A mystery illness

The trouble started in the spring of 2022.

“I started feeling burning in my arms, shoulders and fingers. Just excruciating pain,” said Thomas Williams, 55, of West Louisville.

Thomas, a cabinetmaker by trade, thought it was an overuse injury from work. But as the pain worsened, he sought care in at an emergency room.

“They couldn’t tell me what it was, so they sent me home,” he said.

The following two weekends had Thomas back at the ER, hoping to find answers and relieve the pain, which continued to get worse. He left with no answers and a hefty bill that he couldn’t pay.

“I racked up about $12,000 for those three weekends,” Thomas said.

Thomas’ employer did not offer health insurance. Though Thomas’s wife, Sheree, was employed full time as an administrative assistant at a rehabilitation facility, the cost of adding her husband to her policy was too expensive for the couple. For the month of April, Thomas didn’t work, and they paid out of pocket for doctor’s visits and tests, trying to find out what was wrong.

Diagnosis with more bad news

Finally, in May 2022, Crystal D. Narcisse, M.D., an internal medicine physician with Norton Community Medical Associates’ primary care Hurstbourne location, helped determine that Thomas has rheumatoid arthritis. The chronic inflammatory condition can affect the joints as well as skin, eyes, blood vessels, lungs and the heart. While getting some answers was a relief, Thomas and Sheree’s focus turned to paying for rheumatology care and costly prescriptions that can ease pain and protect joints from further damage.

Thomas then went back to work, but only for a month. In another stroke of bad luck, his employer shuttered its operations in early summer 2022. Even if the company had remained in business, Thomas would have struggled.

“I’m a cabinetmaker, so I work with my hands,” Thomas said.

With rheumatoid arthritis, he could no longer grip tools to do the work. And with no income, he stopped filling prescriptions or following up with doctor visits.

Thomas and Sheree were maxing out credit cards, cashing in retirement funds and draining their savings to pay bills and copays and keep the household afloat.

“We don’t qualify for Medicaid,” Thomas said. “On paper, we make too much money.”

Rheumatoid arthritis has had a profound impact on Thomas’s life. He gets tired easily and deals with chronic pain.

“I can’t sleep very well, because my shoulders hurt; my hips hurt,” he said.

Maybe the worst part is not being active with his 22 grandchildren.

“I can’t pick them up anymore. I love to take them fishing, camping. But I can only sit on the sidelines now,” he said.

He enjoys watching his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers play, but has to sit in Sheree’s tall hairdressing chair.

“I can’t get up out of my recliner or off the couch,” Thomas said. “It’s too low.”

Renewed hope and an opportunity for better health

Last fall, Dr. Narcisse helped connect Thomas with the Institute for Health Equity, a Part of Norton Healthcare, which facilitates access to quality health care for everyone in the community, regardless of race, gender or any other influence in their lives. Dr. Narcisse also serves as one of three community medical directors with the institute who help improve community access to health care.

Initially, Thomas’ income was too high for Norton Healthcare’s financial assistance program. But the program recently expanded to cover those making 350% of the federal poverty limit, putting its benefits within reach of more middle-income patients.

It wasn’t long before Michelle Jones, a coordinator at the Institute for Health Equity, contacted Thomas to encourage him to apply under the expanded eligibility rules.

Thomas said he’s been approved for the help and is feeling more hopeful than he has in a year. He hopes to join the YMCA, where he can take part in water activities to ease his aching joints. He and Sheree are planning to start a nutrition program as well.

“All those things I dreamed about, wished for — now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

As Thomas’s financial struggles appear to be improving, his luck may be improving as well. Thomas was in front of his house on a recent January day when he spotted something fluttering in the wind against the wheel of his truck. It was a $20 bill.

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Dr. Mehta treats auto immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and lupus as well as osteoporosis, gout and osteoarthritis.

According to Dr. Mehta, since there are more than 100 types of arthritis and related conditions, it is important to diagnose and treat them correctly. Possible treatments include medications, joint injections or aspirations, physiotherapy or exercise. The office also provides in-house bone density testing through dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans.

“There have been great strides made in the availability of treatment options for various conditions. The right modalities of treatment can definitely offer a benefit to patients,” Dr. Mehta said.

Once she makes a diagnosis, Dr. Mehta works with each patient, addressing their concerns and coming up with an individual treatment plan.

“I believe in making the patient a partner in the decision-making process,” Dr. Mehta said.

Dr. Mehta attended medical school in Mumbai, India, before completing her residency in Internal Medicine at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and a fellowship in rheumatology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, before she moved to Kentucky. She is board certified in both internal medicine and rheumatology. She is also a certified clinical densitometrist.

“I picked rheumatology as my career choice because I have a deep interest in science, and with rheumatology, there is a lot of cognitive thinking involved,” Dr. Mehta said.

Dr. Mehta said she enjoys the one-on-one patient interactions as well as the long-term relationships she’s able to have with her patients as a rheumatologist. Building a strong partnership with patients improves their buy-in and compliance with the treatment plan.

She enjoys photography, hiking, cooking and baking. She has been an advocate for education enhancement for all ages. Dr Mehta believes that every individual, a child or adult, should learn at their highest level and reach their fullest academic potential.

“Learning never ends,” Dr. Mehta said.

Dr. Mehta serves in leadership roles in the community and in support of education. She is on the advisory board at the Center for Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, is a board member for the Central Kentucky Community Foundation in Elizabethtown and serves as a member of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

“I’m committed to providing the highest quality of rheumatologic care to my patients” Dr. Mehta said. “My goal is to promote optimal health for each person, to improve their quality of life and to empower patients with knowledge and information.”

The post Daksha P. Mehta, M.D., has been providing rheumatology care in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, for more than two decades appeared first on Norton Healthcare.