Enbrel - Most Dramatic Healing
History of the Suffering and Relief - Psoriatic Arthritis
This blog is about as personal as I would ever want to get with a close loved one, and here I am telling the world! Why? I want as many people as I can contact through this tool to know that -- "Hey, you 2 to 3% of the populace, you can most likely get INCREDIBLE RELIEF".
The Early 70's - Fingernails go, Unable to run
My level of embarrassment over this condition has gone on a graph like line similar to a wildly-gyrating stock market graph. But that's starting with the present and going backwards. Let's go back to the early 70's. When I graduated from college, I was the school handball champion. I was in the handball courts day and night and on the weekends. I was a fiend for exercise and upperbody weight lifting. In the early 70's it was free weights and flexing in the mirror. Arnold Schwarznegger would come by and get training from our Eastern European Coach - (actually from Minnesota, but he LOOKED like a Russian coach) Harry Schneider. In that weight room you could bulk up. That's what I did for my chest and arms. But mostly I played endless handball. I say this only to make sure you understand I was a MANIC exerciser. I could never have foreseen that in just a few short years my body would SEIZE UP, and my fingernails and toenails would separate from the quick on the end of my digits and look LOUSY for the rest of my professional life. (more on that later).
It was a matter of about 4 or 5 years and jogging would freeze me up for days. It felt like the phrase of the day "lactic acid form over exercising". It was not lactic acid from over exercising, but I did not know what it was. I would awaken with pain and stiffness. I would become exhausted at the end of the working day. I would lie down on the couch and watch TV at the end of the day because I needed the rest. It felt strange, but there iit was. I had a DEBILITATING AND EXHAUSTING condition and my joints, (lower back, hips, knees and ankles).
Yes there are those types of people who squint and look at your with displeasure as if you have done something to yourself, as if you are not hygienic, as if you are trying to disfigure yourself, just so they can hate you. ALL THOSE THOUGHTS go through your head and then you try to get philosophical and detached. And over the decades interesting things do happen to your head when you walk around mildly disfiigured everyday. So for the 70's I was stiff, unable to run, disfigured in my hands and feet and very EXHAUSTED. But no psoriasis and I could still move around and WALK a great deal.
The 80's and the Patches –
In my 30's I began to develop psoriatic patches on my legs and waist and elbows. I would bathe and use topicals and try not to become alarmed. With this condition, you are always bargaining with yourself. You say: "It will only go this far and no more." But it doesn't. Its progressive and it gets worse and worse. At least it did for me. I have been told that I have had a very severe case and these comments do not apply and should not be thought to apply to others who you may know who say they have "psoriasis" or "psoriatic arthritis". I am communicating my level of suffering to let you know how UTTERLY TRANSPORTED I am by my HEALING. So, we go on.
The 90's and More Stress – GLUCOCORTICOIDS
My positions became more high stress and more demanding. Glucocoricoids are bodily substances produced by the body's stress fighting system that can also end up being quite destructive.
Let's define "glucocoritcoids" -
A group of steroid hormones derived from cholesterol and produced in the adrenal gland. The majority of the activity related to glucocoricoids in humans is due to cortisol (also called hydrocortisone). This hormone is elevated in response to stress and has effects on many different aspects of human physiology including the ability to suppress the immune system.
The below quote academically and quite specifically describes the paradox of stressful responses in the body. While there are those responses in the body that actually benefit the body and help it through stress, there is a an inverted U involved. (That old inverted U of DIMIINISHING RETURNS that seems to permeate nature and behavior and science.) Well, when stress reaches a certain level, your glucocoricoids become more harmful than helpful.
