2 Year RA-eversary

I feel like I need to remember this day every year. Though I started having symptoms earlier, this was (or maybe it was yesterday) my official day of diagnosis. 2 years ago. And it has been a long 2 years. But 2 years that have challenged what I thought I could endure, challenged how I view what God's love means, challenged my struggle to let people into my life too much, and have left me on the other side. I have been off steroids and on only my two shots for 2 months which I haven't been able to do in over 2 years. Acupuncture, changing my diet, meds, prayer and who knows what else have helped me get to this point.
Ironic that yesterday I had the first flare up I have had since going to Kenya in November...not sure. But it has been my "best" flare up yet, as I was able to work and function fairly normally. I don't know if you can see it in these photos, but I thought I needed to try and document what a "good" flare up looks: like red and swollen. Yuck!

But it usually feels more like this:

Thanks, Charlie Brown for putting words to my pain :)
In the midst of even the flare up I can see how far I have come in 2 years in terms of the emotional burden of this disease. It used to take everything out of me, honestly, to make it day by day but especially when I had a flare up. Now, strangely this feels more like part of life. I can't say that I like it but I don't feel like every fiber of my being is fighting against what I have been given.
So I will raise my chocolate chip cookie (vegan of course) to my 2 year RA)-eversary.
Oh, and fun fact thanks to Evy: Lucille Ball had RA. And some other celebs who, shocker, I don't know who they are.