Road trips

I used to love road trips. I love driving, I love being passenger and watching the scenery, picture dog hanging head out window and your visual is pretty close to how excited I get about the simplest things going by. I find beauty in everything. 

Road trips with Rheumatoid Arthritis are a whole different story. I have to plan ahead and really think out every little step. Then if it's not just a day trip there is a whole extra set of things I have to think through. 

I'll start with some helpful hints I have found for just a road trip. I'll write this from being a passenger. I believe I mentioned my new friend the boppy pillow (a horseshoe shaped baby/breast feeding pillow). If you have one take it with you for the road trip, it will help cushion joints during your ride, including hands, wrists, shoulders, elbows, I even feel it helps my ribs. Mine was given to me by a friend, but I would gladly purchase one now that I know how much help it is. 

Make sure to pack any meds you will need. I always pack a few extra days worth just to be safe. In a car it is fine to put them in a weekly pill container or anything else that is easy for you, however if you are flying I always suggest keeping them in their original containers. 

Another thing I pack is a ziplock bag with antibacterial wipes. These are handy for rest stops that only use hand dryers, wiping down stuff in a hotel, or anything else you think you need to de-germ so you stay healthy. 

I also pack a few empty ziplock baggies, these can be filled with ice for free from any gas station or convenience store you stop at to ice any joints you need to. Can also be used as garbage bags if needed. 

The easiest thing to do to help prevent extra pain later is try to move as much as you can, roll your wrists, ankles and neck,..shrug your shoulders...bend and straighten you knees, toes, fingers and elbows. Make stops and get out and walk a bit. I find scenic viewpoints are great for this and as a bonus you get a view of something beautiful. 

Also get a rolling bag, don't try to carry to much at once, ask for help or make extra trips. You don't want to injure yourself when your on a trip. We hurt enough on a regular basis right. 

These are just a few simple ideas to try to make your next road trip a little more enjoyable and a little less painful. I hope you find these helpful. 

As always thanks for stopping by. 

Blogging is hard, blogging when you are chronically ill is harder.

There is this trend that is happening to bloggers and people who host forums on facebook that makes me sad. These people are getting rude comments and messages. Let me just say blogging is hard. Blogging is opening up who you really are and sharing things that most of us keep private. When you have a chronic illness and chronic pain there are so many other things that get in the way of blogging. Drs appointments, treatments, just not feeling up to it, too much pain and many many more reasons. This is why there are spurts of no blogs for ages from me and then bam a few in a row. My disease is not under control.

Most people seek these types of blogs and forums because they have the same diseases, yet they get angry and send hate mail to the hosts when they are not active. It makes me mad and sad. Treat these people with respect they are taking their time away from their friends and family to try to help you. Please see all that they give and thank them. If you don't appreciate what they are trying to do then don't like the page don't follow the blog it's much easier than a time consuming mean message takes to send.

I am thankful this is not my situation. I have great followers and appreciate every single one you so let me again say Thank you.
On a side note I have many click like on facebook but not click follow on my blog page, if you get a chance please follow me on my blog page too it makes me happy.

That's all I am just supporting some fellow chronically awesome people that are trying hard and in my opinion doing a great job. Thank you for all that you do I appreciate you!

Have a great day everyone, and as always thank you for stopping by. 

Oh my I had this in drafts instead of posting, so this was from April, but is still an ongoing problem so I am posting now. 

A smart body

To me a smart body is one who tells your brain when there is pain. Your body tells your brain that there is pain, which your brain takes and sends to you as 'ouch that hurts', which a smart person listens to and says I am in pain I need to seek medical attention.

Then there is my body. Hmm nothing going on here, keep on about your day with this broken bone, or this scalding burn happening.

Basically pain receptors are important. Please stop telling people with a low pain tolerance they are wimps, honestly their bodies are smart and know when to tell the person attached to them to let go of a hot object etc. My body is on constant vacation or something.

When I was a kid I broke my wrist. My high pain tolerance did tell me this hurts a bit. The tomboy tough kid in me told me to suck it up it's just a sprain. I played volleyball on that wrist, amongst many other things, for a week before my volleyball coach came to me and said "you are still babying that wrist when you serve maybe it's time to have it looked at". So I tell my Mum who takes me in and instantly feels like the worst child abuser ever because she let me go a week with a broken wrist without having it checked. Totally not my Mum's fault, I just have a high pain tolerance that paired with my stubborn side tells me I am fine and just ignore any signals my body sends and suck it up and act cool. OK side note I am really not cool, nor have I ever been. I mean come on I am a fair skinned freckle faced red head, in my school days that equaled kid to tease...not cool kid. As an adult my fair skin and red hair are envied so I'm good with it.

