Guest Speaker for Arthritis Society

For the past three years I have been a guest speaker for the Arthritis Society, Nova Scotia branch.  This is volunteer and not overly demanding.  I am provided with a talk outline, brochures and information and my part is to show up and make the presentation. This have been very rewarding.  I have had the opportunity to meet several people and to hear their stories and in a few cases I hope I have been able to offer information and suggestions that has lead to a less painful life. 

In the next few weeks I will be taking part in two Senior's Academies organized by the Liverpool detachment of the RCMP.  Linda W does a great job of finding locations and participants.  The Academy is usually held over a six week period with a couple of hours a week, and I am invited to speak for an hour or so on Arthritis.  Linda has worked her magic and has two more sessions organized one in April and another in May/June.  The expectation is that there will be three or four dozen people at the two sessions. Great initiative for the community.

I am looking forward to dusting off the old binder of material, getting my handouts organized and meeting some great folks. 

Volunteering truly does reward the volunteer.

Pain Can Make You Grumpy

I have had arthritis pain, constant and deep in my joints, for so long I had forgotten about the lighter things in life. That fact was brought home to me yesterday, when a work acquaintance told me that my outlook seemed to have changed, I was upbeat and energized, contributing positive comments to discussions.  And it hit me...I had seriously let the pain in my joints make me into a pain, negative and doom and gloom.  The acquaintance contributed the change in me to some changes in my work environment, but I know that isn't it, the change is because I am not using all my positive energies to cope with throbs and aches.  Well, not as many of them anyway. My knee still aches and throbs at times, but I can usually walk without it constantly paining which I haven't been able to do for years with my aching hip. 

I think I knew this on some level but it is never easy to admit that you may not be able to handle everything in life well, especially for an old control freak like me.

So I have once again realized that no matter how miserable I feel, it isn't my right to take that out on everyone in the surrounding area. They deserve my respect and my best and if I can't give that, they deserve my absence until I can.

Let's see how long this will last.

Physiotherapy is Finished

The weekly visits to the hospital's physiotherapy department have finished but the exercises and the challenges of getting my strength and flexibility in my leg muscles is an ongoing challenge. I can feel improvement and for that I am thankful.

The structure of my work week has changed. I am now working Tues, Wed and Thurs each week, and Wed is working from home. So only two trips into the office most weeks. I am actually looking forward to the change of getting out of the office and visiting the chamber's members and calling on businesses to get them signed up as members. The plan is for that to be 3 to 4 hours a week. So my real in office time will only be 1.5 days if that. Meeting time for committees or board meetings reduces that office time even further.

January is always a hard month for me. Short days with limited sunlight and winter well settled in with its grip on almost everything I do. On a positive note, January is half over and we have had only one snow storm so far this winter. Last night and today are above freezing temps so a lot of that snow fall has melted, hopefully more will go before the -5 to -10 night temps return. 

All in all, January has been good so far. I am looking forward to 2011 and everything it will offer.

Back to the Gym

I finally connected with a dear friend yesterday for lunch and found out that she had started an exercise routine at our local gym. And this morning at 7:00 am. we were both there treading the treadmills and pushing those levers and lifting those weights. Only 30 minutes for me but I feel good, mentally and physically.

I have had injections in both of my knees for arthritis and wow what a difference. I am having trouble adjusting to the reduction in the pain levels. Sounds crazy but I am getting back a memory of free movement without crippling pain. The hip is still crunching away but even the pain levels there are reduced since the shot in the knee on that side. So I owe an apology to my doctor who said that would happen and I doubted him and stated so.

I have pledged to my TOPS chapter members that I will lose a pound a week for the next 10 weeks... and I will do it.

I hope everyone gets to feel the energy levels that I have at this moment.

Sunny Weather

The sun of the last few days has brought a reduction in arthritis pain. So I am definitely convinced that my pain levels are influenced by the weather. Sunny, dry weather...less pain. Rain and fog...I hurt. Maybe not a medical breakthrough but a fact that will help manage my pain.

I am still experimenting with foods, to see which ones may have a bearing on my aches. The citrus doesn't seem to influence it one way or the other. So back to eating grapefruit for breakfasts.

I wonder if a brace would help to reduce/control the pain in my right knee. Guess I will check that out with my family doctor to get his opinion. Maybe I need to talk to a specialist about it.

We are planning to take in the art show in Lunenburg on Sunday. I will be walking quite a bit so will see how I make out, maybe I should take my cane.

Trial and Error

I have been experimenting with my diet to see if there are some foods that help/hinder my arthritis. I have eliminated citris fruit and alcohol and I am not sure if this change is having any effect. Maybe too early to tell yet.