All posts filed under: Self Management

What is it that I do to help myself

gardening notes

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Albuquerque will be 95 today. Yesterday it was 98. We missed the set of super hot temperatures for July. So we are just catching up. Blue skies. Nice. This is the Rio Grande. We have plenty of water in it this year. And now we have more. Torrential downpour came later this afternoon. Reminds me of Miami. I am happy to see the rain. I would dance it it but the lightening forbids it.  I have those big office wastebaskets to gather water where it comes down the hardest. This is great for my RA as I just need to scoop the water in a little bucket to water container plants. I feel like I am doing a good thing. I have passed out of the RA Flare Fog. Don’t know if it is residual from the Medrol Pack or the Orencia starting to work. I am cheering for the Orencia. Feels so good to move.  Hope it lasts for awhile. Back out in the yard. This is Apricot Sunset. Climber. Strong and beautiful.  Roses …

A sometime treacherous trip made easier

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  Rheumatoid Arthritis brings  new meaning to the expression ‘adapt or perish’. Life will never be the same once diagnosed with RA. Life can be very good. It can be great. In RA a good life needs help. It needs adaptation. I do remember the days when I would park at the farthest space in a parking lot just to get just a little more walking into my day. When RA hit me like a lightning bolt and started its invasion of my body, I no longer had that luxury.

A gift from heaven

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When I saw his face I knew instantly that we would be a great match. He had that feisty, can take on the world look. Round face, green eyes, tabby markings in a huge Main Coon Cat. I saw his face on the Animal Humane Website. I met the photographer who had taken his photograph, a volunteer. I did not get that image, but it had been the one that drew me in. I went cross town to the Animal Humane site on Virginia. I looked for him. He was not in the general cat areas. It was the photographer who found him. On his kennel was a sign: You choose your price. He was on the higher shelf. I invited him down. He came. Gorgeous face. His body had been shaved except for his head and a big puff at the end of his tail. He was a bag of bones.  He was 8 years old, deserted and on the big decline. I took him home. Now he eats a breakfast of fish and a dinner …

RA: how to cope with more bad news

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RA: how to cope with more bad news   For 80%, RA will be a progressive disease. That means for those who are being drug managed, the drugs will eventually not work anymore. That means for those lucky enough to have remissions, their disease will flare and incrementally get worse. That means for those with constantly active inflammation, like myself, the disease will continue to get worse.                     This week my bad news is that my disease is getting worse                                                                           and there are no more magic pills.                                                                                       …

Adapt and survive definitely not easy

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You might wake up well rested, feeling pretty good. Out of bed.  Start moving.  Your middle toe starts hurting.    A piercing pain shoots through the bottom of a foot.  Just keeps going until every joint in your body in inflamed and in pain. All had been well this last week. Lots done. Exercise class included. Pain level at a simmer. No need for the narcotics. Pleasant. Then blindsided!      Unpredictable!    Discouraging! Now,  it is just hard to exist. Fatigue has joined the rest.  Fatigue feels like an overwhelming exhaustion that makes thinking or doing hard to do. Just simply surviving is hard to do. Each of those joints supporting the 28 bones in each foot cry out for attention. Their chorus is joined by the joints supporting the 27 bones in each hand. Then there are the ankles, the wrists, the shoulders, elbows, and the joints  of the chest bones. To stop is to adapt. There is no choice, not really.  Time for a rest day, a veg out day, time out. …

The RA challenge: Adapt and survive

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“It isn’t the strongest of the species which survives, neither the most intelligent, but rather that which adapts best to change.”  Charles Darwin He must have been talking about rheumatoid arthritis. The most difficult aspect of RA is its unpredictable nature. RA may be simmering.  Suddenly, without warning, a severe fatigue, an exhaustion so bad its immobilizing,  arrives to totally disrupt your day. New severe pain in your right foot makes walking impossible. The simmering pain becomes more than simmering and the constant hurting becomes discouraging. A drug that has worked so well stops working. A very short list of RA’s unpredictable nature. What to do? Adapt and survive. The number  one consideration is your attitude. You will need to come to the understanding that you have a chronic, progressive  illness. It is not going away. And YOU are in charge. You have the balancing act between controlling symptoms of RA and the side effects of medication. You know the importance of RA medication is to avoid crippling disability, which is guaranteed without proper medication. Consider …

Rheumatoid arthritis progression attitude

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Rheumatoid arthritis sticks to me like glue.  Severe.  Persistent. Progressing.    OMG!    I have a tough one.  But then, so do many, many others.  I am alive.  I am grateful. Life is good.  Every minute of life is a gift.  Believe it or not, the biggest joys in our life happen in our everyday life.  Stop and think about it.  What are the five best moments you have had this week? Remember, this week your life is ticking by.  Life is now and a daily experience. Love it. Life has changed dramatically for me.  My pace is about 20% of what it was.    Am I sad.    Not.     Probably  because I am spending  my time  managing my day.  I’m living today. A lot of the maneuvering is  about energy and pain control.  So life is about balance.  A little of this and a little of that.  Breaking time into chunks. Working on re-potting plants. Then reading a good book or writing articles for a while.  Lucky for me I can do many of the things I …

Mojo and down days

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My mojo is rising today. Feels quite good. As a professional photographer my skill set has been set aside for the last nine months. I still have not set up my tablet.  I have been making images around me and now I’m starting to use a few of my Photoshop skills. Feels really good. Soon I will have my Wacom tablet set up and I will dive deeper. Yesterday was tough for me. The frustrating thing about RA is the randomness of its systemic affects. I felt flattened and any effort was difficult. Awhile back I learned  a few RA tips from  WebMD(www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis). An important tip was to break activities into blocks. Alternating physical activity with restful activities is always helpful on a down day. Sometimes more is done and there is less frustration. There will be pleasures in reading a good book or in catching up with favorite programs and still doing those necessary little chores. It is a helpful process for all of us.