I digress…

As you’ve all read in The Worst Rube Goldberg Ever, I’ve had a mysterious illness for the last year and a half. I ended that post as I was crying and starting one last prescription, hoping it would cure me. Well, it didn’t.

During the end of November it was getting really bad again. Then, at the beginning of December, I got sick again with a cold. It seems these colds are causing some major acid reflux/general awfulness flare ups. I was miserable. Completely. 

I’m pretty darn in tune with my body and quite sensitive when it comes to illness, fatigue, medication side effects, etcetera. During this time, my body felt like garbage. That’s really the best way to describe it. Garbage. 

My thoughts kept going back to when I saw my orthopedist in September. I had visited because of tendonitis and as a side note he diagnosed me with BJHS (No, not some weird high school…) It stands for Benign Joint Hypermobility Syndrome. The “Benign” part is actually in contest with researchers right now since the syndrome can affect you negatively your whole life. Although, many people just have hypermobility without it becoming a “syndrome.”

def. A connective tissue disorder. Too much laxity in the collagen of the joints and other soft tissues throughout the body.

There are some pros to the syndrome, such as being able to do things like this and this.

There are also some cons. They include:

Okay, so it’s usually not that big of a deal for me. Annoying at times, but generally I feel fine.

BUT…here’s the clincher…I finally realized that my acid reflux symptoms did tend to get worse on a monthly cycle. So I did a little more research and read all about how hormones play a role in hypermobility. Further reading revealed problems with contraception and hypermobile females. Progesterone is well known for loosening collagen and soft body tissues such as, say, the esophagus. NOW we’re getting somewhere! 

After 5 years, I was already scheduled to have my IUD replaced. This was during my time of heightened misery and kept feeling like getting my hormones and monthly cycle back on track, along with taking the foreign object out of my body, would truly help get the situation under control.

The morning of my appointment, my doctor had to cancel and reschedule for a month out because she was delivering a baby. I called her secretary back, with teary eyes and shaky voice, begging to see another doctor to get this thing out of me immediately! Thankfully, another doctor was able to fit me in that afternoon. 

I swear I felt so much lighter walking out of the doctor’s office after the procedure and I don’t think it was just in my head. The rest of the day I still felt very poor, but the next day I was a full 70% improved. 70%! That’s huge! I know some of it was due to the medical side of things but I just as strongly know that fasting and prayer played a big role as well.

Since then, I’d been nervous for a relapse but it has now been a month and my symptoms have stayed in the 70-90% improved range. A true miracle.

Now, this isn’t the end of the story but you’ll have to wait for the sequel because this feature is getting too lengthy.

To Be Continued…