Simplify ... Possessions don't define us ...

I'll be honest. I haven't blogged much this week because I don't want to talk about my RA. I've been a hermit all week because of the severe sub zero temperatures we are dealing with here in Northern NY.

I've been busy this month, getting rid of "things". It has been in preparation for the moving of the girls bedroom & creating a sewing room here in our home. At first, I was facing the task and just dreading it. I knew it had to be done, but still ugh, how awful doing all this sorting, cleaning & throwing away of junk was going to be, right?

I was wrong. It's incredibly freeing. Parting with "things" that I have not used, literally in years. I have always been somewhat of a pack rat. Constantly thinking, I might use that for "x", someday. But then someday never seems to arrive.

By no means am I becoming a minimalist. But I have instead become realistic. I pick up an item and I say to myself these three questions.
1 - Can I live without it? Is it an heirloom? There are family items I will never part with. But let's be honest sometimes utter junk invokes a memory we don't want to let go of. So in my case I do allow myself a small amount of "junk" that is attached to an important memory. I suggest a memory box for these items. One smallish keepsake box that is tasked to hold all your special treasures. 2 - Will I use it? Keeping in mind a reasonable projected timeline for when I will actually use it.
3 - Can someone else use it? Based on the items condition, usefulness and value I determine if I will sell it or gift it to someone.

On Thursday, the local mission store came and picked up a large load of donations. It was freeing to have those items out of our storage room & onto hopefully someone else that will be blessed by them. The same can be true of the huge bags of clothing I have hauled off to the donation drop boxes. Going through the girls clothes and gifting them to people that can use them. Going through mine & hubby's clothing and doing the same or sending it off to the donation box. It's hard to believe just how much "stuff" we've held onto. And for what reason?

The hard room is yet to come in the "letting go" and simplify phase of this project. I have attempted to pair down the fabric stash. But let's face it, I have so much fabric. And with that comes a significant investment. It's just not something I can drop into a goodwill box. So my goal relating to that is this -
I will USE up as much of my fabric as possible. Instead of going and buying new fabric to create with, I will come up with ways to use what I have first. I have so many patterns, pattern books and saved tutorials for all kinds of awesome projects. Also, I will sew up all those fabrics I have in mind for a project, but keep getting set aside. That way, my girls may actually not require any store bought clothing at all this year, a huge money saver!

How does this relate to my RA? I feel like the less I have to worry about, the less stress it will cause. Stress about "things." Sure there is lots of guilty feeling about not tackling the clutter, not keeping your house tidy enough and other feelings of guilt when you have a debilitating disease like RA. The less "things" there are to vacuum around, dust & move from one place to another is certainly easier on your body. Less stress, less work to do = a happier life living with RA, right?

I sure think so! Join me in my quest to simplify.

Sarah

Working on it Wednesday is here again ...

It's working on it Wednesday again. Seems time is just flying by this January. What are your current projects, I'd love to hear about them.

I've been doing quite a bit of knitting, now "quite a bit" for me is a ruffle scarf and a couple hats in like the last month. I don't knit a lot. And, you'd think that knitting would make my hand pain worse, but in all actuality I'm beginning to think it's helping the pain.

I have absolutely nothing to back me up on this. But, it seems like a bit of knitting every day is helping keep my hands more limber. I am certainly still having a lot of pain, and I continue to have difficulty with gripping tasks. However, the knitting most definitely has not made the pain worse, so to me that's a positive.

A couple of times this week, my finger joints have felt pretty stiff and sore. I thought about not picking up the knitting because of that. But, I did it anyway and what i found was that after a short session of knitting (less than an hour), my fingers were markedly less stiff. I think the action of knitting is perhaps helping to keep my fingers more limber.

By no means am I going to try sitting and knitting for hours on end, I know that would be a disaster and I would likely be in significant pain and have cramping in my hands. But hey i think a "normal" person would too. I guess my "working on it" Wednesday this week is just that, "working on it". I'm figuring out what does and does not fit into my life with RA.

That said, it's also -30 F here this morning. I have NO INTENTION of going anywhere other than under a warm blanket. Yesterday it was -23 F for a low. The furthest I went yesterday was a quick trip to my mailbox. The positive to all this?? Well I'm not as sore as I was during the last bad cold snap we have 2 weeks ago. So maybe just maybe the medicine is starting to help?

