When Health and Life Collide
Have you yet been dealt a handful of health issues to contend with? It’s one thing to be a caregiver for others and help meet their needs, but it is quite a different feeling to need help yourself.
My experience these past months has been a lesson in coping with health issues. It’s not fun being sick. Just taking medication can be tiring, confusing, and stressful.
Medication
If you are dealing with health issues that require a complicated medication regimen, I recommend having a nurse help you set a schedule for when to take your various medications and then follow it. Otherwise, it can be overwhelming:
- Take this medication before any others.
- Take this med two hours apart from other meds
- take this other med three times a day.
- and this med four times a day
- and these meds two times a day
One medication had to be taken five times a day. All in addition to my usual daily medications.
What a schedule! Try to remember all that. Praise God many of them were short term medications and I am finally finished with that regimen, for now. I’m sure many of you can relate. When you are ill, there are doctor appointments, test appointments, follow-up visits, pharmacy trips, and physical therapy exercises to be done; certain foods to eat, or not eat, and it can be stressful when you have other things to do besides being sick.
Editor Appointment
In the middle of all this, I had an editor Zoom appointment to present two of my books in a new novel series. One of the books is complete, the other is still in progress. Funny story, the editor interview was within five minutes of one of my doctor appointments and the doctor allowed me to stay in the exam room to take the call.
Good News
The editor wants to see both books and said to tell the agent to send them to her.
“Woo-hoo!!” I shouted when I hung up. How exciting. But even good news can be stressful. Now I had to finish the second book, and I just couldn’t think. On top of that, my doctor recommended I needed to relieve some stress. Therefore, though I am excited, I’ve had to take some time off from writing to deal with these health issues and tension. I’ve had to adjust my attitude and accept a slowdown in my life.
I read a lot while lying around and have gained knowledge and encouragement. Especially from Allie Pleiter’s book, How to Write When Everything Goes Wrong.
Peace and an Attitude Adjustment
Between the medication and rest, I am feeling better. I still have a few follow up tests and appointments, but with the peace and attitude change, I think I’m ready to get back to the writing I feel God has called me to do.
You would think as much as I love to talk, that I would have no problem writing, but if you think it’s easy, it’s not. Writing requires a lot of thought and daydreaming and can produce anxiety. (Remember high school English papers?) I often think of something I want to write about then after I’ve written it, I second guess the idea and put it off.
Meanwhile, time passes.
Thankfully, Pleiter’s book has practical exercises that helped me get back on track. But it is her acknowledgement that creativity is harder when your mind is cluttered, that I found the most encouraging. I thought, She gets me.
I’d love to hear from you, my readers to know what you’d like me to talk about, and have you share ideas and experiences of your own. Please take this opportunity to leave a comment.
Remember wherever you are you are at the right place when you come to my website and read my blog. Come on back and share a slice of life with me.