I Heal Remarkably Faster Than 99.9% of my Surgeons Patients, You Can Too!

I am recuperating well from hand surgery. I thought I would talk a little bit about why I had to have the surgery and my experience eating real foods, meat, vegetables, fruits, and how I healed after this surgery and my last two surgeries on my hands last year.
 
The reason I have had these hand surgeries is due to my Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).  RA is an autoimmune disease where your body attacks synovial connective tissue linings.  Synovial linings are around your joints, the lining of the tunnels the tendons slide through in fingers and toes, your eyes, your heart and your lungs.  I was resistant to many medications, they did not work, and it took 2 years to find one to slow the progression of my disease (I also did holistic things and tweaked my diet during this time, but I was clearly progressing FAST in this disease).  I had been in remission from RA for 20 + years.

During that time, my finger joints, elbows and feet were horribly attacked causing much damage, some permanent. The synovial lining of the sheaths/tunnels of my thumbs, pointer and long fingers on both hands were basically had chunks removed and sitting in the sheaths, causing trigger fingers.  I had to have surgery not only to correct that, but so I would not be permanently unable to use those fingers.  I had to wait until I was stable on medication to have the surgery.  I had 3 fingers on my my left hand done last February and 3 fingers done on my right hand done last March. 

In April, my insurance told me I had to switch to the new generic of my medication that had come out.  I called my doctor in a panic, and she wrote a letter to the insurance company explaining how resistant I had been and listed all the medications she had tried, as well as the permanent damage that had been done, that she felt that this was dangerous and I should not have my medication changed.  They replied that they had approved my name brand drug for a year, from April 2024 through April 2025. 

I went to refill my medication in May and was told the doctor still had not called in my generic, and I could not have the name brand.  I explained I had a letter right in front of me… I spoke to about 8 people that day, they all said “Oh the letter SHOULD have stated that once the generic was available, you had to take that” I said “But it does NOT say that…  My doctor suggested I try it for 3 months. She was seeing other patients who noticed no difference.

In May I began the generic, I also got a cold about a week in.  My RA symptoms all returned. When I got the cold, I had a rash all over my hands and legs. My doctor said to give it time…  By June I had new trigger fingers in my right-hand pinky and ring finger, I also realized the rash was coming back strong and then fading away, in exact timing of when I injected the medication and as I got closer to the next dose. I also had these large red bumps form on my arms, the size of a small marble. I spoke the specialty pharmacist having given up on the doctor who kept saying give it time.  She was horrified, I should have no symptoms, and the rash and bumps were an allergic rection, I had to stop it immediately.  I was almost immediately switched BACK to the name brand drug.

Sadly, it was not working AS well as it had, so my dosing was changed to weekly from bi-weekly, over the next few months I saw improvement, and waited until I was symptom free for a few months to go see the surgeon, for the pinky and ring fingers on my right hand.  So here we are, insurance caused this, and despite fighting for hours on the phone with them and my doctor, my medication was changed to one that did not work for me and I was allergic to.  My records at the specialty pharmacy (run by the insurance company) now state in RED that I am not to be changed off my medication unless I have a doctor’s orders.  Wouldn’t you think that would be the way it SHOULD be?!

Last year, my surgeon took my stitches out 13 days after surgery. That is when he has found people have fully healed. The incisions are in the palms of my hand, it was technically my fingers that were operated on.

The first surgery on my left hand, he was shocked at how healed I was, the skin had closed over and around the stitches, it took an hour to get them out and should have taken under a minute. I still have one stitch in there.

A month later I had surgery on the right hand, I asked if we could remove the stitches sooner, due to how fast I had healed last time, he thought it was a fluke and insisted I needed 13 days.  I healed even FASTER the second time.

This time I put my foot down, I pointed out that if it was NOT time to remove them, I could come back another day, that I was rather traumatized by the experience of the last two times and did not want to go through that again.  He agreed if I was willing to come back if I was NOT healed, that I could come 8 days after surgery for my stitches to be removed.  I went back 8 days after surgery, I was fully healed, and my stitches were out painlessly in under a minute.

Why do I heal faster than his other patients?  My diet.  I am immune compromised due to the Biologic I take for my Rheumatoid Arthritis, I should heal slower due to that.  But I eat real food, I eat protein 3 times a day or more, I eat fats and vegetables and one serving of fruit a day.  I eat real food, and my body can do what it was designed to do because of it. I was HUNGRY the week following surgery and was eating much more than usual, but all meat, vegetables and my serving of fruit.  My husband had been doing all the cooking and made sure there was plenty for me to have leftovers while he was at work.  My weight did not change despite being about double the amount of food, I figure my body needed it to heal.

So here is my testimony for real food, eat it, and your body will do what it was designed to do!