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Soldier Up / Coming back from RA
« Last post by Flyin6 on May 02, 2024, 10:17:32 PM »Rheumatoid Arthritis can be a bear.
It started affecting me last spring, a little more than a year ago. As the disease took hold it made me an effective cripple. My low point was a morning when I could not get up out of the chair to go to the bathroom. It is an awful disease and it kicked my butt for sure.
It takes months to get an appointment with a Rheumatologist, but through the utter persistence of my wife, she got me in in a week.
I had to undergo a lot of tests. I had studies done on my heart, Liver, and Kidneys. Some of those studies involved minor surgery. I confess starting last May until late this past fall, I was pretty miserable.
The Rheumatologist started dosing me with Hydroxychloroquine, two times a day. The thing about treating RQ is that they are aggressive or else you could suffer permanent joint damage.
I discovered I could take a small dose of prednisone and get 2-3 days of relief. The long-term drugs take at least six months to start to become effective. Luckily, I think I am a little past that point now and hopeful of finding a cure.
I am writing this here because as soon as I started gaining mobility, I started working out, but it has been a slow road. At first, I could only do 10-15 minutes of walking on a treadmill. I could not reach down to the floor or even effectively bathe myself. Yea, it was a bit_h.
As I started getting a little better and then a little bit more, I started walking more. I could not bend my wrist to do even a single pushup! By comparison, I used to do 100!
Well, today, I completed a 4-mile hike, and just yesterday I did a hike up and down 500-foot elevation changes at a place called Benger Mountain. It has been a real struggle, but I am fighting it with everything I have.
At the moment the pain from today's hike is under control after taking three Tylenol, but I am making headway.
I will not give up and hope to fully recover from this crippling disease.
It started affecting me last spring, a little more than a year ago. As the disease took hold it made me an effective cripple. My low point was a morning when I could not get up out of the chair to go to the bathroom. It is an awful disease and it kicked my butt for sure.
It takes months to get an appointment with a Rheumatologist, but through the utter persistence of my wife, she got me in in a week.
I had to undergo a lot of tests. I had studies done on my heart, Liver, and Kidneys. Some of those studies involved minor surgery. I confess starting last May until late this past fall, I was pretty miserable.
The Rheumatologist started dosing me with Hydroxychloroquine, two times a day. The thing about treating RQ is that they are aggressive or else you could suffer permanent joint damage.
I discovered I could take a small dose of prednisone and get 2-3 days of relief. The long-term drugs take at least six months to start to become effective. Luckily, I think I am a little past that point now and hopeful of finding a cure.
I am writing this here because as soon as I started gaining mobility, I started working out, but it has been a slow road. At first, I could only do 10-15 minutes of walking on a treadmill. I could not reach down to the floor or even effectively bathe myself. Yea, it was a bit_h.
As I started getting a little better and then a little bit more, I started walking more. I could not bend my wrist to do even a single pushup! By comparison, I used to do 100!
Well, today, I completed a 4-mile hike, and just yesterday I did a hike up and down 500-foot elevation changes at a place called Benger Mountain. It has been a real struggle, but I am fighting it with everything I have.
At the moment the pain from today's hike is under control after taking three Tylenol, but I am making headway.
I will not give up and hope to fully recover from this crippling disease.