Posts Tagged ‘Rheumatoid Arthritis’

Bad Week, Hard Lessons

January 29th, 2012

This week I am still recovering from a pretty bad flare, one I feel was my own fault, but really Rheumatoid Autoimmune Disease (Rheumatoid Arthritis) is at fault. I did not do it on purpose, just a temporary forgetfulness of what I can handle, it happens too often. My boyfriend’s son came over to help setup my bed and move around boxes. He also helped out with putting the top of my new desk on and tightening the screws.

The desk was my first error, but I really did not know it would be at the time. Lloyd pulled the box over to the area where I needed to setup my desk. I was excited to get to put something together; strange but I like it. It all went well and I had no pain until I started to have to look up and raise my hands just above my head to screw in a few of the screws.  My shoulders started felling a little sore but not bad enough to stop.  After the desk was ready, Lloyd headed out the door with his son. I headed into the bedroom to look for things I needed to get my desk organized a little. The boxes were stacked up on top of the dresser and I grabbed a couple down to look in them, yes my second mistake. They were pretty heavy but I felt no pain, at the time.

Then next day Lloyd headed to Las Vegas for a conference. I am not sure when but at some point I noticed I was starting to have to urinate every 10 minutes, this seems to happen before severe amounts of pain and has became a sign. I decided to get the meats I purchased grilled so I just grilled everything up for the week. I was afraid if I did not grill it all, I would not feel well enough to do it later, which I was right. My shoulders started getting tender and my neck and back started getting stiffer. » Read more: Bad Week, Hard Lessons

RAD Pain Scale – Take One

January 9th, 2012

Today I finished a Pain Scale, a request from RA Warrior “What would be your model pain scale? “. It is an attempt to customize a pain scale for Rheumatoid Arthritis. I had to think about different types of pain. What are the types of pain? What can cause a person physical pain? Some of my thoughts were about bee stings, sunburns, sprained bones, strained muscles, broken bones, torn muscles, headaches, migraines, cuts, surgery, childbirth, being ran over by a truck and even torture. What type of pain would a bee sting cause? I would think it would be acute pain, it can be intense but is usually short lived. Does that even matter?

Most people with RAD (Rheumatoid Autoimmune Disease aka Rheumatoid Arthritis) live with chronic pain daily.  I have read that pain receptors are sensitive to temperature (hot or cold), vibration as well inflamation. Inflammation happens when you are cut, you sprain something or when you are hit by a truck (tissue damage, broken bones, etc). When that happens if you move the damaged area the pain usually gets worse or sharper. With RAD you never see the truck coming, but it hits you. If you were to get hit by a truck and survive, you would probably have months of pain, recovery and rehabilitation. With Rheumatoid Arthritis this becomes our lifestyle.

I attempted to create a chart that describes some of the types of pain that someone with Rheumatoid Arthritis would recognize easily. But since I am just one patient, it would need more input on how they might describe the pain. I also made section for recommendations which I think individual patients would have to fill in. I put an example of something they may write to allow family members to see what help they may need during those levels of pain. They may not be able to communicate or think clearly enough ask.

Then a ‘May Compare To’ section to come up with a way to describe to others (family, friends, medical communities) and for Awareness of Rheumatoid Autoimmune Disease. Again just a section that should have more input from many RAD Patients.

 

Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain Scale

My first try at a pain scale for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

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Please help support Rheumatoid Patient Foundation by making a donation today. Pain is just one symptom of RAD learn more about Rheumatoid Autoimmune Disease (also called Rheumatoid Arthritis or RA).

—Update 1/9/2012 @ 12:49 PM—–

This article was a part of Pain Scale Blog Carnival at RAWarrior.com which has 14 other Patient opinions on pain scales.

Rheumatoid Patient Foundation

January 2nd, 2012

So today started my further exploration of Rheumatoid Patient Foundation (RPF).  While browsing the website I found the first RPF video released on Youtube.  Please help spread awareness about Rheumatoid Arthritis. Share this video on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and any other way you can. Thank you!

Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis 2011

December 31st, 2011

The End of 2011

Ready for the New Year? I am! Goodbye 2011 and hello 2012! I have been out of remission and in a flare for the entire year. Well actually it started in September of 2010 in mainly my shoulders. Every couple months this past year I have went up a pill in my treatment with Methotrexate, adding more to help reduce the pain, swelling and stiffness. I have improved slowly throughout the last six months, but still dealing with pain, swelling and stiffness daily. My feet are swelling up when I stand or walk to long, which could be within a few minutes to thirty minutes later.  Right now I have several great hours a day with very little or no pain and stiffness. Unless I do anything to physical, like stand on my feet or slide boxes around or have my purse on my shoulder longer than five minutes.

Sometimes I feel a little robbed when I am not able to even bowl on Xbox and there is not a heavy ball involved! But I am not able to swing my arm like I am throwing something for 10 frames without ending up with a sore shoulder and hips for the evening. But I can get short motorcycle rides in now, around a half hour to an hour at a time. We did go for a ride a couple times  this past week which was enjoyable. I am not sure when the last time I was able to ride on the bike, I know it has been awhile.  I first started having issues of riding on the bike again in September of 2010 when the flare started.  Before it started I had gotten up to being able to ride for 3 hours easily with stopping to walk and stretch off and on. When I first started riding on the bike back in 2007 after going into a remission period I was in pain within ten minutes of being on the  bike.

My hardest flares before 2007 was mainly in my feet and hips. The past two years I have dealt with pain, swelling and stiffness in my neck, shoulders, elbows, wrist, hands, fingers, hips, lower back, upper back, knees, feet, lymph-nodes and eyes and who knows where else. The hardest pain has been in my shoulders, feet and hips. I believe  the pain in my neck and back are  from the stiffness in my shoulders and hips area, which can reduce the amount of movement of my head from side to side or the ability to stand or sit down easily. Right now it is usually in my shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and feet during the evening. Shoulders and elbows in the morning for less than an hour. Itching closer to being in remission again. Looking forward to being able to go on more walks and workout again! At least I hope! » Read more: Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis 2011

Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms

April 14th, 2011

What are the symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis?
There are many symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) including swollen joints, joint pain, fatigue and weight loss which are just a few. Many websites provide lists of RA symptoms, but what do these symptoms mean? Do you have them all? Do you just have a few symptoms? Do they happen all at the same time? Do some happen overtime? I want to come up with a complete list of symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis. If you are a patient that suffers from RA, what would you list as a symptom? Can we go into detail on each symptom? I think we can, but my first task is trying to list out the symptoms. I would love to do a post discussing each symptom and what they mean to a person living with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The search for RA symptoms
I started by doing a search on Google for “Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms“. I want to find websites I trust, so I pick out a few that are medical centers or resources that I recognize like Mayo Clinic, WebMD, University of Maryland and the National Library of Medicine. Let’s see what they include as symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic provides the following list of symptoms for RA:

Joint pain
Joint swelling
Joints that are tender to the touch
Red and puffy hands
Firm bumps of tissue under the skin on your arms (rheumatoid nodules)
Fatigue
Morning stiffness that may last for hours
Fever
Weight loss

The website does go on to describe other symptoms like difficulty sleeping and weakness. They also have more in-depth details on dry eyes, inflammation of the eye, Glaucoma, Cataracts, painful breathing (pleurisy), shortness of breath, lung nodules, and scarring of the lungs. » Read more: Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms