Well, that's one way to treat autoimmune disease -

[hedgehog]

I have Sjogren's, which means dry eyes, dry skin, dry mouth. My major complaint is the typical autoimmune fatigue complicated by the fact that I don't sweat any more .

So - last December right before Christmas I was in a very serious car wreck. The cab of the truck was ripped off the frame and the driver's side was crushed in. I don't know why, but I ended up with no broken bones and no cuts. What did happen is that all the bones in my pelvis were knocked out of place. Nothing was dislocated enough to show up on X-ray, but it's taken the last three months for the tendons and muscles to adjust and pull everything back in place. (It was funny listening to the snapping and popping noises whenever I rolled over!) I also took a good hit to my lower back which left me with a terrible muscle spasm for a while plus a weak left leg. I was walking with a cane for a while, and even lifting a dinner plate hurt! I had a nice concussion which left me with some odd deficits, but that seems to be resolving.

Now, everything is pretty well healed up. I can even lift up to about 15 pounds. 20 is my absolute limit, and it's going to be a while before I'm hauling 50# bags of chicken feed again. I tend to bear to the right when I'm tired, but that's not a real problem. The most important thing is that I can go out in the garden and move mulch to prep it for the summer! I was afraid I'd never be able to it anything again!

Now for the bonus - even when I couldn't move because of the muscle spasm, I thought I felt better beneath it all. My autoimmune fatigue is much, much better. I get out of breath, but I can keep working where before when I got out of breath I had to stop. I still don't sweat, so I have to be careful not to get overheated.

So - maybe the accident re-set the autoimmune, maybe not. I wouldn't recommend this method, but I thought the apparent results interesting.


I forgot to add - I gardened all day in typical autoimmune attire - jeans, long sleeves, gloves and sun hat - plus sunglasses! I don't think I had a square inch of skin exposed to the sun!