Arthritis sux

I know there are people who deal with far bigger, far more horrible things that arthritis and carpal tunnel.

But arthritis SUX when you're diagnosed with it when your 25. Which is how old I was when the docs told me I had it.

Both conditions are kinda passed down in my family... grandpa, the chef, got them early in life. My dad, the roofer, got them early in life. Me, who spends at least 8 hours a day at work constantly typing or using the mouse to create/manipulate graphics, got it early in life.

Usually it's not too bad. And if I am only dealing with a flare up of one at time, it's not too bad. Mild discomfort that goes away when I do what I'm supposed to do like wear my wrist braces and not sleep with my hands curled up under my pillow. But days when they both hit, I really just want to chop my hands off to deal with the pain.

Today we had some crazy-ass weather heading thru, so the hands were acting up something awful. And I just happened to be out of Alieve (my drug of choice for hand pain, I've even taken perscriptions that didn't work as well) at my desk, so a lunchtime trip to Target was made to stock up. That only helped a little. On the way home from work, a trip to another store yielded the new Thermacare heat wraps for your hands. Those things are pretty neat, they do offer some help. Rather than chopping my hands off, I find the gentle heat combined with holding a cold beer to be a good remedy for the situation.

My hands are still shit, though, and I hate that. I have a very hard time opening any twist top. Without warning, I'll have a hand spasm and drop something, or poke myself with something, or just have something totally fly outta my hand. And I know, this is one of those things that only gets worse with time, not better.

Meant to cook tonight... that didn't happen. And planned to check out Roly Poly sandwiches for dinner... which also did not happen. I've been so out of it, didn't realize the franchise down the street closed. Ooops. Ended up eating Jimmy Johns for dinner.

The plan for tonight was to make Superfast Salisbury Steaks for dinner, I think that might be pushed to Saturday. Or Sunday, since we have the oldest nephew's birthday party on Sunday during the day. I have a long standing rule that I have one night a week off from cooking... Friday. I think I do it just because I like that feeling that the work week is OVER and I can enjoy one night where I don't have to worry about anything but parking my ass on the couch and zoning out.