JO-1 Antibodies

We look normal, and most of the time we act pretty normal, but the truth is that we are not anywhere close to having the capabilities of living a normal life. Our lives are spent fighting a constant battle to maintain our later quality of life.

With each new flare we begin a new fight to get out of the flare up as quickly as possible with as little damage as possible. These active periods of inflammation can be anywhere from a couple of days to a few years in length of duration. When the active period of illness abates then we spend our energies in rebuilding lost muscle and regaining cardiovascular strength in preparation for our next battle with the illness. The damage we prevent today will allow us to walk, to talk, to work and play on another day, to breathe for another day.

People with jo-1 antibodies are unique in that we are forced to fight multiple and recurring forms of arthritis on a day to day basis. We learn to recognise our enemies as they come and go, and we develop a battle plan by learning as much about each unique flare up as we are able to, we are therefor able to minimize the damage done within each current flare. It is also how we minimize the amount of pain that we are forced to exist in and it is how we learn to survive successfully with jo-1 antibodies.

When you fight arthritis, you not only fight for your life, but you also fight for your later quality of life. You fight to reduce or slow the amount of damage that the disease is able to do to your body and you fight to reduce the amount of pain that you are forced to endure.

Each day our lives are spent making choices that will allow our body to survive in a relatively good enough condition to last an almost normal life span. Most people just take for granted that their body will survive long enough for them to get old, we don't because if we do, then it won't.

Information on JO-1 antibodies is available at:

http://www.orpha.net/consor/cgi-bin/OC_Exp.php?lng=EN&Expert=81

http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/GARD/Condition/735/QnA/21612/Antisynthetase_syndrome.aspx#683

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/health/27immu.html?_r=1&emc=etal&oref=slogin

http://www.myositis.org

http://www.arthritis.org

http://www.specialtylabs.com/books/display.asp?id=697

I often feel that I live in my own little world, and I just venture out every now and then, to visit where other people live. My fatigue levels are very high and I don't have the stamina to stay for any length of time in their world. So I go back to mine. I am often frustrated by the situation, I wind up whining and crying like a little kid, because I want so badly to just go out and play like the rest of the world.

But my life is spent conserving my energy. Every single movement that I make during my day is a reduction to the remainder of that day's energy resources. My body makes a mental note, and it is like cash spent, I can't have it back again. I am forced to ration out my energy throughout the day or totally run out of functioning power long before the end of my day occurs. If I don't budget correctly then I run out of energy. I call this total lack of energy "losing me" and basically, if I misjudge my day's allotment of energy, then I wind up slumped in front of my computer like a car by the side of the road that has run out of gas. There is just nothing left. I am not tired, but neither am I able to function at any emotional or physical level, I look like a babbling, whining drunk who is no longer sober enough to hold himself erect in a chair. My energy is spent and I have no means of acquiring more until I rejuvenate or until the next day's allotment comes available.

In addition to judging my energy supplies I have also learned to live each day as though I live in a war torn country. I am constantly on duty. I battle my enemy with every fiber of my being, somedays I win and somedays it does, but I always continue to fight. I must fight!

Most of the flare ups demand some degree of rest period, or of "falling apart", which is then followed by a course of rebuilding as soon as I am once again able to. This rebuilt material gives me something to lose in the next battle, so although the enemy may occasionaly win the battle, it is only taking the same piece of land time and time again. This is how I can slow down the course of the illness.

Although I wish that it was not an aspect of my illness that must occur, I often am forced to sacrifice things that I would like to do, so that I can accomplish the things that I must do. During periods of extreme flare up this is an aspect of the illness that happens all too frequently.

When the illness flare is attacking my muscle then that type of flare up requires maximum rest to prevent damage. I must stop virtually all extra activity and allow my body to totally fall apart. In about a week or two I will attempt mild yoga exercises, if the illness gets worse then I know that the illness is still battling a quiet enemy, and I will stop and wait.

In another week I will try again to increase my activity levels, and I will continue to use this method of attack, until I am able to begin rebuilding my muscle again. I then begin a slow and steady increase in the amount of exercise I am able to do, that is until the illness once again demands that I once again stop, and fall apart.

When things get too difficult for me to handle on my own then physio therapy provides much needed massage and stretching therapy to my damaged muscles.

