Exercise for Better or for Worse

Today is the day! I had to write my first post for this blog that I've been planning for the last week, even if my website hasn't been finalized. It's time to start writing my experiences dealing with Rheumatoid Arthritis while Pregnant.

I woke up today with hip pain, the desperation made me cry, my cries turned into why me, why not somebody else needs to deal with RA. I broke down for a minute in the bathroom, but quickly put myself together so that my 3 yo daughter would not see me cry. So, I waddled out of my bedroom out to the living room. While also trying to do some stretches to give my hips some blood flow.

This pain didn't come out of the blue, my 1 hr session with my trainer yesterday is the culprit. The session included hip adductor and hip abductor weight exercises, which felt vey good at  the moment, but oh my! does it hurt right now. I am cuddled in the sofa with my warm fuzzy robe that seems to making my hips warm and feel a lot better.

Besides the pain that I am currently experiencing and that I experience a lot of times after a session with my trainer, whom I see only once a week. It really does help! That 1 hour workout a week - I think - has been keeping my RA pain mostly away since May last year. Of course, that wouldn't had been possible if it wasn't for the Enbrel injections I was taking weekly since March 2011 up until I found I was pregnant.

Like most of us I don't love exercise, specially while experiencing stiffness and pain, but it does make a world of a difference in my life, and it has been proven not only by me but by arthritis research, that it helps to manage the symptoms of both RA and Osteoarthritis.