The Rheumatoid Report

I took the last pill in my steroid dose pack last night. The decreasing dosage should have been having less and less effect anyway. The immediate effect on my finger, from last Friday to last Saturday, was amazing. I was ready to find the person who discovered this miracle drug and kiss him/her. Through Monday all was well.

Tuesday I felt just a little more swelling and a little more pain in the same finger, the ring finger on my right hand. The other nine were as usual through all of this. Well, maybe the right middle and pinkie had some sympathetic pains for their neighbor, and the left hand fingers were perhaps a little stiffer. The steroid helped them all.

Until Tuesday, that is. As I said, the swelling, pain, and stiffness crept up a little on Tuesday; more so on Wednesday. So I was not looking forward to this morning, expecting it to be more or last like last Thursday: swollen to the point where it felt hard, stiffness all around, pain more than I felt like bearing.

But it wasn't. In fact, this morning the stiffness may have been a little less than yesterday. I was able to go through my morning routine at my usual speed, using both hands as normal. Of course, of late I've been compensating for that errant finger. Today I may have had less compensation to do.

So what's up? Wish I knew. If I did something right over the last two days, something that caused this improvement in the arthritis, I'd like to know what it was so I can do it all the time. The only thing that stands out is I'm losing a little weight again. In the past I've noticed that, when I'm gaining weight, the arthritis feels worse; when I'm losing weight, the arthritis feels better. At my weigh-in yesterday I had lost all my Thanksgiving bloat, and more. I'm within striking distance of where I hoped to be by the end of the year, which is at least 20 pounds lost for the year, or 25 if possible. It's possible.

Maybe that's all it is, being careful of overall food intake and eating small enough portions that I'm losing some weight even without exercising. Whatever it is, I'll take it. Now it's time to get a little bit of writing done and posted on-line before the days of Christmas start, and writing ceases for a time.