Happy Monday everyone! Wait…never mind. I’m not a “happy Monday” kind of person. I have, in fact, been drug kicking and screaming into this Monday as per usual. And was rewarded with mouse poop on my desk. In other news, we need an office cat. So let’s start again.

Happy Day 1 of #RABlogWeek everyone! There now. That was genuine. The topic for today is “a day in your life.” Brace yourselves, it’s going to be thrilling. And by thrilling I mean include naps.

Let me tell you about my Sunday. Normally my Sunday starts with church and includes a trip to Wal-Mart for dog food, cat food, and people food if I’m able to afford it. There is usually laundry being done and chores taken care of. I might squeeze in a movie and some knitting and even a ride on my horse. Yesterday though all that got pushed aside. Yesterday was an RA day.

You see, I’m a book addict. I have seven bookcases in my house and they’re all full. There are books hidden in closets, stacked in a china cabinet, and even arranged on a shelf of my TV stand. I have books on both night stands in my bedroom, several on my writing desk, and small stacks scattered throughout my house. And Saturday…there was a used book sale at my local library. And the books…were $5 a bag! And believe me, I can fit a lot of books in a brown paper grocery bag.

My haul, as seen from my Mom’s coffee table. Don’t worry. About half of those books are heading to my uncle’s collection. He has the same problem I do.

Now, what does that book sale have to do with my RA day on Sunday? That book sale is why I had an RA day on Sunday. I left that sale with 5 bags of books. (I know, I need some sort of intervention.) Which means that I bent, knelt, crawled, twisted, and turned down aisle after aisle of books. While standing on a hard concrete floor. While carrying a bag of books or scooting a bag of books along the floor. I was done and out of there in roughly two hours. But that two hours wrecked my RA riddled body. Which is why Sunday was an RA day.

Sunday started with pain. It was my screaming back that woke me. When I untangled myself from the sheets and attempted to stand my aching right knee and throbbing right foot made me sit right back down. And so started my day. When I’m having an RA day, I have to do everything in baby steps. Step one. Sit up. Step two. Stand up. Step three. Hobble to the back door to let the dog and the cats out. Step four. Say a prayer of thanks that there is a bench beside the back door as a rest is now required.

When an RA day hits everything takes three times as long. Normally I slip out of bed, stretch a bit, shake off the morning stiffness, and head outside to feed the horses and put the goat out to graze. Then I bound back inside, feed the dog and the cats and finally myself. All in the space of 30 minutes. Yesterday it took me 30 minutes just to get from bed down to the barn behind the house. When I finally managed to get all the animals fed and grab breakfast for myself I collapsed back into bed. And stayed there for nearly an hour. Brushing my teeth wore me out. Putting a load of laundry into wash required a pit stop in a nearby chair. By the time I would normally be heading to church all I’d managed to do was get my heating pad and creep over to the recliner. I wouldn’t go far for the rest of the day. I knitted. I napped. I read. I watched roughly 8 hours of Doctor Who. (Thank you BBC for feeding my addiction.) I got a burst of energy and made a batch of flax seed breakfast bars so I’d have food to eat each morning for a while. That, of course, wore me out and sent me back to the recliner. By 5pm I had enough energy stored up to go clean stalls and feed the horses and the goat. But I again collapsed when I was done.

Napping with my little shadow Finn. He’s always up for some recliner time.

That’s the worst part about an RA flare. It sucks the energy right out of you. Logically I know that if I push through the stiffness and soreness and move, the flare will go away faster. But sometimes that’s not something I’m up to doing. Yesterday I was a walking bruise. I hurt from my toes to my fingertips. It was frustrating. I had things to do after all. Places to go. Praise and worship songs to sing. But my body took control and planted me with that heating pad all day. I simply didn’t have the energy required to move myself out of the flare. I was a wreck all day, physically and emotionally. (Thanks to that one episode of Doctor Who for making me sob like a baby.)

Thankfully today is better. Today I’m up to pushing through and getting moving. Today the pain is manageable and the stiffness is fading.

You might be wondering something though. If I’d known that the book sale was going to throw me into an RA flare, would I still have gone?

Totally. Those books were $5 a bag, y’all! You don’t pass up a deal like that.

~Elise

To read all of the #RABlogWeek blogs, go here. Click on the links under each topic to read that day’s blogs.