Thank God for Netflix and Pinterest!

Yesterday when I woke up I felt good.  My pain was at a manageable level, I had good energy, I felt positive, and when I got on the scale for my Monday weigh in I'd lost another 3 pounds.  I pretty much attributed it to the steroid shot my Dr had given me last week.  I get the shots for my bursa in my hip usually, but they tend to have the wonderful side effect of making my skin better and giving me some relief from arthritic swelling for a few weeks as well.  Apparently I was wrong.  I woke up this morning at 4 in pain.  I read for a few hours and finally dozed back to sleep at around 8, and slept a few more hours.  Now I am in full on flare.  My hands are stiff, the bridge of joints at the base of my toes on my left foot is swollen enough I can't wear shoes, my lower back is throbbing and my right shoulder feels like someone is sticking hot pokers in the joint.  So much for my grand plans of organizing today.  It is going to be a couch, heating pad, surf the net and watch netflix day.

This part of psoriatic arthritis is one of the things that is really hard for people to grasp.  Not only will it flare up out of nowhere  but you never know where it will flare up.  People think sick people are just sick.  Meaning that they are always sick the same way.  When someone says they have arthritis people understand there are affected joints.  They expect to see gnarled and swollen joints, but they expect it to be in a specified place.  They expect you to be able to know the ways you will be limited in specific terms.  It is hard for people to grasp that at 41 some days I can walk a mile, some days I can't even put shoes on, some days I can do things that are very fine detailed work requiring fine motor movements with my hands, some days my fingers are frozen into the claw or swollen so I can't open a jar.  It's not how sick is supposed to be defined in people's mind.  People like to have parameters to fit things into their specific boxes.  Psoriatic arthritis just doesn't play well in that box.

So after a good day yesterday, it's a couch day today.  I think I'll change out my wax melting smelly thing to a new scent.  Something sweet and spicy.  Netflix here I come!