Greetings My Friend,
For the longest time I was a nail bitter. Once I learned to journal in English 101 I began a life long endeavor of writing my thoughts down, through the years I found myself having a desire to change a bad habit, I often wrote about this, then made a statement I wanted to quit. This was how I quit biting my nails. In place of biting my nails I began to pick my cuticles raw which began another journey, this one took me another 20 years to quit. But that is another story. In recent years I learned away to journal my Bible study time. First I write out what is on my mind, this has been very helpful because next I write to God telling Him what I discovered what was on my mind, somehow it turns into a prayer. In past years writing all my thoughts could take me pages, more often than not I did not resolve my problems. Having other topics to journal has helped me write my thoughts, many times I talk about what I did the day before, sometimes I talk about a concern like before I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease I could not find a way to balance my day as my energy kept waning, my legs were giving out, exercising kept getting harder and so on. I wrote those thoughts out, then asked for God to help me find out what was wrong, how to manage my day. At one point I had an ear infection, the doctor wanted to put me into Vestibular therapy to help with my balance issues. The VT therapy gave me a few ladies who began helping me learn about chronic illnesses. I told them how I tried to keep going by working five minutes, resting a few minutes before I worked again. I was told to rest longer, that helped me tremendously. Today I work for two hours, nap for two hours then wake up and work another two hours. This helps me get housework done, tires me out again so I am able to sleep at night. Eventually I got the diagnosis of PD, once I had that diagnosis I was able to learn exercises that helped me instead of hinder me. God has guided me as I wrote, prayed and studied the Bible. I learned from Junior doing squats is a very good foundation exercise, I started with two hand grips Junior put on a door frame to the hallway. Soon I was incorporating squats doing housework, petting the dogs, as I felt stronger I started what I call going in search of kindling for the wood stove we have. When I was outside searching for kindling my legs strengthened more as I did squats, while picking up twigs. I started finding tree limbs that had fallen on our property, so I drug them to where Junior cuts up the wood for the stove. The dragging is from the back of our property to the back porch area, maybe an acre or more. The walk and dragging has increased my aerobic workout, at times I need to stretch above or while in a squatting position which was stretching my torso, making my shoulders work has also strengthened me considerably. My journal entries also allow me to look back, 10 years ago right after I retired, chronic fatigued plagued me to the point I could hardly stay awake. Fourteen years ago I had radiation for breast cancer, I believe that is when my problems started, I wound up retiring before the planned retirement age of 59 to the age of 54 which was five years earlier than I wanted to. Each year after radiation I grew more tired, I struggled with brain fog, forgetting what I had known for 20 years at times. Once I retired, I continued to decline, discovered I had sleep apnea, allergy induced allergies, for several years I kept getting bronchitis because we moved south to Virginia, near the Kentucky, Tennessee border which triggered my allergies even more than in Michigan. I had walked for years, I solve a lot of life's problems as I walk, the last year I worked I needed to nap instead of walking. I have with God's help, by journaling my life began a tiny step by tiny step to recovery. Journaling pointed me to watch TV, do housework during commercials, then I went into VT and finally a diagnosis. Once I got the PD medication which for now is replacing dopamine in my brain, I have been able to stretch further with exercise. My goal is by strengthening myself, I may be able to stay healthy for a longer period of time before the medication will stop working at replacing the dopamine. I have with God's guidance researched for ways to replace dopamine naturally, like fish oil and salmon along with other supplements and foods. By doing this I believe I will be able to increase my ability to stay strong, healthy and be as able bodied as I can for as long as I can. This journey has been difficult, long, I pray I can still increase some more but if not, that is okay. Without God, I would still need a wheelchair when shopping, today I do more, live fairly well even if I need a daily two hour nap. God is my help, my strength, my comfort. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet
Thursday, April 5, 2018
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