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It began when I experienced an extremely sharp pain in my right shoulder that lasted for three straight days, during which I couldn't kneel, sit, stand, lean, lay in a position that would provide relief, all the while crying from the intensity of the pain. I was living in Connecticut at the time, and a visit to our doctor resulted in a cortisone injection directly into the joint area, which I didn't feel because the shoulder pain was so intense. "It's bursitis." was the doctor's diagnosis.

Several months later I experienced a sharp pain in my right knee. It wasn't as severe as the pain in my right shoulder had been, so I didn't bother going to the doctor. I took aspirin, and within the day it had dissipated.

Not long after that episode I experienced a sharp pain in my left ankle. I began to sense there was a pattern to all of this, but couldn't put my finger on it. My mother suggested it might be arthritis, which is what she had at the time. Again, I took aspirin and resumed life. The pain dissipated in a day.

My mother told me about a program that our local hospital was offering for treatment program people suffering from RA symptoms, so I took immediate advantage of it. I was put on a regimen of between 9 and 12 aspirin per day which, although it may have kept the pain at bay, resulted in a ringing in my ears that soon became intolerable. My hands had started showing signs of swelling and the joints were becoming stiff and painful, which the folks at the hospital treated with hot wax immersion and a nighttime splint for each hand. The splints were designed to keep my hands from curling into a closed fist, which had previously been painful to undo when I awoke each morning.

As time went by the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis became more severe, and as luck would have it, a doctor specializing in RA opened his new practice in the next town. I made an appointment, and his diagnosis confirmed my suspicion: rheumatoid arthritis. His first order of business for me was a 7-day hospital stay, during which I received whirlpool baths and complete off-my-feet rest. About half way through this period he began giving me injections of gold in solution. After leaving the hospital I continued to receive these injections about one each month. I eventually achieved, in his terms, 95% remission!

Believing I had beaten RA, I, in my own wisdom, decided I didn't need further treatment, so I stopped going to that doctor.

In 1983, not long after stopping my treatments in Connecticut,

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