Life before RA | Arthritis Information

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Hi guys, a weekend question for you, what would you have been doing different this weekend if you did not have RA problems?????

I would have been pulling on my running gear for sure and going for a run on the beach with my boys and hubby, and the dog! (instead I am in my PJ's and the only place I am running is to the toilet from the MTX) Probably running or playing softballI would probably be working a double shift at a job that I loved. Instead I am stuck going over in-laws for hot dog night and sitting on a couch that KILLS my back and that I cannot get off of without help. Oh wait... that is every couch I sit on, that I need help getting off of, but not every couch KILLS my back!

 
I would probably take my kids to the park and play on the equipment with them. Instead I would have to sit and watch, and that is no fun. I would have to watch hubby play with the kids the way I want to play with them. It is a good thing my kids are easily amused... I just have to talk my crazy talk and my daughter laughs her ass off, and my son will ask me questions about my crazy talkings.
 
I would have my house all nice and clean, that you could literally eat off the floors. Instead I am sitting here in pain from wednsday when I decided to clean my room and now I am paying for it. Good thing I was too damn tired to clean, sweep, and mop the dining room like I wanted to after I got done with my room. I would be stuck in bed, or worst killed over from the pain. I don't think about what I did in the past.  It's finished.  I think about what I can do at this moment in time.  I just went to the farmer's market, am making a Greek salad for a BBQ this evening at our friend's ranch.  Thanks to pain medication and my other meds I can accomplish that.  Next week I might no be able to do what I did today but I'll be able to do something, even if it's only to sit and read a good book.  I used to think about what I did before RA and yearn for those days but now I'm satisfied with the present and what I can do today.   Well what i would be doing i do not know? My feet and ankles are just so painful today. I do not get it? They are always swollen just sometimes they hurt more than other times. Well i am going to visit family. If my feet are not in a better mood by tomorrow I will be visiting from the couch asking for help. In the past i would have been in the kitchen making a wonderful meal for my family. No turkey and dumplings this weekend.

I think I'd be doing the same thing (if I didn't have RA) this weekend.  I guess for me, I pretty much try to do what I used to do...just slightly modified. 

The one thing I really miss though,  is going to the gym and having a really good workout...I loved that feeling.   It's just different now.  I no longer go to the gym, but I did buy a treadmill, a recumbent stationary bike and a weight machine and set up my own gym so that when I feel like I can exercise, I can just go at my own pace.  It's not the same, but it's better than nothing because I feel so much better when I get some sort of exercise.
Kel, I know what you mean.  I have all the equipment here at home, and I do use it, but it's just not the same.  And I loved it and I miss it too.  I used to run five miles everyday, go to the gym 5 days a week.  I used to get up at 4 am so I could get my work out in before the day started.  I miss those days so much.well i dont have RA, lol i have JRA, but what i would do would be different too
 
i would sleep till 9 or 10, enjoying the last days of sleeping in for the summer INSTEAD i'll be waking up at 6, to take some pills, then i'll head back to bed for an hour or two
 
i'd eat one of those lunchable things for lunch INSTEAD i'll be having a sandwich probably since those lunchables have too many carbs and im not allowed them anymore
 
i'd play outside with my friend enjoying the sun and maybe getting a nice tan before school so i dont look pale INSTEAD if i did decide to head outside, i'd have to apply a ton of sunscreen or i'd burn terribly
 
and there must be other thing's i'd do different too, but thats all i can think of at the moment...
I make my own lunchables for the grankids. I cut up healthier pieces of meat and cheese. Get either the Ritz wheat crackers or Triscuts and put fresh veggies and ranch dip on the side. My granddaughter thinks i am a genious. I am because she is eating carrots and brocolli and never says anything about missing out on the pudding.Hiking, horseback riding or maybe even lots of SEX![QUOTE=milly]I make my own lunchables for the grankids. I cut up healthier pieces of meat and cheese. Get either the Ritz wheat crackers or Triscuts and put fresh veggies and ranch dip on the side. My granddaughter thinks i am a genious. I am because she is eating carrots and brocolli and never says anything about missing out on the pudding.[/QUOTE]
ooh thats sorta cool
I would be working in the yard.  It has become a mess since latest flare.   I acutally had a dream one night that I was running and moving around like I used too.  When I woke up and couldnt move, I was ticked off.  What a mean dream.  Oh to be able to do that again.  One things for sure I would hae a clean house. I  just don't have the energy anymore to keep it nice and clean. It's all I can do some days just  to make it through my workday. Certainly can't afford a maid and my sons (2) living at home are somewhat of a help but just isn't the same.   I would have been competing in a racquetball tournament all weekend, Fri through Sun.  Now I can't even go watch for a weekend cause I can't stand for hours.  I would have played hard, and had cocktails and danced at night........Instead, I stayed home, no cocktails, no racquetball, no fun.  But...I did swim in the pool and watch a few movies with ice water.  Woohooo.I'm not sure what good it does to spend time mourning what you could have been doing before RA. I have RA and have to live with it as best I can. For me, that means doing many of the same things I did before but in smaller doses and for shorter periods of time. This past weekend I had my daughter, husband and two grandkids at the house; invited my sister and a couple I'm friends with to come over for barbeque on Saturday - told my son-in-law he was in charge of the barbeque. Friends did the dishes while I sat. Went with the kids to an amusement park and thoroughly enjoyed watching my 5 year old granddaughter have a wonderful time - and found lots of benches to sit on while she rode. Went to a swimming park on Sunday and watched the kids play in the water. Cooked a great dinner on Sunday night and let my daughter do the clean up while I sat. A Vicodin now and then kept me going - especially at the amusement park. I'd rather look at what I can do than what I can't do.My pre-RA life seems so distant that it, in effect, becomes fantasy. What I remember is surely not as accurate as how it was...so like Lindy, I endeavour not to go there, to remain current, to be in the moment, and to do just exactly what I can at any given moment.

I have wonderful memories of what/how/where but sometimes, when truly in a state of introspection, debate if those memories were truly wonderful or if they were just different than my current reality.

Cheers and best wishes, Shug
I was diagnosed so long ago that what I would do then has absolutely no bearing on what I would be doing today.  I don't even think of what I would do if I didn't have RA because for me whats the point  I do what I can do now and find as much enjoyment as I can out of that [QUOTE=buckeye]I don't even think of what I would do if I didn't have RA because for me whats the point  I do what I can do now and find as much enjoyment as I can out of that[/QUOTE]
Exactly. Thank you for being so succinct.

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