Taking Back My Life Song

MY BX ONE YEAR UPDATE

These video's are so beyond hard for me to do. They make me realize where I was, how much it took to get where I am at and how far I have come. What a journey it has been. I thank God everyday I am alive and here. I remind myself everyday to be still and cherish each moment.  I think I have made some HUGE progress aye. 

As you saw in the video I started a business. How crazy is that huh! I am finding my way in the world again. It's very fulfilling and challenging at times. I am realizing the business aspect is about connections. I am figuring it out though. My hope is to give back in some way. I also hope following my heart in what I want to do in life and where I want to be as a wife and mom are in line of where I should be. I know I will be judged taking this route with starting an online business, but it has been something I have always wanted to do. I think we constantly live with fear of being judged and tell ourselves we can't do things or that we're not good enough. I decided, why in the world do (we) I tell myself these things. I learned to fight/conquer these kind of thoughts while being bedridden. Why not fight them now too. And from that moment forward, I decided to go for it.

I am finding my way.......This is my fight song...........I am taking back my life song. :) 

UPDATE: Like I said in the video, I do have damage from over the years that I am still working on and figuring out. I mentioned some damage in previous posts, but I will explain briefly; My eyes are scarred leading to cataract surgery and vision loss, some of my joints have lost the padding so they are bone on bone, my hands and feet I am still figuring out, I need to go to my heart doc again and my bottom jaw moved backwards from the disease attacking my jaw.  my insurance just accepted a jaw specialist, so I will be figuring that out soon. The good news is the doctors are really excited my body is showing signs of repairing itself, which is awesome!

I have 5 doctors right now over my care. My doctors are amazed at how well I am doing. Every time I go in I get things like, wow its an Emily transformation. One doctor said, You look really bad @ss in that leather jacket. Ha, ha I was a little taken back and said, oh....uhhh...well....thank... you. LOL In my mind I was thinking, I think that's a compliment. Ha, ha And one guy doctor said, you sure like it when your hair is done don't you? Me: ummm....y..e..s I do. LOL (I really do). They were all guy doctors so I think they were telling me good job, you look good, you look different as being good. I  think. :) LOL 

My doctors frequently tell me they tear up when they see me and think of where I was and where I am at now. When they look at me, I know they look at me in bewilderment and amazement which reminds me of where I've been and where I am now. I tear up just thinking about it. Oh what a long hard journey it has been.

I guess its kinda silly to put songs with my life, but this, Fight Song by Rachel Platten resonates something in me that is hard to describe. I like it. It reminds me to tell my mind/ body the lyrics;  

Like a small boat

On the ocean

Sending big waves

Into motion

Like how a single word

Can make a heart open

I might only have one match

But I can make an explosion

And all those things I didn't say

Wrecking balls inside my brain

I will scream them loud tonight

Can you hear my voice this time

This is my fight song

Take back my life song

Prove I'm alright song

My power's turned on

(Starting right now) I'll be strong

I'll play my fight song

And I don't really care if nobody else believes

'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

I am finding my way.......This is my fight song...........I am taking back my life song. :) 

                                                                             ~EM

~My first BX video is below in another post.

The Spoon Theory Analogy

This article pertains to any chronic illness.  A lot of the time when people ask me what its like having RA and Lyme's it is hard to explain and a lot of the time I don't know what to say.  I wonder, do they really want to know or should I just say I am fine, because I don't want to complain too much. This article  is the best way to explain my everyday life of what it's like. Luckily, my energy levels are getting better and better to be able to use more spoons (energy). It is the perfect analogy living and fighting it everyday!

Go to the link below to read it:

http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/

~EM

Continuing Hope

This post is extremely hard for me to share the pieces and glimpses of time.  There is continued......HOPE. 

