Hair and nails with RA.

Hair is really a big deal to most women, for me it was a great source of entertainment in my thirties, when I was finally finding myself and had become free I chose to experiment. One of my favorites was what my then future husband called "the pot scrubber". My hair was about four inches long and bleach blonde. I would get a friend to part it out and put it in little pony tails all around my head, I would pay all the money I have right now for a picture of that hair, I think the fact I was able to do things like that shamelessly was one of the reasons he loved me, who knows, who cares? I have him now sucker.

My dreads, favorite hair of all time! Total freedom from societal expectations.

 In any case, I have had all colors, lengths, dreadlocks, weaves, I've done it all and I loved it. I finally was getting my hair long again after cutting my dreads off at my scalp (they were pulling so much, I just couldn't take the pain) when I finally made it to my Rhumey. The first thing she put me on was MTX and folic acid with no explanation. Of course I googled away as soon as I got home and my bet is if you take MTX or have been RXed it, at some point or right now, and it sat or is sitting where? On top of the microwave? In the medicine cabinet? In the fridge? How many times have/did you take it out and look at it and put it off another day? Not there yet? These are things you will probably do. I giggle now when I think about my encounters with Mobic and how I read about it and there was no way in hell I was going to take such a dangerous drug and now I don't even stop talking or pay attention when the infusion nurse slides a needle into my vein for the Remicaide, the one that there really was NO WAY IN HELL I was ever taking it but yet one day early this year I tearfully said "Remicaide" when Dr. G asked me what I wanted to do since my second attempt at Humera was obviously a failure. So, back to our hair and the beginning of my battle... I started the Methotrexate and I was pretty sick, lots of pukey days, had to lay down, drink water, sleep, sleep, and then I would sleep more. I took my folic acid even though I really didn't know why.

Question: Why Should Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Take Folic Acid With Methotrexate?

Answer: Methotrexate (MTX) is a chemotherapy drug that prevents cell reproduction by interfering with folic acid activation. MTX is also used in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Although very effective, its use potentially may produce serious side effects including nausea, mouth ulcers, blood problems, liver cirrhosis, and hair loss.

Prolonged treatment with MTX may also lead to folic acid deficiency. To reduce the risk of these side effects, without fear of interfering with its efficacy, a maximum daily dose of 5mg of folic acid is recommended for those patients taking MTX on a regular weekly basis.

Answer provided by the late Dr. Raymond Federman, a respected rheumatologist.

So, about six weeks into the MTX I started noticing that my hairbrush was getting really full, and that my hair was breaking. I wore my hair in pony tails a lot and I didn't notice until pretty late in the game that I had a circle around my head of broken hair about two inches long, it seemed to be the breaking point for the hair in the holder. Also, as time went by more and more hair was falling out and it was all over the bathroom, the pillowcase, my food, blowing onto people in the car with the windows down, it was very upsetting. I asked my Dr. and she said take Biotin, I take 1500 mcg's but you should ask your Dr. what dose they think is good for you. In any case, I still lost a great deal of hair for several months and it seemed to taper off and chill a bit but continue to break and split. The other thing is my fingernails went to paper thin and go absolutely as far back as they can because they tear and crumble. No one in my house will cut my toenails anymore because of the crumbling and I know that it would be pretty freaky, but all winter I was stuck with crazy nasty toenails and going to the mall to get my nails done was just out of the question, being exposed to so many people and getting sick, walking that far, someone grabbing my bones... there has been a meme floating around on FB and it says something about to "please don't wear sandals this summer if it looks like you could fly over a lake and grab a fish for dinner with your toes"... that was me, but I had to just rock my 6 month grown out pedicure with color on half my nails and nothing on the other and crazy long toes, it was so gross and embarrassing. I can't reach my feet so there was nothing I could do about it and that was that until I had a trip come up and mom treated me to a pedicure and I just waddled in and wore a mask and entertained myself with how grossed out the poor lady was over my toenails and how they crumbled. She told me to go to the Dr, because "that's no good". HA!

So, currently I have hair growing back from that big initial hair loss. It is not reddish brown and wavy, it is grey, wirey, and curly. In the Oklahoma humidity I have a gray afro and long reddish turning grey hair all at the same time and it's freaking AWESOME.

Rockin' the MTX fro on a Dr. trip.

I find it important to note, at no point has any leg hair nor my lady mustache hair fallen out, both are thriving I am proud to say.