Eternal Optimist? Yep, that's me.

Sarah

Sewing Saturdays & Sundays ...

An ideal weekend? Is there such a thing, I don't know. But for me I know that any day is a good day for sewing. I hope to devote my weekend blog posts to sewing ideas, inspirations, and just sharing in general things I love to do.

Right now I am working on refining my sewing skills & techniques. I'm a great sewer but like every other profession or hobby, there is always room for improvement.

This weekend I am devoting some time to taking an online course about techniques. This class is offered by Craftsy. Craftsy is an online store that offers video tutorials on hundreds of different crafting related topics from sewing to knitting, photography to painting, even cake decorating.

What's so great about this you might say? Well you can take each portion of your class on your time, anytime. Up in the middle of the night with insomnia, great go watch a 20 minute segment of your class. It fits into any schedule.
Take a look at what they have to offer. They are offering some awesome sales this weekend 1/18 & 1/19.

CRAFTSY FLASH SALE WEEKEND

Treatment Topic Thursday ...

Thursdays I will devote to talking about treatments, both conventional and unconventional. I will try to go in detail of each topic and hopefully you will find the information helpful. If there is a topic you would like me to research and post about I'd be happy to try to do that, just message me.

Today's topic is Plaquenil (Hydroxychloroquine). This is the first try drug for RA according to my doctor. They start here because it is the least likely of the RA treatment drugs to cause side effects. The interesting thing about this medication is that it's actual original use was as an anti-malarial drug.

It's used to treat the inflammation of both RA and Lupus.

Possible side effects -

abdominal cramps, diarrhea, heart problems, reduced appetite, headache, nausea & vomiting, altered eye pigmentation, acne, anemia, bleaching of hair, blisters in mouth and eyes, blood disorders, convulsions, significant vision difficulties, diminished reflexes, emotional changes, excessive coloring of the skin, hearing loss, hives, itching, liver problems or failure, loss of hair, muscle paralysis, weakness or atrophy, nightmares, psoriasis, reading difficulties, tinnitus, skin inflammation and scaling, skin rash, vertigo and weight loss

That huge list of side effects doesn't exactly seem "mild" to me. I have been on this drug now since my diagnosis in October. I have noticed no improvement in my symptoms as of yet though I was told improvement should be noticed in 6-8 weeks. My dose was increased in November after being on it for 6 full weeks. Still, no improvement has been seen. At my recent appointment i discussed with the doctor that I am seeing no improvement with all the drugs they have me on, including this one. In fact, I am feeling worse. She added another drug to my "cocktail" and wants to see if this one will help the others also work better. So, when i go back in February we will consider which drugs are or aren't helping and again adjust.

For me this is the frustrating part of being at the beginning of this process. A large list of medications to take daily, side effects you aren't sure are coming with this drug or that drug. And continued pain to the point you don't think ANY of it is helping.

Trying to stay positive is definitely an UPHILL battle for me right now. I pray daily for answers, for pain relief and for strength to do the things I have to do. This little saying was posted on Facebook the other day, it accurately describes how i feel many days lately.

What day is.... what day is it ...

It's HUMP Day.

But on this blog I am going to call it "Working On It Wednesday!"

It will be a weekly chat from me about how I'm "working on it". It will be a weekly focus on what I am struggling with, working on or attempting to do. Might be about my RA. Might be about my work from home business. Might be a hobby I am exploring.

So what am i working on this week? After having a lot of pain over the weekend, I have noticed as the temperature has risen this week, my pain has decreased some. So, I'm seizing that opportunity and continuing the sorting, cleaning and re-arranging of the house in anticipation of my sewing studio moving back here.

It's amazing the amount of things I am finding that I had totally forgotten about. Phew, it's crazy. Things that we have had in our "storage room" since we moved into this house 11 years ago. I am a HUGE pile of items for our local charity thrift store. And a HUGE pile of garbage stuff too.

I am gonna keep at it. I'll post some updated photos perhaps another day.

Sarah

Fiskers spring action scissors ...

