hello everyone, I am learning so much from your posts. Thank you for sharing your pain so that I and others do not feel so alone. Does anyone have any tricks or tips that you can give me to battle the fatigue. I have 1 or 2 great days lots of energy just kicking butt. Then the bottom falls out, and I can not hardly get off the couch. I don't have alot of pain or stiffness but the fatigue is awful. This however does not really have any outward symptoms and I always feel like everyone around me thinks I am just faking it or it is in my head. My family and friends are great but sometimes I feel like I have gone from being a strong independent member of my family to a weak tired person I don't even recognize. I am taking folic acid and glucosamine chondroitin and naproxin. Are there any other supplements or home remedies or any tips that are working for anyone I am willing to try almost anything. Today I have struggled to just get up and go to the bathroom. This has come on so suddenly (i was dx in july) reading your post I am very thankful I am not in severe pain and stuggling with the meds and their side effects. Then I think maybe this is in my head, I don't have the pain maybe I am just taking the easy way out and being a bum. Oh well venting again, I started out asking for tips and wound up whining. Whine on. That's what this board is for. RA is so unpredictable. ONe day you're fine, the next day you can't get out of bed. The pain can move around too. I hate the unpredicability of this disease because it's so hard to plan anything. Work is a problem too because we're so inconsistent. I don't have too much advice and here I am whining too. You just have to plan your day with contingencies. Take out travel insurance if you're planning a trip. Plan less for each day so you don't disappoint yourself. You can always do more if you feel better. Do the tough stuff at work early so you can relax more later in the day when you droop.Pawn off duties on husband and children if you're having a bad say.2angels, I think we all battle the fatigue. Can you build a nap into your day? It really does help me - especially when sleeping at night is hard. I know people look at me funny when, in the middle of the day and out of nowhere I say, "I'm tired." But I'm always tired. Not always sleepy,but always tired. I can say that after a while, you do kind of get used to it. Not sure that's a good thing.
What helps me is doing exercises in the AM.
Exercise you say?
I pretty much need all my joints replaced. The major ones atleast. Richard Simmons has an exercise tape that is for those who are wheelchair bound. It doesn't do much for the normal person but if you have progressed enough with your RA or aren't in shape for do a normal aerobic workout it is a starting point. Joyce Vedral has some weight training videos that are great if you learn to modify them. Some parts require getting on your knees which I can't do.
The exercise gets me going, I get a nice cool shower and feel great. It helps me sleep better at night, making me feel better the next day. Of course, this is what works for me. I can't take naps or I feel like crap the rest of the day.
I like the nap tip however I cannot always work it in. I am a stay at home mom but I also work p/t and am taking some college courses to get my realtors license. Great time for RA to hit, hadn't really planned for this. I have been reading in several post that many of you swim for exercise. We have an above ground pool and live in texas so the water stays warm through oct. most summers, sometimes longer. I have thought about maybe swimming more I don't really get in there much right now. This is my third bad day not much pain just exhausted.
nora
Nora,
Pace yourself. You do too much one day and you are going to suffer the next. So, start thinking about cutting your obligations down. Say no more often. Plan for having rest time and exercise time.
Give yourself permission not to do things all the time. That one is really hard for me.
But you do have to learn to even out your expenditure of energy so that you'll have some left over. When you overdo, then you tend to bring on flares or fatigue.
Boy am I learning "pace yourself" in a hurry. I did actually take a nap today and have been able to finish my ironing and I might even attempt dinner in a little whileYou are right... I / we aren't always sleepy but we are ALWAYS tired or spent. I push myself just to get dressed everyday so that my poor hubby doesn't have to come home to a rag a muffin. I figure if that is the ONLY thing that I do in the day I am doing good. If I can push on and do more I usually do especially since I have a strange thought process that I can ALWAYS at anytime go back to sleep. I try not to as it dose affect my nights sleep. But, I try to at least lay and relax late in the afternoon for about 20 minutes. That has helped me a great deal.
Well... I went off rambling again. Sorry.
Thank you all for just being here for all of us. :o)
Uppers! I know, ain't gonna happen. But wouldn't it be great if doctors would prescribe something similar to get us back into functioning, energic human beings!
Susan
Up from my nap. Yawn. 2angels - if I have a nap, I can do twice as much - maybe three times as much work at the end of the day as I could do otherwise. I'm not as fogged. I'm so much more focused. It's not something I can successfully push through. And, if I'm too tired at the end of the day, I don't sleep - which starts the cycle again the next day. I'm down to 2 - 3 naps a week from one every single day and, in the beginning, two a day.