Resilience:  Lottie Fortune, A Story of Healing Arthritis  Jerry Dahmen

Excerpted from the book “I Love Life...In Spite of It All” (Broadman and Holman Publishing)

*Includes Lottie Fortune's Modified Arthritis Diet at the end. 

When my interview with Lottie Fortune first aired, the phone response was unbelievable. "Is there any way you could tell us what this woman did to cure her arthritis?" was the typical question. Lottie had been battling crippling disability and pain nearly a decade ago--and now was enjoying life free of arthritis.

 

It was not surprising her story had generated such a positive reaction. Over thirty-seven million Americans suffer from one form of arthritis or another. That averages out to one person in every three families. Many have lost hope and have given up on life and themselves.

 

But Lottie was not among them. She is a vibrant sixty-year old who plays tennis three times a week, has earned a yellow belt in karate, and has led support groups on arthritis.

 

Only eight years before we met, Lottie couldn't bend over the sink to brush her teeth. Climbing in and out of the car became a horrifying ordeal. Merely holding onto a wooden spoon or rolling pin was painful, and a good night's sleep was non-existent. Lottie, then living in Boston, had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis.

 

The doctors put it on the line to her. "Lottie, there's nothing you can do about the disease. You'll simply have to accept it."

 

"But," the determined woman demanded, "there has to be something I can do. I can't live my life in constant pain and not do anything about it."

"There are ways to handle the pain," they advised her. "We can prescribe medications that will alleviate part of the hurt, but that's about it."

Lottie wouldn't face the "facts." At first, she was in denial and thought to herself, “This couldn't be happening to me. I was following all the good health rules, or thought I was. When the pain became unbearable, I had to accept the reality of the diagnosis."

 

But Lottie was not allowing anyone, including her physicians, to assume control of her life. Then and there she made a pact with herself to become responsible for overcoming the arthritic pain. Lottie first and foremost prayed: "Dear God, please help me find a way to end this disease. I need Your guidance, Lord. I want to live--not merely exist."

 

While she was praying and hoping, Lottie tried to be, in her own words, a "good patient." She did what the doctors asked her to do and would not complain. She was also swallowing dozens of prescribed pills daily.

 

Starting with twelve aspirin a day, she was popping all kinds of anti-inflammatory drugs into her system like Indocin, Naifon, cortisone, and more. Wrenching pain persisted, and not long afterward, side-effects from the medications were spreading like oil slick on water.

 

"I was being treated like a chronic, menopausal old woman," she angrily told me. "And I felt older and worse by the day. My teeth felt like falling out, and my stomach hurt all the time. My hands started to bleed from the fingertips, and canker sores were burning like wildfire in my mouth.

 

Sleeping was impossible. “I'd be up several times during the night, hoping for daylight. Just lying down on the bed was painful. I'd get up cautiously, and I was very stiff. The pain would course up my back and down my legs. The medication didn't help me perform tasks that most people take for granted. Getting in and out of a car was virtually impossible. I'd have to lift my leg up to get in. Sitting in the back seat was impossible. I would rather have been put on top of the car and strapped on."

 

Lottie, like the majority of arthritis patients, had no idea about what else she could do. So she made more trips to the specialists. Just maybe, she was fondly hoping, they’ll have a new medication that will help me.

 

"Please, Doctor," she would tell one after another, "there must be something I can do. I have so many dreams and things I want to do, but now my life is so painful. I want to rid myself of this disease."

 

The pleas were invariably answered the same. "Lottie, you'll have to take your medicine and cope with the disease the best you can. There aren't any 'miracle cures.' You'd better accept what you have as your new way of life. Don't fight it. You'll just be disappointed."

 

Lottie was tired of being "a good patient." She was gradually, but surely, becoming disenchanted with the medical advice she was receiving. Like millions of other arthritics, she was willing to try anything. "I was hurting so much, even a faint promise of a cure would have been enough to make me go for it," the dynamic woman recollects.

 

"I saw a psychiatrist and was hypnotized. That didn't work. I was at the end of my rope, and anything was worth a try, even copper bracelets and apricot pits. I knew some people who had cancer tried the pits, and maybe they'd work for me." Nothing did. She reached the point where she read everything she could about the disease. For the most part, the material advised: see your doctor, take your medication, rest, and exercise. She did--and was still miserable.

 

Lottie's condition was rapidly deteriorating. The pain in her joints was torturous. Maybe, she convinced herself after a doctor's suggestion, I'll need to have a hip fusion. She checked that out with a rheumatologist and an orthopedic surgeon. "I figured that was the last alternative left. I was scared and depressed and grew tired of sitting in doctor's offices. I had to deal with the pain soon."

 

Before following through with surgery, Lottie painfully drove to downtown Boston in search of another book store. Any book about arthritis was an easy sale for the desperate woman. She had read dozens of books but had found nothing to reverse the disease.

 

"Please, Lord, this time show me a book that will remove this terrible pain," she silently prayed. Still clinging to the slightest inkling of a miracle, Lottie spotted a book store and mused, I've got nothing to lose by going in and browsing.

 

While sifting through the shelves, she spotted an arthritis cookbook by a Chinese doctor, “The Arthritic's Cookbook” by Dr. Collin H. Dong and Jane Banks. She casually picked it up and became totally absorbed in it. "As I read it, I found the story was so similar to mine that I could have written the book myself. Dr. Dong had gone through the same pain, but he was only thirty years old when it was happening to him. But at fifty years old I had a little bit more aging under my belt. Before a clerk noticed me and would probably tease me about reading the whole book in the store, I had to buy it.

