Mar
History is the best teacher
If we consider the social, and political life, all the nations should learn from the past in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts and wars in the future. But learning from the past is not a rule that applies only to whole nations. It also applies to individuals who should look back to their history, the history of the families to learn their roots. History is the best teacher as it can’t be denied. It gives facts. I think it’s quite the same with those who are dealing with some kind of chronic pain. Each of us who suffers from this, especially if it is a result of chronic illness, should know what is in our gene pool by studying our families, reading and listening to the older family members.
What else can we discover if we look toward the past? I think we can get awareness of the changes, the progress, the development in various areas of life. Maybe we don’t think about that every day, as each day has its own worries and problems, joys and surprises, but it takes just a while to imagine how life was then and how it is now.
It’s been a while since I’ve shared one of my poems with you. I would like to include a published work which I wrote two years ago. I guess it is devoted to my feelings that some special things evoked in me. For instance, I have great sentiment to people who lived before we did. How they prepared the path for us. And how we continue the journey in Read the rest of this entry
Mar
Life with constant pain teaches you three things
Have you changed since you started having daily pain? Such pain is an unwelcome visitor. One day I realized I have changed, I started to value different things especially those simple ones.
Today I would like to talk about those three changes, in: most important things, perspective and simple steps in life. If you haven’t thought about it yet, you may try to go on that journey.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS CHANGE: The career was always important to me, I got through school, become a nurse and worked for my family. My children have always been important to me, but my career was as important. This changes when you can no longer work. You lose something which was a great part of your life. The pain of losing that part added up to my physical pain leaving me angry and frustrated. My life became harder. I often asked myself, “Who am I if I’m no longer a nurse?”
I was painfully searching who I still was because I had to make a list what I had left. I had a loving husband, great children old enough to start their own lives and a few talents I didn’t know before. I wasn’t aware of them and spent many hours praying, thinking and looking inside my soul. If the doors closed in front of me, I had always believed Read the rest of this entry
Mar
Rely on the dog for the best therapy
Today, I thought we can think of something different than our problems and enjoy the great world of pet therapy. Service dogs, therapy dogs and guide dogs can do the job well. I am very interested in pets, read books, magazines and information on the Internet and what I found is that they are very intelligent. They are not stupid at all. I’ve always known that, especially when I’m bringing shopping into my front door. My two beloved creatures jump at me, bark, greet and just enjoy the fact I’m home. I usually look at them and ask them “Maybe you can help me with the bags?” Poor unaware dogs sleeping in a warm bed, eat nice food they don’t have to make and not even pay for it.
All of us who have pets and don’t have easy life because of the chronic illness, are already having a pet therapy. We get exercises from them as we need to take them for a walk, walk down the stairs. We need to stretch to give them food and water, clean pet boxes or they ask us to play with them by standing in front of us with a toy in their mouths while wagging their tails. We usually take the challenge, pick up the toy and throw or toss it down the hall. My dog will surely run after a ball until his last breath. Even when you want to wipe him when he is wet from rain, he thinks we’re playing with the towel. My other dog is different. She doesn’t like playing with others. She’d rather take a ball and hide it somewhere, to have it only for herself. She seems to be more grown up and human. She wants every raindrop wiped from her while standing still. Read the rest of this entry
Mar
Our beloved pets are there for us
Over the years there’s been one thing you’ve kept writing about – the pets you love. When life becomes more difficult because of daily pain, pets can make us calmer and loved. They offer love no matter what, comfort and understanding. We have to keep moving for them whether we want it or not.
Many of us fell in love with animals while watching films in the movie theater gazing up at the screen eating popcorn. Others have pets in their families and grew up with them; loving them, playing with them and being friends with them. Maybe you remember Roy Rogers and Dale Evans galloping across the screen on Trigger with Bullet running beside him. Poor old Trigger is long gone now but I hope he rests in peace. I don’t remember the name of Dale’s horse. I am not as old as to remember Rin Tin Tin’s first movies, but I know his American West movies where he is jumping from rock to rock chasing bad guys in black clothes. I understand why Rin Tin Tin became one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. Read the rest of this entry
Mar
Oh no, not a virus!
Your health problems may get even worse when you catch a nasty virus. You cough, shake and have a runny nose. Your body feels weak as if going to turn into water? This is another thing that is added up to our daily problems, we want to be smiling and optimistic but all we get is a punch in our belly.
For many of us with daily pain and illness, the days are hard enough; but when you also get a cold or flu, you need to be very careful. None of us like being ill with these common infections but those in constant pain find it irritating and depressing. “I have enough” you say to yourself. I already need to put up with 150%, am I going to survive another 50%?” Life doesn’t give us much choice, no matter how, we have to cope somehow. We think what to do remembering past experiences, memories, our knowledge. We have to know the answers. Most of us just don’t want to give up and stay in bed. But sometimes it is difficult to get up after another blow. Sometimes you have almost nothing to fight with, but you’re still trying. Read the rest of this entry
Mar
I am Sue and I am in pain every day
I thought I may say who I am because many of you may want to know something about the person whose blog they have been reading for 2 and a half years. Those of you who read my blog regularly may feel a bit bored but please stay with me. I’ll try to be quick and painless. I love that word “painless.” There is less of it in my life. My blog is about how I’ve learned to live quite a normal life while being seriously ill.
Many of you know how does it feel when your life turns upside down. My first problems appeared when I was a 40 year-old-nurse, wife and mother of two teenagers. My husband used to be a therapist helping people with breathing problems but wanted something more challenging so he went back to school while still working full-time nights. My son was also keen on nursing and wanted to study it at college. I had helped him to get a job at a local hospital transporting patients and there he became sure he wanted to do this. He fell in love with medicine, he could spend his every free minute in the Emergency Room observing, learning and fascinated. Our younger daughter was experiencing her first love while still in high school. Any parent with teenage children know how it is to wait in bed for your children until they come back home from a night out. Read the rest of this entry
Mar
Sleeping well with the natural ways
The importance of the sunlight:
Most of you know me well, I guess, after all these years. So you know my relationship with sunlight. This was in fact; one of the earliest signs of my autoimmune disease was a reaction to sunlight. It turned out in the form of an itchy rash in exposed areas. This is the main reason of using daily sunscreen all year long, and wearing always sun proof hats and clothes. But one thing that I know well is that sunlight is really important in our lives. And I’m not just thinking of the fact that it provides us with needed Vitamin D but it really has important roles in sleeping issues.
How strongly can sunlight influence your sleep? About ten years ago, my daughter Beth and I took a trip to Finland to visit an old friend of mine. It was around the midsummer, and as its usual for a Nordic country, it was dark for only about two hours each night or maybe even less. The friend of mine didn’t cover the windows in the room we were sleeping, as they were used to those conditions. The result was that we were totally not able to sleep. If anybody asks me, I would say that it was the best example of the great effect of sunlight on one’s circadian rhythms. In fact, despite that Finland is very lovely and interesting place, we were sleepy and exhausted all the time we were there. I would even say it was even worse than jet lag. Our American bodies were totally confused by this amount of daylight. Read the rest of this entry
Mar
Live with pain and sleepless nights
As I mentioned already, I would like to write about problems with sleep as I think this is very important issue for most of us. I’m here just an example of a person with problems with obtaining deep, restful sleep. There is nothing surprising that we have those problems as our bodies recognize the pain even during sleep. In the worst cases, the pain makes it even impossible to sleep at all. Sometimes even finding the most comfortable position doesn’t guarantee success. During the day we are facing many problems that costs us a lot of energy. Very often in the evening we are simply exhausted, even without doing any particular job. The worst scenario is when we go to bed, very tired, hoping for a long, good sleep, but all we got is even bigger exhaustion. How to take another difficult day easily after sleepless night full of pain?
We all know that the sleepy issue is very serious, and it’s a big deal especially for people with chronic pain. It’s also a very deep subject, that’s why to narrow it down a bit I would like to focus the natural approach to have a good night of restorative sleep. Natural ways, that are much healthier than using sleeping pills, sedatives or alcohol. I assume that especially we, who suffer from chronic pain, we aren’t looking for more health problems than those we have had already. We don’t need more problems than we already have. Read the rest of this entry
Feb
Why there is so much pain in our lives?
In fact, I was planning to write about something different than this. In detail, I’ve been working on a t blog concerned sleep. I think for people like us, sleep is one of the most important things. I assumed that this issue would be very interesting as so many of us suffers form problem with a proper sleep. That was what I was planning to write today, but sometimes things go their own way.
My editor told me that thousands of people monthly read this blog. I have to say that I’m totally flattered by that news but in the same time I’m totally sad about it. The reason why I’m happy about it is that I very glad that all of us connect in a way, and on the other hand the number of people in pain is really upsetting.
Why there is so much pain in our lives? There is only one, the one up above the clouds that can answer this specific question. But doctors are the one who heard it every day. As a nurse I met many people who were grieving over a loss of a beloved person, loss of their health or an impending loss. This blog is two and a half years old, and since I’ve started to write it I have met so much pain both in my own life and in those who are close to me. Everything shows Read the rest of this entry
Feb
Person with chronic pain vs. the handymen
A life of a person with chronic pain, very often is much different than someone totally healthy. In fact, the list of differences is very, very long. Just starting with the simply daily routine; we may get up later, go to bed earlier or later than the average person, and the day between is for sure way different too. It’s little like we would be listening to different rhythm in our heads. If before I was writing about understanding barrier, now I’ll write about a real wall. The thing is that in my life I have had to deal with numbers of handymen, electricians, painters, plumbers, and yard guys (one painter and one meter reader were female). I agree that I may be little more grumpy than the average, pain-free, person, however I feel simply annoyed when I make my sore body go out of bed more early than usual on a cold morning because of an appointment with such workers. I’m taking my pills earlier than usual, eating with the pills, taking quick bath and getting dressed in a hurry. All that costs me an extra energy that mostly is lacking in my body. But the worst part is when I’m all ready for them to come, and they don’t come. Of course I wait more but there is no sign of them. There are times that they don’t come at all, or they are very, very late. For example just this week I’ve been waiting for a plumber for three days. Every morning the same earlier actions, and the same irritation to find out that it was worthless. Read the rest of this entry
