Hi All
I am 51 years old and was diagnosed with RA at 32 after the birth of my second child. It started with a pain in my hip and quickly spread to most other parts of my body. When I was diagnosed I felt as if myworld had collapsed I had a 5 year old and a new baby and the doctors wanted me to give up breast feeding and go on o cocktail of drugs. I persevered however and just took large doses of Ibuprofen. My right wrist became damaged and deformed (slightly enlarged). After lots of research I bought a book by Margaret Hills and tried the Cider Vinegar cure, sticking to it religiously after about 6 months my RA improved beyond recognition to the point where although my wrist hurt from damage it was not really any bothe in other joints.

Like most things whenyou feel better you stop, but I remained OK for about the next 15 years. Then In started to get pains in my feet and my left wrist started to swell, my neck permanently aching although the xray said there was no damage to my neck. I've had steroid injections in both wrists and my right foot and these did help in initially.

I was stable and reasonably ok and we decided to move to Spain....we sold our house and as we already have an apartment here decided to live here for a year to see how we felt. This was incredibely stessful even though it was something I had wanted to do for years, physically I found it hard and know I overused my joints when I shouldn't of. My husband is commuting in the short term coming over every 12 days for 5 days, this is hard too.

I have been here 6 weeks and in the last 3 weeks have been in agony, I dont know what to do with myself, both wrists, both feet right knee neck both shoulders and now the pain is running down the left side of my back.

I am not on any prescribed medication but think the time has come for me to try something I need some quality of life back...oh yes I am also peri menopausal which I know is not helping..

Any help, suggestions, support anyone can give me would be great as I am feeling very alone and very sad.

Barbara


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