Take Good Care of Yourselves

This is a time in our world where so many of us are feeling lost, helpless, and unsure about what we can or should do. We, as individuals, need to find a way to meet our own basic needs before we truly are able to give our best to help heal our society.
People need to take better care of themselves. The question is, how do we do that?

" I don't have time, I am not feeling great right now, I am too busy taking care of everyone else. I don't have the right supplies, I need to work, I need to just spend all my time on my computer or phone". 

The list of reasons used to put your own real needs last is enormous. Have you heard about the procedure of putting your oxygen mask on yourself first during an emergency so that you can help others? We need to do that in our daily life so that we can keep going ourselves and be there to help others be well. I'll be the first to admit that I have in the past and still continue to struggle with taking the time and focusing on what I need at the moment and then to follow through and meet those needs. 

Through my various health struggles, I have learned that you start with ONE step at a time and build on what you learn and accomplish. I want to try concentrating on one topic or idea a week and try and incorporate it into my life. I know that it can take a long time to truly master some goals. Still, I am sure that even small efforts with thinking, learning and implementing will lead to positive changes. Maybe something that I share will inspire you!

I'm hoping others will join me in this journey so watch for "Take Good Care of Yourself Sundays." See what changes I am making to hopefully increase my ability to cope in such a challenging time and to continue trying to lead a healthy life.

Recreation therapy and other disciples break up our activities and our therapeutic goals into several categories of health that are intended to create a holistic approach to health and wellness. I sometimes use these as labels for my blog posts, and I also want to use them as ways to organize the topics and ideas I plan to investigate and work on.

Physical 

Social

Emotional/ Mental Health

Cognitive/ Intellectual Health

Spiritual Health 

Sometimes also considered are  

Environmental Health 

Occupational Health

Financial Wellness

Do you have any particular challenges you are facing? Do you have favourite ideas for self-care? 

See you this Sunday for the first 

"Take Good Care of Yourself Sunday."

Update Time

It has been a fairly stressful nine days since I last wrote, but I didn't want to go much longer without an update. I kind of left things with a cliff hanger last time I posted. 

I know there are lots of people facing much worse challenges, and I am trying to just keep calm. I am painting for relaxation, I am doing mindful meditation, trying to keep to a regular routine. I am trying to leave home at home and being positive and happy at work for the residents and then go home and leave my work concerns at work.

My middle (adult) daughter is doing much better now after her respiratory infection, but there were some ups and downs. She had seemed better from last Friday, or so and then she started getting even shorter of breath again and coughing increased. She was sitting at her desk studying when she felt dizzy and passed out, hitting her head and found herself wondering how she wound up on the floor. We immediately called her doctor for an over the phone appointment. Her head wasn't hurt badly, but passing out is never a good sign.

 It looks like she developed a secondary infection. She may have bronchitis or pneumonia, so she was put her on an antibiotic, a different kind of inhaler, and she was given strict instructions to watch that she isn't getting dehydrated and to have frequent small meals. She seemed much better now and is continuing to improve. 

In the middle of all this, I got a call that workplace health and safety were waiving the rest of my 14-day quarantine, so I am back at work. I usually only work 26 hours biweekly, but I will be picking up a couple of extra shifts now.

My daughter that lives in Regina called about 5 days ago... to tell us that she had to take her beloved German Sheppard, Oliver, into the emergency vet clinic. He had to have immediate surgery with a very poor expectation of success. It was touch and go from hour to hour. The operation took more than twice as long as expected, and they removed a section of his colon and straightened out his intestines. He made it through surgery, and the next couple of days was constant slow recovery at home, but he is still not out of the woods. It is just "wait and see" for another day. She is having a little quality time with him cuddling. I wish I was there to cuddle her.

There have been a few other tension creating situations this week. You don't really want to read about how my washing machine leaked all over the floor and has now given up on us, do you?

