This story is true

This story is absolutely true. Annie is one of my best friends. I have known her since she was 20 years old. We met when her then boyfriend brought Annie over to my apartment for dinner. She was a shy and a quiet woman, but I have a way of bringing people out of their shells. Soon we were chatting, and found out that I had worked with Annie’s mom years before at a clothing store. It was funny to remember that her mom, a single mom, always complained about her 4 children who were driving her crazy. Now, here I was face to face with one of her children. Small world.

Annie broke up with that boyfirend she was with that night, and I too went through a few boyfriends as the years went by until I met my husband. Annie and I stayed friends through all our romances, financial woes, and jobs. I even reacquainted myself with Annie’s mother, Mary Ann. By now, she and Annie and her other 3 children, now adults, were all getting along. Mary Ann had remarried for the 3rd time, and Annie liked her new stepfather. All was going well until Annie met Charlie.

Annie meets Charlie

Annie was tending bar at a local pub and going to college when Charlie sat in a stool in front of her. Charlie was about 10 years older, married with 2 children, and a well-established contractor in the area. He flirted and swept Annie off her feet. He told her that he was separated from his wife and had rented a small apartment in town. It wasn’t long before Charlie asked Annie to move in with him.

If you are wondering what this has to do with rheumatoid arthritis this story takes a dramatic turn soon, sadly.

Happy times

Annie was the happiest I had ever seen her, and juggling her college classes and bartending job, well. Plus her new romance was blossoming. One day, Annie called me to tell me that she had a sore throat and fever. “Go to the doctor,” I said.

The sore throat and fever went on for a few days, and Annie was calling off work and missing classes. Charlie was coming home and bringing her soup and magazines to keep her occupied. She finally broke down and went to the local health clinic where she found out she had strep throat. An antibiotic was prescribed, and after a few days Annie was feeling much better again. Soon Annie was going back to classes and working her shifts at the pub. But then a mysterious new health issue happened. Annie told me that the bottom of her feet hurt when she walked on them. “Hmmmm,” I said. “I never heard of that.”

The next week, her finger and hands started aching. The pain was becoming so bad that she was taking ibuprofen several times a day. More joints were beginning to ache, and then she had wide spread pain throughout her body. It became so unbearable that she went to the doctor’s again. This time they ran some blood tests and found out that her Rheumatoid Factor and SED rate was high. Therefore Annie was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Annie was confused. After all, wasn’t this an old person’s disease? She was just 27 years old.

Rheumatoid arthritis

Her doctor sent her to a rheumatologist about an hour away (we lived in a small town), and he looked at her lab tests at her appointment, did a thorough physical examination, and then broke the dismal news that Annie’s future was grim. “You’ll eventually end up in a wheelchair,” he told her.

Annie was shocked. She was almost finished with college, and was in love with Charlie. She had just met his children the weekend before.

He gave her a prescription for methotrexate and told her to make an appointment at the front desk for next month. Annie slowly got up. Her joints were so stiff and the ibuprofen she took that morning was wearing off. Her head was spinning as she walked through the waiting room on the way out when she tripped on a chair leg and landed hard on the floor.

METHOTREXATE is a chemotherapy drug used to treat cancer including leukemia. This medicine can also be used to treat certain kinds of arthritis.

Waiting patients ran over to her to help her up. Now embarrassed she accepted the helping hands, got up, and limped through the office door to outside where she burst into tears. After a few minutes she composed herself and sat in her car and made a vow. I WILL BEAT THIS!

Love and heartbreak

I lived just a couple of blocks from Annie’s apartment that she shared with Charlie, so she dropped in regularly. Annie told me a week after the rheumatologist’s appointment, Charlie had gone away for a weekend trip to a hunting camp with the guys, which seemed harmless. Annie had started the methotrexate and was still taking ibuprofen to control the pain. Her fingers were already crooked from the disease, and she hobbled now instead of her normal smooth stride. We talked about the coincident that she just had gotten over strep throat when she came down with the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. We wondered if the strep had triggered her RA.

What is RA? It is an autoimmune disease. If you have been following my blog, you know that I too have an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. My autoimmune disease attacks my thyroid. Annie’s attacks her joints.

Charlie came back from his weekend with the guys, and Annie confided in me that something was different about the way Charlie was acting. He wasn’t as affectionate as he used to be, and he was going out at nights with the boys instead of staying home with Annie. She was worried. She not only was facing a debilitating disease, trying to keep her job and her studies; she now felt that Charlie’s support was slipping away just when she needed it most.

