You‘ll suffer from overload-induced rheumatoid arthritis
until you understand it.You’ll suffer from overload-induced rheumatoid arthritis
until you understand yourself better.Understanding is done best in active doing:
in reflecting
in trying
in practising
in improving …It means more experience, more health, and more success.
… One day in the early summer of 1994, I woke to swollen fingers. The skin felt tense and itched. I was surprised because I couldn’t explain these swellings at that time, didn’t feel ill and wasn’t exposed to any unusual physical or mental stress. Altogether, I thought the puffiness would disappear by itself again.
During the next two weeks, I realised I wasn’t dealing with a mayfly. My fingers felt puffy and looked glassy when I woke in the morning. It then took between half an hour and one hour for them to detumesce, until, during the day, they would be almost entirely mobile again.
When I was exposed to cold (while shopping next to cold shelves or putting my hands in cold water), an unpleasant tingling sensation would appear in my fingers. It felt as if they had gone dead.
The swellings steadily worsened and persisted throughout the day, though not as pronounced as after waking. In the ordinary course of the day, the first obstructive movement restrictions came when I wanted to grab or hold something. From time to time, I felt a pulling and pulsing pain in my fingers and wrists.
The pain in my fingers and hands became increasingly intense. Additionally, I could feel the inflammatory heat in my joints very clearly.
Within days, swollen feet, which felt stiff after sleep or short rest periods during the day, added to the symptoms.
In June 1994, I had my first appointment with an internist rheumatologist. To protect my baby from the medication, I stopped breastfeeding him. After the anamnesis, the doctor ordered a laboratory test first.
The diagnosis was the onset of severe rheumatoid arthritis with an aggressive course.
I was asked if I was pregnant, and advised to under any circumstances avoid another pregnancy.
The treatment plan was designed to curb the progression of the disease with medication. The drugs’ selection and intensity would be adjusted to the current state of the disease. One and a half years after the administration of gold and methotrexate, an operation on the joints was supposed to take place. Because by that time, the doctor assured me, the inflammation would have destroyed the cartilage. For the moment, I was given painkillers, essential medication, and vitamin E.
I was concerned that the substances my medication contained would come with side effects that could end in the same or worse for my body than a possible non-treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. But when I asked about this potential issue, I got a little convincing, drawn-out “Noooo…” as an answer, with the hasty afterthought: “But be sure to stop by to determine your liver values regularly!”
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