I went to work yesterday evening for a few hours, and it was not easy, but I know that I am making a difference. It was hard to change gears for work at first, but the problems of my day went away once I focused on being present for my residents and bringing them comfort.

.

I plan to Keep Calm, Wash my Hands and hopefully we will soon find a way to get a new washing machine so I can wash my clothes too.

Arthritis and Me

I have had a sore knee for a long time.

When I was doing rehab after my brain injury they asked me to do exercises such as sit to stands and squats and I had a horrible time because of pain, not just neuro issues. That would be when we finally got an x-ray of my knee and I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis.

I have spent a long time walking with a bad gait and frankly it never did get quite normal. My knees and hip have taken a real beating. I tend to stand with all my weight on my "good right side".  I tend to twist a little on my hip as I walk and I kind of thud down on that right leg because I don't totally trust that my left leg will support me even though there is no good reason to think it won't now. I am a heavy person and have been since I was a child. My father had bad arthritis. The result of all these risk factors is that  I now have arthritis in both knees and my right hip as well as a bit in my lower back.

I have done a lot to keep the arthritis under control over the years but it just keeps getting worse.  I tried using a knee brace about 6 years ago and that was not all that helpful. I found it very uncomfortable and they are harder to fit properly on a heavier leg. I tended to be moving both legs kind of funny when I walked and it just was a bad treatment for me at the time.

I have been going to exercise classes and I find the water programs for people with arthritis to be especially helpful.

I do try and pace myself and sit and rest my leg when I need to be that isn't always easy. One of the issues that the arthritis help sites talk about is severe fatigue. I would say that is one of my issues continuing from the brain injury too. This makes it doubly harder for me to willingly exercise a lot or work on loosing weight - both of which would ultimately help with the same fatigue and the joint issues.

The past year or two my hip pain in particular has gotten really bad. I had a fall at work just over 2 years ago and it was like someone turned on a pain switch. My hip really didn't bother me much until that point.  I suddenly had a lot of inflammation and pulled muscles that eventually settled down with time and physiotherapy but the pain never totally went away. The arthritis in my hip has progressed rapidly over the past year and now the pain is constant and severe.

I have had cortisone injections in my knees and right hip over the past 18 months. The first hip one felt like a miracle but at about 7 months it wore off. The second one only lasted about 4 months and the last time it only took the edge off.

My family doctor, as well as the sports medicine specialist that I have been seeing, told me I needed to get on the waiting list for joint replacements. It is a long wait around here to see an orthopedic surgeon, never mind the long wait for the actual surgery.  I saw the surgeon last week and despite the fact that I am considered a higher surgical risk we are going ahead with the hip surgery.

My plan is to get myself in the best shape I possibly can before this surgery.  I am still focusing on  leading a healthy life.

Just a Little Heart Attack- video

I think this is a great video.
Would you recognize the signs that someone might be having a heart attack?

Remember to take good care of yourself~

HAWMC Day 26 Creating a tagline

 Health tagline. 

Give yourself, your blog, your condition, or some aspect of your health a tagline. Make sure it’s catchy!

My new choice for a tagline will be:

Leading a Healthy Life:

Moving Toward Wellness in our Community

My blog initially developed in an effort to journal about my own recovery from a brain injury and it has reflected many of my experiences and responses. I have a lot to share on many other topics and I hope to take my blog in new directions with time.

I have dealt with a lot of health conditions in my own life, and that of my family, so I want to leave my blog open to discuss a variety of issues related to wellness and available community events and resources.  I want to talk about weight issues, ADHD, allergies, heart and stroke, brain injury, and mental heath to only name a few of the issues that touch my life and that of my friends. I believe we should be supporting all people in their search for experiences and information related to health and wellness.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also thought about what I could title a blog as a Health Activist with a blog dedicated to my main health focus.

Stroke and Brain Injury:

Working on Recovery with Determination and Dignity

 I am amazed at the way so many survivors rise to the new challenges ahead of them.  I am inspired by the strength of character and resilience that can be seen in so many brave individuals who find themselves facing extraordinary challenges while living out their daily lives.

 

HAWMC -Day 12 Stream of Consciousness

HAWMC Day 12

Stream of Consciousness Day. Start with the sentence “______”just write, don’t stop, don’t edit Post!
So we challenge you, start with this phrase: “Today I looked in the mirror and…”  

 This turned out to be a very powerful exercise for me. 

I have never actually shared on-line what happened to me to cause my heath crisis, or for that matter what my heath issues are. I use phrases like "when I got sick".

I also have never publicly discussed my serious weight issues. I guess all it takes is 30 days of writing challenges to get me to open up and someone to tell me to just let it flow and don't edit. If I had stopped to edit you would never be reading my story.


Today I looked in the mirror…. and I can't believe I am really sharing this but.. I am looking a lot better than I did before I got sick almost 4 years ago. I was extremely overweight .. oh heck …yes .. morbidly obese, Biggest Looser big.  I tried not to look in the mirror back then.

I developed a critical series of heath issues at the age of 50. Eventually it was shown that my weight probably had very little to do with my illnesses, however one look at me led the health care professionals to jump to wrong conclusions and diagnosis and treatment went horribly wrong.  Yes, my weight put me in grave danger, but mainly because of prejudices based on my appearance, and my own embarrassment and reluctance to stand up for myself. 

 I almost died of a pulmonary embolism and the cause of the blood clots in my lungs was most likely related to a massive undiagnosed uterine tumour. The blood thinners to treat the lung clots caused the tumour to haemorrhage. My blood pressure was dropping and the treatment they chose was to give me medications that rapidly elevated my blood pressure resulting in a stroke according to the MRI results, As well  many, many tiny areas of damage occurred  in my brain because of oxygen deprivation due to extremely low blood volume. Several blood transfusions later I was stabilized, but so much damage was already done.  I was then declared unfit for any form of surgery and it was more than a year of agressive treatment for the tumour before it began to shrink and I was reassured that I would indeed survive.

 I found myself facing a lot of weight related problems while in the hospital. Larger blood pressure cuffs were not available. I needed the MRI and they withheld testing me for a while because they thought I might not be an appropriate size for their equipment. I was subjected to a humiliating set of measurements and it turned out I was not even close to the kind of numbers that would have been an issue and they should never have delayed testing. One nurse said that she didn't have time to go looking for an extra large hospital gown so they left me with only a blanket to cover myself. They kept testing me for disorders common to obese people and did not listen to me as I described my symptoms as acute changes and not chronic conditions.

I am still so angry at some of the medical professionals that dealt with me. I am angry with a heath care system that is not prepared to deal with larger people. Mainly I am still angry at myself for getting so overweight in the first place, and even more disgusted with myself for not being a better advocate for myself.

 I have spent most of the the past 4 years with impaired balance. I am dizzy and nauseated. Guess what?  All that nausea and vomiting and some of the serious medication side effects caused me to loose weight. I was still pretty heavy, but nothing compared to before. Person after person who saw me  told me how I had never looked so good. I had trouble talking, reading and making decisions. I was using a walker. The left side of my face was hanging and my left arm and leg were not functioning properly -- but yes, my weight was down so I looked just great to everyone.

My weight is currently up from that low weight.  I am back to leading a life of monitoring what goes in my mouth and chastising myself for consuming chocolate Easter Eggs when I am  upset. I still have issues as an emotional overeater, but now I know that I have the will and strength to overcome great difficulties.

When I look in the mirror now…  yes I see a thiner woman... but mainly I see a strong brave woman.

An Important Question

"What kind of role model do you want to be?" my friend asked me recently.


