Just Another RA Day

It is late again and I am wide awake because my RA came into a flare and it has turned into a all night slumber party, just me and the RA, if I fall asleep I know the RA will pull a prank on me, like knot my knees up or maybe even knurl my hands into two fist of pain, so I will wait out the flare and sleep later.

I have come to believe change is the only constant in this life. We who live with chronic pain, from a multitude of reasons, are relentlessly faced with change. We experience it in our relationships as we are hemmed in by our boundaries, limitations and restrictions. Sometimes, it’s just too much for others as their lives are changed due to ours changing.

At other times the people we love are affected by our inability to travel or to perform some other act of daily life that others perform without thought.

When the buoy of life floats you to the top of a RA flare, you find all you can do is float, adjust and wait it out. So that is what I am doing at 310 in the morning, not the best way to spend the evening, but sure beats trying to fight off the pain or sleep it away.

You have little choice but to lie there as the stars and birds buzz around your head, waiting for life to resume some semblance of order. It takes time. It takes patience and it, most of all, requires good medical care. Unfortunately while the adventure is playing out in your life, you still have to perform the basics; you need food, you require shelter and you need care. And me, I just want to sleep and wake up to the good news, that the medical people are going to pay attention to the pain people have to deal with everyday without just tossing a handful of pills at us and say see you in a month.

Just a Moment,I hope to catch up to me, Viesta

Just a day

I’m not in contact day to day with another person who has a chronic condition like I have (at least not to my knowledge), so I don’t know what it’s like dealing with a person with an autoimmune disease like Rheumatoid Arthritis. My only point of view is from the side of the sufferer (the sufferer with RA), living with people who don’t have RA.
Most people are either one way or the other; treating me like a child who can’t cross the street without holding hands or not realizing how much pain and fatigue I feel during a major flare-up. There doesn’t seem to be too much of a happy medium, and trying to explain how you feel over and over gets old after a while.
I’m sure that every Rheumatoid Arthritis sufferer feels the same at one point or another. When people first learn that I have RA I’m treated with kid gloves, like I’m going to break into pieces if I do anything more strenuous than sitting down
Being able to be independent is certainly important to me, but I’m also not a martyr. When the pain, aches and fatigue are too much for me handle without a grimace, I am usually able to put my stubbornness aside and ask for help, and most of the time help is given.
My RA is like having a dog chewing on every joint-hands, feet, knees, shoulders and elbows, hips, and lower back.
I’ve discovered that I can handle more than I thought, it’s made me a stronger person, and I’m much more empathetic to other people’s pain.
I know that in my heart, I will make this diease my own, I will walk and carry RA within my life and do the best I can, one day at a time....... hugs to all- we will battle this together