Now that I have started Remicaide and continued MTX I noticed that my hair has started falling out again. This time there is no playing around and it isn't a minor thing. I asked my husband a few times at first if he was noticing and he said no but the shower drain said otherwise and when you are standing in 4 inches of water in your shower, it's pretty clear. My bun is literally a third of the size it used to be, but I'm not complaining, a girl on a support group went completely bald 11 days after her first infusion, luckily she rocks it but I'm not so sure I would look as good as her. Also, by no means am I making light of her situation because I am sure that it must be devastating. 

I have a lot of women new to the hair loss issue ask what to do and I'll just explain my game plan. This works two ways for me because I also have very real loss of hand grip and so holding appliances and such would never work. So I say if you want to keep your hair, in addition to a super-healthy diet, and supplements, I would do a simple do-nothing hair style. Let it be long, keep it short, but don't color, curl, blow dry, put anything with alcohol in it, just wash with simple shampoo that is as chemical-free as you can get and condition, towel dry, and comb lightly starting from the bottom. Do not use hair ties! My hair is long enough I twist it into a knot and that is pretty much it. I also use a good leave-in conditioner. There are lots of good ones out there, I wouldn't go a day without it. Also, protect your hair from the sun and the wind, letting your hair whip around on a motorcycle or with windows down and if you are anything like me it's going to break off, split, and look like hell. So, the moral to the story is, be nice to your hair. No chemicals, no heat, just love and conditioners.

A light brushing produced this in under a minute. 

 As far as fingernails go if you get your nails done you are going to really have to pay attention to your nail bed, it can get really thin and if they are grinding it down to put new nails on you just might learn a new kind of pain, so I would consider just getting them professionally painted and not put on, a good manicure can go a long way and not damage your nail bed because they take a real long time to heal. Don't forget, everything takes a real long time to heal now, the meds you are on suppress your immune system so a little tiny thing can turn into a real big deal. I'll have to tell you all about Africa some day, the minor surgery I had for a little pencil eraser sized growth that took me to the ER twice and the Dr. and urgent care three times. It had to come off, but think about anything elective that has to heal, you have to prepare and that means going off meds and that means.... well all kinds of things. I just want to say that now that you have RA, you really need to reconsider your plan for those new knockers your husband wants to buy you! 

A few things...

This is the second day after infusion number four of Remicaide. This is my second "therapeutic dose" and I'm pretty sure I need more than I'm getting because I don't make it to the next dose so far each dose still moving. The last dose didn't seem to last more than a few weeks. Yesterday I was pretty sick and in bed, today I went to lunch with my mom and son and to the store. I bought myself two new nightgowns and I am unbelievably excited. I am so tired of wearing the same two all days most days that I can't wait to pull one from the dryer. This was the first time I used my Rolly (rollator) in the store and it really helped me a lot. My son used the cart and anytime we had decisions to make I could sit down. Still today has been a huge improvement because I have been in unbearable pain for days and finally I got the infusion and it seems like things are chilling out. I woke up and my hands were open, I've sat up for several hours against pillows in the bed so things are looking up.

Rolly and I at the airport recently.

In my life I have a few friends that have people in their lives that have been recently diagnosed with RA and I always offer to be a resource to those people. I went through a lot of hell to get to the hell I'm in now and I would very much like to help people that are just starting out avoid some things that were not told to me so in no particular order I'm going to list off things that come to mind for the new folks. First of all, I'm in the age group that most people get diagnosed 30-50 and I'm a woman. That does not mean a 14 year old boy can't develop RA ok? I'm just in the prime zone so I know a lot of people in the age group.

First of all get your Vit D level checked. Most Americans are low because we are not in the sun foraging for food and other things. If you are low on D a LOT of things can go wrong, so get it checked. Mine is very low and every few weeks I take 50,000 IU's and then other days I take 500-1000.

Methotrexate (MTX) is terrifying I know, but it is the Gold Standard for control of RA. I know you just read that it is chemo, it is, but it's a lower dose than cancer patients. Still, it isn't anything to be casual about so since it can damage your liver that means DON'T DRINK, and make sure to get your liver levels checked on a regular basis. Also, my Dr. says that MTX SubQ (injections) are easier on your liver and that is what I do. I drink a lot of water and when it's infusion or injection time I make sure to push it even harder. If you are getting infusions it's easier for the nurse to get a vein and it helps your liver in both cases.


