Mafias, Mobs and Autoimmune diseases

Mafias, mobs and auto immune diseases. If they don't kill you, they will surely make your life a living hell. Even if an auto immune disease or AID can't hold you down and beat in your knees with a two by four, I guarantee it will still feel like it did.

AID's no matter which one you have stink. We seem to have a family history of them. I was diagnosed three years ago with mine. What I have learned is that they are like the duck game at the fair. Pick a duck and see what you won. Unfortunately for me I picked the duck where the marker is wearing off, so no one knows what I have won yet. Lupus? Rheumatoid Arthritis? We can assume it's one or the other. Some how one always sounds better than the other and at the same time no one would ever want to have either. ya...

I am a really high strung, high energy, cant keep me down kind of girl. Reality is, I can't be any other way. If I stop, my world stops and if the world stops rotating, it would break out in pure chaos.

Sometimes I think I have tried more drugs than a while lab rat. I refer to myself as getting old. People always tell me "your not anywhere near old!" but the fact of the matter is, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its probably a duck. If you have five kids, drive a mini van, have tons of joint pain, own a days of the week pill pack and your doctor prescribes you water aerobics and stool softeners...I'd say your getting old.

I guess in the end you either let it consume you or you take charge. I have been told you can receive disability for this. The government may have to investigate whether or not you have an AID or were actually attacked my the mafia though. I have met other people with these diseases and it's interesting to see how people handle them differently. Some do give up and let it consume them, others fight back with full force running marathons, raising awareness and having foundations named after them and some are like me, somewhere in the middle. Most of the time I get on with my life, there are too many great things out there to explore to sit around in pain. There are always days though when I sulk, whine and question the situation. If I went on disability, I think that's what my life would consist of. I'm not saying there aren't people who don't truly need it. But it's certainly not for me.

So if you wake up one day and think Tony Soprano or Tony Montana or Don Vito Corleone has thrown you in their trunk, pistol whipped you and dropped you back home all while you were in your slumbers, you may want to consider a visit to your local rheumatologist.