Hi,
I was only diagnosed in April of this year, so I'm still learning. My lesson for today? Cold hurts.
The last two days I've woken up with my whole hands and wrists hurting and stiff. Not just a couple of fingers here and there... the whole hands. Not nice. My reaction was, "well, hopefully it'll go play in other joints tomorrow". That was pretty much okay with me (okay? sounds crazy, right?) all until I made the mistake of rinsing my hands off in cold water. Whoa! Ouch! I had only THOUGHT they hurt before! Yikes! My hands finally finally stopped aching after they had been warmed back up for a while. Whew.
But of course, there's always that pesky learning curve. I had NO IDEA how many times I just rinse off my hands during the day. After doing the cold water trick a few more times though, I think I've started to break that old habit. Now I'm trying to form a new habit of turning on the hot water and waiting...
Oh, that's another new thing. Learning patience.
Ish
I have the same problem with my bathroom... it seems to take forever to get hot water. On the bright side of it though, my plants get very dry in the winter from the heat! Just another trick in the ongoing balancing act we call RA.
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Hi again,
One interesting aspect of RA is how it changes, moves around, and basically makes you think you're a little crazy sometimes.
Every morning, no matter how I feel, my dogs are hungry. We've had the same routine for many many years. They come back inside after a quick morning stroll and start following me around the kitchen. I ask them if it would be okay if I had one sip of coffee before making their breakfast. They smile and then start herding me over to the dog food. So much for the coffee.
This is where my morning started going downhill yesterday. My dogs eat a concoction of oatmeal (one has digestive "issues") and kibble. Warm up the oatmeal, stir in a splash of organic chicken broth and stir in the kibble. Invariably, I get some of it on my fingers.... quick trip to the sink to rinse off my fingers... THAT'S what got me yesterday. Screaming pain in my already stiff and aching hands. But today? End of learning curve from yesterday. I walked right over to the sink and just like always, did the quick rinse. Today, even though I almost hurt myself when I jerked my hands out from under the cold tap, no additional pain. Hmmm.... Was I just crazy yesterday?
So my new lesson is.... sometimes cold hurts, other times it doesn't. And the good news all around is that my dogs didn't have to wait in worried silence for their breakfast this morning!
Have a great weekend!
Ish