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Posted 1/4/2010 9:13 PM (GMT 0)
Hi everyone,

I had a great holiday but I am really pleased to be home again. First we went camping up the coast, really beautiful spot a couple of hours north of Sydney, its our summer and should have been perfect camping weather but of course it rained!!!

I managed two sleepless nights before deciding that I couldn't cope. We were close to friends who live up there, so I had to move inside and go for a real bed. Luckily my DH coped and the kids loved it, rain and all. It was madness 4 families alongside each other, our own tent city. Lots of shared meals and lots of laughing, lots of feral children at times too. Day 3 we had some sunshine and finally a day on the beach. It was truely wonderful to catch up with so many old friends. Great energy.

After 6 days we came back to Sydney for New Years eve, went to see Circus Oz, an Aussie circus troop who do alot of tumbling, acrobatics, clowning and general high energy entertainment, they were great, then watched the fireworks at midnight from a vantage point over looking the harbour bridge. Truely beautiful.

NY's day we went south to stay with friends down the south coast. They have an annual party New Year's day. So again lovely to catch up with our southern friends! Plus comfortable beds with glorious views. Had 2 days on the beach before the rain hit again!!! Typical! But the kids were well accustomed by now we played board games and went for a swim anyway. Had the towels under an umbrella on the beach!

Ate too much gelato, actually ate too much of everything. But it was good to get away. My RA is still flaring but I managed to pace myself, friends were shocked at how many pain killers I take and had lots of alternatives to recommend. I'm steeling myself to try accupuncture, I'm such a coward, I feel like the western way isn't working for me. Back on steroids and I've gained a stone from all the fluid retention. I hate them.

Still its good to be home, gotta start packing soon for our big move back into our new home at the end of Jan/ Beginning of Feb. Very exciting.

yeah

Missed you all, best wishes, golitho

Posted 1/4/2010 10:14 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, Golitho,
Welcome home! I and several others have been having computer problems, so I've not been posting much myself. Your holiday sounds great - especially the fireworks in Sydney! I always watch the clips of them on tv and think how great they must be. I think they're likely the best in the world, although London had something pretty nifty going (on tv, that is, my only way to see it!) with a ferris wheel! Kinda cool. But Sydney harbor is tops in my book!

If you can afford acupuncture, I'd definitely try it. If I had the money, I would - even as a management process (it's likely not a cure). If you get someone who's traditionally trained and experienced, you shouldn't even feel the needles going in. I've seen demonstrations in person at workshops I've taken and the needles used are often very tiny. Really, it's not like most of the tests we have to submit to like EMG's!

Anyway, glad you're back - and hope I can stay back! My machine is running painfully slow, and still only lets me post a couple of times before the site crashes.

PaLady
Posted 1/5/2010 12:28 AM (GMT 0)
golitho

I truely enjoyed reading your post! It sounds like you had a really Great time! I am really Happy for you! You know in the military I have done allot of traveling I have been to Germany, France, and the Netherlands, Japan, and Taiwan, Alaska and most everywhere in the states!! But there are Three (3) places in this world that I have always wanted to go to, and I still hope and dream that some day I will be fortunate enough to still see these three places, and they are, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia!

As far as accupuncture goes I had it done one time with electrical stimulus with it, and I will never ever have it done again. I had it done to my back and it caused every muscle in my back to spasm all at once, and was twisted up into a pretzel, after immediately removing all the needles, it took the chiropractor over 2 hours of work to get me even close to normal again!

golitho I am really glad your back with us! Oh yes one more thing, What is gelato?

White Beard
Posted 1/5/2010 12:52 AM (GMT 0)

I had accupuncture  for chronic sinus conditions with awful headaches  that I could not shake in 1999 . They put needles all over your body on certain points not just in the affected area. (probably 20 needles each visit) In all my treatments I only felt one needle go in. I would try it again if past all other treatments.

I found a doctor at our local hospital in the pain management clinic and I called my insurance plan and asked if he was in it and he was. My accupuncture only cost $10 a visit. No electric stimulis or other gizmos.

Posted 1/5/2010 1:06 AM (GMT 0)
Glad to hear you had a nice vacation, golitho! We missed you here!

hugs,
Skeye
Posted 1/5/2010 4:16 AM (GMT 0)
Golitho, sounds like you had a great time even inspite of weather and pain. My wife has been dropping the acupuncture hint to me for some time. She is tired of seeing me in pain and not finding relief. We went to a dinner just before Christmas and we sat with some people and the wife had undergone acupuncture and found relief for her issue. Now my wife says money is not an issue just try it. I guess I could say she is needling me to make the call. Don't over do it as you prepare for a move. Blessings!
Posted 1/5/2010 4:45 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Golitho,


Wow, does it ever sound like you had a great time, rain and all, lol. I am still wrapping my brain about it being summer where you are at. I am sitting here at this computer with the weather showing our temp right now is 27 degrees out, yes its cold, lol.



I want to ask you about your Remicade infusions. Do you have to do an initial loading dose for your RA and once thats done you will go every so often for an infusion? I have no idea how they do the Remicade in the beginning for RA.



I think if you can afford it you should consider doing accupuncture. You really have nothing to lose. I am talking the traditional Chinese method using the very tiny needles. I am not talking about the kind of accupuncture chiropractors do.I had it done on my neck in the very early 80's because of a car accident. It took me nine or ten treatment to get rid of most of the pain. I had tried PT and all of that with the orthopedic for 3 months and saw no improvement. At that time I was totally terrified of needles. If I got sick and went to the dr and he said I needed a shot, I always turned it down, that how scared I was, lol. Anyway, these needles they use are so small that when they put them in, all I felt was a tiny bit of prssure, no pain. They attach these electrode things to the top of the needle and very slowly turn the machine up until you can feel what I will call a pulse. They have you tell them when it starts getting too high and they back it off. In many ways it remind me of E stim. The only pain I ever expericed was after they pulled the needles out they wiped my neck down with alcohol and that stung for just a minute, nothing terrible at all.



Carefull with the packing, I know you are so excited about moving into the new house. Take care.

my neck doen with a
Posted 1/5/2010 9:01 PM (GMT 0)
Hi,

Thanks for your replies. It sure was a good holiday, I feel priviledged to have some lovely friends out there. So many have moved out of Sydney, both for bringing up children, affordability or for work. I miss them at times. So it was lovely to catch up. I was also determined to remove my husband from the house, as if we'd stayed in Sydney he would have been tempted to keep popping down to put on another door handle or something!!!

PAlady, thanks for your encouragement to try the accupuncture. I have had it before just not for this condition. When I had it last time it really flared my problem up initially  and thats what I'm most scared of. I am on these horrible steroids and it seems to have stabalised the flare but not at a level I can live my normal life at. My feet are both swollen and sore around my ankles and toes, plus my rght knee has stubbornly refused to settle so any walking I do I'm in pain. My wrists are good, although still swollen they're not hurting all the time ,like they were. Elbows much better.....my computer is playing up too. They must have decided to go on holiday mode, soooo slow. This accupuncturist is old school andcomesrecommended by 2 independent sources, worth a try anyway.

Hi WhiteBeard, gelato is Italian icecream, it is generally homemade with really beautiful ingredients so a notch above normal icecream. It is very popular in Sydney, lots of gelato stalls. If you ever make it over here I'll buy you one! NZ is where I'm originally from, its a very beautiful country not so unlike Ireland, lots of green lush hills and bush, lots of farming. Beautiful mountains. Ireland is much older of course and its where my hubby is from, my 2 older kids were born there, very traditional country suffering terribly from the economic fallout at the moment. Australia seems to have weathered the financial crisis amazingly well, I have lost teaching hours in a tech I work at (government funding cuts)  but I've picked up hours at the university. Seems more people are getting educated. My husband is a builder and it hasn't touched him at all. We panicked initially but he has kept getting jobs to price. Maybe people with money are investing it in their houses?

Thanks Keep the faith, I'm definately going to try the needles just with some trepidation, but thanks for your encouragement.

Lovely to hear from you Skeye, I missed you guys too, especially trying to cover up my level of pain at times.

Father John, we'll have to hold hands across the water and try this accupuncture together! I haven't looked into the cost yet, with the house we are very tight financially but once I'm back at work, semester starts in February, I'll be ok I think. Anyway I'll pay if it helps me!

Hi Susie, yeah I started on a start up with the remicade. I had the first one then 2 weeks later the second, now I'm heading up to my 3rd suppose to be 4 weeks later but because of Christmas and summer holidays it will be 5 weeks. I had a yucky reaction after the 2nd one, felt like someone was sitting on my chest all night. So will have to chat to the doctor before my next one anyway. Certainly a lot more side effects than on my beloved humira. I had restless legs that just hurt everywhere for 48 hours, a migraine type headache for about 12 hours, couldn't sleep (whats new) generally felt unwell but after 48 hours it settled down. I'll ask, the unit closed for Christmas break so I didn't know who to contact about it. Afterthe 3rd dose I am suppose to get them every 8 weeks but talking to people in the unit it sounds as if every 6 weeks works better. Anyway I see my rheumy after the 3rd infusion and will ask her lots of questions. Good to hear the accupuncture worked for you, I am hoping it gets rid of some of this pain I'm in because apart from increasing pain meds I'm not sure I can take much more on the western front. I can't believe I can be this swollen on so many meds to stop it, scary really. Something is obviously not happy in my body.

turn

This has turned into a huge post, I'm in lovely holiday mode no pressure on me to be anywhere, kids happy, what bliss...golitho

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