MTX is a DMARD, a disease-modifying drug. It is probably the first thing your Dr. will put you on.  It is used to slow or stop the progression of the disease. Usually you won't feel so hot after an injection or the pills so take it right before bed on the day before you are off work or have a light day ahead. You have to take it the same day every week or you can get sick if you change them up so if you miss a dose I would call the Dr.

The injections are hard for me to do. From now on I am going to have someone draw the injection up for me before everyone leaves on the night I take mine. Last week I bent five needles, took one unit short, and ended up with a broken bent needle in my belly. The reason is my Dr changed me to another syringe. I have been using the BD syringes and I hated them because they are dull, the thing about them though is you can unscrew the needle from the syringe and put a fresh one on if you have to pull your complete dose from two separate bottles, got me? Last week my choices were to go one unit short, get a shot from a needle that had punctured two bottles, or get poked by two different needles to get the full dose. This is all very hard to do when your hands don't work.

Folic acid, you need to take it every day when you are on MTX or you will feel sick.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0010757/

Keep moving. You have to keep getting up and moving. If I am awake I try to get up about every 20 minutes and walk up the stairs or down the hall at least. Sometimes I take my dog for a walk four or five houses down. This is very sad to me as just two years ago we were topping out at 6-7 miles a day, now both of us are getting our butts kicked by arthritis. He takes Rimadyl. Please, if your dog has arthritis, get him some medicine and not just supplements, that is totally uncool.(Cats get steroid shots) When Walter got his first pill I left and came back two hours later and I hadn't seen his tail wag so fast in a long time and I realized how much he must have been hurting and that makes me sad. If you buy the regular generic and not the name brand chew-able it is less than half price. Walter has 1/4 of a peanut butter sandwich with the pill inside and he is one happy dog. Sorry about the dog thing, but it had to be said.

Hot showers help a lot, hot baths with Epsom salt do too. Stretching, yoga, swimming, all super good for you. I read of people who get on meds and feel better and start running again and claim victory. Personally, I think that's probably not a good thing to do, pounding your joints when you have a disease that affects your joints.

People are always going to be telling you all kinds of crazy things, all kinds of diets, avoid gluten they say, no nightshades someone proclaims! I did an elimination diet, I did all kinds of diets, I've found that no processed foods, very little meat, especially red meat, lots of fruits and veggies raw or lightly cooked is really best. Avoid low-fat, "diet food", artificial sweeteners, GMO's, corporate food, stick with the Farmer's Market and avoid the drive-thru ok? Any of that made up crap that's been extruded, processed, fake sweeteners, my friend once said "think chemical shit-storm" and she is right. Fresh food is best! No high-fructose corn syrup, and look! It's in everything! I have an app called Ippit I got for free for my Iphone, I don't know if it's android too but I scan the SKU number on the package (try not to buy much that comes in a package) and it tells me if I can have it based on the setting I provided, it's pretty cool and helps a lot.

RA is not just a bone disease, it's an inflammatory disease and it isn't just your joints that get inflamed. The meds are hard on your liver and kidneys, and the disease is hard on your heart and lungs among other things. You need to take a lot of supplements to help avoid damage, one of the most important is fish oil. So, how to buy fish oil. I started out with the giant pills from a big box store and they freaked me out, they are really hard to swallow and you need three a day. Since this is fish oil and we don't take care of the planet the fish have a bio-accumulation of methyl-mercury and that is super bad for you. So, you need to get triple filtered, third-party tested oil. I have moved all the way to oil that is just liquid and it tastes like orange and is so thin it's almost like water. No more fish burps for me. Also, please buy a brand that has a sustainable certification.

Here is a complete list of vitamins from the Arthritis Foundation. They also have a list of herbs that are good, some I have already mentioned above. You probably can't afford to take them all so I would take the list to your "Rhumey" and prioritize them. I have a certain list that I feel are most important but I'm not a Dr.so I'm not listing them.

 http://www.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/treatments/natural/vitamins-minerals/guide/

When you go to the Dr. I would have a list of questions, you are going to have to prioritize them because the Dr. will probably not have time to address them all. I would also start a diary of your days, your pain level, where you hurt, how long it takes you to loosen up every morning, that sort of thing. Always go prepared, always get your blood work done like you are told so the Dr. has the information for your appt. They can't do anything if they don't know what's going on.

Prednisone will probably make you fat. It is an evil siren, it will chill out a flare but there is ALWAYS a price to pay. Don't take it if you don't have to. I remember as a teenager I was on it for two weeks and the Dr. didn't have me taper off of it. A day or so after I stopped it I was trying to brush my hair but it was causing me excruciating pain, in another few days I was black and blue from playing softball. I was incredibly angry with the Dr. because I had to go back to find out what was wrong with me, it literally made me sick to go off of it with no taper. It's just not a drug to be casual about.

