Day 9

Today is the ninth day of my current lupus flare. It's been a long nine days. I'm happy to report that my joint pain has been worse in the past. The worst joints affected are my hands and my knees. Towards the evening, of course, everything else starts acting up as well, but usually after I've finished making dinner. The fatigue is pretty noticeable, but thankfully I'm on summer break so energy isn't needed very much.

I made it to physical therapy today. I've been going to El Dorado Physical Therapy in Folsom since my car accident in November. I fell in love with aquatic therapy when being treated for those injuries and learned that it's a promising treatment and mode of exercise for people with arthritis (and Lupus!) as well. Today I couldn't go into the pool (no energy) but Don (my PT) worked to do something with my blood flow by squishing my back muscles (I don't know what he was doing, maybe if he reads this he can comment). I'm not sure if it did anything but we'll see how I feel tomorrow. He also popped my back (always a treat), massaged my knees and the surrounding muscles, and stretched out the muscles near my wrists. No definite change so far, but cross your fingers.

Due to the hand pain, I won't be writing much more. I purchased one of these puppies:


It's a paraffin wax bath. The PT office has a fancy one and I found it excellent for soothing the joints in my fingers right before it's time to write a paper. So, we found one at Walmart for 30 bucks.
Anywho, I'm heating mine up right now. I don't think I'll be working on my thesis tonight but I will be needing to do the dishes. Sad, right? Giving my hands a spa treatment in preparation of putting them in dishwater and scrubbing pans? Just a bit.

So, off to soak my hands, then dishes, then dinner. Cooking light, again. Ginger-Soy marinated Tuna with rice noodle salad. I'll let you know if it's decent.