Diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis...........house falling down around us!!

LoopyLinz

pigpen wrote: »

I was diagnosed when I was 17 so I know how it is... and it IS manageable!

1.. loads of red meat and 'spicy' stuff does make it worse.. it increases the acidity of the blood and aggravates the condition.. as does alcohol, especially red wine for some people. I cannot hold a pint glass... even half full.. I have to use 2 hands...
2.. Keep warm and active.. if you don't keep it warm and keep moving it will control you.
3.. I don't take painkillers unless I am physically incapacitated.. I believe pain it there for a reason and so long as it is not completely debilitating I will leave it be and adjust my daily life around it.. if that means I don't vacuum the stairs for a week so be it! Don't push yourslf beyond your boundaries you can only do so much.. the rest will be there tomorrow!
4.. Invest in a wheeled trolley.. so you don't have to carry shopping bags

I avoid buttons wherever possible because I know on a bad day I cannot do them up.. which was horrific when trying to dress the babies because almost everything had buttons!!

Hi pigpen

Thank you for some practical advice, Im with you on the pain killer thing. I hate the fact that the only way I coulf honestly say I have been relatively pain free is by popping pills................surely that isnt pain free ins its true sense, if you know what I mean?

xoxoxox

LoopyLinz

ShelBell wrote: »

Cooking - Chop/prep sitting down, you can rest your elbows/forearms on the table then to help take the strain off. I use my slow cooker a lot, because I'm generally better in the morning, and I always batch cook in it. I do curries, chillis, casseroles, stews, joints, soups, pasta sauces, bolognaise, etc in it and always keep in those little foil dishes for freezing in portion sizes. Likewise when I make mash I don't scrimp, cos I can freeze it in bags in portions and reheat from frozen in the microwave

Shel

Wow again thank you for the very practical advice, chopping/prepping whilst sitting down would never had entered my head.

Another probably totally stupid question on my part but can you freeze mash potatoes?? Do they not get really wattery when you defrost them?

xoxoxox

pigpen

LoopyLinz wrote: »

Hi pigpen

Thank you for some practical advice, Im with you on the pain killer thing. I hate the fact that the only way I could honestly say I have been relatively pain free is by popping pills................surely that isnt pain free in its true sense, if you know what I mean?

xoxoxox

Once anti-inflammatories start to work the benefit is obvious.. during several months of the year I take them BEFORE I get out of bed! I am not a martyr lol

It is a great reason to get others to share the work load though!

Pink.

Hi LoopyLinz,

I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but as others have said you sound as though you have the right attitude. :T

These threads may help with the batch cooking:

Batch cooking ideas please

Once a month cooking

Once a month cooking (freezer cooking)

anyone tried once a month cooking?

What can you freeze

Snackie meals you can freeze, help please?

Nutritionally good meals for the Freezer?

Cooking for the freezer... Help!

Batch cooking tips

And you'll find some helpful hints on freezing mash here: Freezing fresh Mash

Pink

ceridwen

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

Yep you can freeze the sauce in freezer bags with no problem at all. I freeze soup, chilli, bolagnaise etc. this way. Just make sure that you are using FREEZER bags and not just sandwich bags as the cheap sarnie bags will often leave your food with freezer burn.

Take a bag or a couple of bags out in the evening or the morning, leave them to defrost and then chuck them in a pan in the evening to reheat.

Once you get yourself sorted out and organised it will be easy to manage the food side of things.

Rather than freezer bags though - Lakeland, for instance, do some packs of one portion size square stackable plastic boxes (errrr....still plastic I'm afraid:o ). Think they are 10 for £5 - re-usable umpteen times and with different colour lids with them if you want to colourcode the sorta thing you are putting in them - eg green top means vegetables. With these you make maximum use of the space in your freezer - which bags, round containers, et al dont. Think I will now work pretty much on the basis that I have a shelf full of boxes with fruit in, a shelf full of boxes with veg. in. I notice these boxes come in 2 or 3 different sizes - so presumably 2 portion size boxes as well. I bought some thinking "ideal for cant be bothered/busy days - grab 1 veg. box and one fruit box out of the freezer in the morning before going to work and bingo - basis of a meal tonight".

These boxes could also be used for portions of sauces or some ready-grated cheese or ready cooked beans.....

pmorrisjones

Just wonder if a food processor might help with the chopping, rather than a knife. The vibrations may make things painful but its quick. Sorry if you've tried this and its no use.

MrsMW

Something I find very helpful in cold weather is wearing cotton gloves in bed, stops my fingers getting stiff and if you rub hand cream in before putting them on, you wake up with beautiful hands LOL.
I get the gloves from the Chemist, they are quite cheap. about £1.
Good luck.

