30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know 1. The illness I live with is:rheumatoid arthritis 2. I was diagnosed with it in the year:2009 3. But I had symptoms since:2008 (at least… and that is what the … Continue reading
I hate Fridays. I have always enjoyed Fridays… we live less than 2 miles by road… probably less than a mile as the crow flies from the Baseball park… Fridays, when they have a home game they have fireworks after … Continue reading
I don’t usually take the money to buy new books from the regular book store. I have gotten three, I think, in the last year… One on RA, one on Epilepsy and the one that Larry bought me last night.
Yoga for Arthritis The Complete Guide…
Yeah… let’s face it, I’m hooked… I had to smile during the last class at her saying that “this pose” (can’t remember for the life of me now… but I have the audio of it so I should be able to figure it out… ) will get the synovial fluid moving. I actually laughed at the comment… that is WHY I’m there… to try to get the synovial fluid moving… I got an early birthday present last night when he got me this book… I really like that
1. it tells me how to modify to meet the arthritis needs and what props I can use until (if ever) I can do them without the props… and most of the props are… a towel… the wall… a chair… nothing wild…
2. it tells me under what conditions NOT to do the poses
3. it tells me the purpose of the pose
4. it tells me how to avoid pitfalls (things like… remembering to breathe, open up your shoulders, start slowly… all kinds of things I would probably ignore if I weren’t deliberately reading them…
I absolutely love the chapter on the wrists and hands…
Ever since I fell roller blading (WEAR WRIST GUARDS for anyone who doesn’t know) and broke my arm (radius compound, ulna greenstick… pretty sure that is what started this mess… ten years ago) and my right wrist not working at all right… my wrists and hands have given me issues. Sometimes better, sometimes worse… Rheumy told me that is why RA settled there so well… it likes boo-boo places like that…
ANYWAY… I love the book… I think I’m going to modify some of the poses and work up my own ideas on them… see where I can make them hurt less when I do them.
Sitting here now, enjoying the reading, the practice and the wonderful smelling breeze coming in through the windows…
Posted in rheumatoid arthritis, UP day, yoga
Okay… I’ve decided to really start writing down some of the poses that I find helpful.
Yeah… it sounds like a big deal. It is standing up… that’s about it…
Don’t do this pose if you have plantar fascitis. Don’t do this pose if you have sever imbalance. Modify the time you are in this pose if you are in pain, particularly in your ankles. Modify this pose by standing with your back at the wall to help with the “I’m going to fall” feeling.
Respect the natural curve of the spine…
This pose helps keep you in focus… focusing your gaze at a spot on the wall in front of you helps… so does closing your eyes but closing your eyes makes balance harder… and places awareness on your feet being connected to the floor (very grounding). Think about the way your breath feels entering and leaving your body. DON’T think about work or stress or anything that will make you tense.
Hold for 1 to 2 minutes.
Focus Points: Don’t just stand passively! Activate every part of your body, from your heels to your head.
Other Benefits: Strengthens and tones the whole body. Improves alignment. Creates balance.
Okay, well, it sounded like a cool title.
Today is International Purple Day… a day to raise awareness of Epilepsy world wide. It was started in 2008 by a nine year old girl in Nova Scotia. SHE is an inspiration…
Last night, I went to the Round Rock City Council Meeting to accept the Proclamation of Purple Day in Round Rock Texas. It meant a lot to me and I really don’t know why… other than this town actually took the time to respond to my email campaign and to reach out to its citizens…. it mattered.
Before the meeting, the Mayor came and introduced himself to me. I’m impressed by our mayor. He has a good handshake… not the I’M A MAN WINCE BEFORE ME kind of handshake that I have come to fear (heck, I fear a lot of handshakes… but those are the worst on my knuckles)… not the oh… you are a girl… I will be weak and patronizing kind… those are easier on the knuckles but not on the self esteem…. he had a gentle warm and welcoming hand shake.
And purple tie! It made me smile.
This morning I got an email from the news paper wanting to do an interview (okay… it is a weekly paper with a limited distribution, but it IS a newspaper… and it will help get the word out). I know there will be a photographer and the reporter. Okay, the reporter is female, which means the hand shake will be less intense. Not sure about the photographer.
I pride myself on my handshake. I refuse to wince. I refuse to have a wimpy handshake. I know that I base a lot on the way someone shakes hands and I figure other people do too.
SO today, I am bowing to the patron saint of naproxen sodium. I don’t hurt badly enough to take the anti inflamitories (even though my knuckles probably could use the help… something is up with some extra stiffness and extra achey-ness… ). I think the little blue pills (not the tiny blue pills… the ones in the stomach yukky isle… those are for other purposes…. grin) but the little bright blue pills that make the hand shakes magically not so bad.
This is important.
This matters.
As much as RA matters to me because it is personal and it is mine and I’m trying to live with it and embrace what I can do and what I can affect… Epilepsy matters more because she is my kid and it matters.
Happy Purple Day.
Go Grapes!
