The longer I'm not pregnant, the more I realized that I really enjoyed it! My reasoning might be a little influenced by other circumstances that I'll explain later, but first I just wanna say that it was just a really great time. I miss feeling little Lincoln kick around in my belly--even when he kicked me in the bladder. That was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced, and I look forward to it again someday. I miss seeing my huge belly in the mirror. And I sort of miss the weird cravings and the fact that I had to go to the bathroom every second all because I had this little human in me. It was fun to talk about. Fun to be excited for the arrival of the baby. It was the ultimate time of daydreaming! A teacher in high school used to say "Anticipation is greater than the event itself." In this case, I think the waiting isn't greater, but its just as exciting and new. That's what makes it fun. My other reason is completely different. Since I was little I have had Juvenielle Arthritis. For the past 15 years or so I took a medication for it called Methotrexate. It worked super well, and I was virtually arthritis free. But, the drawback to the medication was that it obviously couldn't be taken during pregnancy, but I also had to be completely free of it for at least 3 months before being able to get pregnant. So, before I got pregnant I hadn't taken my medicine for about 5 months. My joints were really swollen, and it sucked! But almost as soon as I got pregnant I was symptom free. Awesome fact of the day: pregancy makes your arthritis go away!!
When I was like 16 I found out that this medicine I took would not be able to be long term considering I couldn't take it at all before or during pregnancy, and while breastfeeding. So, I hoped that somehow I would be able to find an alternative to keeping my arthritis symptoms minimal. I hoped that not eating gluten would be some kind of magic cure that would allow me to not take meds, but it's not working as well as I hoped.
So now, 6 weeks after pregnancy, my joints are super swollen and the only safe and stronger-than-ibuprofen anti-inflammatory is prednezone. And it makes you gain weight!! Dang it! I still got 20 pounds to lose, so the last thing I wanna do is put myself in a situation where I could gain more weight. Today however, I got a prescription for Aleve . . . and I'm realy hoping that works!! This is beside my point. What I've decided is that pregnancy is the best drug to cure arthritis! ;) I wish pregnancy could last like 2 1/2 years so that I could just be constantly pregnant and my kids would still be enough apart that I wouldn't lose my mind. I remember when I was pregnant and my arthritis went away I told Sean how awesome it was, and joked "Maybe I should just be pregnant all the time!" He didn't think it was very funny. All I know is that for as long as I'm in my 'baby-makin' years I will greatly look forward to those very precious 9 months when I am symptom free! I guess it's God's gift to women with arthritis! If they are going to be uncomfortable while they are pregnant, He might as well relieve some joint pain! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment