When do I get my Medal?

I’ll be honest, the days since my first post have not been fun. In a single word: Ouch! Actually there have been lots of other words coming out of my mouth but I did promise to keep the more colourful ones to a minimum!


RA seems to have settled rather (un)comfortably in my fingers, wrists, elbows and ankles and, whilst that is a lot, I can’t tell you how happy I am that it is deciding to leave my knees out of the party for a while. They were excruciating when I initially went to the GP, resulting in my BF having to put my shoes and socks on for me and deposit me on the sofa for the majority of each day! But even without the involvement of my knees the constant pain has been relentless and is seriously testing my resolve.


It’s a strange pain and trying to explain it feels like trying to describe the colour blue to a blind person. Sometimes it’s a sharp pain that everyone will have experience of, like when you bash your wrist on a table corner, or bend one of your fingers back. This tends to come on as a sudden stab, for no apparent reason, and usually draws an expletive or two (and a few tears if I'm honest). But most of the time there is a constant, horrible, achy pain like someone is steamrollering up your arm and slowly crushing all the joints,. Or they are wiggling a pencil into that part of your elbow known ironically as the “funny” bone and sending waves of burning tingles right to the tips of each finger. These pains are the ones that keep me awake at night, or make it impossible even to press a tiny button on the TV remote. Don’t even get me started on the restrictions this causes when attempting tasks like brushing hair, teeth or putting make-up on.


Having seen the Rheumatologist on Friday, I’m back to my GP tomorrow for stronger painkillers and anti-inflammatories to try and get this under control whilst we wait to start the actual disease treatment. Fingers crossed (haha or not!) by Tuesday evening I might be able to shed the distinctly dishevelled look I have adopted over the past few weeks and go back to not being quite so dependant on my poor BF. (Although he does make a gorgeous house wife!).


I should of course mention T1D as he isn't considerate enough just go on holiday when I have something else to deal with. Its fair to say my ongoing war with him has definitely taken a bit of a back seat through all this. However the main thing worth noting is that one of the side effects of steroids, which I'm taking to trying and reduce the acute RA inflammation, is that it greatly increases blood glucose levels. So whilst I’m rattling with all the RA pills, I’m also sloshing about with an additional 30-40% of my usual insulin requirement to try and keep him quiet. This requires more frequent finger-prick testing than normal which is just what I need with sore hands!


Honestly, I think I deserve a degree for even starting to manage all this, or at least a nice, big, shiny medal!