Standing Up To Arthritis

In my health recovery journey, now in its third year, I have a couple blockbuster accomplishments.  Getting off all diabetes meds and putting my Type 2 into remission, and going from walking with a cane, struggling with stairs to running a 5k.  Amazing, right?   Sometimes, in light of the big items, the continuing daily challenge can appear to be minimized.  And in doing so, some folks in their own daily struggles feel a disconnect to the big victories that they hope to experience someday.  I’ve been open about the continuing struggle with my weight, but I also deal daily with the limitations and pain of osteoarthritis.

Ding Dong!  OMG, someone’s at the door and my wife isn’t around.  I’m down in my office working in my recliner.  I can’t sit in a regular chair all day.  I have to jump out of the chair and run up the stairs to the door.  “I’m coming,” I shout more than once.  Why?  Because it takes me a long time to recover from sitting.  Yep, I can walk for miles and run sprints, but getting up out of a chair?  Aches, pains, slowness.  I’ve made progress.  I’ve made HUGE progress.  But I still have arthritis.  I still have pain.  I still can’t do everything other people take for granted.  What I took for granted.

At church we had a games day and at one point I was helping to pick up nerf darts off the floor.  I was quite pleased with myself.  Here I was reaching down and picking stuff up off the floor.  That used to be a challenge.  I’d drop something and then wonder – do I really need it?  It was difficult to bend down and pick something up off the floor.  Look at me, I’m picking the nerf darts off the floor!  After the third one, there were no more left.  A teen had picked up the 21 remaining darts in the time it took me to pick up three.  Less time, surely, I just didn’t notice he was done until I picked up my third.   Don’t get me started about actually getting myself down and then back up from the floor. I have more abilities than I had three years ago – but I’m far from normal.

So, I journey on.  I have more health to build, more abilities to reclaim.  The big triumphs are all rearward facing.  You see them after many days, weeks, months or years of the daily struggle.  I’ve built my mantra based on this reality.  I bring the big victories in by doing the little things – more.

How much more? A little more.

How much farther? A bit farther.

Always.

3 years and counting in my health recovery journey.  A lifetime more to go.

p.s.  Always consult your own health team for your specific needs

p.p.s. Educate yourself to fully participate in your health strategy