Sunday, September 11, 2011

Hello Today

Ah, it’s 6:00am. It’s time to rise and shine. Oh wait, not so fast! You see I have RA, that’s short for rheumatoid arthritis.

Yea, yea I know what you’re thinking. What’s the big deal, my grandma has arthritis and, she’s fine after popping a couple of ibuprofen.

But, it is a BIG DEAL! Maybe it’s the name, rheumatoid arthritis, that’s throwing you. Perhaps it would be better if we dub it something that sounds more sinister like Autoimmune Rheumatoid Disorder. Or, even better, my favorite moniker for RA, The Bastard Disease That’s Ruining My Day.

Okay, it’s 6:15am and I’ve spent the last fifteen minutes slowly moving each joint, getting the kinks out, as I like to call it. Now it’s time to stand up. Drum roll please… AGGHHH! That hurts! Then to hobble over to the T.V. hutch and pull down my industrial strength RX Bling Box that designed for me by Stephanie Kennedy. It’s 6:20am and I pop pill #1; gulp.

Off we go to get ready for work. I have to sit on a barstool and stoop my body over to fix my hair. That way I do not have to stand for too long or raise my arms above my head.

Meanwhile, my hubby, A.K.A. Super Dad, has been getting K.P., our four-year-old, up and fed.

It’s 6:50am and it’s time to convince K.P. that, YES, clothes are GOOD and we NEED to WEAR them. Next, I brush her hair and supervise her brushing her teeth. This mommy doesn’t do French braids, it’s too painful. We’ll just go with a headband today. Finally, I snag something to eat on the way out the door.

Now it’s 7:20am and I’m dropping K.P. off at pre-K. EVERY morning for the last three years she’s clung to me and cried when I try to leave. I spoke with the director and she seems to think it’s because K.P. is worried about me being sick.

On to work, it is now 7:40ish in the morning. I park in the, gasp, handicapped parking space and head into the building. In my head I’m thinking… Someone remind me why I didn’t choose to work in one of those small town schools… while I slowly meander my way to the fourth grade wing of the school.

It’s almost 8am and my iPod is beeping out my first medication alarm of the day. I grab a drink from the mini fridge and take the second morning dose; gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, and, finally gulp. On to my daily bus duty 8-8:30am five days a week you’ll find me monitoring the youth of America in an elementary hallway. At least the administration took pity on me and allows me to roll my chair out there to sit in during bus duty.

It’s 12:10pm and I’m wondering if knee pads would be an acceptable fashion statement while we’re on the way to eat lunch. I figure I better not push it since I just recently brought in a letter from my rheumatologist so I could wear my “Ugly” Crocs.

Now it’s 12:40pm and I’m heading back to the classroom. What? Did you think that that teachers got a lunch HOUR? Beep, beep… there goes my iPod again. It’s time for my lunch dose of pills; gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, and gulp.

Ring, it’s 3:00pm. Goodbye children, it’s been fun, but now it’s time to go home! Beep, beep… there goes that iPod again; gulp and gulp.

Now it is 3:15pm and I can leave work for the day. Yeah, right! I have yet to grade those papers and enter them into PowerTeacher, and, don’t forget, I have to work on the lesson plans in the Madeline Hunter format.

Hello 4-4:30pm, time to go get my angel K.P. What a beautiful day! I assess my body… How’s the pain? Do I need to take a pain pill? How about fatigue? Do I feel strong enough for a trip to the park? No park today. I pick up K.P. and head home.

It’s now about 5:30pm. K.P. and I have been tidying up the house a bit. Okay, well really I’ve been tidying up the house while K.P. drags out more toys. I start dinner after dragging my barstool from the bathroom into the kitchen. Recently I have been making a genuine effort to cook more. You see, RA causes a lot of fatigue. Let me say that again for dramatic effect. RA causes A LOT of FATIGUE. And, after a full day of work, I’m often just too tired to cook anything. This, combined with a significant decrease in physical activity, is probably why I weigh more now than I did nine months pregnant with K.P.

Now, it’s just after 6pm. Daddy’s been home for a little while and we sit down for dinner. This is the moment that RA tends to hit me with a sucker punch . The moment where it all crashes down on me like a massive tsunami wave. SPASH… I am so very tired and sore, and the hard wood chair pokes at all of the tender spots.

Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share. Yea, I know, an idealistic tune if I’ve ever heard one. Daddy and K.P spend some quality time while I clean up the kitchen. It’s now about 7pm.

Time for K.P.’s bath, it’s just after 7pm now. I pull out K.P.’s footstool to sit on while I wash her hair and supervise bath time. After that, we cuddle up for a little Sponge Bob Square Pants and a bed time snack.

Story time, 8:00pm, our little bug K.P. is in bed and we’re reading her a bed time story. After prayers I have trouble getting out of the floor, so Daddy pulls me up.

Now it is time to get some school work done, as in, graduate school work. I climb into bed, pull out my Dell with the custom RA awareness Skinit skin, and get to work. Okay, okay, BUSTED, I also take a few moments here and there to get my daily social media fix. Also, don't forget those last pills of the day; gulp and gulp.

Somewhere between 11pm and midnight I remember that it’s Friday and I have to take my weekly injection of methotrexate, a chemotherapy drug also used in autoimmune patients. Of course I do not call it methotrexate; I call it metho-trex-ACHE! Then I take a shower and go to bed.

As I lay in bed trying to find a comfortable position, I dread the side effects of the metho-trex-ACHE. I finally fall asleep with the one POSITIVE side effect in mind… getting to spend a big part of the day Saturday hanging out in be watching movies with K.P.