Weeks went by, and Charlie spent less and less time with Annie. He snapped at her when she questioned where he was spending his time or who was he with. Rumors started spreading around that Charlie was seeing another woman, and someone told Annie that a woman was showing up daily at Charlie’s construction site to have lunch with him. That was the last straw for Annie. Right when she needed Charlie the most, he was slipping away. Annie decided to give Charlie an ultimatum. “Either you stay with me in the evenings, or I’m moving out!”
“Goodbye,” said Charlie.

Annie decided to call his bluff and move in with her older sister, believing that he would miss her so much he would beg her to come back. After all, they had shared so many tender moments together, and he had told her that he loved her many times. Annie tried to go on with her normal life as much as she could. She didn’t have an appetite, and was losing a lot of weight. Money was always tight and now that she was calling off work so much, money was even tighter. The only thing she could eat was oatmeal. She ate it for breakfast and again for dinner. Just oatmeal plain with nothing on it. At night, she would soak in a hot tub trying to soothe her aching joints, and then she would cry quietly in bed so her sister wouldn’t hear her.

Panic time

Annie started to grow more concerned. Her plan of moving out was backfiring. Charlie didn’t come to her sister’s door with flowers in his hands begging Annie to come back. In fact, he never even bothered to call her to see how she was. Annie started to panic. Was she going to lose Charlie forever?

She was in a very vulnerable place in her mind. She had a chronic disease, could barely work, and was no longer going to classes. She was just too ill. When she was diagnosed, she found comfort knowing that she had Charlie to lean on for moral support and financial. Now both were being taken away from her.

She began to stalk Charlie. Knowing his favorite haunts, she would ride through the parking lots looking for him. I could go into more details here, and it got a lot worse and includes death, suicide, a clown named Pippy, more betrayal, but that is in the book coming out soon called, Annie. If you are interested in receiving an email when it is available on Amazon, please sign up  below. Unfortunately for Annie, this is a true story. Annie’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

The worse of times then the best

I saw Annie at her worse and now I see her at her best. She beat RA! How did she do it? The same way I kicked Hashimoto’s to the curb. The medical community call it remission so okay, we’ll call it that, but Annie and I have little to no more symptoms. From Annie having a hard time walking and in constant pain, to now she is pain free, working at a fantastic job, married, and living in a beautiful home that she and her husband built, is amazing. Annie’s health improved by her own research, which she is good at, and clean eating. She first eliminated the oatmeal that she thinks was adding fuel to her RA. She switched to a diet of organic fruits and vegetables, grass fed meats, and chicken with no antibiotics. She also gave up sugar, alcohol, and gluten. Just like I have. We like to compare notes.

Annie and I now live many states apart,  but I still visit her when I am in town. We shared a gluten-free beer that I told her upset my stomach, and she said she didn’t like the taste. It was just another experiment.

Annie is no longer on any medication much to the surprise of her doctor. He shakes his head and says, “I don’t know how you did it?” But we know, it’s all about what you put in your mouth.
Personal Care

Sadly, we had a mutual friend who also had RA, and the last time I saw her she was using a claw-foot cane to get around. She also had a zip lock gallon sized bag full of prescription. Annie had an “intervention” with her and shared how she healed herself. It was too late. The woman passed away six months later.

Here is a video on how to cure rheumatoid arthritis with clean eating. https://youtu.be/F5eJl6Ist9A

Note: Annie’s diet is full of vegetables, fruit, small portions of meat. She will not eat sugary treats no matter how many times I have tempted her. There are a lot of farmer’s markets with homemade goodies like gluten-free peanut butter cookies but full of sugar. I was surprised to see that she eats a lot of dairy and cheese, because I thought this was off the diet. After I started the keto diet, I now eat dairy products, too, without any ill effects.
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I would also like to add, that Annie looks great. Some of her fingers are permanently crooked, but that’s okay. She is tall, slim and her skin glows. Annie has proven herself proficient enough at her job as a cancer register specialist that she is allowed to work at home 4 days a week, and goes into the office on Friday. It’s so wonderful to see how far she has come since the “Charlie” days, and amazing to see how healthy she is now. There is hope for everyone suffering from an autoimmune disease. Annie is the proof.

Thanks for reading.

Terry Ryan

Health researcher, blogger, wife, good friend, mommy to 2 chihuahuas, pickleball enthusiast

Terry Ryan