More Arthritic Adventures

By 4pm yesterday I knew I had over done it.  I didn't do any extreme physical activity like snowshoe 4km or take the boot camp activity at the local school.  What I did was not pay any attention to what my body was telling me and that was take it easy, slow down and rest.

I knew I was in trouble the Friday before when my grandson was playing in an out of town tournament.  Early mornings (5am) and late evenings (10pm) over the entire weekend contributed to my slow demise on Monday evening.  I worked a full day and had not thought about the extra class that evening nor did I plan ahead for supper so it was a rush trip to the grocery store, a mad race home whipped up a quick meal and it was time to go back to work. 

By 9pm the pain was becoming unbearable.  I couldn't sleep in my bed so I made myself comfortable on the couch, this wasn't working either so I logged into facebook and tried to other wise occupy my mind by reading what my friends were up to...this usually helps me to relax enough to go to sleep but it didn't work so I shut the computer down at 11pm and tossed and turned until 2:30am when I finally fell asleep, I woke several times through out the night with pain by the time my alarm went off it felt like I had not gotten any sleep at all.

I moved slowly as I prepared for my day (this was a 30 minute day) and took some time to post on facebook that if I were to race a turtle today the turtle would win....and it would! I wished everyone a good day because I was going to have one regardless of the pain I was feeling.  A past co-worker posted that foods may trigger these flare ups and that I should start lifting weights. I've done all the food trigger tests, and have been advised by a Rheumatologist not to lift weights because it could do more damage than good during a flare up.  This brought me to what has been on my mind alot lately of how to explain my pain to my students, a few of them think its a "getting old" symptom or it only happens to old people.  I've been trying to explain to them that RA is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system goes a little nuts and attacks the healthy tissue in the body.  When I think about a lot of people look at me and think there is nothing wrong with me  I move, I try to be active yet some still think the pain must be all in my head.  Close friends and family members know how painful RA and Fibro can be.  They've seen me cry because the pain is so intense.  They've seen me have to get needles in my ankles and toes just so I can walk.  I have this disease and I know that I need to listen to my body so that I can take preventative measures to avoid the worst pain.  Yet at the same time I am not going to stop living my life and do the things I dream of doing like the Iceland Trek.  I may be the last one in the group or I may be the first one all I know is that I have challenged myself to raise the 8 thousand dollars for arthritis research so that someday there will be a cure or a better life for those with arthritis.

Have an awesome day ya'll!

Clara