Long overdue

I've finally got round to sorting out my photos from Paris. Here are a quick few!

Here I am up the hill of Sacre Coeur with Paris behind me:


Here we are enjoying a (very expensive!) beer in Montmartre:


The Eiffel Tower...obviously...


A pretty street..


and SNAILS!


What a great trip! And yes, I tried a snail. They look absolutely disgusting (like a shrivelled up piece of black bogey) but they actually taste lovely. Sort of like a prawn but not fishy? If that makes sense.

Otherwise, I haven't got much to report. My new manager at work is still driving me batty with her ignorance and rudeness but I'm trying my hardest to ignore it.

I'm busy planning mine, my great aunt and my mum's birthdays which are all in April and I'm really looking forward to celebrating. I'm 25, my mum's 57 and my great aunt's 86! Phew!!

RA-wise, I'm feeling good. Touch wood, I feel much better than I did Oct-Dec. Every few days I still can feel a bit of inflammation in a few joints on my right hand and occasionally in my right foot but it's not causing many issues and if it stays at this level all summer I'll be a very happy Squirrel. It's been over 3 months now since my finger injection so I'm a bit worried it'll wear off soon but trying not to think about it too much. I don't see the doctor until the end of May but I do have to go for a routine xray in a few weeks to check if there's been any change since last year.

So..that's it! Hope you're all enjoying the longer brighter days. :)

Back on my bike

It's the spring equinox and it actually feels like spring for the first time! Today was beautiful, sunny and mild. I wore light shoes for the first time this year - goodbye winter boots!!!!!! And I managed a quick bike ride in the park after work, the first of the year. It felt so good, I can't wait to get back in shape as I was huffing and puffing after only a couple of laps of the park. The clocks go forward on Sunday too, so goodbye dark depressing evenings and hello a very happy, summer-loving me!

Another moan

Ok, I know this is another moany post when I promised I would be posting lovely pictures from France. And I will!!
But.. I HAVE ANOTHER COLD! Arghhhhhhh. This is my fifth, yes, fifth.. since Christmas. Surely this isn't normal. How can I have had 5 separate colds in 3 months? Normally I am not prone to them at all. I get maybe one or two a year. Last winter I don't think I got any.

Maybe it's my office, a lot of people have been unwell. But a lot of people were unwell last year too and I was fine. And ok, last year I wasn't on any medication for RA but my medication now is plaquenil which isn't an immuno-suppressant. So it shouldn't have any effect on me getting viruses. Or should it?! Because otherwise I can't see what's different about this winter. I'm keeping warm and I eat plenty of fruit and veg. Maybe I touch my face too much and don't clean my hands enough.

I know it's not that big a problem, it's just the cold, but I'm getting really really REALLY tired of always having something wrong with me. It's either something to do with the arthritis, or a cold, or a bloody fingernail infection (which is finally healed up yay!). I would quite like a few months of just not thinking about my body and its ailments? Hmm yeah, wishful thinking!

but it's march!!!

Snow? Again? Really?!

I'm closing my curtains until April.

mustkeepcalm

Dear Irrational Half of Squirrel's Brain,

Please try to remember that during previous work-related stress flares you promised yourself you wouldn't ever let work get to you in such a way that it negatively affects your health. I feel that you are currently breaking that promise and your stress levels are rising.

Because however much you don't like your new manager's harsh style and however much you're upset that the person you fancy on your team is leaving, these problems aren't really the end of the world and probably not worth the amount of negative energy you're throwing at them.

Also try to remember that as crappy as work is just now, it would be a hell of a lot crappier if you stress yourself right into a flare.

So, please, breathe. Relax. Tomorrow, go into work and let the bad atmosphere wash over you and concentrate on the really important things in your life - your health, your family and friends.

Ok? Deal.

Yours sincerely,

The Rational Half of Squirrel's Brain

RA and work

I was just reading through some blogs and Pollyanna's post about RA and work made me realise something crazy.

There's been a lot of crazy stuff going on at my work, basically there's a restructure of the department and a lot of people aren't happy and are leaving, including all my old bosses.

This means that in a month's time no one in the company apart from my best friends will know I have RA. And no one on the management team will have seen me break down and cry about it.

This is very strange. It's like someone's wiping the slate and now it's my choice if I am to tell the new managers.

How odd. I'm gonna have to think about that one.

Back home

I'm baaaaack! Paris was great. I'll do a longer post with pics soon. I am so determined to get fluent with my French now. I'm ok at it but nowhere near perfect. I've been really inspired to work harder in my class and beyond. I'm bilingual anyway (English and Bulgarian - most random combination) but would love to speak 3 languages, it sounds much more impressive haha. Plus then I could go work in Paris or Montreal or somewhere with nicer weather anyway.

Thankfully my arthritis only gave me minimal foot bother despite the mamoth walking around the city. I got a bit grumpy one evening when my foot suddenly piped up and people were like 'oooh lets walk all the way from the notre dame to the eiffel tower down the river' (this was about 8pm after about 7 hours of sightseeing anyway). Thankfully we decided to take the metro in the end, phew! I didnt bring up my RA, it's always so awkward with fit friends isn't it? Hard to understand/explain too because the day before I'd walked all day no problems. Overall though, very well behaved. Well done, RA.

I did, however, manage to get a massive finger infection from a hangnail!! I'm such a doofus, I pulled it off and was too busy enjoying myself so I ignored it and didnt clean it and it went wild. It feels swollen exactly like a flare in the end joint of my finger only it's near the nail and not the joint. So now it's gone green and I'm on anti-biotics. STUPID FINGERS why won't you ever be NORMAL?!

Apart from that, life is just keeps on rolling... Hope you're all keeping well!