2011

After work tomorrow I'm heading home to my mum's house for Christmas so I probably won't get another chance to write before the New Year. I guess I just wanted to sum up the last 12 months and reflect on how amazing this year has been. Even though there were hard times, with my great aunt passing away in July, for the most part it's been the best year I've had in a while. I got a promotion and a pay rise in work as well as a big bonus which got me out of debt. I travelled to Paris in February, Portugal in June and Iceland and Berlin in October/Nov all of which were incredible experiences. My arthritis has been sleepy all year and I feel healthy and strong. I've only been to the hospital twice this year for my two check ups and been in there for a total of about 15 minutes. What a contrast to last year when I was getting meds sorted and had to be in there every few weeks!! Also, for the first time since my diagnosis, I feel free from RA in my head. Thoughts about my future with illness don't fill my every waking moment. It's wonderful and I feel so lucky to feel so well in body and in spirit. Last but not least, I have met someone wonderful and we've been going out now for 3 months. It's still very new but I'm very happy and looking forward to the New Year together and getting to know each other more. Basically...I AM EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH LIFE. I am a lucky girl. I wish you all a great Christmas full of love, and hope for a better 2012 for us all.

Check up

I went for my 6 monthly check up this week at the hospital. I didn't see my usual doctor but I saw the consultant this time, only the second time I've met her. She's really nice and remembered me from before. There wasn't really much to say, although I chuckled when she asked me: 'So, do you think the hydroxychloroquine is helping?'. Haha, surely they're the ones that are meant to tell me that? I said I didn't know and she laughed and said 'that's the million pound question isn't it? we sometimes never know if it's the drugs that help or if you would've got better without them.' But she then said to me that she normally likes to have people symptom free for a year before she lets them reduce dosages. To this I replied that I wasn't worried about taking my drugs and I wouldn't want to stop, unless I was totally symptom free (which I'm not) for a good 3-4 years. To be honest I doubt I'll ever get to that point, and I am not aiming or even daring to hope to be drug free. I'm a realist. But my next appointment is at the end of June and I do hope that I will continue to stay stable and pain free.

Another year..

Happy 2nd RAnniversary to meeeee! Actually I think it was yesterday. But yeah it was around the 30th November 2009 that I had my first symptoms of RA. Two years.. not that long really but it feels like forever ago. It also seems like nothing compared to the next..oh.. 50-odd years I have to go living with this uninvited guest! However I can say that if my RA remains sleepy like it is right now, I could tolerate it squatting in my body. As long as I can't see you, feel you or hear you, you can sleep in the spare room, RA!! I should probably have something really philosophical to say about how I feel I've grown as a person and how strong I have become but I don't think I'm any of those things, I'm just quite lucky. All I can feel right now is happiness with my life at the moment, sprinkled with a bit of background anxiety for the future and topped with some cherries. Makes for quite a tasty RAnniversary cupcake, don't you think?