 

"The book was an answer to my prayers," Lottie happily declared. "I had eaten healthy foods but had never stuck to a daily diet without meats and dairy products."

 

Lottie was filled with hope again. '0h, please, Lord, let this work,' I prayed again and again. I couldn't believe my body. After the first week, 50 percent of the pain was gone. I was able to sleep and to go up and down steps in my house. I was bending over to brush my teeth without holding onto my back. I simply knelt down and thanked the good Lord. After the second week, I lost all the pain. It was gone! I felt this was a miracle.

 

"I was convinced the food I was eating wasn't very good for me, such as the meats and dairy products. I thought an older person like myself needed plenty of calcium. So, I had devoured cheeses and milk.

 

As I increased my calcium intake, I read about milk being a big problem with arthritics. Then I began to get my calcium from fresh vegetables like broccoli. I infrequently take calcium tablets because I do suffer a few cramps in my legs if I'm lacking the vitamin."

 

Her incessant quest to overcome the disease paid off for Lottie. It was time to celebrate and thank God for being with her. Lottie was enthralled by the book and the diet.  "God had answered my prayers. He had directed me to the book and had provided the support I. needed at that time in my life. I had been physically at rock bottom. I had been almost completely without energy. I had been a living body of pain, but that part of my life was history."

 

Lottie's prayers were answered, but she was also willing to discipline herself toward overcoming the arthritis. In other words, Lottie accepted the responsibility for her good health. She had to cooperate with Divine Providence, and no doctor or counselor could have done what she did with herself.

 

Lottie became her own diet specialist. She even devised a special diet that is suited to her needs. Unlike “The Arthritic's Cookbook”, she included some fruits and eliminated others, such as oranges, grapefruit, and lemons. "I had become a health faddist. I used to laugh at people who were into health foods, but I don't laugh anymore. I'm living a wonderful life because of what I eat and don't eat."

 

But Lottie's success story wasn't popular with some. One of her doctors gave her a lecture when she shared the good news with him. "He kept talking about quacks and never spoke one word about the diet. He thought I was probably 'in remission,' but I wanted to tell him the doctor who wrote the book had been in remission for thirty years."

 

Lottie and her husband left Boston in 1980 and moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee. She wanted to help others battle their disease. That is exactly what she has done and is doing. Lottie formed two support groups.

 

"I want to show you something," Lottie told the new members. "You may not believe this. But I have gone through what many of you are feeling right now."

 

As she pulls the vials of pills and medication from her pockets, the audience is glued to her every word. "I used to take all these pills--and more. I used to wear a cast because my fingers were getting stiff at night, but I don't anymore."

 

Then Lottie lays it on the line, driving home the fact that each- person is responsible for his own health, not a doctor or a hospital. "I am responsible for my health; you are responsible for yours," Lottie veritably preaches to her support groups. "Nobody knows my body as well as I do. If we listen to our bodies very carefully, they tell us an awful lot. I love sweets and don't think a meal is complete without a cookie or a dessert. But when I eat a candy bar," she laughs, "it will go straight to my knees, and I'll hurt--and know it's not good for me. It's important to listen and pay attention to your body."

 

Lottie makes sure her listeners understand that the diet is not a guarantee and will not help every person who tries it. She shares her experiences and expects her regimen to work for some of her support group members. She humbly admits, "I can't and won't say I'm completely cured. I've reversed a serious, painful illness. Having a positive attitude and having faith and hope I would recover helped bring about what I believe was a miracle."

 

Many of her support-group members have reported considerable progress.

 

"After only four sessions," Lottie eagerly reports, "a thirty year old mother of two has become a different person. The arthritis was so bad she had her arm in a cast. The rheumatoid arthritis had extended all over her body. A change in diet and an exercise program has paid dividends. Her brace is off, and she's free of pain. Her cheeks are even pink again, and she's lost weight."

 

As we were wrapping up the interview, Lottie wanted to talk about what she and her husband had in store for themselves over the weekend. '.'We're going white-water rafting. We've never done that before," she enthusiastically remarked. "I couldn't have done that back in Boston. I wouldn't have been able to get into the raft, let alone hang onto the oar."

 

One cannot believe Lottie Fortune will ever have another bout with arthritis--but somehow if she does, she will remember the years she has lived without its discomfort and pain. This active, painless period has afforded her a whole new perspective about what one can do when "the experts" tell him/her to accept "the inevitable."

 

Hers is a hard-to-beat success story. Lottie Fortune indeed possesses resiliency, which Webster defines as: "the capability of a strained body to recover in size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress; an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change." That describes Lottie to a T!

 

Excerpted from the book “I Love Life...In Spite of It All” (Broadman and Holman Publishing)

 

© 1989 Jerry Dahmen. Reprinted by permission of the author. All rights reserved.

LINK TO LOTTIE FORTUNE'S MODIFIED ARTHRITIS DIET

 

Jerry Dahmen recently returned to KXRB in Sioux Falls where he is now the News Director. Most recently, he was the news content and community relations director for Gaylord Entertainment’s WSN/WTN radio news department in Nashville, TN. Jerry is one of radio broadcasting’s most honored journalists, having earned dozens of major news/journalism honors, including three Edward R. Murrow Awards and the George Foster Peabody Award. Jerry is the author of a nationally published book titled “I Love Life..In Spite of It All”, and he has been featured on several national talk shows, including Oprah. He has also aired the “I Love Life” program on radio for more than 25 years. Life Challenges’ Alissa Lukara was recently one of the guests.