Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Seriously? You're Kidding, Right?


All I did was stretch in bed just after I woke up in the morning, and my knee gave out.

I could manage to walk, but my plan to do cardio and upper and lower strength workouts was ruined.

Still, I hobbled over to the gym, and got in the upper-body part of the workout.

Later in the day, my knee was perfectly fine.

Is it just me, or is RA a bit like a two-year-old child throwing random tantrums????

Friday, August 20, 2010

A Tale of Survival

 Recently I had a flare that lasted two weeks. Have no clue what set it off. It just happened. And in the same way, it just went away.

So when I was invited to an outing that involved sleeping in a tent for a few nights, I wasn't sure what might happen. Anything was possible!

So off I went, armed with a down duvet (haha – yes, I was the only person there with a down duvet! Long story short: I have no sleeping bag.) I had no bug spray, which was silly, given my response to bug bites (see previous post), but I'd tried to find eco-friendly stuff, with no luck. I figured if it got really bad, I could retreat indoors or borrow some from someone else...

The weather, which has been crazy hot all summer, ended up being rather breezy. I went swimming, and got chilled even though the water was warm, and then stupidly sat there shivering in the breeze instead of putting on warmer clothes right away.

It got cool at night, which was good, cause it kept the mosquitoes at bay. That didn't stop the ants or spiders or whatever decided to munch on me and leave me with over 30 bites on my right arm alone, and random other bites on various parts of my body, but, HEY, what else are anti-inflammatories good for but keeping down bug-bite swelling??

And the cool weather also meant it was very comfortable for sleeping for three of the nights. The fourth night, it dipped down to 8°C (WTF!!!!!), and, boy, was I glad I had that down duvet! Everyone else was freezing with their appropriate-for-camping sleeping bags! I just got chilled on the air mattress side of things, even though we had a fleece blanket on the mattress.

I was sure that between the after-swimming chilliness and crazy winter-like nighttime temps and the bites, I'd end up all sore and flaring again, but, no!

Nothing!

Nada!

As it turned out, I survived everything!

That's rheumatoid arthritis for you!

P.S. It was also my first time travelling with Enbrel! Done + done!!!!!!!