Sometimes It Is Lupus: Health Writer's Month: Random Phrase.
Open a Book. Choose a book and open it to a random page and point to a phrase. Use that phrase to get you writing today. Free write for 15-20 without stopping.
Let's grab a sentence from page 127, on exercise. Regular, moderate exercise offers a whole host of benefits to people with arthritis, the most important being that it replenishes lubrication to the cartilage of the joints and can reduce stiffness, pain and swelling; it builds strong muscles around the joints and increases flexibility and endurance; and it can decrease bone loss.
All good stuff. I have a love-hate relationship with exercise. I hate it when I'm not allowed to do the exercise that I used to love.
What comes immediately to mind is using my entire strength to kick a kick pad, at chest height, over and over and over again, why the coach yelled: "Come on Iris! Crunch it out! This is for the nationals!" I'd be flat out doing a round kick at knee height now. I'd be flat out doing a front kick (which doesn't require anywhere near as much hip flexibility) at knee height.
From taekwondo, I went to the more ladylike Curves. I loved the Curves workout. It's circuit training, but with their Curves Smart program, everyone carries a little smart card to plug into each machine as they come to it. The computer knows everyone's individual capability and keeps everyone working at their own set level. It was a combination of resistance and cardio workout, with a stretching program to cool down. Again, an all-round exercise program, and this one was tailor-made for the individual.
Then came the fateful day when my specialist said I had to reduce the amount of steroid I was taking. "But, but, but," I stammered, "what about my exercise?"
Didn't I need exercise? He recommended I do hydrotherapy instead.
So now, I've started my new exercise program. I've been to the physiotherapist, and have a tailor-made individual work-out plan. And I drive to a heated pool to get in and walk backwards and forwards and side to side. Move my arms and legs in the water, and generally have a play around. It all seems so simple, except that with my steroids down to such a low dose, it's as hard as a workout at Curves used to be when I was on the higher dose of steroids, or taekwondo training was when I was healthy.