Once upon a time I was a high school athlete and superior ability student. Then  I was drugged at a party and sexually assaulted. A few weeks later I barely survived an unknown communicative viral illness. I never recovered my strength or stamina. I then developed thyroid disease and goiters at 18.

I lived with fatigue, loss of memory and sometimes severe "fog". I married a lovely man who trained exotic animals and we traveled the country doing circus. I had two beautiful children. When our daughter was six weeks old, my husband was crushed by a rogue elephant.

I lived on our family farm for a few years, then loaded up and drove the kids to Alaska. The goiters returned and I had a thyroidectomy. After ten years of exporing, hiking, fishing, prospecting and camping I woke up one morning almost unable to move from pain. Initially I was diagnosed with fibro and chronic fatigue. In those days Alaska did not have a rheumatologist so I flew to Seattle.

The head of the School of Rheumatology at the University there told me I had an unknown auto immune disease. He explained that there are many such which have yet to be classified and I might as well call it Christine disease. Now I was really embarking on an adventure. (Imagine telling that to a new doctor.) 

Tests  revealed I had a huge number of anitbodies to Epstein Barre, making it the probable cause of my near fatal illness as a teen. I am intermittently ANA positve, too.

 Since then I have been diagnosed with DDD and have been fused at C4-6 and L5-S1. I joked about my titanium backbone, moved to Colorado and remarried. We moved to a small mountain town and started a business.

 Now, C7 has collapsed and the hardware is impinging my spinal cord. I have severe pain and loss of function in my arms. The tendons in both of my shoulders are also degenerating and my rheumatologist has diagnosed spondyloarthropathy. I am on an immunosuppresant in hopes of stalling further damage.

For the past few years I have finally had the time to concentrate on writing, a life long passion. But these past few months the pain has been so severe that I can rarely type so I am just reading and watching movies for research and distraction from pain. I rarely leave the cabin except for doctor visits. My husband is very supportive and caring and I consider myself blessed. 

Though I cannot often post, I frequently read this site and feel a part of this community. P. S. I now use voice recognition software and can write again!