The Girl With Arthritis

Waking up isn't so hard, it's the getting up part. In the morning my back is killing me and more recently it's extended to my ribs. They're just so achy in the morning, like I got punched there or something. It's odd and I don't like that. But it is a quite common symptom in autoimmune arthritis- of course bring it up with your rheumatologist if you are experiencing this. I think wake up pain and late night pain is the worst kind of pain because your focus tends to only be then pain, rather than other things. It hits you at a time when your most vulnerable, mentally and physically. I once read that although we may experience pain in a different body part, pain always comes from our brain. It is best to keep our minds busy when we're in pain. It also explains brain fog.  I try not to dwell on pain, but it's not always possible. So today I decorated my Chrismtas tree. It's a small, white little thing and it's all dressed up in red- it's warm ...

Recently, I've experienced 'thinking away pain.' I noticed that when I started thinking about my kidneys and the pain I got from them, I would begin to get that pain. When I thought about taking Enbrel as being painful, it was worse. Also when I watched a medical documentary, I found that a whole group of young men 'gave' each other a disease with various symptoms because one said he had that particular symptom. Eventually they all convinced one another that they were unable to move their legs. When I began to get a throbbing headache and nasuea the other day, I remembered this. So I began to tell myself that I don't have a headache, and thought about something else. It helped so much. I'm begining to believe the idea that the only disablitiy we have is telling ourselves we 'can't.' Fun Fact: You can bite off your finger as easily as biting into a carrot but your brain tells you 'no, don't bite off your finger.'