The World According To Me

This morning was a triumph.

See, despite how I may feel in my mind when the alarm goes off and I want to spring out of bed to face the day (sometimes), the body is not always willing. I'm the unfortunate recipient of early-onset, sporadically appearing and disappearing arthritis which has currently settled itself into, amongst other places, the bones on the top of my right foot and up into my ankle. I know it will go away, maybe tomorrow, maybe in another month, but it's been there for about 6 weeks now and is causing me HELL. So when it comes to leaping out of bed to fling back the curtains, soak up the dawn sunlight and exclaim "What a BEEEEAAAAUUUTTTIFUL day!", it would be more accurate to say that I forget about how my ankle has seized up during the night and as soon as my feet hit the floor I let out a yelp followed closely by a stream of expletives.

And yes, there are pills I can pop every morning for this, and after a while they will kick in, I will be pain free and able to properly hold a pen or open a coffee jar before 10am without wanting to cry (or actually crying). But these pills are treating the symptoms, not the cause, and I try to avoid them if I can. I've tried GP's, a rheumatologist, osteopathic massage, naturopaths, taking fish-oil tablets (whereby every time I burped it tasted like there was a fish-market in my mouth. Not entirely pleasant), taking anti-inflammatories, cutting back on red meat, cutting back on dairy, celery seed tablets and a plethora of other aids which I hoped would prevent the onset of these attacks I get, or at the very least, ease the inflammation and swelling whilst I am experiencing it. The GP's whip out their script pad and instruct me to take one tablet in the morning and one at night, after food. The rheumatologist charged me $180 to tell me he wasn't entirely sure why this happens to me, but here, take these tablets for the rest of your natural life and watch out for those possible side effects. Hair-loss? Check. Weight-gain? I don't need any more! Insomnia? No thanks….the naturopath was good, but I secretly believe they have shares in soy-bean farms and I can't convince myself that cow milk is evil. The osteopathic massage felt nice, but did bugger all to help.

Last night, however, I purchased some Tiger-Balm ointment from the chemist, figuring it couldn't hurt. The worst that could happen is that it ends up in the bathroom cupboard with all my other ill-fated cure-alls, right? I asked Pom very nicely to rub some on the lumpy and troublesome part of my foot whilst I was laying on the couch watching TV swanning it up like the princess I imagine myself to be, and the blessed thing obliged.

It felt a little tingly, a little warm, not at all unpleasant, and smelt interesting too. We later went to bed as usual, joined by both of the 'kids' (Aggie has taken to claiming the warmest part of the bed, right inbetween us, until Pom unceremoniously took her out into the sunroom, citing he was too afraid to roll over in case he crushed her) and went to sleep.

This morning….I get out of bed and make my way to the kitchen and flick on the kettle. I drank my coffee, showered, ate my muesli, put my make-up on and tried to get a brush through my mop of hair. Fed the 'kids', did some ironing, berated Pom about not doing the dishes. Entirely normal morning. Until I realised that I had not once felt any pain in my ankle/foot.

Nothing.

No seizing, no pain, no yelping or expletives. Still lumpy and swollen, but not hurting.

Tiger-balm is my new friend.