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A Journey With You

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Ringing in the New Year

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by A Journey With You in bipolar, caregivers, hope, mental illness, schizophrenia, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

blood pressure, brain disease, health, hope, medication, mental health, mental illness, new year, New Year's Eve, party, schizophrenia], wellness, wish

My husband and I were flipping through New Year’s Eve shows last night, and we missed the ball dropping in New York because at that very moment we were reading my blood pressure and pulse because the doctor asked me to monitor my numbers at home. (My anxiety disorder is on full display whenever I visit the doctor’s office, and my pulse usually registers somewhere around 120 plus so I was asked to take my vitals at home to make sure that I wasn’t always running that high).

The good news is that at midnight, East Coast time as the ball was dropping my blood pressure was 117 over 72, and my pulse rate was 75. Those are great numbers for me. That is the lowest I can remember my pulse being since I started monitoring it.

If I were superstitious, I would be concerned about the meaning of missing a New Year’s Eve tradition because I was monitoring my vitals, worrying a little bit about the quality of my health for the next year. I’m not superstitious though, but I do try to think positively and choose to see it that health will be a priority for me in 2019. I wish I could say that wellness will be the benefit and result of my efforts, but as all of us with chronic illness know too well is that even our best efforts are no guarantee of a good or great outcome.

I will say that it’s not just my blood pressure and pulse that I hope remain in healthy territory this year. I hope this is a year of health for all of us – you as well as me. You as well. Me as well. Try reading those last two statements again. They have a nice healthy ring to them, don’t they?

Happy Happy New Year!

 

Vacations, Family and Just Being An Average Woman

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by A Journey With You in hope, mental illness, schizophrenia, Uncategorized, writing

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

ephrata, essay, family, hope, inspiration, joy, laughter, mental health, mental illness, mentally ill, nat washington house, party, psychiatry, psychology, schizophrenia], vacation, washington, writing

Last Friday I flew to Seattle with my husband, met my nephew and his wife and we all drove to Eastern Washington. We stayed in a house called the Nat Washington House in Ephrata Washington.

On Saturday morning, we prepared food and decorations at the house for my dad’s surprise 80th birthday party.

I saw a friend I have known for 45 years. I saw my dad, stepmom, stepbrothers, nieces, nephews, two of my brothers, my former sister-in-law, and many other people.

The great thing about being with people who have known you most of your life (or in the case of nieces and nephews they have known me all of their lives) is that they treat you like anyone else. I was expected to step up and help with the party preparations. I was expected to make decisions, go shopping, put together platters of food, and clean up. Because of all the excitement I had to take some extra medication (I had to do this on the flight to Seattle and the day of the party, but overall, I did well). I wasn’t treated as someone who was fragile, different, or incapable.

I am a part of a family. I am a respected member of that family. I am an important person in a web of people who are important to me.

When I am with family, it is the only time I can truly be myself and feel as if I am valued 100%. I’m not the woman with schizophrenia. I am a daughter, an aunt, a sister, wife, etc. Everyone at the party with the exception of the younger kids knew me long before I had the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

I wanted to fast from social media and technology for the 40 days before Easter (Lent). I wasn’t successful in doing that, but I was successful in fasting from technology for the whole time I was on vacation and celebrating my dad’s life with family and friends.

I have to tell you that having conversations face to face with people is more rewarding than a message on Facebook. Laughing at people’s jokes or things that happen is so much more meaningful than clicking the like button on Facebook, or sending a smiley face.

As someone who normally isolates socially, I sure enjoyed talking, laughing and participating in all the festivities. It was a joy to give up technology for a short time, and it was priceless to be a member of a family that doesn’t consider my illness as the thing that defines me.

Giving up technology taught me to be more present with the people around me and to listen to them and enjoy them more. But better than that was being all the things that make me feel like a whole person, a regular person, a person who is so much more than schizophrenia. Sure, I have to take a little more medication to deal with stress, but no one notices, and the benefits to me are tremendous. I am occasionally the cool aunt, the best friend, the only daughter, the only sister, and the one who is married to that nice guy (who everyone loves).

The most important part of the weekend is that you could hear our laughter ring out in every room of that historic house, and my laughter may have been the loudest of all.

 

 

Birthday Party (Meet and Greet)

29 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by A Journey With You in writing

≈ 74 Comments

Tags

birthday, blog, bloggers, link exchange, meet and greet, party, Wordpress

It’s my birthday tomorrow and I am taking the day off to have a party. What can you give me as a present?

Leave a link to your blog in the comment section and visit a few new blogs.

And if you really want to make me happy, have some chocolate.

See you later in the week when I will be older and wiser.

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