Hi all, I understand a prominent factor of RA is morning stiffness. Though I have some, mainly hips and ankles and feet, I feel good until about mid afternoon every day, and then the pain , and I mean pain,( like you don't know) and fatigue start getting so bad, I don't know how I will make dinner for, and care for my family. The more I do during the day, the worse the pain and fatigue. Even folding a couple of loads of laundry can get things going, is this normal? I am only less than a year ago diagnosed,
Thanks
Jena
I go either way. Some mornings are nightmares, others I slide out of bed just fine. Some days the longer I'm awake, the better I feel - others by lunch time I'm using walmart's wheelchair. To me, it sounds like maybe you need to take a few breaks during your morning and mid-day, perhaps you can delay your fatigue some but resting throughout the day. Even if it is just 10-15 minute breaks here and there. Try to pinpoint what it is that triggers your fatigue like that. If it's always around the same time of day, I just really think you're over-doing it during the rest of the day.
Just something to think about. :)
My personal best time of the day is early afternoon. Towards the evenings I tend to wind down and get more tired. I rest between doing stuff around the house. And it is ok if you have to let something go in the house for a day if you are feeling wiped out. It will still be there tomorrow!I get morning stiffness that wears off by the time I take a shower, and I always start thinking, wow, I'm getting better! But I have found that the more I do, the more I hurt, so that my worst time is afternoon and evening. I get a lot of my pain from use or too much sitting (I have hip pain). The thing I'm learning over the last few months since diagnosis is that the reality of RA can be very different from all the literature we read about 'classic' RA. I barely fit the pattern in a lot of ways, but I still have it.
Eileen
Jena, I can relate too to what you're saying.
First, morning stiffness and the underlying pain that never goes away. Except on Bad Days, I feel pretty good once I limber up, then, depending on the day, mid-afternoon to early evening the pain will surge on the heels of the Fatigue Monster. Stiffness will come and go depending on the day and sitting or moving.
If there is a pattern to all this, most often the pain and fatigue surge pretty close together around 6pm and continue through the evening, and I feel better, though stiff and still sore again in the morning.
Eileen is so right that all of our realities of RA are different. If I were a sweetness and light kind of gal I'd say we're all RA snowflakes. But I'm not, so I didn't say that.
Thank You all for your insight, not having a good week, more pain than I have ever had so far. I am so afraid to start methotrexate, it sounds like poisoning my own body, but the pain and what damage could be occuring, doesn't sound pretty either..... Wow,
Jena, you need to conquor that demon and take the MTX, you absolutly have too, and surely anything is better then the pain you are feeling.
I understand how you feel, but we have no choice
Hang in there
Wendy
I hear ya on the "not a good week" It's like sometimes I OVER think these situations that make the pain/situation worse. I have been "diagnosed" for almost 2 yrs and still don't quite believe what's happening to my body. It's so tough sometimes. & the fatige...girl, I know a thing or two about fatigue. There are days I have a hard time just thinking about the day ahead, I won't even have to do anything physially & I'm whooped.
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