CREST

In all my weeks of medical appointments, x-rays, blood work, and two surgeries, I've been lucky enough to have most every test come back, in the end, normal.  The one exception at this point is CREST syndrome, an auto-immune situation that combines some markers of several other auto-immune diseases but not enough to have any one of them: not fibromyalgia, not lupus, not scleroderma, but with markers common to those.  CREST is an acronym for the five markers that seem to have landed in my body. The "C" has to do with the body's processing of calcium, the "R" has to do with tiny red spots on my hands, etc.

When I ache all over, I say, "My fibromyalgia is acting up," but that's just shorthand for: "The marker that is pain all over is common to fibromyalgia, but I don't actually have the true disease, just that one marker of it."

It crept up on me Friday and again today; Saturday I felt perfectly normal and had lots of energy.

My friend Becky treated me to a congratulations brunch at Cappy's this morning--to celebrate the fact that I don't have to do radiation.  (Ten years ago, treatment for DCIS--ductal carcinoma in situ--was much more severe than it is today.) We hadn't seen each other in months and it was so good to see her!  After brunch, I had to come home and sleep for a few hours with ibuprofen to help with the inflammation.

It's a pretty limiting thing--when it happens.  It hurts to get up and down, it hurts to sit for too long, and while it's lingering, I'm mostly tired and sleepy.  So I've decided that, until I figure out how to banish it, I should only do one thing a day.  The one thing tomorrow is to call the rheumatologist and find out if there are dietary changes I need to consider.

I'm reducing sugar and gluten intake, drinking kombucha, taking additional minerals and probiotics, drinking more water, getting work done by Gabi every other week or so, and doing yoga three times a week.  I hope I can figure out this puzzle and return to normal soon!

Until then, if I decline an invitation, it's only because my body is not cooperating fully just yet--but I trust that soon it will be up and spinning like the proverbial top.