I Am Not Really Sure What to Title This

Dealing with RA and all the "little issues" that seem to result from it tire me out, physically and emotionally. It is frustrating to not be able to do the things I once did or as fast as I once did. It is frustrating to be tired all the time. It is frustrating to have to pace myself and allow extra time just to become less stiff so I can do something. On Tuesday I went to the doctor. It was time to renew my blood pressure medicine and to do that I needed to go in and just get rechecked. I was shocked to find out that even on my medicine it was higher that it should be. So I am now trying a new medicine to get it more stable. All that said I had an interesting thing happen on Wednesday. Allison and I had run to Target to pick up a few things. We were not at my local Target but a completely different one in a different city. As we were walking down the aisle I heard someone call my name. I turned around and it was a friend I had not seen in a very long time. She looked completely different. We visited standing there in the middle of Target. Of course for us this was not something unusual. We have known each other for 26 years. Our kids went to school together. We used to run into each other at the local grocery store and stand in the aisle and talk for two hours. We both still live in the houses we did then. We just never see each other anymore. As I said she looked different. I have no idea what I actually said but then she said she had lymphoma. She has been going through chemotherapy. It has been hard. In talking to her it wasn't like we hadn't seen each other in what seems like forever. It was like I might have talked to her last week. She is trying to be strong, but she is tired. I did not ask her many questions but she told me many things. It was almost as if it was because I was an old friend she could share her frustrations. I learned one thing in listening to her. When people are seriously ill they really don't want to hear about how great other people respond to treatments. That is other people. If they struggle with treatment what they want is just a listening ear. So she has been on my mind this week. If I have trouble opening a lid or trying to pick up something that is a little heavy or have joint pain, that is a far struggle from hers. Her's is the struggle for her life.