Living with Rheumatoid Athritis

  I can't remember if I have written about the fatigue aspect of RA before. If I have I apologise, if not, here's something new. The tiredness that is associated with RA is something that I really find difficult to come to terms with. I have always been a night owl but, especially during flare ups, I really struggle to get out of bed in the mornings and often have to take a nap during the day. It's different when I have to get up for a reason then I just force myself but I really am finding this annoying. Speaking of getting up early we took a 7.10 train down to Sheffield to see Bellowhead. No problem with the way down but the train on the way back which should have been straight from Sheffield to Aberdeen terminated at Edinburgh so we had to go to Dundee and change there for Aberdeen. As a result we were over an hour and a half late back. On the bright side we should get our money back! Bellowhead themselves were excellent, as were the support act The Longest Johns. If you...

I went to Hampden on Saturday to watch The Dons play Celtic in the league cup semi final and the least said about the result the better. Another real downside was that if I wanted to see anything I had to stand. I didn't realise that standing for so long was going to be so painful. It also took forever to walk back to the car - thankfully I wasn't driving. The worst was yet to come though! I stayed overnight in Glasgow and, as usual, I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. Getting out of bed was a struggle but walking was incredibly painful and difficult. If there is a next time I must remember to take painkillers before I go to bed. At the moment the worst thing about my arthritis is the stiffness and pain in my hands. They have been worse though. During my worst time my hands were totally immovable and I found it difficult to hold things. They are not as bad as that at the moment, although a couple of weeks ago, after the Steve Knightly gig, both hands were ...