If you’re a fan of Googling your medical symptoms and sorting through the myriad of conflicting diagnoses till you find one you like, you’ll understand that there are a lot of “causes” out there and resulting things to do and not do.
Don’t fly; don’t drink the local water or eat local food away from home; don’t get stressed. Really? How about just shoot me now? For me, the paradigm is not whether to live to eat or eat to live, but rather to live to travel or travel to live. In the case of the latter, it is both.
I get that my twenty-two-hour flight to Cambodia and the ensuing visa calamity could have contributed to my several weeks of very serious rheumatoid arthritis flares; but now I’m in Florida, a short flight from Atlanta, enjoying a laid back visit with old friends and relatives. I admit to eating some rich food and worrying about some of my aging friends’ and family’s health challenges, but not to excess.
I’ve come to accept that rheumatoid arthritis is diabolical and “it is what it is.” Live with it!
Carole J. Garrison 