myth: if you can do it once, you can do it regularly. wrong. not how flares work. i did full patient consults friday, hands working, staying mobile through sessions.
felt decent in the moment. people saw me function and assumed that’s my baseline. saturday i’m half-mobile. sunday worse.
monday barely operational. wednesday my hands work but fatigue hasn’t lifted. it’s not recovery. it’s the flare expressing as a three-to-four day cost hidden in one good day.
my rheumatologist finally gets this. i showed her the pattern. labs don’t predict it. meds don’t prevent it.
activity level does. so when someone says “but you managed it yesterday,” i explain: that good day came with an invoice due today.