Moving With Axial Spondyloarthritis

My family and I purchased a home this winter, and while a part of me was extremely excited and anxious to make this happen smoothly, I knew with where I was at with my AxSpA symptoms, this would be tough. It was going to require a lot of moving pieces to happen without sending myself into a flare that I may not be able to get under control. So here are some of the things I did to make it through a move flare free!

Call the doc!

Once the excitement of the new house set in, I contacted my rheumatologist right away. This was about 6 weeks prior to my actual move date. Moving can be extremely stressful even for those who don’t health concerns, so I wanted to have a conversation with my doctor about what else we could put in place from my regular care plan for a few weeks before and after the move. We decided on a round of prednisone, and it was one of the most helpful tools for me.

Pack early and pack often

Start to pack as soon as you can! Again, because we were so excited, we started packing right away. We went through the house room by room and started packing. We made sure to pack away items that weren’t used day to day. Doing this slowly and bit by bit allowed me to not overdo it, and it was actually really cool to be able to really go through our things and relive memories!

If you can, use childcare

We don’t have regular childcare for our children, and the pandemic only complicated that further, but our old child care provider helped us the week of our move and a few days leading up. This both allowed me to more evenly distribute my energy and allowed for me to plan complete rest days in case I needed them to. As a military family, I know this is not a possibility for everyone, but it was something that I found useful.

It's all about being aware of limits

This was probably the easiest move I’ve done, it was still overwhelming at times, but being aware of my limits and making sure to involve outside help made it go much more smoothly! What are your go-to tips for moving with AxSpA?