A Day In The Life. RA Support Group Edition Day 1

I crowd sourced some of my day in the life. Support groups are wonderful.

Polly has ideas  for a demo film:

"Someone needs to make the virtual reality rheumatoid arthritis experience - I've been wanting to do that for years.  A day in the life..from the lowest pain to highest and then add some gastro issues just for a few chuckles.."

Jill feels that her doctor does not appreciate the impact of RA: 

"I don’t think our doctors have any idea of the impact on our quality of life. We see them for such a short amount of time throughout the year and then it’s only enough time to deal with the immediate issues/concerns. I bet if we each sat down with our rheumy and talked them through a week of our lives they’d soon see things in a different light." 

Julie and John:

"We look like we are feeding monkeys when we go to the store because we buy so much fresh fruit and vegetables.  We have at least one serving of a fruit or vegetable and usually more with every meal.  I really don't think we surpass seven servings a day though.

I have read that 65 to 75 is "Young" old,  75 to 85 is "Old" and 85 plus years is "Very" old."

Polly is single now:

"I feel invisible a lot of the time.  I think you don’t get much attention if you're solo."

Rosie wants a place to relax.

"Sometimes I sat in the pavilion and knitted.  I haven't found a body of water to visit but I am going to try and find one so there will be a place I can go by myself where I don't have to worry about catching anything from anyone!"

Julie has a soft spot for animals

"We were feeding a awful-looking very young raccoon that we felt sorry for.  He looked so sickly and after several days fell over in the yard.  John picked him up in a towel and put him in a box and then called animal control.  They came out and took the poor little raccoon and the officer told us that distemper was rampant in raccoon's in the area.  We both shed a tear over that sick raccoon. Thankfully, our pets are vaccinated against distemper, but the feral cats we feed aren't vaccinated against anything and now we are worried about them.  Always something to worry about."

I don't have a soft spot for all animals

At our house we are fighting the groundhog wars. The hole is blocked off now. We might have left him alone but he wanted to live right near the back door, next to the foundation.

Just sitting here I see reminders of RA in front of me, on my desktop, splints in the nightstand.

Pills under the monitor

Jills ring splints picture on my desktop

Adapted pens always near me

Resting splint worn nightly

Right angled knife - so easy for chopping

RA Stories from Real Life

My online friends have some good stories about RA. Here are two of my favourites plus a fun story of a funny evening .

From the ever popular Julie.  "I am sure that we all have "naughty hands" stories.  One of my worst was this.  We were vacationing in Washington, D.C. and went to a nice restaurant.  I always carry my medications in those 7 day containers that have pop-up lids.  I had mine in my purse and had secured it with a big rubber band just to make sure that the tops didn't come open.

I got the container out of my purse and went to take the rubber band off.  Well - instead, when I went to take the rubber band off, I used the entire thing like a sling-shot.  The container flew across the room, hit a server, the tops opened up and the pills went everywhere.  Jon really liked that!  He and I were down on the floor picking up pills.  Once again, I started laughing."

                                    www2.ipswichhospital.net

Nina said   "One day I was at my rheumy appointment, waiting in the waiting room and we were sat there wondering why there were so many very young couples waiting. We thought we were maybe in the wrong place, till Mark realized that the rheumy waiting room was also the STD clinic waiting room!! "

And on a day like today give some thought to Rosie who is dressing up for a Spelling Bee.  It sounds like so much fun!

                                        www.giles-lea.giles.k12.tn.ua

"The costume consists of yellow tee shirts that my neighbor had made while she was in Florida.  It has a circle on it in black with a honey bee in it.  It says Spelling Bee's on it.  We have these head bands with fuzzy things that stick up like a bee's feelers.  She also has yellow nail polish.  We all agreed to wear black pants.  Everyone is supposed to wear something I guess.  I think they have a prize for the best costume too.  I'm not looking forward to it."  And that's not counting  the yellow green and black striped socks our team will be wearing.

Breaking News: They won for best costume and spelled  very well.