Penny-Pincher!!

LoopyLinz wrote: »

Well folks as you can see from the title above I have been disagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, I am only 24 and have been married for just a year. Still very much trying to get into the whole routine of housework and cooking!!

Basically my main problem at the moment is that my hands are particularly bad and things such as ironing are near to impossible.................anyone got any handy hints to tips that might make this easier? I was thinking...............just dont do it!! Lol

Another issue is that by the time I finish a full days work I am finding it increasing difficult to come home and make a proper dinner. Was thinking that while Im having a not too bad day, like today, I could batch cook and freeze, then it would just be a matter of heating. Can anyone recommend some things that would be good to batch cook? Bearing in mind my cooking skills arent that fab but I am willing to try. Also if I was to do this and freeze some stuff can anyone tell me what the best way to de-frost things is and how long it takes?

Sorry this post is so long but for some reason today I have decided to take control of this thing instead of letting it take control of me!

Thanks
Linz xoxox

Hi Linz

Welcome to OS. I am sorry to hear about your illness and how it effects you. Having illnesses myself, all I can say is dont beat yourself up too much and just do what you can, when you can.

Are you claiming everything you are entitled too etc?

On better days my OH helps me cook up large lasagnas, shepherds pies, curries etc and freeze them into portion sizes.

I started (before I got to ill) by allocating 20 mins in the morning to do as much as I could...stuff in DW and turn on if needed, clear sides, quick wipe of kitchen sides & sink, put WM on, clean toilet, etc etc....its amazing what you can do in a 20min blitz:D

Making a mealplan will be of benefit. I tend to just do a meat, spuds and veggies. This way its quite easy for OH or DD to sort out and they know what we are having.

I get arthritic gloves from the USA which work to about £5 a pair inc shipping if I buy 3 pairs at a time and they are brilliant and support my wrists too. I can PM you the details if you want.

Anti-inflammtories (sp) are good but remember that they can upset tummies sometimes and give you acid build up. Make sure the GP is aware that you are taking regularly if you are as there might be a better drug for you to take.

Take Care.

PP
xx

McKneff

agree with all the posts above, i am lucky in that i have been in remission for the last 4 years, amazinly i took anti imflamatorys, gold injections, blood tests momonthly for 20 years, then suddenly i didnt need to take my tablets, i kept waiting for the pain to come back and realised it wastnt going to today. i dont overdo it otherwise my wrists, ankles start hurting like mad.
just to give you some hope that you can go into remission when you least expect it.

One thing i will suggest, my arthritis triggered off pernicious aneamia for which i get 3 monthly B12 injections - maybe worth mentioning it next time yu have a check up.

But above all, keep warm, this is the best tip anyone can give yu

greenbee

Don't let the diagnosis get to you - half the battle is knowing what it is that is causing the problem, so that you can work out how to manage it rather than letting it control you.

I have a somewhat different problem, and was lucky to be able to come off painkillers about 10 years ago (very unpleasant to do due to the effect they'd been having on my brain ) and to manage now through a combination of diet, excercise and TENS. However, if I'm right in thinking that rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease (and pigpen's comments on diet suggest that it is), then thinking about that when planning your freezer contents is a good idea. Avoid acidic foods, red meat and refined foods (including sugar). If you're not sure what makes it worse, keep a food diary for a bit.

It can take quite some time to adapt to something like this, even if you've had the symptoms for a while without knowing the cause, so try out ideas from other people who have chronic conditions, as they're well worth listening to.

Rearrange things in your house so that the stuff you need is easily accessible - for example, I can lift heavy things down from above, but not up from below, so my kitchen has all the heavy stuff up high. Also make sure that all your door handles are levers, so that you don't need to grip them, and if necessary change the top half of your taps to ones you can turn on and off more easily.

I have small oven-to-freezer ceramic and pyrex dishes which I cook & freeze stuff in to save me having to decant it. I cook lots, divide it into 1/2/4 portion dishes, cool, clingfilm, freeze, then take it out the day/evening before I need it, leave it in the fridge till an hour or so before I want to start cooking, then take it out of the fridge for a bit before putting it into the oven so I don't crack the dishes.

Slip-on shoes for bad days (as pigpen says, avoid buttons and fiddly fastenings)

Ironing is NOT essential - when you're buying new clothes, try to get things that don't need it (I was told by the physio years ago that housework was bad for me, and I'm sticking with that diagnosis )

And definitely try the flylady thread (which Pigpen now rules with a rod of iron ), as it helps you to focus on achievable tasks rather than trying to get everything perfect immediately, and everyone there is supportive and non-judgemental... which reminds me... I must get back to my ironing before they find out I've been slacking