Fighting to come up from being bedridden has been a mix of emotions. It has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. To one of the most exhilarating times of my life.  In my mind I really thought coming up would be easier than coping with being bedridden for some reason. I realized right off it was easier to give up than to fight everyday. But there was a time when I was very bedridden and everything seemed bleak, I decided fighting is what I wanted more than anything.  I decided I would do all that was necessary and took mentally/ physically to accomplish that goal. Little did I realize how much torture that would truly be. Looking back now, my hard work at trying to make my body move and my own physical therapy has payed off. I still feel like I got a lot of work to do, but I know I've come a long ways. :)

Coming up my eyes have been a challenge. The disease caused my eyes to have visible scars. Self consciously I wanted to hide them more. Especially, now that I'm getting out more in public.  Eye contact has been really hard. It was hard before just with my shyness, but now it is extremely hard. I wanted to hide my blue scars.  But I thought you know, I should look through these eyes of being proud of myself for not giving up, overcoming and accomplishing this crazy journey I called a prison.  To now see through these scarred eyes I see things differently.  I am truly blessed. Through these scarred eyes I see the beauty and simple things all around me. I love the outdoors and now its just magnified. The colors of everything mean more to me. My eyes aren't fully functioning, but I am blessed through these scarred eyes....... I can see. There is such a deep gratitude for everything around me that I took for granted before.

I also had to learn how to be in the world again. I am socially awkward as it was before, but communicating was a challenge of expressing what I had gone through. I often wondered, will people believe where I was, or what I went through or what I go through? I didn't let very many people into my home for I didn't want anyone to see how bad it truly was. It was humiliating to me. I thought you know, does it really matter what people think? People might not understand fully now that I'm coming up, but I realized and knew how much people truly cared for me and my family.

There has also been times I have felt so lost or alone. It was like learning how to be in my kids lives all over again. They were 3 years older now. They learned how to cope with a bedridden mom and they had to get used to me trying to be apart of their lives again. They were grateful I was coming up, but I felt it was confusing to them and to me. Coming up they weren't the same little kids as before. I wasn't the same in some ways too. It was another change and adjustment. From my husbands point of view he was just very grateful I was coming up. He always encouraged me to do things at my own pace. Especially with the house. It was very overwhelming to me to try to conquer those chores. At first it was very discouraging trying to move to do things. Sometimes I couldn't do things at all. He never got mad at how slow I was, or how messy the house was.  He was just grateful I was trying to conquer things.

I realize now, I missed out on my families life for a time, but what's most important........ is that I'm alive..... I am here. I have this opportunity at a 2nd chance at life now.

 I think it's time to share a glimpse of the examples of when it was extremely bad and to show you how I am doing now. We are keeping our fingers crossed I will continue to improve, especially through this winter. As most of you know winters have been extremely hard in the past. We are very hopeful this treatment and everything I am doing will continue to be that stepping stone to helping me get fully better.

This video below portrays a glimpse of my journey of what it was like. It is very hard to see myself in this video. It's hard to not be critical of everything I did, said, facial expressions and look like, or see the differences of what the disease did to me. It is what it is though. LOL I thought the guy (Brian Randall) who filmed me did a great job portraying of what it was like. Like I said this is beyond hard for me to share, but I share this video in hopes to give someone else a HOPE that you can come up from this. Just keep searching and trying. You can conquer and rise from the ground up. Whatever you do Please DON'T GIVE UP.   

The cover picture is a funny face, but all well. LOL

Here's my BX Story:

I still got work to do as you can all see. :) I am so Happy I'm improving. I am extremely happy I'm able to be a mom and wife again. I am happy I am able to start living and enjoying life again.

A  huge shout out and thanks to part of my doctor team;

To Jeanette and Nick Fransen for trying to help me find ways of fixing myself. You helped me realize I don't need to listen to doctors that told me I was going to die. I decide my own timeline and goals.

To my RA doctor, thank you for being open minded and for supporting me. Thank you for telling me not to give up.

To my eye specialists team and to the many other eye docs that come in every time I have an appointment to take a peek at my eyes to see their uniqueness. I feel like a celebrity. LOL  They are considered to be the best eye specialists in the state. I'm grateful for them.

A huge thanks to Dr. Dewayne Smith for giving me an opportunity to share my BX story and for helping me. Thank you for running into and knowing my dad. I can't deny how inspired that all came about.

And to Dr. Todd Mauer for being a huge part of my BX journey and a good friend.  You saw my disease at its worst times over the last few years, you physically had to help move me. It was like dead weight I know, because I couldn't move my limbs very well to help. You also gave me encouragement to keep going.  Thank you more than you know Todd!

I appreciate you all more than you know. Thank you for helping me get my life back. :)

And a huge thanks to my husband for not giving up on me. You have gone above and beyond the words, you stuck by me and loved me through thick and thin. I love you.

