Health Log
My daily health log.
Tanya Martin
Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid Arthritis Flare
Sorry I have not been posting but I have been dealing with a flare. I usually deal with more pain and stiffness in the winter months. Right now I am in California and the pain and stiffness has went down. The stiffness has been in my shoulders. My back was swollen when I got here. The swelling was visible in the muscles in my back. I would say I was at a 7 or 8 on the pain scale when I left Indiana, it dropped to a 4 after about 24 hours here and now I’m down to a 1 or 2.
Heading back to Indiana on Monday, will see how long it lasts.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Health Log
It has been awhile since I did an update. I have been feeling good, not much pain or stiffness in joints but I have still been dealing with my back. I did finally get off the Flexeril in the last week. 
I have added a this stuff called take charge that I can add to my yogurt and it gives it some crunchiness, it is a multi vitamin. I did notice there was not any Vitamin D in it so I picked up some Calcium Plus Magnesium and Vitamin D-3 from GNC. While I was there I grabbed MSM, Omega Complex and Glucosamine the non shellfish kind. A few days after starting them I noticed my back pain went down some but not all the way. I tried no Flexeril and the pain was down enough that I did not need the Flexeril, but I did need to do more stretching. I found doing enough stretches at night before going to sleep and I wake up without any pain. If I do not do enough then I wake up with stiffness so I do more stretches. It has worked so far!
Rheumatoid Arthritis Health Log
I am in Los Angeles visiting my boyfriend. We went to Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon. and Yosemite National Park to take some pictures. So I did get more exercise this last week. We are back at his house and last night I went for a walk with him and Buddy.
My feet did swell up after a walk down and then back up a hill in Sequoia and the pain was around a 3. The next morning they were fine. When we went to Yosemite they got a little swollen by the end of the day but just a 1 on the pain scale. I am still dealing with back pain if I do not take the three Flexeril.
I have noticed more sweet cravings since I started on the Flexeril.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Health Log
Thursday already! I did finally get to do my enbrel shot on Tuesday and I am feeling pretty good. I went for a massage yesterday and that helped with the stiff muscles in my back. I am still on Flexeril, I did try to go down to 2 pills a day over the weekend but it did get worse so I went back to 3. No other pain or stiffness going on besides my back.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Health Log
RA health log. So much for updating the blog once a week while I was gone, but I did enjoy the time away from the computer. I also did get plenty of exercise in while we were in Europe. I really can not believe how much walking I did in Dublin. It was great! I am really amazed how much I was able to stay on my feet this trip compared to last year. My sister told me when I first got on Enbrel that I will be amazed at how much better I feel each year that I am on it and she was right.
I did have some slight stiffness in my feet and some tenderness in my knees. Both went away quickly and were a 1 on the pain scale. I did do two shots before I left since I was going to be gone two weeks. I am not sure that it really stayed in my system for the full two weeks and I think next time I will just do the one shot. I have not had any shots since then because of some congestion. I learned last year to make sure there is no congestion, my sister had some but thought she had cleared up enough to do her shot so she did and it got much worse. She ended up on breathing treatments and was miserable, so I learned from her mistake.
I spent the last week catching up on some work. Yesterday I got myself back in the Wii Fit routine, I did 30 minutes of Rhythm Boxing.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Foundation
