A close friend in her thirties was diagnosed with it not long ago. She told me that she made the initial mistake in not taking the medication prescribed. She now accesses all specialist medical and allied health assistance available under Medicare.
She is also exploring assistance through NDIS ( which covers rheumatoid arthritis).
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DMARDs as frontline treatment.
As far as allied health goes dietetics is probably the most important (to work out if any foods are triggering more inflammation).
Aerobic exercise important to help reduce inflammation.
Resistance training important to combat the effects of the DMARDs on bone density & ligament/tendon health.
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I have a chronic inflammatory illness and follow these steps.
Working out can be difficult when in pain, but it provides me a distraction apart from being good for me.
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Back the gym today for god knows how long. Recovering from a knee injury, but also last week did the calf on my good leg, overcompensating for walking around with a limp. Had a fitness assessment and fair to say starting from a low base. Not overweight or anything like that but playing cricket for 30 years and not really paying much attention to my overall fitness levels has come back to bite me. Physio will write up a rehab program for my lower half, but today just worked on upper body.
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Thatās great news. Itās always hardest getting started but you wonāt regret it.
Have you got a fitness coach? I have and itās been life changing. Iāve been working with him for about 3 years and consider myself pretty fit. The older you get the more important your fitness becomes.
Good luck with it!
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No fitness coach as such, but as part of my membership I have 3 free consults, so had 1 and still have 2 in reserve. But yeah I can definitely see the benefit of that. Did the legs yesterday and felt pretty good. Not the heaviest weights for the moment but got through it relatively pain free. Iām hoping to get back to cricket not next weekend but the one after, however thatās probably pie in the sky.
PS: Going to Keilor East Leisure Centre. Absolutely elite setup. Went and had a swim after the workout and so good.
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How many games til you break before Christmas?
Iād call even a minor calf a 3-4 week injury outside of a professional athlete so depending on timeline (and your role) might be worth considering targeting the new year.
Since moving bush Iāve indulged in more outdoor activities.
Latest pursuit is a surf ski. Have about 12 months experience in a sea kayak but my word do the skiās want to tip. Would comfortably be spending more time in than on the water but slowly getting there.
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Received the news of a death in the family today.
Please guys, do regular heart checks. Please.
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Sorry to hear. That sucks.
Question. How do you do a heart check? Iāve asked the doc at my last couple of checkups and theyāve just kind of said āyou donāt have risk factors, so thereās nothing we recommendā. Also had a mate have a test about 7 or 8 years ago. Got the all clear and had a heart attack a week later while running.
Those āshane warneā machine thingys they have are pretty good.
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Condolences Scotty.
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Itās rather appropriate this thread has come up as Iām interested to see if anyone has experienced anything similar and provide advice.
4-5 months ago, I was doing 6-7km on Saturday morning, prior to running 5km parkrun and would do 12km run to my parents house on a Sunday. This was a scale back of what I was once doing but I wonāt bother going through that and this became my routine.
I was able to breathe through my nose for most of the run I did on Sunday and the pre-park run. Then I found over a period of a few months, I had to start breathing through the mouth sooner and sooner to the point where I had to do this right away while the kilometres I could run started to dwindle weekly as well as my legs starting to feel like they had no power despite doing the same, perhaps even more exercising that included swimming and cycling on an indoor exercise bike. I tried to add a morning run on Wednesday during this period but didnāt reverse my decline - again the kilometres I could do became Iess and less each week. I can now barely run 4km.
Iāve been to my doctor, all blood tests came back better than they have ever been rather ironically. My GP did put it down to perhaps a lack of sleep due to some stressful events in my life, put me on an antidepressant that has helped get my sleep from absolutely terrible to the way it was 6 months ago. And my resting heart rate has gone down significantly during sleep. I do feel like Iāve stabilised and not getting worse, real slog now though to get through the exercise. And Iāve tried to adapt by doing more shorter 3-4, km runs during the week as well as on the weekend plus varying my routes. I should add that I taught myself to swim during the last 18 months to the point I do 1500-2000m 4 days a week for the last nine or so months. And I also do exercise on an indoor bike 2-3 times a week 20mins to an hour - become less the last month or so. Iām still able to run at a good pace for these kilometres but my endurance is completely shot. While neither the swimming or cycling were affected at first as I believe I couldnāt reach the same intensity as when running, I feel that these activities may be starting to get impacted.
My doctor has given me a referral to see an exercise physiologist and perhaps do a spirometry test. Any other ideas? Iām really reluctant to rest as I am at high risk of stopping altogether. Iāve also gone back on a magnesium supplement that I stopped taking prior to my decline due to no longer suffering cramps during swimming. Itās been psychologically devastating to lose this fitness for no discernible reason and Iām coming round to relctantly accept I have a injury, just frustrating to not know what it is and what I can do about it.
Far out. That sucks. I think keep searchingā¦it sounds like something is not rightā¦
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Thanks. I will have a look.
Who knows.
Have they ruled out long COVID?
I had a acquaintance who said that drained them from doing exercise lasted a long time, like 6 months or so.
Not knowing what it is must be frustrating.
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I havenāt been ill for well over a year or more, which is a first for me, or if I was I never knew it. So I donāt know. Did your friend actually have symptoms from COVID prior? I did a harder parkrun on the weekend that was a lot more hilly than my home course and was devastated I could only do 2.5km running before I stopped - no 3-4km pre run like I have been doing at home course either. Logically Iāve tried to put it down to the humid conditions and tougher course but it really hurt my ego. I thought I had accepted where I was at, I have no doubt thereās a psychological component to it as well now - thatās why Iām leaning towards seeing the sports physiologist like the GP suggested. Itās really hard not to be negative around the usual group of people I hang around at Parkrun now too like I was at the beginning of my decline but I feel I might be slipping again.
Thatās good you havenāt been ill.
Iāve had frequent flus/colds this year.
Part is definitely mental in the comeback, from injury/ rebuild fitness nothing is more of a test than a 5km park run and you canāt hide from The results. And itās actually easy to see results if you go every week.
That said a hilly humid park run canāt be compared to your local one.
They had COVID symptoms prior, to fatigue and long COVID.
Good luck at your appointment.
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Is your doctor a bog standard GP or one trained in sports medicine. Standard tests may miss things, and complaints like chronic fatigue are not well diagnosed or understood. Are you running on soft or hard surfaces ?
If you are still swimming 2 km 4 times a week and the exercise bike, maybe your body is just telling you to slow down a bit.
I have gotten tired just reading all the stuff you do. What age bracket are you ? Do you have a good diet ?
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Could obviously be something else going on but this is my thought as well (Occamās razor and all that). Particularly if symptoms are limited to during physical exertion.
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