Telling time has never been my strong suit

A few months ago, I was visiting with my in-laws. We were making plans for the day, and I mentioned that my only "to-do" was to take a nap around 2:45pm later that day. That would give me plenty of time to fit in our lunch plans, while ensuring that I had a good nap before we headed out for an early dinner that evening. Everyone agreed, and we went on about our morning.

Lunch came and went, and the clock was nearing 2:30pm. Everybody noted the time, and said, almost in unison, "Okay, Sara. Why don't you go on up to bed? We'll finish cleaning up, visiting, etc, etc, etc."

Well, you know what I said? I looked at my watch, saw that it was only 2:32 pm, and said, "Oh no, guys. I'm not taking a nap until 2:45. I have plenty of time." God forbid I start a nap even one second earlier than planned, right? Of course, 2:45pm flew by, and before I knew it, it was 3pm, and I still wasn't napping.

And so it goes - just another day in the life of a determined, stubborn lupus patient. You know how it is - we try and assert ourselves against the disease. We make every attempt to show her who's boss by not giving in before we're good and ready. But when we do stuff like that...eek out the last few minutes of the oh-so-precious time we have before a nap...who loses? Lupus? I don't think so!

The only people who lose out are the lupites! Pushing our limits - whether it's skimping on rest, running too many errands, or taking on more than we can handle - is futile. The goal can't be to one-up the disease. The goal must be to stay one step ahead of the disease. And if that means napping a few minutes earlier or longer than planned, so be it. Say I get a few extra winks during that 15 minutes. At the end of the day - am I going to kick myself for missing out on those few minutes of clean up and visiting time? Or am I going to be armed and ready to have a rockin' good time that night at dinner?

Yeah. That's what I thought.

Now do what you need to do to arm yourself for a good, pain-free weekend...you deserve it!

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