The Origins Of Arthrito-Girl

• Extraordinary powers and abilities: check.
• A motivation, such as a sense of responsibility, a formal calling, a personal vendetta against criminals, or a strong belief in justice and humanitarian service: check.
• A backstory that explains the circumstances by which the character acquired his or her abilities as well as his or her motivation for becoming a superhero: check.
• A supporting cast of recurring characters: check.
• A distinctive costume, often used to conceal the secret identity: do sweats and uncombed hair count?
• A secret identity that protects the superheroes friends and family from becoming targets of his or her enemies: no, not really.
• Independent wealth: not so much.

Ok, the truth is that Arthrito-Girl is just a silly nickname my husband gave me in an attempt to inject humor into a frustrating and painful situation. It worked. I love this nickname, and I love the sweet way he looks at me when he uses it. The irony here is that the whole situation which brought this about, my diagnoses of chronic illnesses, also brought forth some powerful changes in my life and how I view myself and the world.
I never would have imagined that pumping gas or holding a toothbrush would present such serious obstacles for me at the ripe old age of 22, but there I suddenly was one day. A Yoga and Pilates instructor, I was as healthy and active as I thought I could be. I had just moved solo across the country to return to my home state and was excited to be independent. I was finally on my own, free to make my own decisions; the world was my oyster. With a newfound sense of responsibility, I had gotten a "real" job, found my own place to live, began saving for retirement, and gone to the doctor to update my shots. Because those are things that responsible people do, right?
For months I made excuses for these sudden and nagging symptoms. "I must have slept funny last night, this will go away by lunchtime." "This is part of being an adult; I'm just getting old!" "Desk jobs are inhumane, nobody can make it 8 hours without wanting to curse or sob from the aches and pains of sitting." My burning joints, severely aching muscles, pounding headaches, ringing and overly sensitive ears, weight gain, hair loss, and trouble sleeping finally got the best of me and I realized that something had to be done. I was numb when my family doctor told me, "I think you have Rheumatoid Arthritis and Tinnitis, but I'm going to refer you to some specialists to be sure." I spent the next 2 years seeing a team of doctors at the Mayo Clinic, and spent thousands of dollars on MRIs, CT scans, X-rays, joint scans, blood tests, and physical exams. The diagnoses: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Tinnitis, and Telogen Effluvium...in other words, a body that's suddenly falling apart for no apparent reason.
In addition to the testing, I tried about a dozen different pharmaceuticals over those 2 years. Ranging from benign-sounding non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, to the scary cancer and malaria drugs which are "borrowed" for use in rheumatology, disease-modifying anti-rheumatics to steroids; some drugs caused awful side effects that required more pharmaceuticals to combat the side effects and/or damage. Through this entire mess Mark kept me in good spirits and continued to make me smile with the nickname Arthrito-Girl. After two years and a lot of grief (but no relief of my symptoms) I had had enough; I "fired" my doctors and weaned myself from the worthless drug-of-the-moment. I hired a personal trainer because I knew I needed to get moving again but I was afraid of hurting myself more, and I started paying more attention to living a healthy, chemical-free lifestyle...two intuitive choices that were sure to have less side effects than any of the drugs I had been on. And wouldn't you know it, within a matter of weeks I was feeling some improvement! About a year later I was feeling pretty darn good and healthy, and up to the challenge of pregnancy and motherhood, so we tried and I became pregnant. I was ecstatic! What a nice turn of events :)
While I was pregnant another mom I knew mentioned the risks of vaccines and brought up the fact that newborns today are bombarded with 6 shots, containing 8 different vaccines, at their 2 month checkup, in addition to several (often unnecessary) interventions at birth. This is just the beginning; this continues every 2 months and by the 12 month appointment it's 9 shots (containing 13 different vaccines). My first reaction was to think, "well, why would we decline something that is designed to help us?" But my new mommy-instinct inspired me to at least look into it and make an educated decision. What I found shocked me...I started to wonder why so many parents were allowing doctors to inject these known toxins into their tiny infants, and in such large doses. And the more I dug into it, the more disgusted I was. Even moreso when I discovered that my symptoms, the same symptoms that came on suddenly and all at once for no apparent reason, were common reactions to a vaccine I had received around that time. I remembered the exact day I first noticed the symptoms, it happened to be the same day I started my new promotion at work; I called human resources and confirmed that date. I dug out my medical records from the filing cabinet (responsible adults keep accurate records, right?) and caught my breath; I had gotten a flu shot 2 weeks before that day, and MMR and DT shots about 6 weeks before that day. It doesn't take a genius to do the math with all of these facts; these vaccine injuries, which the government has admitted can happen with the shots I got, happened within their given time frame. I later talked to a doctor who deals with vaccine injuries on a pretty regular basis, and she confirmed that I was likely injured by those vaccines.
So there you have it, in a nutshell, a large chunk of my motivation and backstory. The extraordinary powers have built gradually as I've regained my strength and confidence. I don't intend for this blog to be all about vaccines and their dangers, although the topic is bound to come up. Rather, this blog is a place for me to share my adventures in parenting and learning about health, nutrition, cooking, crafty projects, gardening, photography, going green, and a million other topics. I am not trying to convince people to blindly make the same choices that I make, but I do hope that my experiences will motivate other people to make educated decisions - no matter what they are.