So I contacted a few companies that make cutting implements to inquire about products that might help me as I deal with the hand pain associated with this lovely disease.
The Fisker's Company replied that they do have a line of "spring action" scissors that are for people with hand problems. So this week I saw in the JoAnn ad that they have them on sale. So, I'm hoping to get a pair and try them out. Super reasonable price
Check them out here. Does anyone have sewing tools they have found work well for days when you need to sew but your hands are hurting? Would love to hear about them.





This post is in no way endorsed by The Fiskers company or by JoAnn fabric. Neither company has contacted me to review or endorse this item. I am just doing my own market research.

Alternative Treatments ..

Of course as with any other disease there is all kinds of information out there about alternative therapies that can help. I have yet to try anything but traditional medication therapies since I am still so new in this process. But, like any other modern woman, I'm always looking through websites, articles in magazines and books, that discuss treatments both traditional and non-traditional.
This particular article i found on Health.com talks about 10 alternative therapies. While most were standard things I'd heard before, exercise, physical therapy, etc. This talks about using a very common, readily available nutritional supplement.
FISH OIL

Fish oil can ease pain and inflammation in people with rheumatoid arthritis. Fish-oil capsules may, in fact, be as effective for relieving pain and inflammation as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like ibuprofen and naproxen), according to Dr. Kolasinski. RA patients in the studies that found fish oil helpful took high doses, typically 4 grams a day or four standard fish-oil capsules. Most people consuming fish oil for overall health take one or two capsules daily. But there's no strong evidence that other dietary supplements or herbs, such as glucosamine or evening primrose oil, have any benefit in RA patients. “The herbals are really not where it’s at,” Dr. Kolasinski says. Also, be sure to tell your physician and pharmacist about any nonprescription remedies you use.

The original article is found here -
Health.com
Is there anyone that has any input on this from personal experience? Would love to hear about it, leave me a comment or message me.
Off to continue the organizing for the room moves ;-)
Happy Hump Day! Sarah

My challenge for the next few weeks ...

I have housed my sewing studio at my mother's home, 10 miles away for the last 4 ish years. It has worked well for me to have a dedicated area to sew, but it's also had drawbacks. With a 2 year old, 7 years, one year old basset hounds, a husband and house to take care of, really finding enough time to get there and get enough done is hard. So, we are finally cleaning out the large bedroom we've used for a storage area since we moved into this house about 11 years ago. That room will be for our 2 girls and their multitude of toys. Then their current room will become my new sewing space. It's a 9'x13' room with some wall storage. I will move most all of my storage shelves and my desk as well as ALL of my supplies. It will be a challenge just to get the rooms all moved and then to get my sewing space arranged. Phew.... well since I am sharing with you all my life adjusting to RA, this is part of it too. So here are my before pictures.
*WARNING graphic messy bedrooms, storage areas & sewing disaster areas to follow*
Here is my current sewing area at my mom's -

And here is our large storage "room" that will become the girls new bedroom -

And finally, this will be my new sewing studio -

Now to get at it....

Treatment - the sooner the better ...

A comment to a previous post got me thinking more in depth about something i already knew, modern treatment of RA is far more successful at putting people into remission than it used to be.
CNN has this great article from 2012 that talks about this in detail. Click this link to see the article. Advances In RA Treatment - The Sooner The Better
The frustration on my end is of course that I am at the beginning of the RA. I am at the so far nothing is working part. As is the normal course of action my rheumatologist is starting with the first line medications. So far, no difference has been seen for me. I made an appointment for this Friday, as I am just in so much pain. I wasn't actually due to follow up until February. I just don't want to keep waiting when i am seeing absolutely no changes, and an increase of symptoms.
Another issue i have is that my doctor cannot just skip over medications to something more aggressive in treating RA. Thanks to managed care, most insurance companies (mine included) now require step therapy. The basic idea is that to save money, the insurance company requires your doctor to first prescribe the baseline (read into this CHEAPER) drugs first. Before moving on to the more aggressive and newer drugs (read EXPENSIVE) for treatment, you first have to fail at being helped.
But with a disease as potentially dangerous as RA if it's not put into remission quickly, this just seems less than satisfactory. But, what can one do...
I just keep taking my medicines and keeping track of symptoms. I will follow up as often as I need to with my rheumatologist to make sure I stay on track to remission.
Now to brace for the 4-6 potential feet (yes FEET) of snow we are predicted to get over the next 48 hours. *sigh*
Sarah