Entry in My Diary: Living With Psoriatic Arthritis and Psoriasis

My main goal in writing this journal is to keep a documented record of my thoughts, feelings, mood and pain associated with my disease.

Morning fatigue and flare prevention

7:00 AM: I just woke up at my normal time. However, I feel somewhat stiffer this morning than usual. I am assessing whether my day today is better than yesterday. Am I more stressed? I feel very fatigued.

As far as I can recall there wasn’t anything unusual about my night of sleep. I know today will be a busy day for me. I have a full schedule ahead of me. I will work my normal shift hours and hope I have some extra time to run errands.

8:00 AM: I can do this! Let’s get the day started. Please, no brain fog today. Why did I come into this room? I don’t have a clue. I had come downstairs and had been down there for about a little while. Oh, now I remember I need to send in my morning report to my boss.

9:00 AM: Flare-up today. Fingers are unusually stiff as I try to open the lid of my preserves for my bagel. It makes me so upset to twist and twist and realize it will not open.

Frustrated, my brain fog just kicked in and I can’t remember if I sent the report yet. Shoulders feel very heavy this morning. Just take a pain pill already.

10:00 AM: Removing stressors today. I purposely will document everything that might attempt to stress me today. It will start with telephone calls that I don’t think is a priority. When my psoriatic arthritis flares, taking on others' problems can be a huge stress factor in my life.

I know I try to fix the world and when I find myself overdoing it, my body tells on me. I’m lucky if I can make it upstairs. To best describe it I would say it feels like someone has dropped a load of boxes on me and I must remove that feeling.

11:00 AM: If I was to rate my pain today, I would document it at a 6. This is a high pain day. It really depends on today what I choose today that will lessen this pain or intensify it. I will be very cautious to not bring it to another level.

I will not complain about things or be the worrywart that so many often find themselves in when they are in discomfort. I will pull out my smiley face to remind me of those things that I am grateful of.

Afternoon and treatment side effects

12:00 Noon: As a PsA patient, today I’m having a nutritious, but yummy lunch. For the benefit of my health, I sometimes walk during my lunch hour. Today will not be one of those days where I will be counting steps. When I’m having a flare going on, I don’t even attempt to make too many steps.

Some days it’s great to get out and exercise. It is another part of leaving stress behind. Normally I sit down and enjoy my lunch and maybe relax and prepare for the remaining hours I have left for the day. I was working as I normally do and out of nowhere, I began feeling very dizzy. Probably side effects from the pain pill.

2:00 PM: I can’t find time to finish my reports today. Every time a thought gets in my head; I lose it. I really need to take notes. I have worked very hard all day long. It’s taking longer to finish than I expected. I need to set up a realistic time frame for this. I am extremely nervous because of not being able to finish this.

5:00 PM: Closing documentation: I can truly say today has been okay. I’ve had many other days that have been more stressful.

Reflections provided by journaling

I’ve had several entries where I pulled the covers of my bed back and just decide to remain in the bed all day, but today was not that day. When I go I’ve back to the many entries of my journal, I realize that I am dealing with this disease, and documenting is my way of saying, look at how I was doing on December 4, 2018. It wasn’t all that bad.

We know there is no existing cure for psoriasis, but treatments can help. Try to understand your triggers and journaling can help. It will help to avoid flare-ups. Always talk to your doctor about treatment options and bring your journal with you.

This article was originally published on our sister site PlaquePsoriasis.com.