Preparing to Move With Psoriatic Arthritis
There's the physical part, of course, but also the mental stress of planning, organizing, and preparing your body to go through something that's almost guaranteed to flare symptoms. I've moved several times before, but each time I do, it reminds me that most systems – housing, logistics, even social expectations – just aren't built for people whose energy and physical abilities vary day to day.
What I Need in a New Place
My apartment search has been slower than I'd like. Not because I'm being picky, but because I have real needs that aren't negotiable. For starters, I need either an elevator or a ground-floor unit. Stairs can trigger my joint pain almost immediately. Even a few steps can feel like a major
obstacle when my knees or feet are flaring. It's something able-bodied folks don't always consider, but it's at the top of my list when searching for a new place. This limits my options and rules out townhomes and walkup units.
I also need a bathtub. Not just for comfort, but because it's one of the few things that consistently helps when I'm in pain. A hot bath is where I can fully relax my muscles and calm my nervous system. It's one of the few ways I can truly unwind when I'm flaring. Showers don't offer the same kind of relief, especially when I'm exhausted or sore.
Another must-have is a washer and dryer in the unit. Carrying laundry baskets down the hall or to another floor isn't manageable on flare days. And trips to the laundromat are completely off the table anymore. Being able to do small loads of laundry at home, when I have the energy, helps me keep up with daily life without overexerting myself.
I also look for a neighborhood where I can safely and easily walk, even if it's just for 10 minutes. I don't need access to hiking trails or anything complicated, just somewhere flat and calm to move my body a little. Gentle walking helps with stiffness and fatigue. It also helps my mood when I've been stuck inside too long.
It's a long list, but it's not about luxury or convenience. It's about making sure I have the basics I need to function with less pain and more stability.
The Cost of Outsourcing the Physical Labor
I've accepted that I'll need to hire movers. I can't pack, lift, or haul furniture the way I used to. Even trying to take it slowly flares my joints and leaves me deeply fatigued. Every time I've pushed through and done it anyway, I've ended up in a flare that takes days or weeks to recover from.
Unfortunately, hiring movers is expensive. Between the security deposit, pet fees, moving truck, and the actual moving help, the costs add up fast. It's stressful to budget for all of it, but with psoriatic arthritis, I don't have another choice.
This is one of the ways chronic illness gets expensive in ways people don't expect. It's not just the cost of medication or appointments. It's moments like this, where a basic life transition becomes a physical and financial hurdle.
The Challenge of Packing With Fatigue and Pain
Packing is harder than people realize. Even when I break it down into manageable pieces and start early, just one box a day or one room at a time, it still wears me out quickly.
I constantly have to balance the need to get things done with the limits of my body. If I overdo it, I flare. If I rest too much, I fall behind. There's no perfect pace. Just a constant back and forth between pushing a little and pulling back.
Sometimes even small things like folding clothes or taping boxes make my fingers ache. There are days I sit down to pack and my knees don't want to bend. My energy drains so fast that I have to take long breaks between simple tasks. It's frustrating because I want to do more, but I know my body can't keep up.
This isn't just about being tired. It's a deep, bone-level fatigue that doesn't improve with a quick nap or cup of coffee. It's the kind of exhaustion that slows everything down, even when your to-do list is piling up.
Stress and the Flare That Follows
Then there's the mental side of moving. The decision-making, the planning, the financial stress – it all adds up. And for me, stress is a major flare trigger.
Even when I'm being careful with my physical energy, the stress alone can cause inflammation and lead to pain or fatigue. My joints start aching in ways that feel familiar but are still frustrating. My brain gets foggy. I feel drained without having done much at all.
It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it. It feels like my body is keeping score of every anxious thought, every stressful moment, and turning it into physical pain. I try to manage it with deep breathing, breaks, and baths, but it's hard to avoid stress entirely when you're in the middle of a move.
Recovery Is Part of the Plan
Once I get into the new place, I know I'll need time to recover. That part isn't optional.
After every move I've done, my body has needed downtime. Even if I hire movers and take it slow, my body still reacts. I flare. I crash. I need to sleep more. I ache in places I forgot could even hurt.
So this time, I'm building that recovery time into my plan. I'm trying not to overbook myself in the days following the move. I'm reminding myself that the unpacking can wait. I don't need to have everything perfect within a week. If I can do a little each day and take care of myself along the way, that's enough.
There's so much pressure to 'bounce back' after big transitions, but I've learned that with chronic illness, rest is part of the process. It's not a luxury. It's a need.
More Than Just Moving
This move is a big life change. It's also a reminder of how much energy it takes to function in a world that doesn't always accommodate disabled or chronically ill people. I hope that by sharing the behind-the-scenes of my experience, others in the chronic illness community can feel seen, and those outside of it can better understand what it really takes to move when living with chronic pain.
Moving with psoriatic arthritis definitely requires lots of planning, support, patience, and more energy than I usually have. It's not simple. It's not easy. But I'm doing it in a way that honors where I am now, not who I was before my diagnosis or who I wish I could be.
If you're also facing a move while living with chronic illness, know that you're not alone. It's OK to take your time. It's OK to need help. And it's OK to do things differently than other people.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Opinion: Long Live Donald Trump—and His Dubious Cankles
The President of the United States has cankles. The condition, known as chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), just means his veins aren't working great. It's common, particularly among the elderly—a population group which includes our nearly 80-year-old POTUS. Of all the things likely to kill a man of Trump's age and apparent girth, medical professionals seem to think CVI isn't high on the list. Still, the condition is yet another data point highlighting the decline of the Donald. Of late, we've seen him fall asleep in public on multiple occasions, fail to spot people sitting in the same room with him, confuse his facts and generally act like a man past his personal 'sell by' date. Physical and mental health, of course, should never be diagnosed by a basic cable comedian such as myself. But I'm going to do so anyway. As a layman, I see an old guy in a rumpled suit struggling to walk in a straight line. I see an old guy who cannot form a cogent paragraph. I see an old guy who spackles his face—and his hands—with so much make-up it belies a grasp of self-awareness. Do we care? Do we not care? Is it a concern that the Executive Branch is being run by a person who treats 'do not stare directly at the sun during an eclipse' as a dare? Obsessing over a president's health has always been a favorite parlor game among D.C. wags. And with the recent kerfuffle over former President Joe Biden's health leading to a change atop the ticket still stinging Democrats, the questions about Trump's fitness are certainly fair. But I'm not sure they're particularly salient. It's not like Trump is the first frail or sickly president. Would, say, the Reagan second administration have been any different if he hadn't been entering the early stages of Alzheimer's? What about America's war policy under the frail FDR? Trump is old and fat and crazy. He's going to die relatively soon, one way or the other. Do I think he'll die in office? I doubt it. Even if he did, his lackeys at the Heritage Foundation and Peter Thiel's Palantir will Weekend at Bernie's that mofo if they have to in order to get their oppressive agenda passed. For all of his awfulness and unlawfulness, Trump is only a symptom of the larger cancer eating the nation. When we speculate on his health, what we're really expressing is our anxiety about America as a whole. Would we better or worse off if he were to go? Impossible to say. The only thing we can say with any degree of certainty is we would have been better off had he not arrived in the first place. Just like how Russia won't turn around when Putin falls out of his own palace window, what ails the United States today won't be resolved with the passing of one of its central figures. Our problems are deep—deeper even than the pools of purple liquid collecting in Trump's lower limbs. The man may have exacerbated those problems, but he didn't cause them, and his eventual passing will not solve them. A nation such as ours should never be in a position to worry too much about the health of its leader because we're designed to not be dependent on a single person. That's the whole point of a democracy. We fought a king because too much power in the hands of too few leads to bad outcomes for too many. If we're so worried about our president's health, regardless of who is president, it leads me to believe that our presidents have too much power. This one certainly does. So yes, it's dishy to wag our tongues over Trump's occasional and outlandish medical reports—a perfect human specimen! The tallest, handsomest man who ever lived! The vigor of a teenager!—but my concern isn't for his actuarial table. It's for the millions of people whose lives he's put at risk. People reliant on USAID. People who fled violence in their home nations only to be denied entry to ours. People losing their livelihoods because of these tariffs. People whose own healthcare is at risk with his cuts to Medicaid. His squandered life doesn't mean sh-t to me. But just because he screwed up his own life doesn't mean we ought to allow him to rob people of theirs. I will never wish for the death of another. Personally, I hope Donald J. Trump has a long and healthy life— that he makes it to 110. 120, even. And I want him to spend those years as mentally sharp as possible. The only thing is, though, I want him to live them out inside of an 8x8 federal prison cell.