Stubborn me plus high pain tolerance me were working really well together one day when I had my lovely cast on my arm. I was making mac and cheese. Yep all by myself because I could. Now in all fairness you should know my Mum was home along with my best friend. Anyways I go to pour the boiling water through the strainer, again to be fair there were offers I believe from both to help me, my response "no I can do this myself"...I believe this may have been simultaneously done as the boiling water was being poured onto my cast, but to be fair to myself there may have been a few seconds in between.

Here is another thing to know about me I am obedient, the Dr told me not to get my cast wet I would do everything in my power to not get my cast wet. So of course the first thing in my mind is OM I just got my cast wet.

I did not feel pain. I felt pure panic. I got my cast wet.

So I am just standing there yelling MY CAST MY CAST. My smart mother wants to add more water to my cast, something about cooling burns, this is complete nonsense to me as my only thought is my cast is wet we must dry it. Now I have no recollection of who won that battle, I do have good scars  to remind me of the burns through my cast. I do remember the smell of the blistering skin, and seeing some blisters peeking out from under the cast. Signs that maybe I won, but I do know my Mum was a stern and stubborn woman so I'm sure the outcome was in her favor.

Now I could be a smart person and I tell you I wizened with age, but who am I kidding most of you know me I have only widened with age. Last summer I took my pup and me on a walk, it was a beautiful sunny warm day. Smart people know sun= very hot asphalt, people of the NW don't know sun...we take what we can get. I hate shoes; this is a very important piece to this story. So I am walking barefoot on hot asphalt and blistering my feet, but my dumb body is telling me nothing. So I keep walking. Now I should mention my Pup loves walking like the curb is a high wire, but this day he was walking on everyones grass, so pup was fine...no pups were hurt in the making of this story. Well I get home and realize somethings off with my feet. I look down to see blisters forming. Thankfully wise Mum taught me to cool a burn, and as there is no cast on my feet so I am good to soak them.

So to me a smart body tells me when there is pain. Your body feels pain for a reason. I envy smart bodies that tell the brain when there is pain....pain= danger which tells you stop doing what you are doing stupid.

There's a bit more about me for those who didn't know. Telling you all how silly I can be is hard.

Thanks for stopping by. Please if you liked it share it with your friends.

How do you know your pain is beyond RA

When you have a chronic pain disease like Rheumatoid Arthritis how do you know that the pain you are feeling is not "just RA", not that just RA is something to take lightly.  I have said before that I have a high pain tolerance. I think a smart body feels pain, ok feels an adequate amount of pain based on the severity of the cause....e.g. a broken bone should alert your brain to tell you this is painful something is wrong. There is a story behind this scenario, it is a true story I'll save for another post.

Anyways how do you know if your pain is beyond RA? I have pains that come up that are new pains, but often I figure oh a new joint has joined the RA symphony. (I feel pretty terms help me cope LOL)
There are times where I have this self debate of is this new pain RA or something else? Is this worth seeing my Dr about or will they just tell me it's RA and make me feel as though I have wasted their time?  When is my next Dr appointment? Can I wait until then and just bring it up at my regular appointment?

My left shoulder has been giving me a lot of pain which in my mind I know is beyond my normal. I have noticed I am babying it and not moving it through it's full range of motion, which raises other questions. Can I really not move it any further or are my pain signals really kicking in and telling it not to move anymore to prevent further damage? The fact that I am asking myself these questions is enough to know beyond a doubt I need this looked at. The fact that I do not have a smart body (see first paragraph) tells me a regular person would have went in a couple days after the pain first occurred. The fact that I am a month out and still debating this should tell me that I need to go in now.

So guess what I have decided to do....yep my regularly scheduled appointment is only three weeks out so I will wait and tell my Dr then. I have looked into Dr google and it says it's cancer so really I am good to wait right!? Totally kidding, well sort of we all know how often google says it's cancer. I really have researched this and have found the fixes are torture and prefer to wait. Totally not kidding here, but the first step they recommend is rest and ice, which I haven't done yet so I will start there and see what happens. If I don't see an improvement I will make an earlier appointment.

