self-love

Great article that talks about the importance of good bedside manner, doctors that listen, checking your insurance at the start of your search, asking good questions and do your homework of course! It has lots of good ideas especially at the end under “Finding a good fit”…like…

“…During that first visit, think about how the doctor and office staff make you feel, HHS advises. If the doctor doesn’t make you feel comfortable, show respect for what you have to say, know your medical history, and spend enough time with you, then they might not be the one for you.”

www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/new-survey-asks-what-d...

#MentalHealth #Depression #Anxiety #Disability #PTSD #Selflove #Selfcare #ChronicIlless #ChronicPain #BipolarDisorder #Bipolar2Disorder #Bipolar1Disorder #BipolarDepression #COVID19 #Migraine #Headache #PeripheralNeuropathy #Concussion #BrainFog #ParkinsonsDisease #balance #EssentialTremors #Memory #Addiction #AddictionRecovery #HIVAIDS #longtermsurvivor #ADHD #RareDisease #ChronicFatigue #IfYouFeelHopeless #Hope #Faith #FuriouslyHappy #Belief #Love #help #GettingHelp #InsideTheMighty #TheMighty #MightyTogether #DistractMe

I woke up around 7 came down put the dishes in the dishwasher. It’s peace and quiet. Everyone is sleeping 💤. I’m taking advantage of it. I even finished a book about Audrey Hepburn that her son wrote. I’m a huge fan of hers. I have all of her movies. I would love to get her Barbie dolls but they are pretty expensive. #Selfcare #Selflove my cup of coffee yummy.

I love what the Jacaranda has to say about belonging, and letting go of injuries. Just thinking of this cheery tree is a comforting summery thought for the dark of winter. "Plant Talk" is my book about nature's support for sickness and suffering with illustrations by Caroline Bagnall. Currently editing the first draft.

#plantlove #plantmedicine #plantwisdom #plantvoices #Selflove #selfcare #anxietyrelief #UlcerativeColitis #AnalCancer #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #InvisibleIllness #PTSD #crohnsandcolitisawareness #crohnsdiseaseawareness #crohnandcolitisawarenessweek #crohnscolitis #crohnsandcolitis #crohnswarrior #CrohnsDisease #crohnssurvivor

#Depression #Anxiety #GenderDysphoria #MentalHealth #transformation #rebirth #Rise

A long time ago in a far far far far distance from where we are today there was this person who was neither alive more dead. This person never felt the same nave felt included or connected with the people around them. This person would do what is expected and would put on that smile wear that hat 🎩 or that hat 🧢 well maybe that hat 👒 so as to blend or fit in until the time when IT was time to move on and try again. The emotional damage built over time IT really did. So much so that the person #disassociated #DID or as the person who explains #Dis #Divergent #Identity #Spectrum . The person didn’t feel real lived in #Autopilot mode and #DID what was expected of them. #Numbess #hurt #Pain #sorrow #Loneliness #Sadness #abandonment and yes #homelessness .

#transformation from a spiritual perspective and a physical perspective is a profound experience that changes your perception. When you have read the bible searched through Google and endured countless hours of counseling you realize #It . IT is what IT is isn’t IT. #please choose you. #please choose your present. #please choose your path. When you do not choose #you to be who you are others do.

#Transition ended the cycle.

This person sacrificed their life so that a new life could be! Now #free in #2023 this person has hope and a life that is full of love in so many different ways. The love this person has is #Selflove #SelfIdenty #Selfcare and yes #SpiritualLove .

No longer dose the person stare in the mirror 🪞 trying to see someone else. No now the person sees someone who is actually looking back at them. That person smiles! That person is happy! That person dose what makes them an individual!

We are all different and we all are special in so many ways so please 🙏 know there are better days!

#yournotalone #YourWorthy #yourlifematters

(PART ONE) Please send me prayers, good vibes, healing energy and keep me in your thoughts. It would really be appreciated. It is very hard for me to ask for help…but bedrudgundly I have been parking in handicap parking spaces and recently began using a walker. To be honest I’ve had to! I had four falls at the end of December and I am constantly catching myself from falling over and having to regain my balance and re-direct myself. It is very challenging in my apartment where I have no support and very often find myself leaning against walls and always being very conscious to make slow turns part by part like a clock, and get up from a sitting position very carefully the special way I was taught.

Just this past February I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s with Essential Tremors and balance problems, and had to stop a med I took before bed for over 10 years that may have been causing it and then without it I didn’t get a good night’s sleep for over a month and woke up 3-4 times every night.

Two and a half months ago I had a bad fall at my mom’s, scared her half to death and injured my neck and shoulder. I had just started PT for that when I had another big fall … hard, and my head snapped back as I hit the ground. Later that week I was diagnosed with a concussion and I have seen 5 doctors and had about 10 appointments so far since then and been to a concussion clinic. Then I saw another Neurologist and he confirmed what another said…that my symptoms from my concussion likely will last up to 6 months!!! Thankfully it’s already been 6 weeks but there is 4.5 months ahead. But he was optimistic about the progression I’ve had and said I am on the Path to Recovery! But it sure is a rocky path!

Other symptoms I have had are really bad brain fog and memory issues which have left me having to stop and take a long break to find the right words or even remember where I am in a conversation, and having to look up the spelling or meaning of simple words. These two things are very scary and embarrassing…(please continue to Part Two below)

#MentalHealth #Depression #Anxiety #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #Disability #Selflove #Selfcare #Concussion #balance #ParkinsonsDisease #EssentialTremor #PTSD #COVID19 #Migraine #MigraineBrainFog #Memory #HIVAIDS #longtermsurvivor #BipolarDisorder #Bipolar2Disorder #Bipolar1Disorder #BipolarDepression #ADHD #TheMighty #MightyMinute #MightyMoment #MightyTogether #DistractMe #IfYouFeelHopeless #Hope #relief #Love #PeripheralNeuropathy

(PART TWO - please read Part One above first)

…and the Neuropathy and Migraines I already had have gotten much worse. I had started a new daily med for my migraines and I was having much fewer and less intense ones whenever I did have one. But since the concussion I went from only 4 a month back to 12 migraine days in December. They can really hijack a whole day from when I wake up til bedtime, with bad light and sound sensitivity leaving me in the dark with no sound and very sensitive to movement. I have had Neuropathy since I first started my HIV cocktail in 1999 but it had gone from being bedridden to manageable. Since the concussion I have struggled even before I got out of bed, and I also have no appetite at all. I was about 205 before when I got Covid two years ago but weighed in at 192 when I got out of the hospital and rehab where I did PT and OT but I just weighed in at 178. This is too much weight loss!

This week I started PT for movement /balance and will do so 2x/wk for 8 weeks plus OT. I have been doing the exercise I was given so far 3x/day. (Please see the Update at the bottom about a new fall recently that was probably another concussion). And with the newest med I’m on I have gotten some good night's sleep. Every 2-3 nights but still some are better than none. I use a walker everywhere I go for necessary support and have started drinking two Ensure drinks a day to get protein I need with limited eating.

I definitely am not a patient person but this 6 month scenario has me putting up with challenges for 4.5 months more and adapting to my limitations. When it’s not one thing, it’s another. It’s really helpful that I have had serious pain and lived with other limitations much of my life, so sadly it’s not unfamiliar ground and I just hang on. I enjoyed watching football this weekend while stuck in my lazyboy recliner like usual and tomorrow I will park in a handicap parking spot and use my walker to get to yet another appointment. I try not to dwell on the limitations instead I choose to remember I am on a Path to Recovery and I won’t be like this forever.

UPDATE: Sadly, I was going to post this 3 days ago, but just fell again and face-planted and hit my head very hard. I have a gash under my eye in the shape of my glasses which rammed into my face. I cut my lip pretty badly and both places are very swollen and bruised including a nasty black eye. Just the week before my Neurologist was so happy to see I was using a walker because he said “I’m glad you’re using it because the last thing we want is for you to get another concussion” I fear (and feel) that is what I just did!

#MentalHealth #Depression #Anxiety #Concussion #ParkinsonsDisease #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #Disability #Limitations #Selflove #Selfcare #COVID19 #Migraine #PeripheralNeuropathy #HIVAIDS #PTSD
#BipolarDisorder #BipolarDepression #Bipolar1Disorder #Bipolar2Disorder #ADHD #Tremors #balance #fall #TheMighty #MightyTogether #MightyMinute #IfYouFeelHopeless #Hope #Love #Belief #happy #DistractMe #BrainFog #Memory

I'm taking a free course on Coursera called "Brilliant Passionate You". And I recommend it highly. One of the assignments is to write a letter to yourself. In this letter you explore why exercise and physical health is important to your life journey. You also explore your emotional well being. You also look at the importance of gratitude. The last thing you do is think about other steps you might take to improve your life through things like lifestyle changes. I'm sharing my letter assignment here because I have come so far in my healing - physical, emotional, spiritual. 10 years ago, I grieved over my arthritis and physical degeneration.I felt like a train wreck that would never be fixed. And lonely, oh so lonely. Then I got my heart broken first by family and then by the love of my life. Then I got lyme disease. Struggled with homelessness. It was all so bleak. But I guess I'm a stubborn Taurean because I kept getting up, brushing myself off and moving forward. In my deepest core, I wanted peace and happiness and fulfillment, not darkness. It wasn't always easy. But it was worth it. And now I look back and see the miracle in my journey. This letter assignment allowed me to take stock of where I'm at. The person I was 10 years ago is not the person that I am now. Who knew? Anyway, here's the letter:

"Kim, In order to move ahead in your life, it is optimal to have a body that is in the best health possible. As someone who has been challenged by weight issues, injury and disease, you know that the worst thing that you can do is stop moving. Keep the body moving as best you can. Strength, stamina, flexibility and good balance will serve you well. Keep putting healthy, life sustaining foods in your body. This is a life long work in progress for you. Food has been a constant paradox - an enemy, a friend, a comforter, a destroyer. So continue to work towards eating as healthy as you can. But you are a foodie and someone who loves to cook and try new things, so allow yourself some reasonable indulgences. Balance.

Emotional health is something that will always be in front of you! The other day you approximated that you had been to about 15 therapists in your life. But what you found is that no therapist can help you until you really look inward at your major issues and own them and most of all, show them (YOU!) compassion. Yes you are damaged goods, but like a suitcase that has traveled many places, been bumped and thrown around -- you have the dents to prove it -- you have survived and continue to move forward.

Gratitude is huge. You have continued to heal by finding the small joys in life and being thankful for them. The big joys you celebrate bring more joy by just acknowledging them. KEEP BEING GRATEFUL, KIM

Mindfulness is a struggle, I know. You have trouble meditating and its hard for you to focus. But keep trying. Your anxiety and PTSD doesn't run your life. So don't give into it.

The changes to your daily lifestyle you are taking a step at a time. And its working. Keep moving in that direction. The journey is not over and it does keep getting more and more interesting, fulfilling and enlightening.

I love you, Kim.

#lyme #Arthritis #Selflove #Gratitude

I reached out to two people day. I guess it’s ok to ask for help. I’m glad I called my friend cause she was having #sucidalThoughts . Thankfully she got in touch with her dr and he referred her to a psychiatrist and psychologist. She is having the same problem with her son. He refuses to be on meds.