When the illness affects my circulatory system or my metabolism then a lot of my fight is with increases to my medications, salt water soakings, alternative therapies and massage. My use of antioxidants is maxed during periods of extreme flare.

When the disease goes into a rheumatoid flare up then I still have some ability to fight with exercise. The pool allows me to maintain muscle strength even during the flare as the water takes the stress off my joints. I can also usually continue my yoga exercises during these periods, but generally this is in a much reduced capacity, as I can no longer get myself down to the ground. I do only the standing exercises during these flare ups.

I am constantly looking for a way to be well, constantly fighting to maintain as much of myself as I can until the day comes when they discover what is making me ill, and I can have that blessed remission that will let me be me again. I just want to live without having to worry about running out of energy or doing more damage to my body than I should.

The various inflammatory periods that I experience come and go in waves, sometimes only one attacks me and sometimes there is an all out attack launched against me. I deal with each inflammation flare individually and on the terms that the illness itself sets out.

My lungs are an area that I am constantly fighting to maintain. Lung specific steroids are used throughout the year generally for two to three month periods at a time. As the illness allows, I fight for my right to be able to walk or dance, to improve my lung capacity. Generally if I avoid hills and stairs then my stamina levels hold out pretty good and I am able to get some degree of walking in. When the joints get inflamed then I head for the pool. When I am forced to fall completely apart then I begin to walk again as soon as I am able to.

I spend my life falling apart, then rebuilding again as soon as I am able to, and I wait for the day that I won't have to stop what I am doing because I am too tired to continue. I wait for the day that I won't have to go home and recuperate. The day that I will be strong enough to just go work and play like everyone else. The day when I no longer have to live in my own little world.

Cherries are an amazingly healthy fruit, containing high levels of melatonin, they are also comprised of a little something known as anthocyanins.

Anthoscyanins are the bright colored pigment which accounts for the cherry's rich red coloring, it is a powerful antioxidant, and is also credited for having the amazing ability to reduce pain and inflammation.

Accept that you are not the same person that you were before you became ill, do not expect your body to follow the same routines that it did when it was healthy, learn who and what you now are. Allow yourself to adapt to the person that you have become. Changing your lifestyle to fit your illness will greatly improve your quality of life.

With inflammatory illnesses never doing too much or too little of any activity seems to reduce the stress or inflammation involved. Living life in bits and pieces, or a little of this and a little of that, might now be a viable lifestyle option to adopt. It will allow you the energy to accomplish a great deal more than you would otherwise be able to, and thereby, improve the overall quality of your life. It also works to reduce the degree of pain that you are forced to exist in.

Remember to budget your energy. Your body is busy using up it's energy resources and there may not be much left over for you to enjoy life with. Fatigue is a natural part of arthritis, the more active your illness, then the more tired that you will likely be.

Budget out your energy reserves like other people budget time or money. First do the things that you must absolutely do. Second do the things that you want to do (which is logical because why would you even want to exist if your life has no rewards). Thirdly and with whatever left over energy is remaining, do the things that you should do but that won't really matter if they get done that day or not.

Remission! I suddenly felt like superwoman, even steroids had not been able to give me the strength that being "normal" now gave me. The unbearable pain that I had suffered for the previous 6 years was gone, my mind was brilliantly clear and I could think again. I could run again, bend again, I had stamina again and I could play again. Best of all I looked like me again.

I was me again and I was terrified ........Read More

A chronic illness can strike anyone at any age. One day you are living your life as you always had and the next day you wake up to suddenly find yourself placed in a body that you can no longer recognize as your own. You are a new person and the body that you exist in no longer functions as it always has. The commands that you give your body now go unanswered ..............Read More

There are a number of theories as to why this process of chronic inflammation occurs. One theory is that the inflammation might be caused by an allergic type response of the body to certain foods or pollutants. Because we continue to expose ourselves to the offending product or products, the inflammation remains within our body, and it becomes chronic ..........Read More

Something strange has been occuring at Senior Centers across the country and the medical world is beginning to take notice. Most Senior Centers host events to keep the spirits and health of seniors in as tip top condition as possible, and at one of these events, this is working beyond anyone's preplanned expectations....

If You Aren't Out There Dancing - You Should Be!

http://www.specialtylabs.com/books/display.asp?id=697

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