The Voice Of Rheumatoid Arthritis

I would like to share my story about the voice of RA. I recall I had to get injections due to the fact I was in so much excruciating pain. I was use to walking 2 miles 3 times a day. I decided this day that I was going to not listen to the voice of RA. I set out to walk and I hadn't made it a half of a mile, I began to fall down screaming because my body was speaking to me it was in pain. As I was speaking loudly but I did not listen to the voice of what it was telling me. I had to get someone to come and pick me up. I was unable to move. I lay on the sidewalk for another 15 minutes and my ride showed up. I set up a Dr. Appointment and was told I had to have injections. This was very painful. I lay on the table looking at the camera where it displayed where the injection would enter into my joint. As they were doing it, I literally wanted to jump off the table. It was not a pleasant experience. I remember crying after it was all said and done. I walked out to the waiting room to a 20-minute wait to make sure there were no after effects. Clearly, that was painful. I would go through this procedure many other times. Once again it was no doubt my RA speaking a language that I could understand. As a student that was privileged to take Neuro-Linguistics (NLP), I was convinced everything has a language. It has made me present to listen to the body and what it is speaking. I may eat something that is not good for me and my body speaks loud and clear that this is no good for me. Journaling is one of my favorite pastimes. It has been my escape for over 2o years. When I find myself really engaged in an excellent journaling, I find myself in positions for long periods of times. RA begins to speak to me very loud, change positions, stretch
your muscles. When I fail to listen, I am like a pretzel all twisted up, stiff and hard to even move. My back and arm are especially messed up. My take away from all this is simply, we must know the language of our body. We must know the voice that it communicates to us, the signals of pain. I am able now to recognize the voice of RA. If my body is overtaken by pain, I’m not going to attempt going to the bathroom and shampoo my hair. I will wait until I know I'm able to move around freely without being in pain. I will wait to vacuum the floors until I'm certain that my RA is giving me a green light. Making sure I take my medications is a voice that discomfort and pain will lessen and it affords me more of an opportunity to do more things in a day. I’m happy to know that everything has a language and it has a voice. It is up to us to listen.
I listen now because my experience in being a RA patient, if I fail to recognize that the voice of my body is speaking to me on any given day. I end of suffering and putting myself through added pain. At the end of the day. I would rather listen to the voice of RA.