All posts tagged: RA attitude

RA and Yoga

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My first yoga experience was about 15 years ago. I belonged to Riverpoint, a sports and wellness club in Albuquerque. All classes were included in membership price. The evening I was at the club, a yoga class was just starting. I thought I would give it a try. I knew nothing about yoga. No mat and no clue. I walked into an advanced class. I was so very fortunate to have an excellent, progressive teacher. She welcomed me. I was also welcomed by her class.  I took classes with her for about four years before she headed off to Costa Rica. She believed people should start where they are at. She said yoga is not competitive with yourself or with any one else. I learned good form. I bought a yoga mat and thanks to her I still have a yoga practice. The first two years after my RA diagnosis I tried classes and just couldn’t do it. My feet and my wrists hurt too much. So I stopped. Looking back I could have done …

Coping with the Symptoms of RA

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Beginning with the first symptoms of my rheumatoid arthritis (RA), I have lived in daily pain. It has been over four years. It has been a long time. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. My body is on a suicide mission to destroy the linings of  the movable joints in my body. It is a scary disease in that it is unpredictable and it is progressive. I spent the first two years with severe fatigue/malaise. And it was as bad as the pain. This malaise is caused by cytokines, products of inflammation. Cytokines circulate in my bloodstream spreading RA damage. Add that to a high level of pain and it can be overwhelming. I wake to stiff, painful joints. In the morning as I walk painfully down to the kitchen to make coffee, there are times when I have become angry and tired of it all. I start the day in pain and I end the day in pain. It is too much. My feet are becoming deformed and I find it difficult to walk …

Knitting and RA

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Last summer I had a strong urge to take up knitting again. I hadn’t knitted in many years and wasn’t sure I remembered how. I bought a book for teaching children how to knit and learned quickly that knitting was like riding a bike, once learned not to be forgotten. I enjoyed the projects. Easy. Big needles. Satisfying. The basket in the picture was one of the projects. Circular needles. A few years ago I was sent to a  hand clinic for my RA. I learned a series of exercises to strengthen my fingers, hands and wrists. It was the most helpful process I had had for my RA. I still do the exercises. I have added knitting as another way to exercise my hands. I enjoy projects simple and repetitive and I enjoy projects with complicated precise instructions. I usually knit a bit every day. There are times when I can’t knit. My hands are too inflamed. Sometimes my shoulder is too inflamed. So I just stop for a bit and carry on when …

Four years of RA

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  I was diagnosed with RA four years ago, this month. The first few years were whirlwinds as I was also diagnosed with two cancers that each involved surgery and radiation treatments.  My RA moved to the back seat then to the front and again back and forth. Now it is center stage.   In 2015, I was started on infusions of Orencia. Once I realized that the biologics only help your RA by about 50%, I settled in and appreciated that they helped that much. In July the next year, I developed a horrific flu. I haven’t had a flu for years. It was exhausting. Plus, the Orencia was not working any more. I started having bad flares. My rheumatologist stopped the Orencia. After a few weeks, I was started on infusions of Remicade, a TNF inhibitor. By the third loading dose, I was having a severe flare plus I was having a bad reaction to the Remicade. I was ill. It took two months for the Remicade to clear my system and for …

RA Journal 10-13-16

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It is 5 am. Coffee perking. Cozy flames from the fireplace. Antoine, my 10 year old Maine Coon cat, fed. No sleep at all, not even a little dosing.  So I  finally decided to get up and start my day. I have RA. It is a bummer. Presently, I am on prednisone for a flare. I like the medrol packs which plus my regular prednisone help me feel better. But it is day four and the sleeplessness side effect has kicked in. It might last another day. I will eventually sleep. Most with the diagnosis of RA have a progressive form of the disease. I can say I have been in a constant flare for almost 4 years. That means my body has been continually inflamed for almost 4 years. Definitely not good for my body.  Sometimes are worse than other times. None of it is good. Mine started in my feet.  My toes, my feet, my ankles are reaching the point where I am worried about mobility. My knuckles can be bad as several of my fingers can. My right shoulder is worse than my left but the left is …

Methylprednisolone and RA

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Methylprednisolone (WOW, an impressive word!) is served up in a package of 21 four milligram (mg) pills (Medrol Dose Pak) with specific instructions as to when to take each pill. One time a nurse told me to start the pack the next day as the instructions start before breakfast and that would be the only way I could follow the instructions. I would have to wait through the night before I could start resolving my problem. This time around I saw written on the package that all six tablets in the first row for the first day should be taken on the day you receive your prescription even though you may not receive it until late in the day. All 6 pills may be taken at once on the first day or divided into doses for the remainder of the day. I have had this prescription twice for inflamed salivary glands after thyroid cancer treatment and twice for RA flares. I call it a miracle drug as it is so effective. My joints still hurt …