Winter 2018

I feel like it's time for a health update. I have been doing surprisingly well, which I'm hoping is due to my health and lifestyle changes and not that it's been a milder winter.

I've now lost somewhere between 15 and 20 kilos and I can wear my favourite boots and zip up my winter jacket again, neither of which I could do last winter! I also tried on my off-season clothes and found that I could actually zip a pair of my favourite jeans that are my goal size. They're still not very comfortable and I still have a ways to go with my weight and health, but it's progress. Unfortunately not much has happened over the last few weeks because I've had a cold/cough and couldn't exercise. But now I only have a slight cough and need to get back to my exercising, although I may need to ease myself into it now!

My back pain has been much less than before. I still have back pain, but nothing anywhere close to last year unless I've been overexerting myself. I don't take panadeine very often and I haven't cried from pain in a while. Part of that is the exercising/weight loss and part of it is that I got a TENS machine a few weeks ago. My friend with the same disease as me said that I might want to look into it and, after the pain I had in April, I decided to get one. Well, my mum bought me one because she's pretty great like that. :) It's amazing and allows me to have the mobility to do things I would otherwise struggle with, like helping to clean for our rental inspection last weekend! (and more fun things like going out somewhere and not needing cushions for my chair or a heat pack/electric blanket!)

I went to see my rheumatologist a couple weeks ago and with my decrease in pain and having the TENS machine, we decided that I don't need the other medicine I've been trying to qualify for the last two years. That means no x-ray this year! (and my blood tests have gone down to every 3 months instead of every month!) I may need that medicine in the future, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, I'm just glad that losing weight, doing physio exercises, and having a TENS machine have all meant less pain for me on a daily basis.