When the baby was four months old, my life changed. I woke up one morning with a stiff and red shoulder. Two days later, it was my left second index finger. Two days after that, another joint. I started developing severe migratory joint pain. I figured I had contracted Lyme disease so I started myself on antibiotics but three days in, I was still miserable and I was getting worse. I remember the feeling of the glass cutting my feet as I walked. There is no pain that I have had that comes close to that pain. I remember the day my life changed very clearly. I hadn’t been able to exercise in weeks. I had woken early to make lunches for the kids to take to preschool. I remember hobbling down the stairs. I remember the pain so vividly. As I was making lunches, the baby woke up and I got worried that she would wake up the other children. I thought I would run up the stairs and get her and nurse her. I remember trying to lift my leg to make the first step. I couldn’t climb. I couldn’t walk up the stairs. I had to crawl up the stairs. I remember vividly the salty taste in my mouth from my tears of humility, pain and sadness. Something really bad was happening to me. A week later, I was diagnosed with a severe, debilitating form of rheumatoid arthritis. My rheumatologist told me that my markers portended a poor prognosis and that I needed to start medication as soon as possible and preferably within a week’s time. He told me to stop nursing the baby and get on medication. So, out of fear, I did. I still harbor the guilt and sadness of having that choice being taken from me. I was angry also. I didn’t understand how someone like me, as “healthy” as I could become sick. I started feeling anger towards my third child, thinking that if I hadn’t had a third child, then maybe I wouldn’t have become sick. I was in a dark place.

Taking the medication was miserable. My long black hair started falling out. I was nauseated all of the time. There was a metallic taste in my mouth all of the time. But, my joints got better. I was able to go back to my procedures and started taking the stairs again and seeing patients without difficulty. Life went back to a new normal. I still slept little and over worked, but my joints didn’t hurt. A few months later, I met a nutritionist who wanted to participate in one of heart fairs and to show me what she had to offer, she offered to do a diet assessment. I was immediately skeptical as most medical doctors are but I let her do it. It was then for the first time, I started understanding the impact diet has on our health. Years later, I continue to teach myself what I did not learn in medical school. I have learned how to treat a patient with diet. I have learned inflammatory foods to eliminate and the “anti-inflammatory foods” to add back in. I have read the trials. I know now what has validity and what does not. I have tried everything out on myself and with trial and error, have learned to heal a new way.