Showing posts with label sacroilliacitis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sacroilliacitis. Show all posts
12:28

One of those days

It's been one of those days. I knew it was going to be one of those days as soon as I got up this morning. It was another struggle getting up this morning, with very limited movement in my lower back. I slept with a pillow stuffed under my hips to try and get some comfort which helped a little. It's my plan to invest in one of those long body pillows, see if that will help. It was also very cold this morning. 1°C according to my car thermometer this morning. My joints don't like the cold and I was significantly stiffer than usual this morning, waddling my way to the bus this morning.

I commute to work on the bus each morning where I get off at the train station in Dundee. It's about a 10 minute to my office on the far end of campus. Occasionally (and as I get stiffer, it's becoming more often), I get the 73 bus along half way along Perth Road which reduces the 10 minute walk to a 2 minute one and a 2 minute bus trip. This morning the bus was due in 3 minutes and I was in no mood for walking. I could practically see the bus coming when my guts decided to play up.

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16:46

Endless Struggles

It's beginning to feel like a constant struggle at the moment. I met with the rheumatology nurse last week to start treatment. We went through all the forms and such. I was contacted by BUPA to arrange a time to deliver the drugs and have a nurse come for my first dose. This feels like the longest week of my life. My drugs are due to be delivered on Friday (27.03.15) and my first loading dose is happening on Monday (30.03.15). This feels like the longest week of my life.

My steroids have now entirely worn off. All I have right now is Codiene to try and dull the pain, and it's really not working. I do have tramadol but the side effects are too much to use it consistently. My biggest issue is my back pain. I've had constant pain around the sacroilliac joints aswell as an increasing stiffness in my neck and upper back, severely limiting my flexibility and general movement. Emotionally, I'm at a very low point...


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13:28

Pain

A rather dramatic title, I'll admit, but that is what I'm going to talk to you about today. You can find out more about the specific conditions that I'm suffering from on my 'About Me' page. Here I'm going to try to explain to you how that main physically manifests on a daily basis. 

As an autoimmune disease, my body is mistakenly attacking normal healthy cells as a result of a certain stimulus (in my case, not quite sure what that stimulus is). In particular, my body is attacking the cells lining my joints, commonly referred to as rheumatoid arthritis (not to be confused with osteoarthritis which is considered to arise from 'general wear and tear', again, I'll refer you to my About Me page). This is causing inflammation of the joints. This inflammation can sometimes be evident in the physical swelling of the joint or it can be unnoticable. Fellow sufferers are probably all too familiar with this. If people can't see the source of the pain, they are less likely to believe its there and this can be infuriating when you're in agony, but let's save that for some other posts.

 I've attempted to illustrate (poorly in photoshop, I'm so sorry!) the areas of pain in the diagrams below (that I borrowed from work - these are forms typically used in skeletal identification reports and disaster victim identification reports for detailing the skeletal elements discovered or any particular distinct marks/scars/other identifying features on the body). In the skeletal image, I've attempted to illustrate the joints that are swollen and the areas of pain on the complete body image - as you can see the pain from one joint can manifest over a significant area.


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