August 18 2015

August 18 2015 Greetings My Friend Having a grateful heart is weaving in and out of my thoughts today. I started out with a general “thank you Lord” and from there I learned to name one by one the things that come to my heart each day and I am thankful throughout the day. My prayers are also peppered with as many thank you’s as I can think of. The more I learn to focus on what I do have the less down I feel even in the biggest of my struggles. I have hypoglycemia which means if I don’t eat often I can get nasty headaches, blinding headaches. Through the years I have taught myself to eat small meals throughout the day and my headaches are rare these days, even my straining headaches from Chiari are minimal. Lately as I stop to pray I marvel that for many years now each time I have needed to eat I always find the right food to eat. Part of my need is protein and more often than not I need meat protein at some point in my day. Again I have what I need to stave off much discomfort and it continues to be a marvel to me. On one of my thankful journey’s I marveled that I have what I need to go to sleep each night. For me at this point in my life it is important I have a CPAP machine. After blacking out and rolling down a hill it was determined I needed this device and I have not blacked out but one other time due not using the machine each night. Today I am very careful to use it each night. Along with the CPAP I discovered my night time needs were a Chiropractic pillow for my Chiari Malformation mainly for my neck. I have a body pillow to hug so I don’t shrug up my shoulders and have more neck pain and I have a bite splint to keep from grinding my teeth. All of these things I need just to go to sleep. With Chiari being wakeful at night is a problem too even though I stop drinking caffeine by noon I was up and down then I was introduced to lavender oil on my feet at night. I admit I may get up and down these days but I do find that I go to my recliner turn on a quiet program and I am right back to sleep more often than not. I may bounce between bed and the recliner a time or two but I am sleeping so much better over all. Recently I found myself waking up and struggling to breathe. This too may part of my Chiari but God laid on my heart to begin using a wedge pillow. For my neck I am rolling up a towel at present and I will see if I can find a pillow to insert between my neck and the wedge. God laid it on my heart and I don’t wake up in a panic due to not being able to breathe. It seems that as I learn to be thankful I sense God’s direction for other problems I am dealing with. For many years I felt that God would take all the problems physically away but today I find that He teaches me how to live within my limitations and I am thankful. I find that I am able to let go of having a body that runs perfectly and I find great contentment learning to live with the body I have now. I will experience a perfect body in heaven but for now I learn to live with life as it is. May God bless you and keep you make His face to shine on you. Love Janet