Posted in epilepsy, Journalling, pain, rheumatoid arthritis
Yesterday I went on adventure. Okay… it was a LITTLE adventure, but it was fun and it was something I had wanted to do for quite a while. I went to the library. Not the one I usually go to… … Continue reading
I have read, several times over the last few days, the article here on how women with RA seem to have a higher rate of pregnancy complications. My rheumy told me that miscarriages can be connected to RA, and this article explains that low birth weight.
It makes me go… hmmm
It might help explain both kids being several weeks early and both kids being light for gestational age… not sure if it really could, since I had kids 18 years ago and 15 years ago… and RA was diagnosed 4 months ago (wow.. been an eventful 4 months)… but it makes me wonder.
Posted in Family, rheumatoid arthritis
It’s been another not so great day. The weekend, on the whole, wasn’t horrible. The 10 MTX did hit me hard but it wasn’t totally unexpected and a little extra nappy poo helped. Tea helped. Hot bath helped. It wasn’t … Continue reading
The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
Robert Cushing
Today was yoga day. The last two yoga days were great. The first one was too fast but not bad. The second one was dead on. This morning when I got up, my ankles and wrists and knuckles hurt more than “normal”. I took the new medicine (anti-inflamitory) and it is NOT what I was hoping for. It did take a bit of the edge off… but not a whole lot… By the time yoga was over, I wanted to rip the instructor’s skinny little head off. It wasn’t her fault, it was mine. I was trying to keep up and my body just wasn’t cooperating. My bad.
It was really hard on my woohoo… because I’m really liking yoga.
And I’m nothing if not a typical Type A… as soon as I liked Yoga, I went out and got a used Let’s Yoga for the DS, I downloaded a Yoga app for Squirrel’s ipod touch so I can learn (when he isn’t using it) the poses and what the poses help with… and a book from the half price book store…
What I’ve learned is…
Yoga is for everyone… even if you aren’t flexible. That means it is great for RA… you can modify poses and you can do only what you can do.
There is no success or failure, no good… no bad… just be true to yourself… true to your practice. You can only make yoga your own if you are being true to yourself.
Three things to remember…
Move Slowly
Breathe Deeply
Work at your own pace
If you do these three things, any movement can be yoga. It is 99% breathing.
Remember, yoga is like just about anything else you do, it is difficult before it is easy.
Sit down in a chair, put your hands on your knees, breathe deeply… fill your chest… fill your your chest clear down to the bottom of your stomach.
Today, yoga practice kicked my butt. I totally modified my poses and went into child’s pose several times when I just COULDN’T keep up with the class.
There is a girl in my class who has arthritis in her toes… not RA, which she said she is forever grateful for… no $*^t… but she says what she finds absolutely most important is to do things for herself. Do things that she can do and make time for herself to be gentle with herself, to be good to herself, to do what she needs to do.
Hello… wow… okay, I can listen now!…
Posted in Fitness, rheumatoid arthritis, yoga
Okay… something is definitely wonky on wordpress for me (thank you, Scotty for giving me the heads up…)… so I will try again…and again (I only had to publish this one three times…
Okay… so it is a Mary Sunshine kind of day yesterday. It may not last, but I’m enjoying it while it does.
Went to Rheumy today. I spent the majority of the day taking stock of myself and of how I am feeling both physically and emotionally. I have known that I’ve been feeling some better. After the last doctor appointment I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to be too optimistic, but hey… I am terminally optimistic and a disgusting morning person so… it is hard to get away from. I know the bump on my knuckle is smaller and I can almost make a fist even first thing in the morning without aleve. And I know I haven’t taken prednisone in almost a month. I walked 9 miles Sunday (I really enjoy our weekly walk in the park) and I even made 3 miles at lunch yesterday at the gym (the hot shower felt fantastic!).
Doctor confirmed that I’m not sniffing something good… not even sharpie… When I started this ‘adventure’ I was up to 26 joints affected. Today (even in the rainy weather) I was only achey a 2 and she only found 7 joints still swollen. My right hand, of course, will be my problem child. IF YOU ROLLER BLADE WEAR WRIST GUARDS!!!
She said that my body is running right now on the 6 MTX level… while I’m taking 8 a week… so I should keep getting better and better (especially when I will be starting on 10 pills Friday). And I don’t have to go back until May.
She did start me on an anti-inflamatory med for days (like while Squirrel was in the hospital and stress was a 14 on a scale of 1 to 10) and aleve doesn’t really take the edge off and suggested zantac 150 to keep from the anti-inflamatory eating holes in my stomach. But I don’t think I will really need them much. Will carry them just in case, but will think very hard before I take them.
I got an ‘atta-girl’ for taking Yoga class and she said that, even after the class, keep it up.
AND she told me that I need to push for blood work for Squirrel because Keppra tends to mess with blood counts.
I was thinking a lot about why I have all of this going on… and I was thinking a lot about how there is a purpose for everything and there is very little “chance” in life… and I realized that I can honestly say to Squirrel (not just a mommy saying it but really meaning it) that pills can be truly crappy but your body does adapt to the new meds and the side effects get smaller and smaller and you will eventually realize that the feeling better is just there and not always the crappy feeling.
Am I mary sunshine? Probably.
Posted in Journalling, motivation, rheumatoid arthritis
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