Remind me, please?

I need some reminders on how to manage SPD. I only had it for the final week before Sam was born (yet another reason I'm kind of glad he came early) and have forgotten a lot.

No, I'm not pregnant!

I'm having an arthritis flare and this sodding disease has chosen a new and exciting place to attack - my pelvis! :o

For days I've thought it was my hip joints, and then I managed to move in a way that reminded me of the final week of pregnancy and the agony I was in then and it twigged - RA doesn't just attack the mobile joints! But the pelvis is new - I've had it in my rib cage before, but not the pelvis.

With the new medication, I should get relief in a week or so, but need to remember how to move to help manage it until I get to my next dose so that I can hopefully not spend the week as a drugged out zombie! I'm also praying that next dose will kill this flare good and well and it won't just come back a few days later.

So right now I'm feeling like I have SPD without the squishy newborn cuddles to look forward to! And the enormous pregnant belly to remind me to move differently!

BW

I had SPD with dd, so i know the pain!! :(

Do you have a support belt or band?
I know there is exercises where you lay on your back and bring your leg up (one at a time) until you feel it resisting going up anymore and you count and release and then do it again, it just release's the muscles for a while to get some relaxation i guess,
Also lay on you side and breathe in for 40 i think like use the muscles in your abdomin and then release and keep doing it for a while, i have no idea what this is for but thats one of the ones physio used to do... lol
Also when getting out the car, turn your whole body to put both feet out the door flat on the floor to get out, dont take your steps huge..
My mind is tired but i cant remember alot right now but ill be back!!
But get a support band and/or belt, they helped me heaps, uncomfortable but awesome stuff!!

At this stage, exercises won't help. I've found the best way to cope with the RA is to rest during a flare and exercise and strengthen the affected part when the flare is over - not that it helps a great deal, but my joints tend to be a bit "floppy" after a flare from the inflammation and are quite prone to injury if I'm not careful.

What I need is the things to avoid, and the ways to move so as not to aggravate it more. Unless something I do is really WRONG, it generally won't hurt too much at the time, but I'll be in agony later, so I don't always have the pain immediately to remind me not to do it.

Although, last night I stupidly sat cross-legged on the floor to help Sam eat his dinner (at his little table instead of the main dining table because DH wasn't home and we weren't all eating yet). OMG!!! The PAIN! So I have definitely learned that there's no sitting on the floor for me for a while, and I've remembered enough to get in and out of the car with my knees together - but that's about it, but I'm sure there's more.

BW