Introduction & Early Stages

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January 2006

Monday, January 02, 2006

It’s back to basics this year. We have a chance to start fresh – a clean slate – for the year ahead. Every year I think about the same things I want to do (and that for some reason, January 1st entitles me to do more than any other day of the year). Like working out. I say it every year: “this is the year I’m going to get really fit: I’m going to the gym, I’m going to get over that first hump of gym anxiety, blah blah blah”.

Sometimes it happens, other times it doesn’t. But for some reason the older I get and the more attention I have to pay my body and its problems, the more I realize that we only have one go at this. 2006 should be the best year on record. And you know what? 2007 should be even better than that. It’s about understanding what makes us happy. For me, it’s about not letting back pain or hip pain or hand pain get in the way of being happy. The older I get the more I have to understand that these things are constants; this pain is real. And life is what happens when we don’t let them get in the way and we move on with what we love to do most. With hobbies, music, friends, family, boyfriends or girlfriends, and on and on. These are the things we surround ourselves with and focus on. Not the pain from my shoulder to my lower back. 2006 is about not letting the pain get in the way of anything.

My New Year’s resolution this year is to learn to play the piano. That is, of course, after I go to the gym.

Monday, January 16, 2006

I’ve always heard “laughter is the best medicine”, and very early on it was the only medicine I took (because let’s face it, a 13-year old kid with arthritis sounds like the beginning of a bad joke). But lately I’ve been seeking a little light-hearted humor to keep me perked up and feeling good – physically and emotionally. I look forward to going to funny movies. I make it a point to laugh out loud as often as possible. I feel the difference, and I think it’s so important.

The reality is that sometimes sitting around, thinking of funny ads to post on bulletin boards (say, for celebrity impersonators)(Neil Diamond wink wink) is therapeutic. I think people – with and without arthritis – don’t spend enough time thinking about ways to laugh or just smile. They’re caught in the day-to-day of life without ever noticing what’s missing.

And that just ain’t right.

Monday, January 30, 2006

It’s good to write down how you feel sometimes. I find myself doing this more and more often. Technically I’ve been doing it for years, but lately I’ll lay in bed and think about how I feel – emotionally and physically – and then I’ll roll out of bed and start writing it down. Half the time it doesn’t make sense, but I think it’s healthy because it lets me think more carefully and objectively about it.

Like today for example, I woke up this morning and felt well rested and really relaxed. I feel like my Sunday nights can heal me and prepare me for my week. I get in bed by 9:00 PM (literally)(such a dork) and I watch some TV, read a book or the “Week in Review” and then fall asleep by 10. This way when I wake up in the morning I am as refreshed as I can be. First, a nice long shower, a clean shave, and from then on, no matter what happens, it’s a good day. I think it really takes the edge off of Monday mornings. Why I didn’t discover this years ago is beyond me.

My mom visited her rheumatologist this week. She’s getting her medicine changed back and forth and sometimes it upsets me because of all people in this world, she deserves to be the one in the least amount of pain. When she complains about her hands or her hip or anything else I really understand what it’s like to love someone who is in pain. I feel so hopeless and sometimes all I can do is tell her that she’ll be OK. Then it occurs to me how she must feel whenever I have one of those ‘off’ days. She’s been with me from the beginning and I can’t imagine how all of these up’s and down’s have made her feel over the years.

So just in case she’s reading this – I feel great and will always be OK.