How it All Started

I like to spend time on Sundays doing the paperwork that comes with being a family doc. The office is quiet and I can listen to music more interesting than muzac while I write letters to patients explaining their recent lab or Xray results. On the first Sunday in Nov,2002 I was trying to do this when I noticed that my hand was cramping and with continued writing my entire arm became involved. I tried taking a break but when I came back to the task my arm cramped up quite quickly. My feet were also causing problems, they ached along the outside of the foot and at the arch. Stretches for the plantar fascia didn't help. Within days I developed severe fatigue to the point that I stopped going to evening meetings and needed to nap after work. In mid-Nov I had to do a difficult 3 am delivery using a vacuum. It took all I had to pull the baby out and my arms ached; usually 2-3 pulls does the trick and it doesn't require so much effort. My arms/shoulders were sore for days. My hands and feet continued to ache and it seemed that heat helped more than NSAIDS like ibuprofen. A hand therapist made me some splints that kept my thumb at a fixed distance from the palm and this did cut down on the hand cramps. I had to quit lifting because I couldn't tolerate grasping the bar or hand grips. I continued to walk 2 miles but I found that draining. By mid-Dec. my shoulders also hurt so I was referred for eval of possible RA and fibromyalgia. The eval was negative for both but a PT pointed out that my R glut medius was weak and that my pecs were too tight. This baffled me. My lat glut area had been a problem for months when I walked long distances or climbed stairs but I thought it was just an annoying case of bursitis and took 800mg of ibuprrofen when it really bugged me. Now I had actual weakness, how odd given my level of activity. I was given strengthening exercises for the glut and stretches for the pecs.
My situation was really worrying me and my husband because I was usually so strong and not one to be bothered by little things. These weren't little complaints and my energy was so low that I only had enough drive to get to and from work. I didn't decorate, bake or send cards for Christmas which signaled how bad I felt. Thankfully, I didn't have anyone due in Dec because I wasn't sure that I could do a difficult delivery if need be.
Miraculously, on Dec 23 I woke and felt great. The pain in my hands and feet was almost completely gone and my energy was back to its usual high level. We aren't ones to wear our religion on our sleeves but we did tell family and a few friends that it seemed that I had had a Christmas miracle. We even thought about sending our cards late to tell the story to others. What a joy it was to be myself again.