Alicia Anderson: I've always
been very active.
I used to do
backpacking, running, biking.
I ran duathlons.
15,000 steps a day was my norm.
I like hiking and camping,
personally, because I live
in the city.
And I'm a country girl at heart.
In the woods,
it feels like everything that
is the day-to-day
can just kind of float away.
The day that I had my first real
psoriatic arthritis flare,
I was getting up to go to work.
I couldn't grip my pants well
enough to pull them up.
I couldn't get dressed.
I couldn't move
enough to actually go anywhere.
The arthritis pain isn't
like muscle soreness.
It's kind of a combination
of an ache that's turned up
to 11 and sometimes stabbing
pains.
All the words we have
to describe the effects
of psoriatic arthritis
are too small.
Aching is too small.
Pain is too small.
Fatigue is too small.
It hurts way more than that.
I went down from 15,000 steps
a day to 10 steps a day.
It was absolutely devastating.
Personally, I still feel
like I'm giving up pieces
of myself that there are things
that I can never reclaim because
of this illness.
The fatigue is harder to push
through than the pain.
It feels like there is no way
to get a full charge.
It was a revelation to discover
Christine Miserandino's website
about the spoon theory.
She has lupus and was trying
to explain the fatigue
of her autoimmune disorder.
It's super helpful for me,
because it's the idea
of budgeting energy.
Let's say I start the day
with 12 spoons.
I get up.
I take a shower.
I get dressed.
That's two spoons gone.
So and now I'm down to 10.
Working might be two spoons.
Walking the dog is easily four
spoons.
Sweeping the floor is a spoon.
Cooking is two spoons if you're
doing any sort of prep
because you're using
your wrists.
By the end of the day,
you've got to make a decision
about whether to spend
the rest of that energy or bank
it for the next day.
Generally only a full night's
sleep will give you kind
of a reboot the next day.
My old life, I had 20 to 30
spoons in a day.
And now, I'm lucky if I have 10.
[RATTLING]
I was researching
online alternative therapies.
And acupuncture seemed to always
be at the top of the list.
I know it's not for everyone.
But for me, it was
a massive improvement.
I'm on three
different medications.
I do dietary changes, yoga,
sleep a lot, like 12 hours
a night.
I try to get sunshine.
I try to get exercise when I
can.
And I take it easy on myself.
[WHIRRING]
My husband has been super
supportive and always trying
to think of ways to make my life
easier.
He wanted me to feel like I
could take a shower
and enjoy it again.
So he purchased this stool
for the shower.
For some reason, that stool felt
like a symbol of my disability.
It felt like I was giving up.
Assistive devices like that
are all over my house now.
Some of them were easier
to accept than others.
The stool was really hard.
I really fought the cane
as well.
My husband -- he gets a lot
of ideas about how to make me
not resent the cane.
I have one cane that has a sword
in it.
[SIGHS] And we were actually
in a shop.
And they had trekking poles,
like hiking poles.
Having a trekking pole instead
of a cane
does make me a little bit less
stubborn about it.
It's still a cane.
But the canes helped me hike.
The canes help me get outside.
It's absolutely helped me get
and stay more mobile.
Having something as
little as a stool
when you're taking a shower
can be the difference
between going to the movies
or not and having a life.
More than anything,
the psoriatic arthritis
has taught me
that the overachiever kind
of person that I was
wasn't the healthiest way to go.
Easy way isn't always
the wrong way.
The disease itself-- it forces
me to just be.
You've got to let go
of that other person.
I've hiked 256 miles
of the Appalachian Trail
with a 40-pound pack on my back.
I have to let that go.
I still can get that feeling
of wellness and well-being
in the woods.
It's just a much shorter trip
than it used to be.
