This week has not been my week. I started to come down with an RA flare on Saturday night and it was one of the most painful ones I've had in quite some time - plus it's my second one in the last 3 weeks. Today is the first day that I can type without pain. I worked from home on Monday because I was in too much pain to get ready and sit at a desk all day. Luckily 2 steroid injections into my impacted joints has me on the road to recovery.
I'm in a frustrating place with my RA right now as I've had so many flares since changing my meds so that we can safely start a family. But the bright side is that I have a very responsive and capable rheumatologist and I'm trusting that we'll figure out a better solution eventually.
But it's not all doom and gloom in my world! Here's what's currently happening in my life, RA complaints aside...
Reading: No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal. It's my book club's September pick. I always enjoy reading stories about the immigrant experience and this one has been enjoyable so far. It's told from multiple points of view and the characters are loosely interrelated. It should make for an interesting discussion.
Loving: all the fresh produce from my garden! We are a bit zucchini'd out. Luckily a woman in our community garden group has a donation bin that she takes to a local food shelf so I've been putting all of my zucchini in there recently. But my heirloom tomatoes are starting to ripen so I've been eating lots of sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper - YUM. I love tomatoes so so so much. I don't think I am going to have enough heirloom tomatoes to can marinara, but my tomatillos are growing like crazy so I am going to can lots and lots of salsa verde!
Feeling: tired. I don't want to dwell on my RA flare but it really wipes me out when I get a flare.
Thinking: about the projects we need to do around our house to get it ready to list. Our goal is to get it ready to list in the next couple of months so we can put it on the market as soon as we find the right house. Granted, we might not find the right house until sometime in 2018 but we want to be able to move fast when we find the right place.
Anticipating: our camping trip this weekend! We head north this morning! Today is Phil's birthday and this is the perfect way to celebrate it as we both love the great outdoors! I can't wait to be out in nature and unplug for a few days. We did a trial run of setting up our tent last weekend (shout out to Kyria for getting it for us for our wedding!) and it went pretty smoothly. I'm looking forward to getting lots of fresh air and eating s'mores (plus other yummy meals we have planned).
Watching: Suits. I'm on Season 5 right now. I've watched more in the last couple of weeks than usual since I was pretty tired between my 2 RA flares. I didn't love Season 4 but Season 5 is off to a pretty good start so far.
Grateful: for all the rain we've had lately! June and July were so dry and our lawn looked so sad! I'm glad we've had more rain this month! I've barely had to water my garden!
Working: on launching a Women's Networking group at my company's Minneapolis location. We have a national chapter but they decided to establish a local chapter in Minneapolis and I'm the chapter chair. We have a lot of work to do to prepare for our kick-off events in September but it's a fun project to work on!
Listening: to my body when it tells me to take it easy. I'm going to bed earlier than usual and resting more than usual. But after 4 years of having RA, I've learned that I can't ignore the signs my body is giving me. I sometimes feel lazy because my exercise these days has been really limited as I'm mostly just going for walks but I know it's what my body needs.
Wishing: for a rain-free weekend of camping! The forecast looks great so hopefully it doesn't change!
What are you anticipating, loving and grateful for these days?
12 comments:
Oh goodness, I'm sorry you're going through a bad RA flare! That has to be so frustrating. I hope you and your doc can figure out a better medicine that will ensure you don't have these bad flares anymore. :( I can't believe you've had RA for four years, though. WHAT.
I'm currently anticipating a five-day weekend at the beginning of September, loving tough spin classes, and grateful that I can go home and take a nap after work today. :) Dutch has had his own bad week of dementia symptoms and I'm averaging around 5 hours of sleep a night. It's not pretty.
I hope they get the medications straightened out soon. Dealing with these flairs is no fun, so sorry Lisa.
I'm sorry to hear about your flare. Changing meds can be tricky. But on the bright side, many women experience a huge improvement in RA symptoms during pregnancy!
I hope you had a great time camping! I'm impressed by your ability to keep up through RA, glad to hear your doctor is responsive to changes.
Sorry to hear that you are dealing with a flare. Hope you are feeling better soon! Hope you guys had a great weekend camping :)
Sorry to hear about your really painful RA flare :-(
We haven't really had any rain here all summer, which is crazy. We are realllly in need of it, especially the farmers.
Oooooh, I am so excited to hear about what you think of camping!
I am anticipating - a big shift in my day to day life as I go back to work in a week.
I am loving - How smart my two year old niece is; my sister in law does SO much with her, that it's actually shocking how much she knows having just turned two this summer. I've never seen anything like it actually!
I am grateful for - A husband that was just as eager as I was to bake bagels from 10:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. last night! Haha! He's always up for anything!
I saw your photos on FB; it looks like you guys had a really great time camping and it seems like you did a lot of hikes, so hopefully that means that your RA flare subsided a tad!!! I hope the tent worked out well!
I am anticipating my two weeker, which starts in less than two weeks. I plan to go to Sweden to hike the Kungsleden and I am still getting ready for it, but it will be here before I know it! I am loving my garden as well; I have tomatoes out the wazoo as well as cucumbers and...FIGS! Hurray. I am grateful that I will be attending my grandmother's 85th birthday this weekend!
Have a great week!
I sure hope you find something to stop those RA flares, but grateful the injection gave you relief.
I have enjoyed the pictures you posted on facebook of your trip, and can't wait to read more on your blog!
I hope the blight doesn't kill the plants completely - you can remove the dead branches but put them in a container and not on the ground. Nasty blight!
I'm so sorry about the RA flare, mean old Arthur, as my Grandmommy always said. I am glad to hear your rheumatologist is responsive, that is so important! Wow, that's awesome that you're chairing to start the local chapter but I KNOW that's a ton of work!!!
I adore your update posts! So glad to communicate back and forth today and while I'm sorry (very) about the RA flare-ups, I hope they'll be short lived and just a fleeting thing.
Loving -- I'm loving how loving Lizzie is since I've been home from vacation. I'm thinking of changing her name to Polymer Medium because she's sticking like glue. (Or Mod Podge!)
Anticipating -- I'm anticipating getting my hair cut (long overdue) and a massage "sorely needed) this week!
Grateful -- I'm grateful Rick made his bicycle ride from Michigan to Quebec safely and that our return home was safe as well.
I am so sorry you have another RA flare... I hope it goes away quickly. You should definitely take it easy and listen to your body!
So crappy about the RA flares my friend :( Really hope they get under control soon! I LOVED Suits when I watched it. I will have to see where I stopped watching it and get caught up.
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