Yesterday morning was a very tough morning for me. For the past week, I've been pushing through a pretty good flare, and Saturday, it all caught up with me. No matter how I feel, I try to force myself to get up at least once in the morning, so yesterday I got up and went to the hot tub in my apartment building to soak. That helped a little bit, but I still wasn't quite better. I didn't push myself too hard for the rest of the day. I just rested a bit and watched t.v.

On my LivingLupie.com web site, I list reasons to get out of bed in the morning, and I really push the concept that you have to force yourself to get moving sometimes, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't rest when you need it. With lupus it's important to keep that balance between rest and exercise. If we stay in bed too much, it's not good, and if we push ourselves too hard that's worse.

Sometimes it's hard to figure out if I'm just getting the rest I need or if I'm just giving in. I pretty much measure my day. If I'm going to have a busy day, I'll take the extra time and rest a bit more. If I have nothing going on for the day, I will force myself to get up and exercise a little bit.