A Young Wife’s Tale

When my husband and I were engaged, my mother told me, “I don’t care whether or not you go for pre-marital counseling. Nothing can prepare you for marriage.” She was right, but not even my mother knew the challenges my husband and I would face in our marriage.

On July 8, we celebrated five years of marriage. Those five years have been dominated by health problems. It started off with my health. I had severe TMJ Disorder and a knee injury. Then in our second year of marriage, my husband, David, was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis. Although he was being treated, he continued to get worse until our third year of marriage when he began experiencing flares that left him bedridden for days at a time.

*Did you know David doesn’t wear a wedding ring? I bought him a white gold band when we got married. He lost it within a few months. We bought a cheap replacement band made of tungsten, but he never wears it. He says it bothers his hands. It’s strange to me because he never mentions his hands hurting. The joints that bother him the most are his vertebra, hips, knees and wrists. He does have psoriatic arthritis in every joint in his body, except his shoulders, but his hands are still stronger than mine. He opens jars for me all the time.

David’s arthritis is no longer flaring every time the weather changes, yet he’s still in a lot of pain. He still can’t too much. He went to a Stars game recently, and although it was fun, he was so sore afterwards, I’m not sure it was worth it. Still, he is much better, and we are very grateful for that.

Not much to report. David’s not in remission, but he didn’t flare this weekend even though we had rain. We were very thankful for that, but I’m still anxious for his arthritis to be in remission.

It feels like we’re on hold. Just waiting for David’s back to be better.

David’s doing okay. Not great, but he’s able to go to work. He even took Henry for a short walk Saturday morning. I don’t know how it is for other well spouses, but it takes me weeks to recover from one of David’s flares. I’m so tired. David hasn’t been sleeping well from the pain, [...]