Right on! Another surfer! Glad you're here.

Go TEAM!

Me, too!

Go TEAM!

p.s. My sister came out of surgery recovery today speaking Spanish ~~~ teehee, her husband of the last 15 years didn't even know she knew how. He said, "oh no, she's not talking right, maybe she had a stroke" and I started laughing and told him what she said ~~~

How do you feel now?

Go TEAM!

oh my goodness! that is a lot of walking! it must have felt so good to do that today!

that sounds like excellent exercise and so much fun!

i think you are correct about the ribs, sitting here too long to create an exam for my class tomorrow, my ribs are complaining; sitting up straighter is helping, but not sitting would help the very most!

how is your sister doing now? hope she is recovering nicely!

and glad you had a chance to go swimming. one of the things i like about hotel pools is that they are usually a few degrees warmer than gym pools. my favorite hotel pool is at one of the sheratons in boston, they use salt water instead of chlorine in both the pool and hottub, so much nicer!

I feel good. Walking is one thing I can still do (with the help of Humira). We normally do a 2 mile morning walk and then the same in the afternoon. There was a group walking at noon...so I said what the heck. I was going to skip the afternoon 2 mile, but someone wanted to go...what the heck.

I just wish I could regain some more flexibility of my upper back and neck so that I could comfortably ride my road bike. My rheumy thinks upper body exercise will help, but it seems like a very difficult accomplishment.

i know what you mean about the walking; even last fall with my upper back / rib issue, couldn't sit or lay so i walked, and walked, and walked some more. it was odd, who ever heard of an illness where so long as you're in perpetual motion, you're better!

as for the upper back and neck flexibility and biking. my husband has a disc problem, leaning over the tenspeed was bad for his back/neck, so he took the bike in, got upright handlebars put on it, has helped his back/neck a lot. i've also seen those rather funky recumbent bikes. but you do ride a bike sometimes i've noticed, is that a different bike? or is it the road bike and it just hurts to ride it.

i'd say be patient with the exercises. i slowly saw an improvement when i was always doing the exercises. now back to them again, except anything requiring my wrists, after 4 years of injuring it, the left ulnar wrist is only ok if i don't stress it, so that means bands, wall pushups, wall and corner stretches are all out, but i've been doing my spinal twists on the floor still, and using gravity by laying on that foam roller, that's helpful. maybe a short course of PT? could that be helpful? soft tissue work, joint mobilization, and the right exercises?

I went to a sports exhibition at the weekend and one stand were demonstrating Power Balance Magnetic Bracelets. It was the first time I had ever seen/heard of them. I don't know how expensive they are and if they actually work! lol But it just sprung to mind when you mentioned your balance issues, so I thought I would mention it.

this summer at one of the many arts and crafts festivals, i bought a magnetic bracelet, mainly because it was made of picasso jasper, all different shades, very pretty. i figured it would be good to test out this magnet theory. the claims are that it can help a number of issues at the systemic level including inflammatory arthritis if it is worn near pulse points. i found that to be a stretch, but thought maybe it would help the joint it is near. i wear it on my right wrist, as it would interfere with my watch. it does nothing for me, not even my dq tendonitis or right ulnar wrist pain that it is near. nothing. does it work for others? no idea? but mine was supposed to be the double strength one, and it does nothing for me. but it is very pretty, all various shades of grey and tan and cream colored stone beads with silver beads in between; that is the main reason i bought it, would have even if it were not magnetic. but it did give me the opportunity to test the theory.