And to my parents, family and friends ( there are too many to name) who gave me encouragement. You also never gave up on me. 3 years is a very long time to support someone. I felt bad for that. You went above and beyond to help our family when we needed it most. You were understanding and a support to encourage us to keep searching for help when some discouraged us from searching. You showed a great love and support to us that we will be forever grateful to you for.

Please know I couldn't have gotten through this journey without any of you. Thank you for always being a continual support.

~Em

Enjoying life!

Rising From The Ground

Over the years in my past blog posts, I thought about symbols in my life of how to keep going each day. I didn't intend to make quotes out of my thoughts, but when I went over things I saw my words in a different light. The quotes below I put together from things that I thought about and words that meant something to me overtime. (The background pics are either my own, or from google images. I left the watermark if their was one to give credit.) I hope someday my kids can look to these quotes for comfort knowing they were the focus of my mind. I hope they know I fought for them and am still fighting.  I also hope my messages of what I have gone through, can help bring comfort to others going through something hard. That's one reason I made my blog journaling public.

This quote is from the blog post, 

"I Won't Give Up".

This is my sweet little girl. 

This is from the blog post,

 "Diamond In The Rough". 

And of course my 3 kids are my, 

"Beautiful Diamond's in the Rough". 

The quote below is about one of the things that kept me going. This subject kept coming up frequently in my mind, so I knew and felt this was something I really needed to work on. Not that I  always thought negative in the past, but going through this trial made me work on it like never before. I truly believe positive thinking kept me alive and I truly believe it helped me find myself in a way I never thought about before.

This one below is from the blog post, 

"Angels Watching Over Me".

This is from the blog post,

 "Renewed Hope".

This update below is to help me remember what it was like trying to come up.

Update: Trying to come up from being bedridden the last 3 years is harder than I ever imagined. It is harder than any kind of race/marathon I have ever prepared for mentally or physically. These races in the past might have been small to some, but the races I did train for was a huge accomplishment to me with everything I've ever gone through. 

Currently: I've been trying to walk for several months now. I wanted to somehow change getting out of bed and change my energy levels. I Figured, "Well, my hands need time to progress to do things. I'm not exactly ready there. But I thought you know, I don't walk well, but I can limp somewhat. That is when I fully realized, walking is the key for me to to increase those energy levels". I was hoping walking would help me sit up and last longer trying to get out of bed. This is also when I realized that I was the only one to change this since the meds were very slow in helping me.  I finally felt like I was at a place in this journey to work on this fully.  I don't think my body was ever ready to work physically, but my mind was. My determination never left. (Little did I know I would have to have the same determination and will to survive these last 3 years as the will and determination as I had to have when running.  It prepared me.) My body was just too sick in the years past to even try to consider working on it.  When I first started walking, every time I tried to get on the treadmill I would scream in pain and cry the whole way through. I wanted my life back sooooo bad. I didn't care how much each step hurt. (I don't recommend that per say to anyone) I worked through the extreme fatigue, pain, nausea, and constant sweating from fevers. That is what my days are like trying to walk and function each day even when sitting. Well it's been awhile now.  The symptoms are still WAY hard, but not as bad though. They are slowly dissipating. I can talk, walk and stand more now, because I've worked so hard the last several months.

It's nice to say,

"I did that and no doctor could ever do that for me, that part was ALL ME".  

Yes medicine/herbs helped me to not have further damage, but when I walked, is when I really noticed IMPROVEMENT. Yeah!!! Walking really helped kick start my improvements, along with herbs and everything I'm doing right now. It is still to early to tell with the new treatment I'm doing, but I'll let all my Lyme peeps know when I know more of how it is affecting me. It was hard in the beginning and sometimes still is, but so far I really think I am noticing improvements from this treatment.  Time will tell to know more fully.  I know I still have a long ways to go physically, but my body is getting way better day by day. I still get extremely frustrated with my up and down days. Some days I'll feel well enough to get up and the next day I plummet hard not even being able to get up at all that day. Those days are hard when I feel like I'm going backwards, but it's awesome when I come up on the good days and have even more improvements.

I have realized at this time, I might not be where I want to be physically yet, but I remind myself of where I've been and how far I've come from only a year ago or even from the broad spectrum of  trials in this journey. I need to be happy and proud of the work I've accomplished  so far and what I have done on my own.

My physical therapy team.

I named this blog, 

"Rising From The Ground". 

