At the time, I was working at a pet grooming shop and was doing a lot of heavy lifting. I began having very severe back pains. I had always had issues with stiffness and with feeling like my back itself was worn out. I had always assumed that I just tried to do too much every day and that everyone else on the planet suffered from the same issues. Eventually though the pain and stiffness began to spread.. knees, ankles, thighs.. hips.. wrists, shoulders.. Anything that could hurt, did. My legs would be so stiff that I couldn't walk.. couldn't move really. I went to see my eye doctor for a touchbase Iritis exam to see how things were coming along. Dr. Stevens, knowing my history with Iritis and knowing that I had tested positive for an HLA B27 gene which can cause many other illnesses, mentioned that at the first sign of any back and/or leg pain, I should seek medical attention.
I mentioned the excessive pain that I had been having previously and he gave me the names of two rheumatologists that he recommended. By the time I made an appointment to see Dr. Strachan, one of the doctors he had suggested, the pain had eased up quite a bit and I was able to ignore it while going about my daily routine. However, I was very impressed with Dr. Strachan and his office.. having a similar obsession with Marilyn Monroe. He had cardboard cutouts along the hallways and framed movie posters throughout the office. I felt at home! :) He examined me.. feeling two specific spots on my lower back, indicating my hips and places along my spine that sent waves of discomfort through me even though my condition had improved. He even did something with his hands to cause pain in my ribs that I had not previously experienced.
Once the exam was finished, he examined my bloodwork results and pulled out a small spinal structure that had been sitting on a table off to the side. It said in big letters.. "Ankylosing Spondylitis" and I can only remember the nausea that I felt in that moment. I could barely pronouce the words, muchless wonder what it was. He began explaining, in what seemed like Greek, what the pain, the discomfort and the agony all meant. I was.. shattered, to say the least.
As the first act of treatment he suggested Remicade infusions.. meaning once every three weeks I would go and spend the day at the hospital while they pump me full of medications via IV. The side effects of the drug alone are very detrimental.. something similar to chemo without the hairloss. He showed me the treatment center and was very personable until I started asking questions and having doubts about the treatment because of the side effects. Next thing I know the Doctor is pushing me off on one of his nurses as if I wasn't worth his time. I went home that day, discussed the treatments with James and decided it would be best for me to seek out a second opinion from Dr. Miller, the second Doctor that Dr.Stevens had suggested for me.
My visit with Dr. Miller was similar in the exam but then he had me do stretches and different kinds of exercises. From the way that I was able to move he determined that the other Doctor was pushing the wrong treatments on me. He determined that the back problems were in fact Ankylosing Spondylitis but that the condition hadn't progressed to the point of such an aggressive treatment. We tried a few oral medications in the begining but my condition is stable at this point. I still have some really bad days but I'm able to keep my activities during the day at a level that I can handle so that I can be medication free for the time being. Dr. Strachan's nurse had originally told me that if I didn't start the infusions right away, I would be in a wheelchair within six months. And here I am.. no wheelchair in sight!! Also, after speaking with a few of Dr. Strachan's previous clients I found out that he actually has a really bad reputation for pushing expensive treatments onto people just so that he can stuff his wallet. I do trust Dr. Miller extensively and he is my current rheumatologist.
With things having settled down with my health, my relationship with James continued to move forward. We dated for just over a year when it came time for my apartment's lease to run out along with the one on James' townhouse. Things had been going really well in the relationship. No fights.. no disagreements. I think that with both of us having dated other people that both ended up being psycho while we were apart, we found out just how lucky we had been to find each other. So, with a newly found respect for each other, we began debating marriage...
We started looking for a house to see if there was anything of interest on the market at the time. We ended up finding a house that we immediately knew was our dream house. The layout was exactly what we wanted and it already had a fenced in yard for the dogs.. which was (of course) number one priority for me. *tee* It needed a lot of work but the foundation was exactly what we wanted. We closed on the house November 30th of 2005 and moved into the house on December 21st.
A few days later James calls me at work saying that after he got home from work some dog jumped over him and into the truck as he was getting out. The dogs had tags so we called the numbers. With no immediate response we took the dog up to my work and settled him in at the vet for the night. He ended up belonging to a neighbor so the next morning she came and picked him up from there. That same day, December 24th, I'm at work and James shows up with a huge cardboard box with blankets in it. By the look on his face I'm assuming there is an injured animal or a litter of abandoned kittens or something. He mumbles something about "after the night we had last night.. and now this..". We both, along with several clients in the waiting room, lean over the box and from out under the blankets he pulls a ring box. He opens it and bam.. beautiful engagement ring! Haha! Before he can even say a word, I shoved it on my finger. (lol.. um.. it must have been the shock..).. We had a very short engagement, to say the least. We went to the Justice of The Peace on the 28th and got married. Once we settled in we got a new puppy and life was as it is now, a happy married life with a house full of pets. :)
