(no subject)
This whole part beyond the LJ cut is pasted as-is from my own LJ (where it's filtered a little) but the backstory is that I wasn't hurting too much on Saturday (I'm not really flaring, just at my low-grade constant RA pain level that things never get better than) and thought it would be fine if I did the kite festival on Saturday and the garlic festival on Sunday. My scooter's finally worn out, after four years of good use, so I was on my feet, then for the kite festival, the drive into the part of the park that has the gimp parking was long and slow with no promise of parking actually being available, so we parked near a pedestrian bridge and walked into the festival, which ended up being a much longer walk than I realized. The dogs loved it, but my knees hurt. Then the garlic festival the next day actually wasn't bad, and I had wanted to go for years, and my sweet boyfriend was saying, "It's okay, we can go next year," but I really wanted to go this year, rather than wait, so we went. It wasn't actually so bad, not nearly as much walking at the kite festival, and lots of opportunity to sit down and rest, and we did, but still, as of this morning, my knees are trashed. So this is how I vented on my own LJ:Okay, I know I'm being stupid. I'm feeling guilty for having used up my knees over the weekend (and I still have plans to dance tonight, and might still, if I feel like I can tolerate, and deyo's postdromal phase from his migraine (for which the pain has finally abated) isn't too severe.
So I have all these plans to do a bunch of gardening, and I've knocked out 50-75% of the pain in my knees and abdomen (different causes, kill two birds with one vicodin tablet, etc.), but now I can tell that my knees didn't just hurt like hell but were inflamed because they still are, and when I walk around, I can feel them doing all sorts of weird things. They don't fit together correctly, it's like there's little chunks of sponge between my knee parts. That right there is the difference between "structural issues" pain and "RA aggravation" pain, it's the chunks of sponge in there. I tried to explain it to my rheumatologist once. I said, "You know those pan scrubbers that Trader Joe's sells that are sponge in the middle, covered with plastic scrubby outside? That's what my knees feel like, it feels like those are stuck between my knee parts." He winced but didn't quite get it.
So I want to go gardening, but I think it would make my knees worse now, because they're relatively flared. But I lay around a lot this morning hoping the pain would go away without drugs and now I want to do something, so I'm pondering what I can do without moving a whole lot. I might have deyo throw all my laundry on my bed, and sit and fold. I might go sit in the living room and fold while I watch a movie or something. I might get one of the new storage tubs and go through the boxes in my closet and sort them into a tub, label it, then get rid of anything that won't fit into one tub. It's ridiculous to have a bunch of boxes in the closet and not even remember what's in there.
Also, I need to scan these boxes of family documents.
Also, I need to write a new geographile blog post.
I want to get off my ass and be productive, but I can't right now, and feeling guilty about overdoing it this weekend won't bring my inflammation down. I think I'll also take an extra Celebrex, which will kill some of the inflammation, and we'll see how things are going tonight. If I can go dancing, and if deyo wants to, I will, even if I end up just listening to music for 2/3 of the evening.
(And now there is a plethora of mooses.)
Illustrated with photo links just to give me something to do for a minute, now I shall get out a box of stuff and organize it on the bed, without walking around. :)
So I have all these plans to do a bunch of gardening, and I've knocked out 50-75% of the pain in my knees and abdomen (different causes, kill two birds with one vicodin tablet, etc.), but now I can tell that my knees didn't just hurt like hell but were inflamed because they still are, and when I walk around, I can feel them doing all sorts of weird things. They don't fit together correctly, it's like there's little chunks of sponge between my knee parts. That right there is the difference between "structural issues" pain and "RA aggravation" pain, it's the chunks of sponge in there. I tried to explain it to my rheumatologist once. I said, "You know those pan scrubbers that Trader Joe's sells that are sponge in the middle, covered with plastic scrubby outside? That's what my knees feel like, it feels like those are stuck between my knee parts." He winced but didn't quite get it.
So I want to go gardening, but I think it would make my knees worse now, because they're relatively flared. But I lay around a lot this morning hoping the pain would go away without drugs and now I want to do something, so I'm pondering what I can do without moving a whole lot. I might have deyo throw all my laundry on my bed, and sit and fold. I might go sit in the living room and fold while I watch a movie or something. I might get one of the new storage tubs and go through the boxes in my closet and sort them into a tub, label it, then get rid of anything that won't fit into one tub. It's ridiculous to have a bunch of boxes in the closet and not even remember what's in there.
Also, I need to scan these boxes of family documents.
Also, I need to write a new geographile blog post.
I want to get off my ass and be productive, but I can't right now, and feeling guilty about overdoing it this weekend won't bring my inflammation down. I think I'll also take an extra Celebrex, which will kill some of the inflammation, and we'll see how things are going tonight. If I can go dancing, and if deyo wants to, I will, even if I end up just listening to music for 2/3 of the evening.
(And now there is a plethora of mooses.)
Illustrated with photo links just to give me something to do for a minute, now I shall get out a box of stuff and organize it on the bed, without walking around. :)