Throughout this journey, my life at times has often reflected the lyrics of the song, "Skyscraper". For when life feels like it is tearing me down or feels like it is breaking everything I am,

I will be......RISING......from...the....ground.

Like..a......SKYSCRAPER....

Here are the 2 versions of the song that I like. 

              Demi Lavato                        Tyler Ward

I will be rising from the ground,

Em

I Won't Give Up

January 4, 2014

Everyone has their battle scars whether it shows on the outside or hidden deep within. On this journey I've learned for me, each day is a battle to try and conquer both.

I've learned mind and body are connected in ways that are beyond hard for us to fully comprehend. I know how we choose to think, affects every aspect of our lives. It even affects those around us. I have often wondered and now learned that it's a matter of how we choose to respond to these feelings and battles within, that helps us overcome it. I decided to share my battle scars as a part of my update. The fundraisers forced me to open the door that I didn't exactly want to share but I knew I had to. LOL. I was very grateful for those fundraisers. I was touched and surprised by the support we received. We were truly blessed to pay down some medical bills.  I know people are curious as to how I am doing and I owe it to everyone to open up. Most of the scars I have been dealt from time to time are the constant pain, extreme exhaustion that is my constant companion, losing part of my eyesight, the loss of being active, loss of missing out, fear, anger, loneliness, isolation (feeling like my life is a prison). Those are my battle scars within. It's the destruction of the inflammation plaguing my body. It's there, hidden, destroying everything in its path.

The outside battle scars are; Every joint is affected in my movement in one way or another affecting daily simple functions array of life, like picking stuff up, not being able to use my fingers etc. I walk with a limp because my ankles have degenerated. I can't go up or down steps without help. It depends how much strength I have that day too. My eyes have battle wounds of themselves. The whites of my eyes have a blue hue and are scarred permanently.

These are my battle scars. I may not feel comfortable with it all or like it. The disease changed me, even my face a bit. I have to have hope that it's not always going to be like this. It has taken me a lot of time to learn how to turn that panicking fear into comfort. I began to turn those thoughts into, I'm going to live, I'm going get through this. I'm going to be a wife and mother fully again. I soon realized if I thought negative thoughts about life, it made it worse and made it so I wasn't able to move past those thoughts and my life started losing that important constant, HOPE. I had feelings of anger about the cards I've been dealt/given in life, I've tried to learn to remind myself to smile. I made a goal to move each day even if my body hurts like crazy along with the constant fatigue. If I don't feel like moving, I would do it anyways. My stubbornness has helped because it was and is a constant fight to stay out of that wheel chair/bed. I am still working on it. I've got a long way to go, but it's coming. I learned to try to laugh again, I started downloading bright happy pictures and quotes that I want to paint someday. I started to meditate which I thought was a crazy, sounds weird, but has helped a ton. Those are some of the things that have helped me cope with being bedridden.

My journey at this time has taught me I just need to get through these daily battles and TRY, TRY again. Life can be a difficult journey, it's up to us to decide for ourselves how to respond to our daily battles within.

Update: I'm improving very slowly. It's a night and day difference from last winter in 2012/13 when we thought I wasn't going to make it. The doctors are turning parts of my immune system off. I realize this is not the solution I had hoped for. We did everything we could and tried many things to fix it, but for now this is what's keeping me alive. It's been a year since being on these immune suppressants and I'm still mostly bedridden, but I'm getting up a bit more. We are hoping my heart, lungs, joints are healing. As for my eyes I have necrotizing nodular scleritis that is result of the disease. I'm half blind in the way of being really farsighted. I can't see facial expressions from very far. Thankfully, so far I can read up close, so that is a huge blessing.

Beware: I'm about to show my eyes a few months after the necrotizing nodular scleritis began. We have tried to get my pics from the doctor. It's been about a month and a half since trying to get them. The clinic just sent us paper pics instead of digital pics of my eyes. Maybe these one's Kent took is better anyways, because they were really gruesome at the beginning and these are pretty bad. I'll keep trying to get them. Crazy looking back at them huh!

