Things have been kind of rough around here. Not so much for me — for Don. Four months ago he suddenly was in pain all over his body, and we haven’t found a cause or cure yet. Since the pain is most severe at night, he hasn’t had a decent night of sleep since this started.
Don has always been an athlete. He was a quarterback in high school and is a certified yoga teacher — my former yoga teacher — but now he sometimes needs help to put on his sweatshirt. His shoulders, his elbows, his hands, his wrists, his legs – every joint and muscle is hurting him. It’s not lyme, it’s not rheumatoid arthritis, and it’s not fibromyalgia. It’s some kind of inflammation, but it’s not reacting to steroids, antibiotics, narcotics, or painkillers.
Since Don is an introverted and private person, I want to honor his privacy, and on the other hand this is what I do — I write about my life, our life. I am in the middle of this. I want to write so much more but swallow it.
I keep encouraging him to write. He is a beautiful, eloquent, thoughtful writer and I think he should write about his experience — as a release and to document his journey to healing, which I hope will come soon. Normally a total sweet tooth, he is resisting so many sugary temptations now. He is completely changing his diet – no meat, no caffeine, no tomatoes, no potato — anything to avoid more inflammation.
Always a voracious reader, he now pours over every book about nutrition. Since convential doctors have failed to address the cause and severity of his pain, he refuses to keep working with them. He would rather take the pain than pump his body full of more medicines that only marginally help and can cause all kids of other problems.
He is seeing a naturopath next week. I am praying she has some answers. He needs answers – he needs a freaking break. Something is reeking havoc in Don’s body, and I just hope that there will be no long-term effects from this.
I have to believe that something positive will come from all this agony. Changing our diet to vegetarian is one of them — we’ll see what else is in store.