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2012/04/08/prednisone-side-effects-deal-with-the-devil/

You can have RA and be seronegative.

You will probably suffer from two things: exhaustion and brain fog. Both are very real and your friends and family are going to have to learn to accept it and adapt. You might just not be able to do what you did before, my life has changed dramatically. My Dr. describes my disease as aggressive and severe, yours hopefully is different.

Here's me, on a real bad day.

and the old me, or me, who I really am.

I am working on being somewhere in the middle, or back to me. That is the goal. In any case that is what I have to give for today, I'll try to think of more things to learn the easy way and skip the hard road! Gentle hugs!

The grocery store.

Yesterday (now two weeks ago) I woke up and like usual took my handfull of pills that could knock out a horse, and went back to sleep for a couple of hours. Then I woke up and I decided to to go the grocery store. Sounds pretty normal, right? The only thing is I can't stand up straight and my hands have been "drawn up" for the last few days in varying degrees, my right hand the worst, it's in a complete fist and I usually walk around with a rolled up sock in it shaped like a doughnut in the hopes that my tendons won't shorten from my hand staying closed.
So I have to get ready, no one is awake so I can't wear a bra so I slip my nightgown off and slip a dress on, the only difference is the print really. I slid into some sandals, and I'm ready, I can't brush my teeth or hair, so I usually keep my hair in a knot until either my hands can take a bushing or someone comes to help me wash my hair and brushes it out. So, I'm ready to go, I battle with the key and the ignition and get the car going and drive with a great deal of pain with my fingers extended. I get into the store and think that since I haven't been up in a while I should get the exercise and walk instead of riding the cart. This is a choice I always regret. I head to the fruits and veggies and I'm already in pain, and by the time I'm to the milk I'm shopping silently with tears running down my face. I try not to look up or make eye contact with anyone realizing that my hobbling around is probably attracting attention on it's own. I get to the one spot in the store that is kind of a cul-de-sac and my mom calls right then. Immediately she wants to know whats wrong, I tell her I'm in the grocery store and it's too hard, it's too hard to pick up the food, to reach, to bend, that I can't hold onto things and I'm dropping them and then I have to leave it because I can't get things off the floor. This entire trip has been a disaster and all I have are some sandwich things and cottage cheese. Cooking is out of the question now and this shopping trip is starting to feel like a real hard slap of reality in the face. So, I'm hiding in the ethnic section and here comes a man looking for something who keeps staring at me, crying on the phone, bent over, my hair chooses right then to fall out of the knot I wasn't quite able to make that day. The man gets something and leaves me alone again with my mom on the phone. I hate her catching me like this because it makes her so sad. She says things like "if I could take it for you I would" but the truth is she is already battling multiple autoimmune diseases just like I am.

I get home and ask my husband and son to bring the food in and put it away, both had worked the night before but there is no way I can do it. I go downstairs and struggle back into my nightgown and into bed, tears rolling, hungry but in now shape to fix a bowl of cottage cheese and fruit on my own and I don't want to ask either of them to do it for me. So I go back to a restless sleep until early evening. By then the house is empty so I take another handful of pills, go upstairs and get a glass of water, let the dog out and wrestle the cottage cheese container open. I have multiple projects I'm supposed to be working on but this is not a day to work, these days it's best to just stick to myself and not work with a cluttered mind and make mistakes. So, another day of pain and almost complete isolation. I literally have about 10 minutes total, if that much of conversation between myself and others in the world, anything else is over the internet. People don't like to talk to others when they are in obvious pain or sick, it makes them sad if they care about the person, so a lot of times they avoid the one in pain. It happens to me a great deal.Another thing is I've lost a great many "friends". I can't drink, I can't go to gigs, I can't smoke cannabis, I'm out of the loop. It isn't that I'm focused on my disease, I have plenty to talk about, I'm just not fun enough I suppose. One person that I know had a real problem with my disease, she was always saying she has it too but that she "didn't have time to go to the Dr". Honey, if you have active RA NOTHING would stop you from going, trust me. When I found out about my neck she was angry and demanded to see my papers from the Dr. and of course I refused, that is so rude it's just incomprehensible. In any case, we are... no longer in touch.