BEFORE:

NOW:

I actually was able to get ready a couple times this month. Yay! That is WAY.....huge for me. It's hard to use my hands (they can't curl into fists and they are a bit crooked to look at). My right wrist won't move up and down. It's painful to put curlers in, but I did it. Hopefully, getting ready will go from a couple times a month to once a week, to twice a week, to everyday. Those are my goals anyways. At least I am starting to have a couple days when I feel like I can function a bit. I tried to cook with my oldest one day and I couldn't open anything or cut anything, but I have to believe that it will come. Most days feel like a really bad cold or flu. You know that extreme exhaustion that comes along with those colds/flu that's how my everyday feels. It's very, very frustrating and hard to function and talk to people feeling like that. Some days vary from really really bad, to bad, to okay. Friends and family please be patient with me. I miss my life with you all. I'm really trying to come up from this, I've realized it's going to take time. Also, know I can't be around winter colds/sickness. It puts me down again on my death bed and takes me a month to get over where as a normal immune system takes a few days. I'm coming up though. Sorry to people who showed up at my door in the past and wanted to see me. If I didn't come, I couldn't function that day at all. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Why each day is different from the next, I don't know. I've asked many doctors that question and they can't give me a sufficient answer. Please forgive me. Sometimes I am sooo out of it I sleep a ton and have no idea people came.

This pic is one of the days I was able to get ready for my doctor appointment. I wanted to prove to him I was improving. You can't tell in this pic, but I've lost some of the steroid cheeks. Thank goodness. You also can't tell when I close my mouth my jaw is jacked up. I'm hoping I don't have to have surgery or tons of dental work and I hope the jaw joints go naturally back to normal.

I do know that there has to be something else out there to help me. I feel it. There's always promising things to try and we hear about them all the time. Each route we've tried has helped for a time, but each one wasn't enough to sustain me fully, even now. For some reason I have such a desire to not give up that HOPE that something will help fully. We're trying alternative therapies too and that looks promising. I am hoping for inspiration on the the next step. And of course that we can afford the treatment. We are currently looking into the article below in the next post with the research being done at the U of U.

I chose this song on my blog for the words: 

I won't give up on us even if the skies get rough. I'm giving you all my love, I'm still looking up.

If the song does not play for you, here it is on youtube:

http://youtu.be/ZBDmUqp0JTU

I've been sick for 9 years, bedridden for 4 years of that time. 1 1/2 years at the beginning and 3 years are currently right now. The other years were shutting off my immune system, providing temporary relief, but not fixing it. My body began to reject meds and I started having all sorts of side effect problems. But during it all I have told myself I won't give up. I'm also thankful Kent hasn't given up on me during this time. Taking care of someone is very hard and not fun at all. Our lives changed dramatically. He always gave me encouragement when times were bleak. He was and is my rock. 

I won't give up on us even if the skies get rough. I'm giving you all my love, I'm still looking up. What better way to help me keep going.

Em

Cure For RA & Lyme's???

January 3, 2014

U Of U Researchers May Have Discovered A Breakthrough For Treating Lyme Disease

(KUTV) A scientific breakthrough that could change the lives of those suffering from Lyme disease and rheumatoid arthritis as researchers at the University of Utah's Department of Pathology identifies a gene deficiency that makes individuals susceptible to developing severe inflammatory arthritis. 

Their findings were published Thursday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Their work - 20 years in the making - gives new insight into how the condition develops and into possible treats or even find a cure. 

Dr. Janis Weis, Professor of Pathology at the U, started the study with former BYU professor Corey Tuscher, now with the University of Vermont, the goal is to identify the cellular processes that influence the severity of Lyme arthritis, "Why do some people get sick and other people do not." 

Their findings became so much more than that, possibly improving the lives of those who suffer from Lyme disease but also rheumatoid arthritis, where symptoms can be similar.

Four years ago, Dr. Kenneth KC Bramwell came on board. "When I started, they had essentially a big haystack and I needed to find the needle in that haystack," Dr. Bramwell told 2News. He said through a process of refinement, they found it, "We've identified a gene, a pathway, and potentially a therapeutic strategy." 

The lead author of the study, Dr. Bramwell explains they were able to correct that partial deficiency in test animals, and feel the results will be similar in patients. "We think that if we can achieve that, potentially through a drug target, we could essentially reduce the severity of disease in the human population." 

They say the findings are exciting and they can't wait to take the next step working with the Centers for Disease Control and hospitals. A grant is currently under consideration to fund their work moving forward. Thus far, funding is thanks to the National Institutes of Health and The Arthritis Foundation.