Please observe the following quote:
..."most any kind of threat to homeostasis or stress will cause plasma glucocorticoid levels to rise. The increased levels have traditionally been ascribed the physiological function of enhancing the organism's resistance to stress, a role well recognized in glucocorticoid therapy. How the known physiological and pharmacological effects of glucocorticoids might accomplish this function, however, remains a mystery. A generalization that is beginning to emerge is that many of these effects may be secondary to modulation by glucocorticoids of the actions of numerous intercellular mediators, including established hormones, prostaglandins and other arachidonic acid metabolites, certain secreted neutral proteinases, lymphokines, and a variety of bioactive peptides. These mediators participate in physiological mechanisms--endocrine, renal, immune, neural, etc.--that mount a first line of defense against such challenges to homeostasis as hemorrhage, metabolic disturbances, infection, anxiety, and others. We propose that stress-induced increases in glucocorticoid levels protect not against the source of stress itself but rather against the body's normal reactions to stress, preventing those reactions from overshooting and themselves threatening homeostasis. This hypothesis, the seeds of which are to be found in many discussions of particular glucocorticoid effects, immediately accounts for the paradox noted above. These mediators would themselves lead to tissue damage if left unchecked."
As I studied the PARADOXICAL effects of glucocoricoids, I looked at my own case for a subjectrive feeling of what I was reading in all kinds of literature and on the internet. My adrenal gland was BOTH carrying me and killing me. It was my adrenal gland that got me up, feeling full of energy even though I had not slept and then burning through the day, and as a result of all this, completely collapsing at the end of the day and tending to my horrid inflammatory state in my bath at night. For 5 years I lived like this, and came close to completely collapsing from it.
In the 90's the "U" tipped and my poor body went into an even more inflammed state than it had been before. From 1998 to the present, I was truly suffering everyday. Of course the most demanding professional efforts, the hardest longest work and the deaths of family members and increasing older age and stressful family issues all came together in a mighty kick in the butt. SLEEPLESS NESS started taking over. From 2003 to 2008, my sleep was slashed into little 2 hour packets and fitfulness. Everyday I started was a day driven by a wasting adrenal gland and a completely inflammed estate. My psoriasis over this time ended up covering about 65 to 70% of my body. (All my back, stomach, lower arms, upper arms, ALL my shins and ankles and most of my thighs). It was terrifying to me. Even after all these years, in the end it was terrifying to observe. Shamemaking to show the doctors. Just a devastating state!
Too Much Drama but Oh the Joy! -
The doctor (rheumatologist) and my wife both stared at me with love and disgust. "Just because this is incurable does not mean its UNTREATABLE - FOR HEAVENS SAKE!" I had just answered the question as to why I had not sought help earlier. I was properly put in my place. I had no excuses as to why I had not sought help with Enbrel earlier. That's probably the question everyone is asking. Suffice it to say, its that Highland Scot Stoicism or something. I have no excuses and don't want to try to explain. Let's deal with what happened next!
Once I decided I wanted the injections, then there was the great waiting. I had to go get XRAYS and blood tests. Then after that I would have to wait for his next availability. THREE MONTHS I had to wait. My physical state was such that I could not walk a half block without seizing up and breathing very hard. I was at the bottom. I used to walk two to three miles like a breeze. Now I thought I was going to die. That was in November of 2008. I began taking my ENBREL shots in March of 2009.
#8 INJECTION - The Tipping Point -
Not only is there an INVERTED U of diminishing returns -- a point where what you have been doing just doesn't work anymore and you are getting very little benefit -- there is also the TIPPING POINT - a concept now very popular, in whcih a point comes when the boat starts taking on water and a real change starts happening with a minimum of effort. Imagine what it takes to turn a sail boat over when its just a few inches from its submerging moment. Very little effort. Well, SHOT # 8 was just one shot, but 3 to 4 days after I took it, my psoriatic buildup decreased to like 90 to 95%. My joints became buoyant and bouncy and my finger nails started turning back to 1978 conditions. It was like watching a movie backwards!
I have new goals now. New aspirations. New thoughts and plans that 4 months ago were noit even glimmers of coneptions, let alone dreams. At the end of 2008, I was ready to just early retire and pray for a level of energy that would keep me going at a moderately productive level. Now, I am seeiing a new world ahead of me. Boy is this guy excited? Yeah I am. Which only tells you how long a person can suffer with this condition. If you are reading this blog and know someone or are someone who can benefit, pass this joy along.
ENBREL –
Its a drug called a BIOLOGIC, and this class of drugs has established itself in studies and performance. I am thankful for the vision and the foresight and the plain old good business sense that went into its creation.