Pain

I would have liked to document what was happening as it happened, for a long time I did not have a laptop, I was mostly bedridden and even with a nice desktop computer a few feet away I could not sit at a desk and write. This past winter I had a deep urge to write and I had the time, but only a phone in bed with me, now I have a laptop, which the acquisition is a beautiful story I will tell someday, I am very deep into the ramping up of the legalization petition. I work almost constantly, most times I leave the house I am going to the Dr., I usually go out to eat, if I have an infusion I try to get a good friend to go so we can spend time together. My social life has suffered greatly, thankfully the core network of activists are interesting and extremely intelligent people so it helps a great deal.

Going back to how I am going to present my story, I can't possibly go back in any sort of order, I'm going to go with whatever hits me that day and hopefully if people out there are reading this they will get something out of it. Not very long ago my mom decided to send me to get a second opinion, she is about to retire and wanted to make sure that my treatment plan was correct. I'm not even going to tell that story today except to tell you a tiny facet of it. This new Dr. ordered every test possible and mom paid cash for it all, in the end, the great "reveal" day I had been waiting for after comprehensive lab work, x rays, an MRI, the Dr. came out and grabbed both my knees and squeezed them very hard (I could hardly walk that day) and said "You have osteoarthritis in your knees". First of all my pain was so great I almost instinctively punched her in the face, and second, I've known that fact for years. Her plan was for me to go off all of my meds and "see how bad things get". I don't know about you but that sounds like a terrible plan to me. Just to explain my position and to describe my pain in more detail, I already have researched and planned how to go to Oregon and do an assisted suicide, I have had days that I didn't think I could make it through the day, not another hour. I'm not saying I wanted to die, I'm saying I can't take the pain. ( My close friend with another disease with chronic pain talks about days she has to keep herself from stepping in front of a train.) My family is what holds me back, my hope for medical cannabis legalization in my state gives me hope and I work every day for that goal.

My point to today's story is a little roundabout. I just had a full comprehensive set of testing done, I've had multiple images of various kinds, and I have been talking about severe back and neck pain for at least 8 years. Once I got to a pain Dr., which is a very long and complicated story in itself and includes the fact that my rhumetologist ignored my pain for at least three years and gave me tramadol and Flexeril for years, and even tried to cut me back multiple times, which she did, and I would call back and argue that I was in terrible pain and she would up me one 50mg tramadol a day again, I finally got to a pain Dr., I suppose I'll tell the "short version" of the story, about four months ago I had finally had it, my pain was completely out of control and I was in the ER on a regular basis with runaway pain and they were starting to not give me drugs, I understand that, the Dr. is supposed to take care of that. So, she, "most likely" aware that I used cannabis on a regular basis, reluctantly gave me a referral to pain control. I had to pass a UA first, so that was 30 days without cannabis, the only thing that helped my thru the pain, and then a UA, and then, her nurse would RX me something like 10 loritabs and on THAT DAY or soon after, the nurse would make an appt with a pain Dr. that was taking patients 3 months out. Explain that logic to me, think it through and find the compassion, because I don't see it. So, I took a home test and passed, then I took a lab test and failed, I waited another 10 days or so and passed (I only smoked a puff or two out of a one hitter a day before I stopped so I didn't expect it to stay in my system long.) I called my Dr. to make arrangements for the UA, all this while suffering in great pain, I couldn't think, I could hardly walk, bathing on my own was impossible, I was literally frantic I cannot begin to describe the pain I was in. The moment I passed a UA at a private clinic I called from the parking lot, the nurse called back a few days later, I am in agony at this point. I had no quality of life and was literally ready to die without help. The nurse said that I had to drive to another town an hour away and take another UA, the next day I called and the clean UA was on the Dr's desk and she had seen it, but she had worked a half day and was on vacation for three weeks and would have to fill the papers out for me to see her nurse for the one time RX of 10 loritabs to get me through while she made arrangements for my pain clinic appt that would be in about 3 months. I exploded. I was blind with rage and pain and I could not believe the entire situation. The nurse said in a hateful tone that I could try my primary and see if they could help so I hung up and called them without saying goodbye.

I called my primary, they have signs all over saying they don't do pain meds, I called and told the receptionist and told her my story and she said if I could make the drive fast enough they would see me at two. For a variety of reasons, no one in my family could/would take me, I got in my car with no ac, in blinding pain, and I drove like a bat out of hell to the Dr.office. I got a lot of hell from certain people that if I was in "that much pain" how could I drive? My answer is self-preservation, I could not take another day and the truth is I should not have driven, I almost had more than one wreck, but I made it, and I would not have endured the pain at that level much longer. I had been a solid 10 for days. My family asked if I needed to be checked into a mental hospital for being Bi Polar.

