Hard Days with RA

I don't talk about my daily struggles with Rheumatoid Arthritis often, but I felt like it was important to write about the struggles I am facing right now because it is affecting my training. You see every day is a hard day it's just that some days are harder than others. This has been a rough couple weeks. I am trying to taper down on my prednisone which is a very long process. I just recently dropped down  again and it's been tough. But I want to see if I can work thru it because I desperately want to be off prednisone or at least on a lower dosage. There are a lot of side affects I am dealing with. One of these side affects is a lowered immune system. And because of this I am susceptible to picking up all kinds of things. For example I am on my 4th antibiotic for a chronic UTI. Not sure if you have experienced a severe UTI, but the pain is akin to urinating shards of glass and holding a match to your urethra. Sorry if TMI, but you get the point. It's pretty awful. Not to mention abdominal cramping and frequent urination. I'm also pretty sure I'm working on a case of bronchitis. And I have been fighting an RA flare since lowering the dosage. So needless to say I am not feeling good or sleeping good. But I don't have a lot of time left before race day and I'm already behind due to breaking my foot, so I can't afford to let anything hold me back. I know I need to train smart and healthy too, so I'm trying to find the balance and take care of me too. 

Today I had a long swim on the plan. I really wanted to just stay in bed. The house keeper was coming so that was out of the question. So after getting all my boys off to school I headed to the gym. Near tears, in pain and exhausted, I seriously considered sleeping in my car rather than going in. Even after going in, I sat in the locker room feeling sorry for myself. But then I pulled myself together and got into the water. And I DID it! I swam. And I swam 4400 yards with a 2:22 pace. It was hard, I was tired, but I got it done! There are going to be more hard days and I will face them as they come. But this day I won and RA did not!