Mothers Day Five Years Ago .. Part 1

 
Five years ago on Mother's Day I was in the hospital having trouble breathing. ... That was the beginning.

I thought I was having an asthma attack, not uncommon for me, but the inhalers did nothing. I stalled around for at least two days before I went to my doctor for a refill on my asthma prescriptions and he was about to send me on my way, saying he did not think I had pneumonia when he asked if my leg was swollen and I said yes. I was told to get to the nearest hospital so I got in my car and drove to the hospital. (stupid choice in not getting a cab or asking for a ride). I gave my husband a quick call and told him don’t come, just my asthma was out of control again. They had a long waiting list but did not let me leave the nurses desk once they checked my blood pressure.. I waited for several hours as my breathing got worse and worse with the nurses assuming I was still having asthma issues. Once the doctor saw me all hell broke loose. A quick X-Ray and the doctor told me that the fact that my blood pressure was extremely different from one side to the other and my leg was now very swollen was a bad sign. They called my husband, loaded me in an ambulance to go to a critical care hospital and by that time things were getting pretty fuzzy. I heard the nurse tell the ambulance driver to hurry, she was not sure I was going to make it.

I was found to have had a pulmonary embolism - 5 blood clots in my left lung. They started me on a blood thinner and worked on keeping me stable. One of the things that they found was that my hemoglobin was dangerously low, related to having very heavy periods.
The third day was Mother's Day and I wanted to go home and be with my family. It was decided that they would give me blood transfusions and send me home but I needed to come back to the hospital every morning for a couple of weeks to get heparin injections and to be monitored.

 
The question about why my periods were so bad was still not answered so we went home with a warning that if I started bleeding very heavily with my next period the anticoagulants made it risky so we should get to the hospital as soon as possible.

 
I was just happy that I was at home with my family on Mother's Day.

Volunteer!

I have been volunteering .... A LOT! I have always been a volunteer with a variety of organizations but this was something else!

I have continued to work in the direction of getting a job someday and part of the process has involved investigating a number of different fields. I have been leaning very strongly in the direction of some kind of recreation  related job and it was recommended that I get some real life work experience through volunteering. Partly this was to prove that I really do like that kind of work, that I really can do the job and most difficult was to prove that I have the stamina to work a half day job. I was also trying to prove to myself, and my employment support team that I would be able to go to college full time next year for a certificate program.


The Hospital's Thank-you pin for Volunteer Appreciation Week

We had a really hard time finding somewhere that would let me work the number of required hours per week. To best qualify for financial assistance they wanted me to work for about 15 hours each week for a period of at least 4 weeks. Most places would have been happy to give me about 3 hours but not that many!  Eventually the decision was made that I could work at two different places and we would add up the hours.

My Employment Development Specialist  and I met with the director of the Stroke Recovery Association of Manitoba where I have been an active member over the past several years. We agreed  I would spend time volunteering in general ways and also to chair our upcoming Wheel and Walk fundraiser.

Next we met with the Volunteer Coordinator of the hospital where I received most of my therapy.
After an interview process I began volunteering in the nursing home that is part of the hospital complex. I have been helping to transport residents to programs and assisting the recreation directors with a variety of events ranging from Spiritual Care activities in the chapel to crafts, music therapy sessions, movie night and even baking cookies with some lovely seniors.

All of this ... while desperately trying to balance my normal family, and my normal volunteer commitments. The rest of the time I wanted (well maybe needed) to be a couch potato.

I did it. The volunteering was very worthwhile, very encouraging, but also challenging and exhausting. I found that a lot of the things I worried about were not issues at all, but helping with adapted curling proved to be a rather humbling experience that pointed out my limitations. [note to self-- NO more curling- adapted or otherwise]

My required time as a volunteer with these organizations is now up. I had an appointment a few days ago with the hospital volunteer coordinator and we discussed my continuance as a volunteer at the hospital.  I left with dates that I will be volunteering for the rest of May. Stroke Recovery's annual Wheel and Walk fundraiser takes place in June so I still have a lot of lot of volunteer work ahead of me.
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HAWMC Day 13: Health Acrostic

I thought I would try to  do today's prompt from Wego Health and it was harder than I thought it would be.

Today’s Prompt:

• Write a health acrostic for your condition, hashtag, or username! (acrostic = a poem where every letter of a word serves as the first letter of a word or phrase i.e. DOG = Digs Others’ Gardens)

The first challenge is what word to pick?

a) I really have not gotten into twitter -- so no hashtag.

b) Username? Well  I think they mean my blog title and Leading a Healthy Life seems too long and therefore too much work.

c) My condition seems a bit complicated for a word choice. Nothing was straight forward in the diagnoses, therefore stroke is close but not exactly the accurate term for my condition so brain injury maybe?  Vestibular disorder? Perceptual issues? Cognitive impairment? Left side weakness?

It struck me that is not how I would choose to label myself on the good days. 

I would like to describe myself as a....

Strong

Unique

Resilient

Versatile

Identity

Voice

Organized

Resourceful