colitis after 20 years...

But as you might now, I have several auto immune diseases. The main one being lupus (SLE). Lupus is simply put a disease that attacks your own immune system. Due to the lupus I have had inflammation in many, many places all over my body. To name a few, my thyroid, my joints (all over), a nerve in my left foot, in blood vessels in my legs, in the lining of my bladder (this is now chronic), in my eyes, in my mouth, in my nose, on my cervix, in the lining around my lungs, in the nerves in my face, in my salivary glands, in my skin, etc etc.

I still feel pretty lucky, it could be a lot worse. Lupus is usually only fatal when you get inflammation in your brain, or when the kidneys are severely involved. I am hoping that never happen! They don't know what causes lupus, but I have my theories. After all, we humans are still wired to live lives much simpler than what we do. Our immune systems are not meant to handle the bombardment of different chemicals, handling all the processed food that we eat, or withstand all the outside pollutants that our modern lives actually produces. Maybe some people's just have a genetic defect that makes them extra sensitive. But just look at the huge amount of auto immune disease all over the world! I can't imagine these diseases were this abundant 500 years ago, even 100 years ago. Asthma and allergies are two that immediately come to mind.

Anyway. I have it. There is no cure, I have to live with it. I have been keeping mental notes of anything out of the ordinary going on with my body since my surgery. After all, I am not taking any medicine (except my thyroid meds which I have to take every day). I used to be on all kinds of different immune suppressants, and when it was really bad, the dreaded prednisone. My body has been clean now for a while. Unfortunately I have noticed the lupus stirring a bit the last few weeks. It is all joint pain, started out in the hands, then the feet, yesterday my knees were killing me. It seems to be mostly a morning and night problem, but it is no fun feeling like a 90 year old.
At my last visit in December at my excellent rheumatologist's office I told him I want to hold off as long as possible before going back on any kind of medicines. I want my body to be able to reset itself after the life changing surgery, so I can get a true idea of what is going on. So I will wait until June and see how the situation is then.

It just saddens me a bit that this resurgence of joint pain is taking away from the high I am on now, the joy of being healthy. If you are a regular, healthy person you probably take everyday health for granted. Don't. It is a very precious thing!