With chronic disease some days all of your problems look like big ones, especially in the fall and winter when it is dark and gloomy, cold and wet. I find that large vegetables cheer me up quite effectively but that is not a life solution.
This morning I read a blog by Carolyn Thomas at The Ethical Nag http://ethicalnag.org/2012/11/01/multiple-chronic-conditions/
She talks about what we have to do to manage our chronic disease well and lists the four main areas we have to juggle. I know from experience that the hard part is maintaining "simultaneous control" over all aspects of our conditions in the long term.
I felt a lot better to hear that I was not the only one who is challenged in one area or another and the next reading I do might be about emotional eating. It's hard to say your diet is good with all the edges filled in with tiny chocolate bars, dry roasted peanuts and little bags of chips and cheetos. Maybe more sushi is in order.
There is so much information and advice available everywhere we look. I have been developing a list of links and have almost filled up my new free program called Evernote - maybe not filled but it refused to add new links in my main document for a while. (Update: it's back to normal now)
Online patient communities are a great source of support and solace. Talking to friends who totally understand what you are going through makes you feel better. They are so easy to find on Twitter and in patient groups. I can't say much about Facebook as I skipped that step.
And for my Fall Resolution: Go out and see more people. Or if that seems impossible I'll invite them here for pizza or tea and cookies. Maybe a cake of my dreams.
You see that's the problem of the moment - eating. Looks like Carolyn has a post for that too.
I hear you on the eating part. I seem to go between total lack of interest to comfort eating (mostly of the chocolate variety). Neither is very good for weight control.
ReplyDeleteI love your brief reflection on large vegetables! It's good to feel appreciation for something completely natural that falls totally outside the norm. How I can relate to that!
Blessings,
Jane
Thanks for the comment Jane
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to cultivate lack of interest in food - usually I have to be sick or having a reaction to some medication to stop eating. And when I'm sick my body develops an anxious feeling about calories and seems to want to make up for lost time.
I like your comment about natural but outside the norm. I've started collecting the pictures I really love to cheer me up.
The lack of interest is not desirable, as I think it slows the metabolism, but lately I've felt rather blue, and have found it almost easy to forget food. As you say though, I make up for it later. ;)
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of collecting pictures to cheer one up. I did look at that Pinterest board once, but it seemed one more thing that my perfectionistic mind would feel a responsibility to keep perfectly. LOL
Take care,
Jane
For pictures all I did was make a folder on my desktop and save into it. I found a great picture of Psy (from Gangnam Style)done in sushi. I like pictures of happy children as you see from the profile picture. I hate to tell you that's not me.
ReplyDeleteSome of those "Play With Your Food" pictures are also cheery - like the cauliflower sheep listening to the tomato evangelist.
I live with a perfectionist minded person. Unfortunately he does not see dust.
Good wishes
Annette
Some people would say you are lucky your other half does not see dust. :) I know I used to obsess over it and was exhausted by trying to keep my home at an impossible level of cleanliness.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know who Psy was until you mentioned it. I watched the video and the Mitt Romney parody and had a bit of a giggle.
I used to collect pictures on my hard drive too. Again, I got a bit obsessed about organizing it, and I let that go. (A bit of a pattern emerges LOL). I'm rather glad that there are many others happy to find cute/lovely pictures. It saves me a lot of time. :)
Take care!
Well I'll do my best with the pictures. I think that I am more obsessed with Twitter than with organizing and seem to find a high percentage of the tweets very interesting. It's only been about 4 to 5 months that I have been using it a lot.
ReplyDeleteSounds as though you are more relaxed about the dust. I read your post about stillness and the river and I know my other half would wish to be where you are. Being near water and trees is something he really wants. We have trees but urban Lake Ontario doesn't really count as peaceful
It's cool that you can make sense of Twitter. I think I've been on it about the same length of time. I find because I don't have the time to sit and read everything, I worry about missing good things. I set up some lists, but discovered I don't really have time for that either. Maybe I"m just at a point of functioning and making it through, and that's okay too. The health blog challenge sure takes a lot of resources, but I'm enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI have to say we're really blessed on Vancouver Island. I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd want to be.
I hope your day has many moments of peace and joy!
You are doing well to post every day. And it was amazing to see Auntie Stress do her tips blog for a whole year.
ReplyDeleteBy the end of this month you will be talked out!! I have been trying to do a splints post but I need someone else to help me with the pictures. My husband has a block on that task so someday...
I miss seeing so much on Twitter. There's just no way to catch up unless I stop following so many people. I look at the list of people though and I like them all. Now that the election is over I dropped LolGOP though they were so funny
It is enjoyable to blog. I love to put the pictures in. Your artwork adds a lot of interest.
I'm not really managing every day, but I seem to catch up, so all is good, phew. Today is a really sucky day, pain and fatigue-wise, so I may end up having to do 4 posts tomorrow. Ooops.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look up Auntie Stress. I could use some tips. :)
I will likely be well talked out about health-related posts for a while. The interesting thing about this experiment is, and I thought it would be so, you can't just focus on one sector of your life in blogging, at least not with such frequency. It can be a little depressing, although I feel I've had some really (dare I say it) positive insights into myself and my conditions and what really matters to me, so that's a real bonus. It's also been a huge thrill when people can relate and drop a line to say so - it makes it all worthwhile, and cements my desire to be an advocate.
Like you, I try to keep my Twitter list pared down to people/groups I support and can follow with interest. I wrote about meaningful connection in my last post I think it was, and to me that is important. While that's not always possible on Twitter (which is good practice for me), I do like to engage with people with respect and interest. I learn a lot from the posts I do get time to read, and I like I can promote others by retweeting them. I just wish there were a few more hours in the day!
Thanks for the comment on my artwork. I think we are all visual and can relate to a picture better than my preferred form of communication (writing). I am going to look into it to see if there's an easier system to add my art and to store it. I always have a bit of a struggle finding the picture I want (and I thought loading them all into my Word Press blog would make it easy). LOL
Take care!
Here's Auntie Stress's tips blog Rheumful of Tips
Deletehttp://rheumfuloftips.wordpress.com/
I think she took up a challenge last year and she did a great job.
Could you really do 4 posts in one day? Your posts are quite wide ranging and unique. I was going to do 2 per week but more realistically 1 seems to be where I am. I look at my "blogpix" file for inspiration but all I have there today is a stolen cute baby and some instructions on a sign in a physio office.
Ahh, thanks for the link, I will bookmark it and check it out later.
ReplyDeleteHehe, 4 posts, probably not. I felt a little better last night, so I wrote the Janet Frame post. I have to do a fair bit of work this weekend if I want to get paid, so 1 or 2 will have to do, but as I said somewhere, long term I think I would be a 1 or 2 post per week person if I had discipline. I think I need a challenge that makes me post at least once a week, or I would get complacent - silly as I love writing so much, but you can always find other work to do...
It would be nice to be paid to blog - maybe one day, but in the meantime I better stick at my day job - technical writing urgh. :)