Then I took a holiday!!!
You all know how things are on holiday, sunshine, warm weather and totally relaxed. One beer won't hurt, a glass of wine at the restaurant with my evening meal won't cause any issues if I carry on with the hydration and right food, and I was right they didn't .
It was the beers that followed, the glass of wine that turned into a bottle over an hour or two and the occasional burger and all the crap that goes with it.
The first signs started in the last few days of the holiday, "I can control this" I thought. How wrong was I?
The week we came back from holiday I had a relative who turned 21 and had the obligatory party with most of my family there, a lot of who I usually only see once maybe twice a year so a drink for the celebration then another reminiscing of the good old times when we were kids another one for the hell of it, a toast then another, then we went on shorts, after that is a bit of a blur, a bloody good night but a couple of days later I was paying for it. First in the feet then ankles then wrists and hands, I was in agony and I couldn't control the pain for love nor money.
I reverted to the lemon water to try and alkalise my system and this started to work, started to calm it down.
"Right this is it I'm gonna control this bastard once and for all, I can not carry on like this, it's bringing me down and it's bringing my family down too as we cant do anything together"
WRONG
I was then sent away with work and I have spent the last four weeks staying in hotels eating the usual microwave shit that you get served, a drink with my evening meal, no lunch most days and doing at least 13 hours a day at work or driving. Average sleep of around five hours a night. All this only added up to one thing - a bad ass attack anytime and it came on Thursday night in the hotel.
My hand swelled up and I couldn't move my fingers. I had no lemons to do the alkalising drink so I had to revert to indometacin which I hate with a passion as it usually knocks me for six. I got to sleep around one to be up at five and in work for six as I planned an early finish as I knew the drive home on a Friday would be awful.
I managed to get through the day not too bad but as the afternoon shift arrived at half one they greeted me with the news that they had just shut the motorway due to a bad accident.
That was it, laptop shut and some back roads back north for around thirty miles where I could get on a clear motorway. The first part was ok but then for over 80 miles on the motorway I never once got into top gear. A three hour journey took me ten minutes short of six hours. I was a wreck, my hand was cramping up and I had a splitting head and was knackered.
I have spent most of the weekend on the sofa with my hand either wrapped in ice or a heat pad.
Needless to say I am now hydrating properly and eating properly again, I will never deviate from this again.
From now on it is a minimum of two litres of water a day, fresh cherries, celery and other alkalising foods, cut out the crap such as fizzy drinks and processed foods as a lot of this is very high in acidic ingredients. I did this for five months earlier this year and brought the number and severity of attacks right down, it's all about alkalising your body.
Lemons may sound daft as they are acidic but for some reason when in the body they turn alkaline, as yet no one is 100% sure how this happens but it does and it only happens with lemons and it works.
I have also been reading today that home made juices or smoothies made out of green vegetables such as broccoli and kale can also have an alkalising effect, this I may try though the thought of drinking a concoction made of this makes me want to puke but if it works I'll give it a whirl.
Pete
