My RA Garden

Butterflies are self propelled flowers.  ~R.H. Heinlein

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun

And find your shoulder to light on,
To bring you luck, happiness and riches
Today, tomorrow and beyond.

~Irish Blessing

I love flowers. I love food. So, it is pretty much only a hop, skip and small jump that I would love to garden. Not only can I keep my house filled with those flowers I love so much but every once in awhile I get the satisfaction of stir frying my own veggies and herbs for dinner. 

I love working in a garden and once I was diagnosed with ra, my passion for gardening never changed. I did put it off for years due to my ra pain but in my mind I always envisioned me returning to this love. We would do the hot sun dance once again, play amidst the dirt and celebrate the first green birth of our labor.

I am determined to check this off my "bucket list". I am determined to reclaim my stake in the gardening world and proudly display my wondrous herbs or fresh clipped flowers or my first birth of a newborn squash or zucchini.

In my hometown we have a wonderful local arboretum that allows us to explore all the gardening possibilities for our area.  What I found most fascinating about The Arboretum is their Ability Garden. Here i was able to not only explore gardens that were adapted for different disabilities but I was also able to try out various gardening tools.

Gardening doesn't have to be overwhelming. You can start small and this is exactly my intention...for this year. 

I will endeavor to container garden. I will also endeavor to visit those flower gardens in my area so if I can't grow my own, I can fill my dance card with others hard labor.

Come share with me the joy of gardening…..

"Earth laughs in flower."-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."-- Abraham Lincoln

"I'm not really a career person. I'm a gardener, basically."-- George Harrison

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." --Greek proverb

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."-- Claude Monet

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies." -- Gertrude Jekyll

"Flowers are beautiful hieroglyphics of nature, with which she indicates how much she loves us." --Wolfgang von Geothe

"Cultivate the garden within."

Click here to view this photo book larger

And for the technical how to's (ways to modify gardening)…see my reference links below.

Arthritis Foundation

About

Health Solutions Source

Disabled World

Christopher Reeve Organization

This source gives many, many other links for disabled gardening techniques.

Update: A facebook friend, Jackie Pardoe had this on her home page and I found it fascinating. It is an instructional video on no dig gardening. To me it was great for a number of reasons but the first being I don't have to dig to make a garden and I can pretty much do this anywhere including on top of pre-existing grass.

HAPPY GARDENING!

Happy Tool Kit Alert!

Got this via email (thank you Sue) and just had to share. Another tool for my Happy Tool Kit. Hope you enjoy the humor as much as I do. May today be a pain free one!

My New RA Story

RA is only one of over 100 types of arthritis currently known.  Getting a correct diagnoses can be a challenge and may take many visits to your gp to determine what is going on and then get the referral to the rheumatologist.

First and foremost…what you are experiencing is real. Don't let any doctor tell you otherwise! Your symptoms are not a figment of your imagination (as many have been incorrectly told), they are not caused by overwork, having multiple children plying for your attention or caused from menopause symptoms and chances are…they will not go away on their own.

I was very fortunate back in 1998 to have a wonderful general practitioner that understood ra and knew the correct tests to do in order to determine what I had. On the other hand, I personally had never heard the term rheumatoid arthritis. Boy did I have a lot to learn! My recognizable ra symptoms appeared in one finger (at least to me). If I remember correctly (heck we are talking 12 years ago) I had what I thought was a possible paper cut infection. At that time several people in Europe had been on tv with a horrific skin infection that took their lives and this was forefront on my mind when my swollen finger wouldn't respond to the OTC medications I tried. 

Upon first examination, she asked me the traditional questions. What had brought me in on this date? What symptoms, if any, did I have? Did I have a fever at any point? My response was a simple finger (no not that finger!). I put out my pointer finger and showed her my swollen finger. I also explained that I thought it might be caused from a paper cut although I didn't remember cutting my finger but that I did work around a lot of paper. She carefully examined the finger. She then asked if I had anyone in my family with arthritis, particularly rheumatoid arthritis. I told her I didn't think so and asked what was rheumatoid arthritis? Not to worry was her response. She then ordered several blood tests, checked my temperature, examined the rest of me and said she would be in touch with the blood results.

It was New Year's Eve when I got the fateful call. I had just arrived home from work and was in the midst of cooking dinner for our two children when her call came in. She said I had rheumatoid arthritis and that she was calling in a few prescriptions of which I should start immediately. She then referred me immediately to a rheumatologist.

In hindsight (I have had 12 years to reflect on all of this), I believe my first symptoms appeared a year prior to the official diagnoses. It was over the summer and I was having difficulty walking. The bottom of my foot was swollen and tender. I thought it was from walking barefoot on the hard concrete in our apartment complex. After a week it subsided on its own…immediate problem solved. I also remember being fatigued a lot but I was pulling long hours as a corporate trainer, I had two children, and always something had to be done.  

The disease seemed to progress fast and furious from here on out.  Within a few months from my initial diagnoses I was having high fevers, multiple joint involvement (not symmetrical joint involvement) and killer fatigue.  At one point, I was in so much pain I wound up in the er and was pumped full of morphine. 

But, I was one of the lucky ones. Twelve years later and hundreds of stories later, I realize that I had a special doctor that knew her business and knew what to test for when I first went into her office.  And I also realize that this doctor didn't just jump to the wrong conclusion. And I was fortunate in that my blood tested positive for rheumatoid arthritis, making my diagnoses easier.

My heart breaks for those of you still searching, still looking for your answer. All I can say is, "Don't give up! Don't give in and don't settle!" 

Your life depends on it.  RA is a real disease and even if you don't have ra, you can still have one of the other 100 arthritis related diseases.  And even if it isn't arthritis, something is causing you all these problems. Find that doctor that will work with you. Find that doctor that believes you. Find that doctor that will keep searching and working with you through your medical labyrinth. 

Links to rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, treatments, etc.:

webmd
mayo clinic
my optum health
yahoo health
National Institute of Arthritis...
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention