Getting to sleep

Aside from the obvious hints about consistency, warm milk, cool room and the like I have a few other methods of attaining sleep.

If I'm really stuck I visualize.  One is that I am a bird in a nest and I imagine what the nest is like inside and out, and how it is all lined ad warm and I am just sitting there listening to the other birds go to sleep.

The other is progressive relaxation..  I start with my toes and work up.  Some people say  to tense the parts of the body as you do it but I just concentrate.  I sort of take inventory as I do it and notice which parts hurt.  I usually don't get past the hips.  You can  read more about that online if you want a better explanation.  I make up nonsense verses about the body parts as I work my way to the top, depending on how the body part feels

Twitter Chats

I have participated in a few twitter chats recently and met a lot more people in the patient and health care professionals area.  The chats are so invigorating and the new ideas for sites and methods to find out information are given so readily.

The first time was very intimidating.  There were so many tweets coming in from so many people at once that it was hard to follow.  That was the chat for #HCSM (Health Care Social Media) on Sundays at 9:00pm eastern.

The second time was Wednesday night for the #HCSMCA (Health Care Social Media Canada).  It was a smaller chat and I am learning. It was easier to participate in that one.  Their usual time is Wednesdays at 1:00pm eastern time.

The sense of community and purpose in chats is inspiring.

I like to search PubMed for health information and read blogs, mostly health related, but doing that can be too much of the same thing.  The adrenaline is missing with documents unless someone actually comes to conclusion that make your blood boil. 

RA Community

I have been reading blogs written by RA patients for years now.  The "patient experts" are so much more help in the area of support than the doctors, who just don't have the time and are spread way too thin anyway.

There ought to be some serious initiatives to encourage doctors to go into rheumatology.  At least the hours are fairly regular, and the patients are very appreciative.  But I hear that the pay scale is lower.  A resident told me recently that becoming an internist was more attractive to her.

There is a lot to learn when you find out that you have a chronic disease and it is such a timesucker.  It can easily take me all morning to get moving to face the world even though I can still make it for 9:00am if there is sufficient need

It's a jungle out there

We've gone for the the natural backyard - no mowing for years gone by.  In the center of our yard you can look in all directions except toward the house and see no signs of urban life.  Our little bare root cedars from the grocery store are now 30 feet tall and give us (and the whole block) privacy.

The pluses are lots of birds and bees, bats and moths, ants and anthills.  There is not much discipline which is a greatly over  rated virtue.  In any life you need to have a wild spot.  Order is every where and imposed by so many external forces.

I think I will start a collection of pictures of happy people

A Can Do Feeling

I take back all of my misgivings about travel.  The feeling that you just can't deal with lost luggage, missed planes, all of that walking and sightseeing.  The joys of travel are just so worth it, even if it rains. 

And then to come home again with that feeling of achievement changes your whole perspective.  I'm ready for anything now