I started another thread the other day with questions before this fast, which is here: //www.curezone.org/forums/am.asp?i=2260409

Now that I am actually fasting I wanted to start a new thread to document it. I want to provide info on my experiences by day and the outcome in case this will be useful to someone else out there in the future looking for info.

I'm starting with a summary of my current situation. Then I'll move on to journaling about each day of the fast.

I went to the rheumatologist on Thursday (6/25) and he said that I probably have RA. He asked me to do a blood test (which I did) and took some X-rays and I am supposed to go back on July 16 to get an official diagnosis/treatment options. I assume these treatment options will all be drugs that I would have to take forever. Since I had read that Water Fasting was often helpful for RA, I decided to try it out in the window of time before I have to go back to the rheumatologist, since if I go on drugs to prevent joint damage it will be harder to do a fast then. He also gave me a steroids shot that didn't seem to affect anything at least for the first 48 hours.

PRE-FAST SYMPTOMS:
-Started with pain in the ball of the left foot in late December 2014. Moved to both feet in January. Pain was in the morning and then would go away. Eventually, it would not go away, but it was worse in the morning.
-In March the foot pain lessened a little, but I started to wake up with joint pain in one of the fingers and the thumb of my right hand. Then the pain moved to all of my fingers. It would be worse in the morning and a little stiff, and then the pain and stiffness would go away as the day went on.
-Eventually the pain and stiffness stopped going away, but were worse in the morning. By May, it got to the point where the pain was so bad that it was difficult to do basic tasks like dressing, opening doors, unlocking and locking doors, starting the car, unscrewing caps, signing my name, etc. Everything I did was painful. I could hurt myself by accidentally tapping my thumb against the steering wheel. I would use both hands to start the car and shift out of park. My left hand is less bad, so I rely on it a lot to do basic things, even though it is not my dominant hand. The swelling never goes away, but my fingers tend to be slightly less swollen in the morning.
-At the time of my rheumatology appointment I had a lot of pain in my fingers (probably 8 out of 10 pain rating when I used them), moderate pain in the balls of my feet, as well as slightly less pain in my shoulders (this is usually worse upon awakening), my left elbow, and occasionally my wrists and left knee. However, the pain would fluctuate in severity day by day. The day of the appointment was particularly bad.
- My stool was also frequently loose.

DEFORMITY
-The rheumatologist said that I was developing a deformity in my fingers. I don't remember what he said it was called, but basically my outer finger joints bend more upwards than they are supposed to.

X-RAYS
-The doctor took X-rays of my hands and feet. The feet showed no abnormalities in the X-ray (although they are swollen). The fingers showed thinning of the cartilage, but the bones were unaffected.

POSSIBLE CONTRIBUTORS
-Genetics. My maternal grandmother has RA, osteoarthritis, and osteoporosis. My brother has MS.
-Diet. One of the reasons I am so interested in digestion as it relates to RA is that in 2012 I adopted an experimental and probably stupid diet that affected my eating patterns since then. I was basically a freegan, meaning I would only eat food if it was free. I did this b/c of a combination of not having money and some kind of stubbornness or improperly applied willpower. I was a bad freegan, though. Because bread is easy to obtain for free, some days I would just eat bread. Other days I would literally just eat ice cream. I found I could survive this diet without a ton of difficulty. Then a year later, I started having some emotional difficulties that caused me to come off being a freegan. But at that point I had no measure for what normal eating habits were anymore and had almost no appetite. For the next two years eating was a chore and I would forget to do it frequently. I am considering that my eating experiments may have triggered the RA to start - which is why I am interested in correcting my guts, if necessary, through fasting.

PRE-FASTING
-I drank fruit and vegetable smoothies (2 per day) for the two days preceding the fast.
-I started my period two days before the fast (maybe not relevant).
-I got a steroids shot two days before the fast.

ABOUT ME:
-I am 5'6", 122.2 lbs as of two days before the fast. I am 28 years old and female.