Trying to get moving after RA diagnosis and surgery

michiko_yusuke

It's been hard to get motivated to move. My doctor put me on some new meds that seem to be helping the RA and the flexibility is back in the foot. The RA had eaten a whole in the metatarsal of my big toe and a cyst had formed so they had to remove the sesamoid bone directly underneath to get to the cyst. Then there was a bone graft and all kinds of lovely things. :-(
What have you found helps motivate you after surgery? Or if you have RA how do you push yourself on the days when there is just no energy left?
Trying to stay positive...

canadianlbs

r.a. really sucks, and i'm not even in the class of experience that you've just had. the only question i'm qualified to speak about is this one:

Or if you have RA how do you push yourself on the days when there is just no energy left?

what i do is: i don't. it's been a while since i had a genuine flare, but what i learned when i was having them is that 'pushing' was getting me nowhere at all. it's just not like regular life where you can bear down for a tired-feeling patch and it will go away on its own.

for me flares and especially flare-based fatigue only respond to one thing, and that's rest. i have to drop everything and throw as much sleep at it as i can arrange, and at about 20 hours/day for a few days it seems to start turning around. the hard part for me was actually figuring out how to 're' push once the flare faded out. that's always been the phase and the problem that kills me. the transitions are the deadly part of r.a. ime. when i'm moving from a remission to flare, i always 'fail' to recognise it for what it is for a while. and when i'm moving from flare to remission again, i always have to re-learn what remission feels like.

what i do do/can do, which helps a bit more than any other approach, is to just try. not in the sense of a 'push', but in the sense of exploring again. after two or three days of barely moving at all, i have to re-explore and re-learn every time. it's all evidence-based and that's one of the things that kill me. i might find it all easier if i could just learn from prior cycles and put together a template that i could use, but it isn't like that.

so i 'try'. let's say yesterday i got dressed and brushed my teeth and then i sat down to put on my shoes and that's the point where the gas tank ran dry. so i lay down and slept for the rest of the day. so today i get dressed and brush my teeth and i put on my shoes, and if i get them laced up then i walk to the door.

and so forth. i know; it's so maddening. i hate suspending my sentience and trying to live like i'm four months old, but i just don't know another way of approaching this thing. good luck.

mjpree

Oh wow, you sure have my sympathy! I have not experienced RA anywhere near your level but wanted to pass along that a gluten-free/allergen-free diet helped me tremendously by reducing inflammation and increasing energy. The difference for me is incredible and perhaps it may help you too.

croftie4

mjpree wrote: »

Oh wow, you sure have my sympathy! I have not experienced RA anywhere near your level but wanted to pass along that a gluten-free/allergen-free diet helped me tremendously by reducing inflammation and increasing energy. The difference for me is incredible and perhaps it may help you too.

Well my doctor put me on a gluten free lifestyle and wheat free. Amazing results. I now go to the gym everyday, heavy lift kettlebells and you wouldn't know I'd had such trouble even walking last year . The pain was worse in my feet and then hands and knees. The pain everywhere else wasn't great but bearable. The pain in my feet got me so depressed. This week I saw some school colleagues I hadn't seen for months and they were so shocked, which also made me realise how different I look too. I'm also not taking medication anymore.

Maybe it doesn't work for everyone but once the pain started to get better I googled it and found lots of stories similar to mine. Now I'm a regular at the gym my joints are nice and strong.