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November 2000 Well I still feel terrible. But at least now there’s a new drug in my life. It’s called Relafen. I switched off of the Celebrex to Relafen because the Celebrex just wasn’t helping anymore. Now on this new drug for about 5 days, and I don’t feel any better. If anything my stomach is hurting a little bit. Ya know, that nauseous feeling all the time, for nothing more than taking medicine that’s supposed to make you better! I guess there are things that I should just accept. One of them is that no matter what I do, or where I am, I will always be in some kind of pain. Either my fingers when I’m trying to type, my hips when I’m trying to walk, my back when I’m trying to sleep or my knees when I’m trying to climb up stairs. And right now there’s little I can do about it. But to more excitement: Sunday I got a chance to go to the 2000 Latino Expo held in NYC. It was an all day affair where vendors and companies sponsored workshops and forums and booths for Latinos. It was good because there were some arthritis-related companies there, and while not all of the people who attended had arthritis, it gave me a chance to surround myself 100% with a wonderful culture. A culture that I never knew was so alive with passion, with happiness and with such good spirits. I also got to meet and talk to a lot of Latino people with arthritis, as we were talking to those who stopped by. I know for sure that no matter what your culture, your background, your age, your race, where you live or what you make, or if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, arthritis still can strike. It’s a terrible thing. But I’ll tell ya, arthritis has allowed me to bridge the gap between races, religions, languages and any other minor difference to realize that I’m not alone. There are other people who are going through what I’m going through. This has been the week from Hell. I have done nothing but study, and when I’m not studying, I’m worrying about how I feel. OK maybe not exactly that way, but if I had to summarize, that would do the trick. The rush before Thanksgiving week (we have a week off) has been a mad rush to finish everything up. Oh, and that new medicine I was supposed to be taking – Relafen – well that is no more. It hurt my stomach way too much. I would always be nauseous right after taking it, and then the whole morning. At night it would be the same thing. What good is feeling nauseous for 8 hours of the day? So I took myself off of it, and put myself back on Celebrex. It’s not good, and doesn’t make me feel too much better. But it doesn’t hurt my stomach, and for the time being, I’ll deal. I guess that’s what happens when you have a condition like Spondyloarthropathy. As for my plans this coming week, I don’t know much of what’s going on. I am headed down to Birmingham Alabama later this morning to take part in another event with Joe Namath. This will be another great chance to meet many people with arthritis, and tell them about CreakyJoints. I’m lucky because I have a chance to travel and meet as many people as humanly possible. It is a good opportunity to talk to all walks of life with arthritis, from places and communities that couldn’t be further from mine. The last four months have given me a chance to experience the unimaginable, hear stories that couldn’t even be dreamed up, and meet people all with one common ground: arthritis. My problems and what’s on my plate is sometimes nothing compared to people I speak to. Other times it’s enough to blow them over and make them run away crying. There are people with arthritis all over the world. My job will be to introduce them all to one another. Next stop: Birmingham Alabama. As I write this on the flight back from Birmingham, I wonder who is winning the Auburn/Alabama game. It took no more than talking to two people on the flight down yesterday to understand how big a deal this rivalry is. The entire state stops to watch and everyone looks forward “to the big game”. It was even a bigger deal because on the menu yesterday was Joe Namath. Namath played for the New York Jets, but before that, he was Alabama’s quarterback. A tag line for the event was ‘one important rivalry, but together, the real fight is against arthritis’. The state of Alabama has over 770,000 people with arthritis. So the game was important, but the health of over three-quarters of a million people is more important. Joe was once again really down to earth, and spoke about how important this game is to him, but from somebody who has arthritis, he stressed the importance of the ‘fight against arthritis’. Joe earned himself 10 more cool points from Seth. Traveling down to Alabama and back in 24 hours has really put a strain on my body. More and more I am a believer of how important it is to stretch. When I wake up, during a layover, whenever I have a free minute or two, I try to stretch out all the muscles in my back. It really feels good, and is invaluable when I’m doing the ‘long haul’ in a few precious hours. It will be good to sleep in my bed – either at school or at home – for a whole night. Then it’s back home to New York for the week. A Thanksgiving break is a blessing for any college student stressed out by a hard couple of weeks, a blessing for someone who is always aching or in pain, and a blessing for someone who really needs some home cooking. |
