All posts tagged: healthy-living

A celebration of Recovery 10,000Waves

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About as high as you can go up into the mountains in Santa Fe on the road to the Ski Basin is tucked a high-class Japanese Spa specializing in bodywork and skin care. Ten Thousand Waves.  My destination. Just what I need. I desperately need. My treatment choice is NOSE TO TOES. A Mother’s Day gift certificate from Chris and Katie. I live in Albuquerque and this would be my first road trip in three years. I gassed my Tin Lizzy, my 5-year-old Mini Cooper Clubman. Pepper white. Turbo. Added bottled water, spa directions.  Put on my winter jacket. Ready to go. Finally!  This is November. I headed toward I-25. Sunny day. Cool. I am on the road.  I am also on the recovering end of a devastating year. The year was 2013. Almost three years ago. I had been diagnosed with a severe rheumatoid arthritis followed by two different diagnoses of cancer. Surgery. Radiation for each. Pills forever. No relief for the RA until this year with the start of Orencia. It is a …

Ruth has RA, too

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  I love Ruth. I smile when I see her and Ruth always smiles back at me.   Her blue eyes twinkle with a happy secret. I would like to know what Ruth knows. She always looks the same. She wears a blue dress that looks just right. Her hair is neatly parted to the side. Her hands are folded on the front of her dress. Polite. Neat. Helpful. Ruth works in a  bookstore that has many books both new and old. There is every book you could ever want to read in Ruth’s store. The bookstore also has excellent coffee.  There are  big cozy chairs for reading.  It is a good place to spend lots of time. Ruth works in the best bookstore. I met Ruth at her bookstore. I was looking for a hard cover copy of Preston and Child’s Relic. Great book. It is everywhere, paperback, kindle, nook. The hard cover copy is not.  It is hard to find. I have read it but I wanted a hardcover for my library. Of course, I knew …

RA Tool Hand Exercises

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Another asset in our RA tool box is hand exercises. We need to maintain our flexibility and our strength. Deciding that I needed to be able to do more for myself, I asked my Doc to send me to the Albuquerque Health Plex Physical Therapy Hand Clinic. Wow!  is all I can say. My hands were thrilled with the weekly professional paraffin wax treatment. I learned a set of exercises that will help me maintain my hand function. I do them daily. They can be done anywhere.  Below are instructions for a few. I was fitted for hand orthotics custom made for me. I have them for night use when I am in a flare. My hands are protected while I sleep. I asked and I received. I am also fortunate to have a physical therapy department that is expert in the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Finger Walking Place fingers and wrist on the table palm down. Hold thumb in hitchhiking position. Walk each finger one at a time toward thumb. Return to original position …

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 …

My RA 10 minute exercise plan

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  Repeat after me Move! Historically, I have always been a mover: swimming laps, walking a big dog, yoga classes, physically active job, cancer rehab, silver sneakers core, tai chi, gardening, etc.  RA changed a lot of that. I reached a point where I was so sick I could hardly move. I moved only because it hurt more when I didn’t move. I don’t think anyone understands how hard it can be just to get dressed. Running errands is exhausting. Going to the gym, just a dream for the moment. I cannot walk far  as I have bad ankle and foot damage. Going to the gym, for now, feels like planning a trip to the moon. However, I know that muscle strength, flexibility, aerobic conditioning are vital to RA stability. And it needs to happen every day. When I feel better, I swim laps. In June it was a quarter mile free style. Felt good.  Presently, that seems overwhelming. Not the swimming but the dynamics around it. I have devised a ten minute exercise set …

Me 2015

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Mary’s Arthritis started when I was newly diagnosed with RA and given the added bonus of two cancers in the same year.  But it was hard to sustain as my situation worsened. Coping took all my time. Learning to accept a shift in my reality took time. I had rarely been sick. I raised a family. As an RN I worked surgical cardiac critical care. I had been a nurse in the Air Force. I ran a photography business for 25 years and expected to work another 20. A reality shift took time. I now have this vision of the Hobbit living in the Shire. the Hobbit Life is compatible with writing and researching. I see that there is a lot of information out in the www.  However, a lot of it is the same old thing and much is dated or faulty.  RA is now considered 60% genetic. The rest unknown. The age group is now considered 35-65 with some younger and some older. I see a void in the information on Rheumatoid Arthritis. The facts …

Exploring and moving

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Do you really want to spend any time walking on a treadmill or  riding a stationary bike?  Indoors? Sure, it’s great if you live in Watertown, NY and you get socked in with snow. It’s also good if you live in a bad neighborhood.  But if you live in Albuquerque( ABQ to us), there is more to be had.  Walking with your camera in the great open spaces. I am a professional photographer. I have all the big expensive cameras with the impressive lens. I also have a seriously progressing Rheumatoid Arthritis. I have been lying low with pain and inflammation. Finally, I am ready to move again.  Baby steps.  Out walking trying to get my legs again, I take an old digital Canon. Fast. Satisfying. Easy. I would never have seen these Sand hill Cranes when walking on a treadmill. I love these guys. Makes my heart happy to see these 4 foot visitors from the North. One of the oldest surviving birds, they mate for life and care for their young for a year. …

Finally, a life

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I really thought I was going to die last year.  To prepare, I filled out the final wishes form.  Next, I made an attempt to simplify my financial records. I said thank you to all the people who have been helping me the last few years. I had a garage sale. What the heck, I thought, I would be the one to get the money if I had one before I died. Just as I thought things were going to get worse, they were already terrible, I started coming out of the methotrexate fog.  I could think clearly again.  O happy days.  At least I had my mind.  Both cancers could return.  My RA could leave me immobilized.  Yet, I would be able to read.  My favorite thing to do.  Preston and Child’s Pendergast series. Baldacci’s adventures. All the fascinating medical books. I could be happy. The methotrexate injections, Plaquenil, leflunomide and the prednisone finally calmed the ever-present inflammation in my body.  This was after 2 years.  And it may not last long, but it is …

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.