By Amy Nay

(Copyright 2014 Sinclair Broadcasting Group)Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ligula suspendisse nulla pretium, rhoncus tempor fermentum, enim integer ad vestibulum volutpat. Nisl rhoncus turpis est, vel elit, congue wisi enim nunc ultricies sit, magna tincidunt. Maecenas aliquam maecenas ligula nostra, accumsan taciti. Sociis mauris in integer, a dolor netus non dui. 

Gene Variant Exacerbates Inflammatory Arthritis in Mice

Researchers discovered a gene variant that predisposes carriers to severe, inflammatory arthritis, implicating a new class of genes in arthritis progression.

Media Contacts

Severe Arthritis in Mouse Joint

Dec 16, 2013 11:21 AM

(SALT LAKE CITY)—University of Utah researchers have discovered a naturally occurring genetic variation in mice that predisposes carriers toward developing severe, inflammatory arthritis. The finding implicates a new class of genes in arthritis progression, potentially opening doors to new treatment options. The study will be published ahead of print on Dec. 16 in the online issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Among individuals with inflammatory arthritis, the severity of symptoms, which include joint swelling, pain, and stiffness, varies greatly. The phenomenon is readily apparent among patients of Lyme disease, caused by a bacterial infection that is transmitted by ticks. Despite antibiotic treatment, up to 10 percent of patients will develop chronic Lyme arthritis.

 “We were hoping to identify genes and physiological pathways responsible for the differences in arthritis severity, with an eventual goal of identifying potential therapeutic interventions,” says Janis Weis, Ph.D., U of U professor of pathology and senior author on the study.

Weis’ investigation began after learning that, similar to what is observed in people, a strain of mice called C3H develops severe arthritis with Lyme disease, while a different strain, B6, develops mild symptoms. Because the mice are highly inbred, mice in each strain are near genetic carbon copies of one another. This feature has allowed her group to cross the two strains, progressively narrowing down regions of C3H DNA that confer arthritis susceptibility in offspring.

A result 20 years in the making, her group, in collaboration with Dr. Cory Teuscher at the University of Vermont, arrived at a single base pair change, or polymorphism, in the gene ß- glucuronidase (Gusb) that they call Gusbh. Gusbh mice not only develop severe arthritis symptoms in response to Lyme disease, but also to a rheumatoid arthritis-like condition. This finding implicates that the protein encoded by Gusb is a contributor to two types of inflammatory arthritis, expanding the potential impact to a larger group of arthritis patients.

The GUSB protein is an enzyme that resides in the lysosome, often considered the “stomach” of the cell. There, the enzyme breaks down complex carbohydrates called glycosaminoglycans (GAGs).

Until now, there were no clues as to how this type of protein might regulate arthritis progression. “All we knew is that Gusb is a housekeeping gene that carries out the nuts and bolts activities in the cell,” says Kenneth Bramwell, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Weis’ lab and lead author on the study. “We had our work cut out for us.”

The study shows that Gusbh causes an amino acid change that lowers the enzymatic activity of the protein by up to 90 percent. Consistent with the observation, GAGs fail to be broken down in Gusbh mice with inflammatory arthritis, and accumulate at sites of inflammation. These findings suggest that the build-up of GAGs is a contributing factor to the development of severe arthritis.

“These [GAGs] may be activating the innate immune response. That’s one possibility. It could be that GAGs are deposited in response to this infection and that that contributes to a more severe disease trajectory,” says Bramwell. Future studies will focus on understanding the mechanism, with the intention of identifying new ways to halt disease progression.

This is the first time that a lysosomal storage enzyme has been implicated in the development of arthritis. The discovery reveals the possibility that GUSB or the 40 other members of this class of proteins may also be involved in the progression of arthritis in people.

“The doctors that we’ve spoken to who have familiarity with rheumatoid arthritis are quite excited by these findings,” says Bramwell.

Listen to Weis and Bramwell discuss their discovery on The Scope Radio.

This work was funded by National Institutes of Health grants R01AR43521, R01AI32223, T32AI055434, R01NS061014, R01AI042747, R01NS060901, R01NS036526, and the Arthritis Foundation.

Research reported in this [publication/press release] was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) R01AI32223, T32AI055434, R01AI042747, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) R01AR43521, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) R01NS061014, R01NS060901, R01NS036526, and the Arthritis Foundation.