Is Retirement Possible When Having PsA?

There have been a lot of things on my mind lately. My husband and I have been talking about his possible retirement four years from now.

While four years seems a long way off, it will be here before we know it. We are planning how we will spend our golden years and what that time means to us.

It also has been worrying me as to what those golden years with PsA will look like. I am well aware that in the ten years I have had psoriatic arthritis, it has and continues to progress.

How will this impact these years? I mean, there is a point of getting older with its drawbacks. Arthritis of any kind is more prevalent the older you get. To already head toward those years with PsA is worrisome.

Dreaming of retirement

We already know what we want to do when my husband retires. Since I work from home, we are free to move if we desire to.

Our plan is to build a place on a lake near my family's home. When he retired from the paper mill, my grandparents bought this beautiful place on a lake. I now own some of that land as an inheritance.

The land is down a dirt road that doesn't see a lot of traffic. It's so quiet and peaceful there. I love to fish, and this property sits right on the lake's edge.

In all my years of going to this place, it has only flooded twice. Still, we will have to contend with that as a possibility. If you live on a lake, you must know that eventually, there will come a flood.

Facing PsA challenges in our retirement plans

My PsA damage is in my lower back and my knees. It also affects my hips, but that is mostly when I am trying to sleep at night.

Given what I just said about potential floods, we will have to make sure our house is up high on blocks. That means there will be steps to go up and down on. I am already facing a knee replacement in my left knee.

Will this create a problem in the future of dealing with those steps daily? What if I cannot walk down to the water's edge so I can fish? Is it possible the PsA will get so bad that I will be stuck in my retirement home?

These are concerns that are floating around in my head. I must be realistic about the PsA and what it is doing to my body. It is not a pleasant thought and one I wouldn't share with my husband, so it doesn't interfere with his retirement that he has worked so hard to get.

I will keep pushing to find a treatment that works so we both can enjoy those golden years. PsA is not going to take that away from me.