We were discussing the free breast screening program we have in our province.  I had never had a mammogram and I was not really planning on it right now, even though I could have it done for free. My friend said she did not want something else to happen to me. She wants me to take care of myself. I was non-committal and trying to ignore her comments and then she pulled the "Mommy card" on me. 
"Linda! You have 3 young adult daughters. Do you want them to ignore their health care in the future? You are their role model, so just do it and set a good example.".


On my 50th birthday I received a letter from the government telling me I was now eligible for breast screening and what number to call. I thought it was rather an unpleasant birthday surprise. I have no family history of breast cancer or symptoms, so what is the rush?

Not long after that I wound up in an altogether different health crisis and all thought of breast screening dropped to the bottom of my priorities. The sad fact is that if I had watched the warning signs, and obtained proper, timely health care, it is possible that most of my horrible health issues could have been avoided. Now I stay on my medications, I go to my doctor to have my blood pressure checked and I work on dieting, and exercise. I show up at my therapy appointments and I do all I can to avoid ever having further brain damage or a heart attack.

 The reality is that avoiding something like breast screening for 3 years, was not a sign that I had learned from previous experience.  That was not being proactive about my health care! I dragged my guilty little self to the phone and called the clinic to book an appointment. I told my daughters what I had done and they indicated they were relieved that I had finally booked an appointment. It mattered to them, but yet we had never even discussed the subject.

Today I had my first ever mammogram. It took all of half an hour, and everything was very routine feeling and not really all that uncomfortable. They will send me, and my primary care physician, a letter in two weeks.

 
So who are you a role model for?



Manitoba Breast Screening Program
Health Canada Breast Cancer (Health Canada)
Breast Cancer Screening (US national Institute of Health)

Graphic Garden

Heart and Stroke Month

I wanted to make a Heart Smart related post for Heart and Stroke Month

What are your risk factors?

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada recently released a report showing that 9 out of 10 Canadians have at least one risk factor for cardiac disease. Ninety percent of Canadians believe they are healthy, however most are in denial about the true amount of risk they are under.

"Matters of the Heart"

My friend Dave and I spent today at a really interesting event at The Wellness Institute which is located at the Seven Oaks Hospital in Winnipeg.

This is Heart and Stroke Month, and the Wellness Institute hosted a 5 hour event focused on heart healthy living.

We arrived with a lot of time for the nine am opening. The event had about 90 people attending and there was a little registration package with some information and my pack had a red heart and Stroke association Frisbee.

We started with a welcome followed by a stretch break. It was really a little crowded for that kind of stretching but everyone seemed to appreciate the exercise break.

We listened to the keynote speaker, Dr Lerner discuss the role of Atrial Fibrillation in heart disease. He shared the statistic that people with this form of heart rhythm are at a hugely increased risk of stroke and acknowledged that many doctors are not being aggressive enough in their care of such patients. His language was a little technical for the audience but he was interesting and he did show a fair bit of humor through his presentation. He was incredibly willing to answer questions and to clarify points.

There was a break with a healthy snack, blood pressure testing stations and educations information pamphlets followed by another session of mild exercising and a draw for door prizes.

We also attended a healthy baking session where Dave and I learned a lot of information about improving our baking. More important, we learned a lot about how cooking information can be shared in a public forum like that. I think we have a lot to share at upcoming Healthy Cooking sessions at The Stroke Recovery Association. The dietitian, Carolyn Somerville, gave a handout of information and recipes that will be incredibly useful for me. I am going to try out most of them and I will share some of the results on this blog.

The last session we did was about relaxation and reducing stress and improving blood pressure. She discussed the role of humor, deep breathing and she gave a brief introduction to a body scan approach to relaxation. As part of the humor section she had us listen to the following You Tube clip about Tim Horton's. It really had the whole group relaxed and laughing and receptive to what she had to share. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvoB5rP-flY

Dave and I thought it was a great experience and we definitely plan to attend next year's Matter of the Heart event.

Physiotherapy in the New Year

Today was my first real therapy session with my new physiotherapist and it went very well. He was very optimistic about the possibilities for good progress.

My biggest concerns are dizziness and balance issues and I have also developed a lot of pain in my "good" hip and leg. It is probably in response to my awkward gait. Tony is assuring me that we are going to do great things and it will make a real difference.

It feels like staring over with physio but that is a good thing. It is a new year, new therapist and a new set of goals. I am very proud of the progress I have made over the past two years and I think I got pretty complacent with where I have found myself. Now looking at how I am doing through the fresh eyes I can see where I still have a ways to go still and change is really still possible!

We went through a few exercises and he checked how well I could do them. I now have a new set of exercises for homework. We also worked on some balance tasks. (I am back to using the dreaded stabilization belt... sighhhhhhhh) Tony firmly stated that THOSE exercises were NOT for doing an home... yet.

I meet with my dietician next week and I know she has a whole new plan for me too.

''Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.'' ~ Hal Borland

It looks like I am well on the path to an even healthier 2011.

Sore Finger... part 2

My poor finger with the lump is not getting better yet. The bad news is that it is now infected. My finger was all swollen up and red so I hurried to the doctor and got put on an antibiotic with warnings to get to the hospital if it got any worse. Sheesh.

I am still waiting to even hear from the plastic surgeon, and starting to feel really desperate. We are on to week 10 since I got the thorn in my finger!

I called up the guitar school and got myself a medical leave. Can you imagine? One lesson and I have to take a break? Here I am with a wobbly left hand and now the right hand is being miserable too.

I actually think I might be getting better use in my affected hand. You hear about constraint therapy where the good hand/ arm is restrained in some way and the patient is forced to use their bad hand and hopefully they will gain more of the use of the affected hand. I feel like I am having a version of that kind of therapy mixed with negative reinforcement for using my right hand. My middle finger is stuck straight now because it is too swollen to move and had a big lump in the joint and also I get a huge shock of pain anytime I use it or touch it ever so slightly. My affected left hand, and that is my non-dominant hand, is getting a real work out.

My balance is being challenged too. I can hardly stand to hold my cane so I am mainly going slowly and carefully with just my own two feet.

I am trying so hard to look at the sunny side of this situation.

My Very Sore Finger

I have a sore finger on my good hand. It is a real problem to me.

It started off in August when I got a little thorn in my middle finger of my right hand. I was at the cottage, gathering and cutting branches into smaller pieces to fit in the fireplace and one of the branches was a hawthorn and they really do have thorns! I thought I got it all out but it stayed irritated. I thought maybe a tiny bit was still in there and would eventually work it's way out but it just kept not healing and then it seemed to be getting more painful and bleeding easily and getting bigger. I talked to the doctor about it at my regular appointment and he said it just had to take time and heal. Two weeks later it was much bigger so I went back to the doctor.

Don't click on the following link if you get queasy very easily. It was now something called a Pyogenic Granuloma. Basically I have pea sized cluster of capillaries that are probably a benign growth. Most likely it is a weird inflammatory response to a local trauma. It is amazingly painful to touch and bleeds like crazy with the littlest bump. My doctor told his nurse to hold everything he was going to be busy for 10 minutes and went to look it up. He came back with a picture atlas of skin diseases and was all excited. Next he called in his partner saying "Hey wana see a Pyogenic granuloma?" " Oh that's what it looks like!" while they compared me to the book. They decided "Wow, it's a big one.". Hmmmmph.

First they tried burning it with a chemical cauterization and told me that I should come back the next week. Nope didn't work. Okay lets try liquid nitrogen and freeze it off. (cryosurgery) Nope, still didn't work. The next suggestion is we need to freeze it and scrape it off and out, and cauterize the bottom.

They now need to send the sample for biopsy, still assuring me it is not likely to be serious but that we do need to take care of the ugly thing. My doctor can't really do it in the office because I react very badly to local freezing, so I am being referred to a plastic surgeon. It is going to be more than a month to even see the guy and who knows when he will actually do the surgery!

I tried hard to express that the stupid thing is not just a yucky looking bump on my finger. I use a cane in that hand in order to balance and stay upright and this is actually affecting my mobility. I can't keep a good grip on the cane so now I need to go back to using my walker full time again.

I can't believe how slowed down I am because of a little sliver!

Driving can be Dangerous

This is a different kind of post for me.

My daughter was involved in a car accident on the highway a couple days ago. She was traveling at dusk by herself and simply lost her concentration, hit the gravel shoulder of the highway and wound up flying across the highway and through a deep ditch. We are very very lucky she is alive and doing so well. She had to be cut out of the car and it was all pretty horrific. She is going to be okay but she had to have surgery on her ankle, a bunch of stitches and it looks like she has broken ribs and other damage from her seat belt. The seat belt no doubt saved her life. She is still in the hospital and in a lot of pain.

Living a healthy life includes wearing your seat-belt, don't drive when you are tired and please show extra caution driving when conditions are less than ideal. Focus on driving, not on daydreams, radios, cellphones or any other distractions.

Fire Alarms

It was a busy day at Easy Street with 3 appointments back to back. Each appointment today is worth its own post but I had an incident that really threw me.

We were just finishing up in Physiotherapy and reviewing what I need to do for homework when a fire alarm went off for the hospital. The sound absolutely got to me. I was not panicked or worried about a fire, it was really the physical sound that hit me so hard. I remember saying I can't stand this! I had trouble talking and felt kind of like I was being hit in the side of the head. There was an almost instant pain in my left ear like I had a bad ear infection. It was time to head to the next appointment but the space was kind of locked down so I was grateful to just sit for a few more minutes and try to pull myself together until the all clear bell rang.

My balance was gone, I was dizzy and thought that I was going to vomit. All the people rushing around after the delay was tough to watch too and aggravated the situation even more. My physiotherapist walked me back and it was so challenging I needed her help a lot. It was like the past 12 months worth of work and progress had vanished. We got to the other side offices for my next appointment and my therapist brought me some water and I just sat.

I was pretty useless for the first part of the appointment. I had huge amount of pain in my ear and in my eye by that point and even my face felt horrible. It slowly settled into just a horrible headache and I was able to see better. I think it was close to an hour after the alarm before my equilibrium started to improve and I could focus on my dietician. The cab ride home was hard but I was coping okay right until he decided to back up for several houses. I could hardly get out of the cab and it was another half hour before the nausea settled down.
In the evening after a long rest I felt able to go to Canadian Tire with Bob. I was tired, and still had a lingering earache, but felt okay. I bent over to look at a product tag that was upside down and woosh I was collapsing again.

This morning I am feeling fine, the ear ache is gone, and I am back to what is now normal for me but I feel pretty thrown by the whole experience. I have been doing so well and feeling more confident in myself, but that I could have found myself so miserable and incapacitated with just the sound of an alarm is very disconcerting to me. The world is feeling a little less safe today than it was yesterday morning.

Change Can be Hard

Water Lily in the Rain Drops
a symbol for new beginnings and enlightenment

Therapy homework was about reflecting on where I was before, where I am now, and what are my hopes and goals for the future. It is a pretty tall order to figure it all out. The fact is that I am not the same person, physically, mentally or emotionally that I was before.
Who knows, maybe in some ways I am even better.

One thing I know is that I still have a lot of work to do.

Photography by Bob Cooper copyright July 2009 . All rights reserved.

A New Beginning

My life has changed.

 I had a major health crisis in May 2008 and realized that I had not been paying attention to my health for a very long time. My  next questions involved what I needed to change in my life.  At first I focused on learning as much as a could about the specific details of my multiple health problems but then I realized that the real issue was wellness and having the best quality of life possible. I hope to use this blog to share a mixture of my personal experiences, reflections, and some of the things I am learning about health and wellness as well as some of the resources that are out there. 

Linda