The Lord + turmeric = success

Some people have been commenting that I seem to be getting around a bit better recently, so I thought I'd do a bit of autobiography.

For several years I found myself unable to whizz around on my feet as I always had. Back in 2000 I broke my ankle very badly, and from 2013 I'd had a series of problems to do with my right foot and leg. So when around 2015 I started to notice a more general slowing down I thought it was to do with these problems, or being out of shape or whatever. But in myself I thought, no, it's something else - I'm not tired or out of breath, my right foot improved, but I still was slowing down.

Then in 2019 things got worse. I found I couldn't do some simple things involving my legs, until the week I took in York on holiday, when I had to buy a stick to help me get around - the one I still use. The "last straw" was that year's September Pilgrimage, which almost finished me off, especially a climb through a village in France (Vezelay, left) and also up on to the ferry at Caen. I got home and felt pretty dreadful.  Luckily that's also when Fr Andy came on the scene - what a gift from the Lord!  I felt traumatised. For example I now had to sit on my bed for 30 minutes before I could even move to get to the bathroom in the morning. Getting up onto the altar at St Brigid's was impossible. A bit of research landed me on "osteoarthritis of the hips", and a visit to the GP confirmed it along with X-rays at the Heath, though they said "mild to moderate" there. So now at least I could put a name on this underlying problem. Docs put me on Paracetamol for the arthritis, and on the whole it handles it - as long as I remember to take it during the day! 

But then a year ago things got worse, when I started to get awful muscle pains in my upper legs, especially when changing between sitting, standing and walking. By September I decided to see the consultant, the top man in rheumatology. It turned out to be a great decision. After pulling me around the shop in every direction, he declared I was nowhere near needing an operation as actually my mobility was pretty good. But the muscle pain was different, it was an effect of the arthritis, and he suggested a different painkiller for that. 

Just on the end of the conversation he mentioned turmeric as the only "alternative" that he had any time for, as it contains  a natural anti-inflammatory, so I bought some capsules, 1 or 2 a day. I started taking one, but not much difference, so I upped to two. Within a  few days the muscular pain was disappearing and more or less vanished, not to return (please God). By Christmas I was realising I could get to the bathroom very much quicker, and I was soon  moving more quickly too, though still with my stick. More recently I am trying to go without the stick more and more in the house, and as the weather improves I aim to be out and about more and more. 

I appreciate that confidence also plays a large part in these things, but I am very very grateful for those words about turmeric, of which I am now a great advocate. So that's where we are. Slow and steady we're getting there. I don't know yet where 'there' will be, but hopefully the dark days of 2019/2020 have receded - at least for the moment! Thankyou to everyone for your patience, love and support.