The September Chronic Illness Writing Prompts is the brain child of A Chronic Voice and anyone can join in and we all try to learn from each other’s life experiences. We all have a story to tell and they are all worth telling.
This month’s writing prompts are Gazing, Shaming, Defeating, Concentrating, and Empowering. I chose three this month.
Concentrating is a great word for this month because I’m doing a lot of it. Several months ago my Pain Doctor insulted me by saying I should talk with my Psychiatrist about my pain since nothing was showing up on the CT Scan. I fired him and did a self withdrawal from pain pills. I’m working hard to manage the pain with just Tylenol. I’m trying to sense it coming on, what the triggers are and when I need to stop and rest. Some nights, it’s getting out of bed and waiting until I can fall asleep again. Some days it’s just pain.
My focus each day is on what I can do not what I can’t. The world around us can be so negative and full of noise, I work hard to shut it out. As many of you know I’m rarely on Social Media and that is by design. If I spend too much time surfing and chatting I can’t get my writing done without putting in extra hours to do it. The extra time can trigger my pain or cut into my resting time and I have to concentrate on my mental and physical health.
I think this approach leaves me centered and aware of my body and what it needs.
I bought an Amazon Halo device that can track many things but I use it for sleep and activity tracking. It’s been an eye-opener to see my sleep patterns and habits. I know how much time it takes to fall asleep, how much light, REM, and deep sleep I get each night. It shows me how many times I wake up and how long I’m awake. It even shows my body temperature.
The activity tracker is the most motivating, it gives you a number to reach for the week and each day shows you where you are. It tracks light, moderate, and intense activity and subtracts points for being sedentary. This is where I get dinged. I make a goal to do a little better than the day before on my activity level. Today I mopped the floor, boy that’s been a while. That’s moderate exercise and I scored points for the work.
I don’t need a tracker to make me feel good about what I accomplish each day but it’s a nice passive friend to nudge me to do more if I can. It doesn’t talk back and can’t unfollow me.
I’m looking outward, onward, down the line, after the pandemic and life returns to a normal I can function in. My car is three years old and doesn’t even have 400 miles on it, it has a lot of living to do. I was dealing with my Immune Disorder and a great deal of pain when we purchased it and then COVID hit.
There are plans to visit the park and take photos with my new camera, hell just learn how to operate my new camera. I can’t wait to taste my favorite Plum smoothie again, eat in a restaurant, even stop for ice cream or gelato. A stop to visit the nature center is also on my list. I’ve lived here for over 30 years and have not visited, it’s about time.
Melinda
lookingforthelight.blog 
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