CBS News
10 hours ago
- CBS News
West Michigan resident dies of complications of West Nile virus
A human case of West Nile virus in West Michigan has resulted in the death of that patient, local health officials confirmed. This is one of three publicly reported human cases of West Nile virus in Michigan this year, the only one so far that has resulted in a death. Oakland County recently reported a case of West Nile virus in a person, as did Livingston County. There are several counties in Michigan where local health officials have confirmed the virus among mosquito populations. It also has been confirmed among mosquitoes in Windsor, Ontario. The Kent County Health Department in Grand Rapids made its announcement Thursday, saying it was the first West Nile virus death in its area since May 2024. The health department also said there were detections of the virus earlier this summer in mosquito populations for three ZIP codes in Kent County. Those detections included a positive test result from a mosquito collected just 3,000 feet from where the patient lived. Mosquitoes are infected with the West Nile virus by biting an infected bird. The virus can then spread to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. Most people who are infected with the virus have either no symptoms or experience a mild illness such as fever, headache, and body aches. But in some people, more serious conditions such as inflammation and swelling of the brain can occur. People older than 50 are more likely to develop serious and potentially life-threatening symptoms of West Nile Virus if they do get sick. Health officials recommend people take precautions against mosquito bites so to limit the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. Those steps include using an insect repellent registered with the Environmental Protection Agency, and removing standing water around homes and outdoor property where mosquitoes could breed. The above video originally aired on Sept. 25, 2024.
Medscape
11 hours ago
- Medscape
Which Antiplatelet Works Better in Impaired Renal Function?
TOPLINE: Prasugrel provided a more rapid reduction in platelet aggregation than clopidogrel in patients with stable coronary artery disease on dual antiplatelet therapy and an impaired renal function, specifically within initial days of treatment initiation. METHODOLOGY: Chronic kidney disease often coexists with coronary artery disease and is known to impair drug metabolism. Whether renal function affects platelet aggregation induced by commonly used antiplatelet drugs remains unclear. Researchers conducted a substudy of a previous prospective trial involving 164 patients with stable coronary artery disease (median age, 67 years; 82.9% men) who were receiving dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel. Patients were randomly assigned to either continue 75 mg of clopidogrel daily or switch to 3.75 mg of prasugrel daily. The analysis stratified the patients into two groups: those with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 45 mL/min/1.73 m 2 (n = 20) and those with an eGFR ≥ 45 mL/min/1.73 m 2 (n = 144). (n = 20) and those with an eGFR ≥ 45 mL/min/1.73 m (n = 144). The primary endpoint was inhibition of platelet aggregation, measured as P2Y 12 reaction units (PRU), at days 5 and 30 post-randomization. TAKEAWAY: In patients with an eGFR < 45 mL/min/1.73 m 2 , prasugrel induced a faster decline in platelet aggregation than clopidogrel at both days 5 and 30; however, the difference in mean PRU values was statistically significant only on day 5 (mean PRU, 157.9 vs 214.2; P = .036). , prasugrel induced a faster decline in platelet aggregation than clopidogrel at both days 5 and 30; however, the difference in mean PRU values was statistically significant only on day 5 (mean PRU, 157.9 vs 214.2; P = .036). The effects of the drugs varied by eGFR only during the early phase of initiating treatment, with a significant interaction observed only at day 5 (P for interaction = .028). Both treatments had a favorable safety profile with regard to the risk for bleeding, regardless of renal function. IN PRACTICE: 'The significant reduction in platelet aggregation observed with prasugrel in the eGFR < 45 group highlights its potential benefit in the early management of platelet reactivity in patients with renal impairment,' the researchers reported. SOURCE: This study was led by Ayane Miyagi, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. It was published online on August 1, 2025, in Heart. LIMITATIONS: This study had a relatively small sample size, especially in patients with lower eGFR, limiting generalizability. The open-label design may have introduced bias. Long-term outcomes and safety profiles could not be assessed with only a 30-day follow-up. DISCLOSURES: The researchers received funding from Daiichi Sankyo. The evaluation target of this study was a pharmaceutical product manufactured by the funding company. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
