Each month I like to join in with Sheryl from A Chronic Voice with her Chronic Illness Writing Prompts. This month her prompts are recuperating, reversing, dawning, mapping and re-defining.
Recuperating
The Christmas holiday is over and even though we’ve kept it fairly quiet it still means I need time to recuperate and get back into a normal routine. I had a really good record of going to bed early which I broke a few times and put my body clock out of synch. I also ate a lot of food that I normally avoid, and way too much chocolate. My body has paid the price, some people worry about putting on weight, I worry about being kept awake all night with stomach cramps or indigestion.
January is a time of recuperating, getting back into a routine of sleep and eating and resting a bit more. My children are back to school this week and I’m back in hospital for my IVIG treatment in a couple of weeks.
Reversing
It’s been six years now since I became sick. I’d love to be able to reverse the damage that has happened to my body in the last six years. Maybe this year I will find the secret to making myself well again.
There must be some things that I haven’t tried yet so I need to do some research and keep looking for the thing that works. I am currently on a new regime of IVIG. It’s a good way of reversing damage to my body. It did remove the rogue anti-bodies that started my illness, but it hasn’t cured me. I have had some good results from it but they don’t seem to last. Now I’m having a higher dose more frequently, maybe it will work better.
Dawning
Every time a new year dawns it makes us think about what we can possible achieve, it’s a new beginning. I have a lot of things I’d like to do but I always get stuck and overwhelmed. Maybe this year I will finally get things in order. Maybe it’s dawning on me that I do actually have a future.
Each year I hope that I will recover, but maybe the secret is to keep doing the things I want to do and improve on them. Then maybe improving other areas of my life will cause my health to improve. It’s a big maybe but not impossible.
Mapping
I’m taking this prompt as organizing or mapping out my plan for this year. I’m already working on when we can go on holiday and I’m thinking of making some changes to previous years. I’m not one for sticking a pin in map and going for it, it’s not my style, I like everything to be planned to perfection. You will even find me with a printed out map of our route to wherever we are going, as well as having the SAT Nav. (Ours is called Linda and she can be a little condescending sometimes!)
So, I’m super organised with everything mapped out…but it still rarely goes to plan. I don’t think there is any trip, no matter how well planned, that goes without a hitch.
Planning can be difficult when you have a chronic illness, but it’s always helpful to be as prepared as possible for any situation.
Re-Defining
I always long for change and am constantly re-defining my life and ambitions. Maybe this year I need to re-define how I look at things and organize myself better. I’m a big lover of lists but they are always practical. Maybe I need to re-define this and choose more inspirational ideas to keep me going.
I need to re-define my blog, you may already have noticed some changes. The truth is, it’s gotten too big for my hosting and I’ve been having problems with it being down all the time. My contract ends this month so I need to talk to my hosting provider and work out a plan to suit my blog. I will continue on re-defining my blog to help it run more smoothly.
You can read my Chronic Illness write up post for December here.
Come and see what everyone else has been writing about.
Happy new year to you. Enjoyed reading this post, always love reading how others interpret the prompts. As you wrote about having ideas but then getting stuck and overwhelmed, I’m like that too, getting too bogged down in whatever I am trying to do and then everything grinds to a halt. Maybe this year will be our year though!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts
Best wishes
Sarah x
I have been so bad with my sleeping pattern over Christmas, this week getting back to a normal routine has ben hard. I’m back on the healthy eating and exercising badwagon.
I hope you do find a way to make yourself well again. I can’t believe it’s been 6 years since you became ill and I hope you get things sorted out with your blog. Good luck. x
Happy New Year! I got my sleep wake schedule all fouled up over the holidays too. I stayed up too late on New Year’s Eve and am only now getting back to getting to bed at 11 pm and then getting up at 8am.
I also always eat way too much chocolate and that always makes me feel unwell… I can’t handle that much sugar and I Know that but, well, the holidays all that yummy stuff is just everywhere! So yeah, there was that.
I also make plans for different health ideas. Always have some ideas for forward momentum. Or any sort of progress.
I have some old post blog clean-up to do. But also I have some plans for my blog to get done when I have time… and energy.
I’m glad to hear IVIG has been a positive experience for you. I’m currently in the process of seeing if my insurance will approve it for me.
I like what you wrote about aiming for improvement. I hope you’re able to improve on your health and goals this year!