How to cure the incurable

When Lisette Therner got diagnosed with rheumatism, she was sentenced to a life in chronic pain and stiffness, but she refused to believe that the disease was incurable. Today she regards herself as well due to a change in diet and ayurvedic treatments.

Lisette Therner moves smoothly when she walks in high heels. She practices yoga and is running the trails several days a week. Things that would have been impossible when she was at her worst.

-Before, I would not be able to sit here or even wear slippers. That’s why I like to wear heels now, because if you have rheumatism, you can not do this, “says Lisette Therner, linking both of the fists next to each other, resembling a heart.

Lisette grew up in Gävle, a mid-swedish small town. This was where she first got her symptoms, at the age of twenty: suddenly she found it hard to bend down on one knee because of joint pain. A few days later, she noticed that her fingers were swollen and looked like sausages. She thought perhaps it was due to the heat and surpressed any thoughts about being sick. But swelling and pain spread to all joints in the body.

“I’ve always used to my body as a tool, I loved to move and run. Being restricted in his body was very painful and created a lot of fear.

When Lisette finally found it difficult to get out of bed, she went to her doctor. She received inflammatory medication, but it had no effect and she sought care again. She met a new doctor who sent her urgently to the hospital rheumatologist. In the rheumatologist room, she saw pictures on curly joints. Would it happen to her? Lisette had time to think many thoughts before meeting her doctor. After being investigated, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, RA, which is commonly referred to as rheumatoid arthritis.

The doctor said that it is an incurable disease. The only thing you can do with medication is to try to make life as comfortable as possible. You will be getting worse and you may end up in a wheelchair.

She was shocked, but received this very strong feeling that she would recover! This was the turning point for Lisette on her journey to getting rid of the pain. This inner knowing helped her through when she just wanted to give up.

“It was a foundation that carried me through it all,” says Lisette.

She took her medications and got better at times, but the sores deepened with even more stiffness and aching. She had difficulty getting dressed, opening cans and sitting down. At nights she bulged up with pillows under her arms and legs because it was difficult to lay down. Her heart beats were irregular and she had this feeling of fever throughout her body.

“It was not only the pain in the joints itself, but the whole body was under complete stress.

Lisette kept looking for answers to how she could get better. Even when she was diagnosed, she had asked the doctor if there was something she could do, like changing her diet.

The doctor said that everybody feels better when eating well and exercising, but you should have no hope that you can influence your illness through it.

“I can understand that it is controversial because healthcare has decided it’s irreversable,” says Lisette Therner, who is today free of pain.

Lisette refused to give up. She stopped eating meat and drinking cow’s milk and noticed a change in her body. She also continued with the drug treatment, including cortisone, but as she gradually became worse, the last possibility was chemo.

-I just felt that no, this is enough for me. I want to be healthy! That was my goal. Why do I go in this direction? Obviously, here’s not the answer to what I’m looking for.

That was the last time Lisette was in the hospital for her rheumatism. She finished all medications and ended up in more pain. At the same time, she and her husband moved to Australia to study. There Lisette visited an Ayurvedic therapist and she received a program that she followed thouroghly. The routines consisted of herbal preparation, mouthwash with sesame oil, oil massage, aloe vera juice and a spice mixture.

“I felt like if the pain melted away in just a few days. It was a bit of a miracle.”

Lisette finally began to believe that she would actually live without pain. She ate vegan cheese and devoted herself to Ayurvedic routines.

“When I was painless and could be without herbs, massage and other things, I declared myself healthy.”

Shortly afterwards, she traveled to India to become a yoga teacher.

“I went from being like this,” said Lisette and curled her back to becoming a yoga instructor. That was such a big victory. An era of my life was over. I was now a healthy person who could get sick, instead of being a sick person trying to get well.

Lisette sought the answer as to why she got rheumatism and she believes that her inner unprocessed wounds and fear of life gave rise to an internal stress that affected the body negatively.

-She kept her internal stress in her stomach, and that was the foundation to give rise to arthritis rheumatism. Inner soul work is a crucial part of the puzzle to get well.

It is several years since the pain in her joints went away, but she continues to eat vegan cheese because she generally believe she’s well.

-I feel amazing. My joints are sensitive but I do not have the inflammatory symptoms. I have both mobility and no pain, and I do not have to follow anything to keep it.

Even if she believes she has recovered, she has an understanding of the medical diagnoses that the disease is not curable.

-Yes, that’s true, but it did not work with the medication or treatment that was being inserted.

It stands out and goes against conventional medicine to claim that she was free from an incurable disease, Lisette says.

“I can understand that it is controversial because the medical care has determined it is incurable, but I recovered and I can say it in any other way. I think more people can get healthy. I can not be the only one with this diagnose that get these results.

She calls the disease for a “wake up call”. Once she got rid of the limiting pain and fears around it, it gave ecos inside of her.

-It’s a gift to get rid of the disease and to not get wrapped up in it. That is as close to happiness and satisfaction as you can get.

Lisette has become an Ayurvedic therapist and public health officer. She has also written the book “No less than healthy” and is currently working as a health consultant in Kalmar where she lives. She still wrests with fears but in a different way.

“I have a completely different set of challenges now. They are more welcome than when I had no point of power.

Lisette explains that she went from having the disease out of control, to being able to control it through how she lives.

-If I can create this, I can create other things too! It is probably the absolute greatest gift that has come out of this disease. I get to control my life and my body.  Lisette continues: It´s not possible to receive a greater gift than that.