arthritis question. Somedays when the pain is bad, I feel like I'm in a fog.

[alfredo]

It's like I'm shutting down, wrapped in cotton, numb.


Have any of you Arthur sufferers experienced that?

[mopinko]

1. brain fog

common to many sufferers of autoimmune diseases. part of the fibromyalgia constellation of symptoms, but i assume it can be out there on it's own.
yup. sucks eggs. all i can recommend it take a nap. and talk to your doc.

[alfredo]

2. It's a bother, but it comes in handy when I didn't want to go to

my mother in law's house.

[Warpy]

3. I've been using ill health to duck social stuff for years

The last time I went to a baby shower was 1981, my best friend so I couldn't duck it. I haven't been to a wedding since the late 70s. I escape all kinds of parties for various retailers, reunions with family I've never met, and stuff to honor people I dislike. Just let me know and I'll send a gift, thanks.

Ill health can be a great convenience.

However, the chronic pain does put one into a certain type of fog. It destroys the ability to concentrate on tasks or even to keep track of a plot on a TV show. It makes us unable to socialize, forget simply unwilling. It isolates us, depresses us, and often makes us take the only permanent way to end it, suicide.

That's why it's essential to get that pain treated. We can still lie about it to duck those bullshit social things we really, really don't want to attend.

[alfredo]

4. Mine is only a real bother on those foggy days, or if I overdo house chores.

To tell the truth, I miss hard physical labor. I miss the endorphins, the pumped up muscles, the callouses. I was addicted to my own endorphins. That could be why my body is a wreck now.

[Warpy]

5. I understand, I was an RN for 25 years

because I always felt so much better when I was physically active. Now I still have great flexibility from the years of Yoga but it's in joints that no longer support me all all that well.

I'm developing work arounds so I can continue to do a lot of things I like to do, but gawd, I'd so much rather just be able to do them.

It sucks to have your body wear out, but when it's so many years ahead of schedule, it's really awful.

[alfredo]

6. Three mitigating factors. Actually four. First my house is paid for. The

other three are SS, postal retirement, and VA disability. I'm a triple dipper. Pain? It's paid for.

[alfredo]

7. I'm also having my fingers lock in the morning. That's more

troubling than the fog. I can move them but there is a catch in the joint.