From November of last year, until around the beginning of this current month, Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy has basically been in one big flare. The most challenging periods, those times when the extreme pain and stiffness could be measured in weeks and not in months, still stand out clearly in my mind: January, March, and July.
While [...]
A little over a week ago, I not only found myself in the middle of a flare, but I also found myself quite surprised with the manner in which I reacted to this flare. Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried really hard to make each new flare a learning moment…an opportunity to put [...]
Quite often, the seriousness of my situation can be read on the faces of the people who are around me. Some of these people I know well, and others are complete strangers. I don’t necessarily mind these looks, and it’s not that they make me feel uncomfortable. But, I do sometimes think that I would [...]
In an email that I received the other day, a reader asked me if I ever feel like a burden to those people who are around me. When I stopped to ask myself this question, my answer was an immediate “no”. It’s sort of funny in a way, though, because the last few times that [...]
A couple of days ago, I told my physical therapist that my condition had to get better the following day, because if it got any worse I didn’t know how I was going to be able to handle things. As soon as the words left my mouth, panic filled my mind. There was a real [...]
When I left physical therapy yesterday afternoon, I was asked to get as much bed rest as possible during the next couple of days.
During most of my life, I’ve had problems (unrelated to RA) with a weak lower back. If you combine this with upper back muscles that were being pulled and stretched apart as [...]
Earlier today, I started my day by reading the following words on the Facebook page for Toni Bernhard’s book “How To Be Sick”:
I awoke to an email from a woman who finds comfort in the same words I do from Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck in Chapter 3 of the book: “Our [...]
Just as quickly as I bungee jumped into my latest flare yesterday, the invisible elastic cord snapped and pulled me right back out. Today, I am happy to share that I am back to my usual normal. No, that doesn’t mean that I am pain-free, or that the inflammation has gone away completely. It just [...]