As a general note as to how to know if your pain is beyond RA...Is this pain a new pain? Is it in a joint? Does the pain demand attention over everything else? I feel that if it's a new pain it's worth telling your Dr. If the pain is not in your joint it is probably not a new joint joining the RA symphony, but either yes or no to this question is worth telling your Dr. If the pain demands attention over everything else again tell your Dr, if you feel it's urgent seek help now. Any pain is worth bringing up to your Dr, any symptom is worth bringing up to your Dr. To me the only choice is do you wait for a scheduled appointment or go in sooner. Please always listen to your body.

*Side note I do not recommend this action to anyone else. Please be smart and listen to your body know that every body is a smart body and is alerting you to a problem. Listen to your body and seek medical help. Remember I am not a Dr. This is not a medical advice blog, always talk to your Dr.

I am sure I could write a book on this subject, so I will stop here so I don't lose your attention.
Thanks again for stopping by.

Clutzy Day

Today was a clumsy day for me. There are some days when my grip is just way off. I can't seem to hold onto to anything for long sometimes I just can't hold it at all. This is common with Rheumatoid Arthritis. It happens for me the most when I have a lot of swelling, which I am dealing with today. 

It started when I was trying to bag up veggies and I kept dropping some of the green beans. Not that big of a deal because my dogs love vegetables so I had the cleanup crew at my feet. Next was a bowl, this was a good hard drop but thankfully I have corelle dishes bought for weight and the added benefit of hard to break. No dishes or humans were injured during this episode lol. 

Next was a water bottle, of course the kid was off at the time! I don't know how it missed the three electronic devices I had right by it. Pure luck only a chord got a bit wet, oh and my ipad case....always get a case. 

 

Once a week I refill my weekly pill dispenser. I always do this on Sundays. I often drop my pills as I am trying to fill this. I have trained my dogs very thoroughly on the "leave it" command. My dogs will not touch anything if I tell them to leave it, to me this is the most important command you can teach your dog as it can save their life. I was scared of filling my dispenser because I had already dropped so much. I actually didn't drop any pills, I'm not sure how it happened but am so glad. 

Tomorrow I have to drive for about 4 hours. Thankfully this will be broken up, 2 hours to get where I am going then two hours to get back. I haven't taken this long of a ride or drive since my RA has been so active, so I will probably have to make multiple stops to stretch and get my joints moving. I know it will be pretty painful and difficult to do, but I'm hoping it won't be too bad, it will be a good test as this summer we will have some even longer trips. I do have some helpful hints for traveling with RA that I will share in another post soon. It will be a good reminder for me too. 

Thank you again for stopping by. Hope everyone is having a great day. 

Archery

Archery is something I enjoyed doing as a kid. My dad and I would go out in the yard and shoot at a large hay bale and I did some archery in girl scouts, so not a pro just a fun hobby I could share with my dad. Recently my Hubby and my girls have been taking some archery classes, I was unable to join them because my Rheumatoid Arthritis has been so active. My oldest daughter just turned 18 and for her birthday we went to the archery range. I decided to see if I could use her lighter bow and shoot from my wheelchair.

The range was empty except for us and one other guy, who happened to also be in a wheelchair. Turns out he has been doing archery since he was a young child, he has cerebral palsy and believe it or not Rheumatoid Arthritis. I had the best teacher I could have there and available to help me alone, like a private lesson. He was giving me great pointers and telling me to not get frustrated as it was like having to learn the sport all over again because everything is so different sitting in a chair. He happens to teach archery too and often has the higher skilled archers sit on a stool because it is more difficult to do.

I got some great pointers from him and was able to hit the target several times. We had a great time, we didn't stay long as we had a full day of birthday fun, which was good as I think I would have pushed myself too much because I was enjoying it. The next day I did have some extra pain and swelling, but after doing so much for her special day it was all worth it. I think I will be going more often as it will be a fun family sport and will help keep some of my joints moving and build muscles to help protect joints too.

There are always still things I can do, sometimes I just have to learn a new way to do it. To get my pain pills I have to fill out this form on all the things I can no longer do because of pain and how it affects my quality of life and enjoyment of life. Honestly I don't think about it that way, why would I want to focus on what I can no longer do. That form is depressing and I usually fill it out on auto pilot, but really why do we have to focus on the negative. I love my life...I have a wonderful family my life is filled with love and laughter, we do things together and have a lot of fun doing them. Even if we are just at home watching movies together because my RA is active and I can't do as much, we still have a great time. Pain or Rheumatoid Arthritis do not affect my enjoyment of life because I refuse to let it. I will always enjoy my life and find quality in it!

Thank you again for stopping by. Remember the best compliment you can give me is to share my blog with your friends.