My name is Scott Harvey and this is a true story of my life in the last 3 years.

February 2007 – Shelly and I decided to move to a farm for a better life for ourselves and our 4 kids. We both worked for burger king, me for 14 years and Shelly 3 years. Shelly had 2 older girls from an ex partner, they are great girls and are now 13 and 12, and we also have Nikita who at the time was 1 and a half, and Shelly was pregnant with our boy Levi.

June 2007 – so we moved to Maihiihi in the Waikato, a 1500 hectare farm with 1500 milk cows and job that dreams are made from, and we loved it. The girls were in a country school with 85 kids and they loved it, Shelly was able to be a home mum which she loved too and I helped her to learn to drive which was funny as it brought us together even more I think.
I had 4 am starts which I loved, being in a place that you are at one with yourself really, a motor bike, a 5 hectare paddock and 800 cows in it.

Everything was going great until the 19/08/07 I was finding that my body wasn?t handling doing stuff like getting off the tractor, opening washing down hoses ,even walking in the paddock was a mission. Jobs that took 20 mins took me over an hour and my body really hurt, so went to the doctor who said that my arthritis was playing up a little so put me on high doses of prednisone up to 100mg – great for the body to move but shit for the brain.

August 31 2007 – Shelly went into labour and I delivered Levi in our lounge at 10.52 am. He weighed in at 10 pound 6 – it was so amazing but no mid wife came for over an hour and Shelly was losing heaps of blood. She was taken to Waikato hospital and stayed in for 2 days, which was time out for her. But in that time my body totally crashed big time.
I tried to get through milking – I couldn’t hold the wash hose and couldn’t even lift the cups to put on the cows. And to get off the bike I had to fall of it. That’s the night my life went from amazing to total shit. I couldn’t move at all, so ended up in Waikato hospital. The next morning tests came back that I had picked up a virus from the cows – ‘strep g’ which only affects people with rheumatoid arthritis, so was in there for 2 weeks with baker’s cysts in both knees.

I seemed to be coming right after I had 3 weeks off work in total. I felt nothing was going to keep me from my job that I loved. Within 4 hours of starting, my body was stuffed again and my whole body wouldnt move. I ended up at Waikato hospital again for another 3 weeks. I was so bummed.

Then bad news, my boss said that he needed to get someone to cover me, which I understood totally, so what do we do?! We had to all move back to Tauranga. This was the saddest day of my life. Family came to help us move back. The day I left there I feel like I left some of my heart there.

Back in Tauranga for 3 days and my body crashed again, the baker’s cysts in my knees popped – it was like someone put a hot poker in my knees and left it there.
The specialist gave me an IV drug called methylprednisolone – 3 doses over 3 days and I wasn?t told of the side effects, but it made me feel like superman within 4 hours!
So after three days I was sent home. That night my head was like I had smoked a bag of pot, the problem was the side effects of methylprednisolone brought on steroid induced psychosis. I was doing really bad stuff like driving and thinking I was still in the lounge, looking at Levi and I didn?t know who he was, slept under a tree in Gate Pa Park and talked to old Maori warriors? my olds freaked out, and by this time Shelly was getting pretty much over it all. That afternoon I was on the computer and saw an email that she had sent to her ex, saying how much she had missed him and wished she was still with him. I spoke to her about this, and she said I was going nuts, and I think I was from the IV, so we ended up separating.

That was one of the hardest things that had happened to me. I ended up at the top of the mount with 250 10ml prednisone tablets – I took the whole lot! The thing is, you can’t die from prednisone – it just made me feel like god. The only reason I didn’t jump was that my mate Emile sent me a photo of my Nikita on my phone. I walked down the mount and drove to C/M/H – they said I was fine. I told them I will put my head in the fan if they didn’t help me, and I stood up to do it, which made them see I was straight up. I ended up in the ward for a week then sent home. I have since found out that it could take up to 2 years to get the steroid out of my body.

5 months went past, I lost my job at New World Gate Pa after my body wasn?t letting me do hard work anymore. After being sick for so long I had to declare bankruptcy. In December of last year I was asked to go to Q.E Hospital for a 2 week course for my health and mind. My life changed from the moment I walked into the Q.E !

I walked out the man I am today – the old Scotty, which I lost over 2 years ago.
Its now 2011- I have just been to my specialist and he is amazed at how I look. I have come off all my meds. The big thing is I now take Olive Leaf Extract, which has changed my life -my immune was so low from all my meds I was getting boils all over my head and under my arms. But since taking olive leaf I don’t have them, and I only know too well what R/A can do to someone, as my mum is totally disabled from R/A, and most of my mum’s family have R/A as well.

This was my life over 3 years ago. I?m now in my 3rd year of a degree in social work at Te Wananga o Aotearoa; I have been at Tauranga Living Without Violence since November as a student placement; I?ve also been doing training as a facilitator in the groups, which I’m really enjoying. When I heard Jerry talking about mates, I knew this work was for me, as I’ve lived it. But I have the pride, passion and performance to walk beside you all.

My story that you have just read was published in a book in the states called ‘valleys to mountain tops’ written by Teresa Meinert.

I look forward to hearing from you Kia Kaha

Scott Harvey
(Scotty)