April 28 2015

April 28 2015 Greetings My Friend I thought our errand days were done with but then I remembered we needed to pick up the car from the dealership. So off to town we went. I stopped at the drugstore and now I am home I hope for the rest of the day. I need a regroup day because the running has worn me out. The new stylist worked out fine and with her closer to me I won’t get lost so easily and I will take myself again. I get lost easily so Junior has been taking me since my hairdresser has moved a few times. A friend’s husband has retired in the last few months and she plans on working for a few more years. We talked last night and she is amazed at how hard it is adjusting to retirement. She is also having struggles getting through her work day and attempting to keep up a social life as well. The woman is 4 years younger than I am but I am hearing from many people our age range how difficult it is to do what we have done for years. Our energy level goes quickly these days. She is having health issues along with the extreme tiredness and she doesn’t understand why. I am starting to think that this transition to our senior years takes a lot of us by surprise. Health issues are to us out of the blue since we had been rather healthy in our younger years and we try to apply the same principles we used in our younger years. Eating right and exercise. It does not seem to occur to us to slow down. I have struggled and I now am able to discern those trigger points for me. I am also learning to “lean into” an illness when it hits and do what my body is wanting me to do. I know my trigger points more so these days and I find retirement a great place to be. I also read somewhere that those that have chronic illness’ need to grieve the loss of their health. I felt this comment was true for me and now I attempt to offer this insight to others. As my COPD symptoms displayed itself I could no longer get up put in an hour cleaning and then go on with other activities. Since I never smoked I was somewhat surprised that I had COPD and it took me awhile to ask my doctor about my being winded. I had always walked or did some sort of exercise so I could not understand why I wasn’t moving past the extreme exhaustion. I could not figure out why I had COPD even though I lived with smokers for 40 years of my life. I felt the usual things I had done would work again and that was not the case. I first learned to work, sit, work, sit and work until the job I wanted was done. As time went on I found myself bouncing back quickly and as time went on I was able to work longer before sitting. After each bout of bronchitis in the beginning I found myself starting over from scratch again but as time went on I didn’t have to work as hard to get back to my pre bronchitis days. I am using a combination of medical approaches to my health. I use pharmaceuticals, supplements, essential oils and exercising. I also believe asking God to guide me has been the best way to determine the approaches that work best. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet