Saturday, January 24, 2015

Learning to live like a healthy person

Here is a goal for me for the year: Learn to live like a healthy person. It doesn't sound that complicated but it is.

Here's a brief recap of me in case you forgot any ailments:
  • 2 cancers
  • 8 surgeries for cancer and hysterectomy, bad knee, gall bladder
  • Rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, degenerating disks in my back, left arm lymphedema 
  • Depression and anxiety (I feel I am entitled based on the other bullets)
 I feel like I might be missing something but that gives you the basic idea of with what I have to cope (is that grammatically correct?). I can't remember because of chemobrain/fibro fog. See I knew I missed something!

So to think like a healthy person:
  1. I can't let myself think that any ache and pain is a new cancer.
  2. Nor can I let myself attribute any new ache or pain is an existing ailment or a side effect of a medication.
I need to put all of this aside and relearn to think like a healthy person.
  • An cold needs to follow the three day rule - if it doesn't improve in three days, call the doctor.
  • An ache or pain needs to do follow the five day rule - if it doesn't improve in five days, call the doctor.
  • Dripping blood still needs to go to the ER... well maybe, it depends on how much blood.
If I can stop hyper-focusing on my health and learn to think 'if I was a healthy person, what would I do' every time, I think I can get more balance back into my life. A nice goal in life.

1 comment:

Perseus PCI said...

Caroline, it is true that cancer has such a huge impact on emotional health. Physical health is important, but it is equally important to have great emotional and mental health as well. Here is a blog post about cancer, the mind, and emotions: http://www.perseuspci.com/cancer-mind-emotions/

I Started a New Blog

I started this blog when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. Blogging really helped me cope with my cancer and its treatment. Howe...