In the beginning, there was Pain

 So I decided to start this blog off with the why? Everyone always wants to know why people decide to do what they do.

I am 53, an African American female with multiple chronic health issues. I have osteoarthritis, diabetes, gout, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity. However, it has been the Gout and the arthritis that has been the catalyst for this new fire in my belly. See, I have had these issues for at least 10 years but they have been getting much worse. In 2021 it was so bad I was confined to a bed at least once a month due to the severe pain and swelling. 

It affected my job, my eating, and even my hygiene. I would get pain so bad I would even end up in the ER trying to get relief. It was bad enough from the gout attacks swelling my joints, but afterwards it would cause damage to whatever joint it attacked. I would then have to go to specialists, get cortisone shots and physical therapy. Afterwards, I would have to relearn a different way to bathe myself, use the bathroom and even cook. 

This is why I started this blog and my podcasts with the same name: "The Arthritic Cook''. In trying to accommodate my decreasing range of mobility, I went looking for equipment, gadgets, and tools. I found out quickly, that even though we have over 27 million Americans with some form of Osteoarthritis, there was no one website that had what I needed. I am a foodie and have been one since I was 12 years old. I don't want anyone to cook my food and with my gumbo pot of health issues, my diet is custom made. I had to search multiple websites to find even the things I knew I needed but I know that there are at least another 7 million people that don't know what to search for to help themselves in the kitchen. 

They are just suffering in silence cooking their everyday meals, or worse yet, having someone else cook their meals for them in their own kitchen. This is why I started this blog and the podcast, to help out others like me suffering in silence.