Gimpin' Around

So, the Remicade effects have faded. I'm now in pretty bad shape (slipping and falling on the ice outside twice over the past 2 days has not helped): hips are stiff and painful, fingers curled up into a claw, feet are sore. So, I made the decision today to use the cane for walking, not just the stairs. I'm very glad I did.

My day started out miserably. It took me 20 minutes to get the ice off of my car enough so that I could put the windshield wipers back down. Then another 30 minutes to pull out of my parking space (I got stuck on several inches of ice and fell trying to walk around the car to see where I was stuck). Then another 15 trying to get up a slight incline that wasn't salted well. Then I got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on my way into the office for over an hour (driving my Acura Integra GSR, a manual transmission, instead of the Jeep Wrangler that my husband drove today). Sitting and changing gears for an hour took its toll on my hips. At least I finally got in to the office!

Of course, in the office, several people were asking what happened. Others just gave me a weird look. My boss' boss asked if I was ok. I had told him before that I have arthritis (when he was asking why I was limping). Later in the day, he pulled me aside (when his boss was there too) and asked "Do you really have arthritis, or is that just a convenient way to explain?" I took that opportunity to explain psoriatic arthritis and how it sometimes affects me in a visible way. I just hope that the quick education helps him to understand. When I explained that it is an autoimmune disease and that it affects may of my joints, he said, "Oh, like RA. My cousin has that--that's rough".

So, all in all, it's not too bad. My boss and the co-workers that know about my arthritis had the best responses: no response at all.

The best (as in funny) comment:
Older gentleman I work with: "I bet I could beat you in a race!"
Me: "I'm not so sure!"