Waiting for the Dr.

My Dr. office is a teaching school, I see residents, they are overseen by other Dr.'s. I told my story to the resident as best as I could and she examined me, my knuckles, my wrists, my knees. Everything was swollen and red, the bones white almost showing through the knuckles the skin was stretched so tight. She said she didn't know what she could do, but she would get her supervisor to come look. He came and looked me over a few minutes later, he was very quiet, a few sighs, an umhm or two, he looked into my eyes a long time. He said they were going to talk and be right back. I sat and waited, waited and worried that I would get no help staring at the sign; "WE DO NOT RX PAIN MEDS" on the wall. The door opened and the resident came in, she said "I've spoken to Dr. _, he agrees that you are in dire need. Based on your obvious physical deformities and level of pain and against all protocols I am prescribing you _, it is a one time RX and I suggest you use it sparingly (it was for thirty hydrocodone if I remember right) We have already put in an emergency referral to our pain clinic, but I don't know how long it will take, but the urgency of your situation has been expressed to them". I'll never forget those words, literally the first time a medical professional had actually had shown true compassion through years and years of suffering. So, I thanked her profusely, with no idea how long this referral would take but I knew help was coming, I hoped anyway. So I checked out with tears rolling down my face, something that had been going on for weeks, just tears rolling, nothing I could do, I just endured pain for so long that tears just came and went no matter what I was doing, not actually crying, just suffering. If someone saw me and asked, I said ignore it and I tried to just move on. In any case I drove an hour home, straight to the drugstore and took the first pill with a drink out of the cashiers soda. She offered it to me


The pain meds took me off of 10 and in a few days had me to maybe 8.5 and my Dr. appt must of been on Thursday, because the next day, Friday, the pain clinic asked if I could come in on Monday and I took the first appt I could get. It turns out that the location of the clinic is an hour and a half away from home but I'm not complaining. I saw the Dr. and he seemed very nice and he asked me how I made it on tramadol so long, he said I would get better use out of it by throwing it against the wall to get some anger out. He upped my hydrocodone to 4 10's a day and ordered an MRI if my neck and spine. A few weeks later I found out I have 7 fractured vertebrata, he said they look like a hammer had been taken to them. I'll go into more detail later but since then I have had two cervical facets done, which are shots into the base of your skull, the joints there, and the experience will need it's (their) own story. I was amazed at the amount of pain that went away after about the first week, and that I was able to turn my head significantly more. I had no idea. I am currently recovering from an ablation on one side of my neck. It is a live x ray, they give you some meds to chill you out a bit and inject contrast dye into the nerve and buzz it with electricity to recreate the pain and make sure it is the right nerve and then they hit it with electricity and burn the nerve to sever it. Apparently they grow back so this will be somewhat of a regular procedure if needed. The report from the ablation reads something like this, and I am missing parts and looking for the first paperwork from the MRI, however, I have a note that I wrote a friend I will put what info I had at the time, remember I have Rheumatoid arthritis as well as osteo, and my Rhuemetologist says psoriatic too, but I'm not sure you can have both, but I am not a Dr. so C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 T1 are all fractured. I have marrow fat leakage, Schmorls nodes, sprurring on several disks, and foraminal narrowing, as well as some kind of blood sacks or blisters. But I have had so very many images over the last few years and no one saw these things? Not even my rhuemtetologist? Not even the second opinion Rhumetologist? What is wrong with these people? I go back all the way all those years ago and I think about my primary care Dr., the one who one day told me that nutrition didn't matter when I had brought in a huge book of nutrition information and a list of my symptoms trying to find out what could be wrong, just hours and hours of research, that she wouldn't even look at, one showing that I was SURE I had a severe Vit D deficiency (I did) and she refused to run bloodwork, and of course dismissed once again my cry out for pain relief because she just knew I was drug seeking. If I wanted to "do drugs" I could have just bought them and not gone thru any trouble to get them, but I knew something was wrong with my health and I needed help, literally Dr. after Dr. has ignored my cries for help. That's all I have in me for now, maybe I'll come back later today, but my heart can only take so much of revisiting this, and I am still living it, although with some help now, I just can't trust that it will continue. I don't trust Dr.'s anymore, the more you hear, the more you will understand.