Random Acts Of Kindness Award | 2018

This is incredible! Such a wonderful way to remember a few positives in our lives. So often it’s easier for me to dwell on what’s going wrong, I forget what’s going right. This is one of those moments. Thank you Stuart this is so amazing – if you haven’t read his post, you must! It’s a true testament of never being alone in your struggles, God is always listening, God is always providing for you and sending His angles to help you. I continue to see His providence in my family – daily.

Here are the rules:

• Tell who you nominate and why.

• Copy and share the picture that shows the award, posted above.

• Share a paragraph of something that impacted your own life in the way of receiving kindness or how you extended kindness to someone else.

• Nominate anyone or share to your own page. If you so choose to Participate. Tag or ping-back to the original person who nominated you, or the original post.

The first act of kindness that came to mind was one from back in 2013. I had just recently been diagnosed with Chiari + Syringomyelia laying in my hospital bed awaiting my decompression surgery. I was feeling so lost and scared – but did well in hiding it all, not wanting to worry my family even more. I had three little ones home at that time, the youngest being 2 years old. My husband although a great support, still had to be home to care for our little ones. When my 8 hour decompression surgery was over, I was in so much pain and still feeling alone and scared. My first night after surgery, not being able to sleep, the night shift nurse came in – she had the sweetest voice, so comforting to hear, began to talk to me. I can tell she wanted to put me at ease and we began conversing. We spoke about our families, she spoke about her baby girl and we continued until she saw that I drifted to sleep. I will always treasure such sweet memory. She was my angel that night, she saw that I had my medicine for my physical pain, but she also wanted to comfort my soul, my heart. There are angels, that I’m sure of.

My nominees:

Julie

 OJSPRIDE

Bethany

Shantanu

Alyssa

Caz

My nominees – as for you too, I admire you all for so many things, but most of all, you encourage me through your wonderful words, your output on life, your perseverance to make things lighter and more positive. Thank you!

A-

Advertisement

Happy Meme Monday: When You’re Diagnosed With A Rare Disorder

Mom Life With Chiari is currently taking a couple of days off and this is a pre-scheduled post. Enjoy!

Happy Meme Monday

I often get asked what Chiari Malformation and Syringomyelia is, both of which are rare conditions. There are 1 in 1,000 people living with Chiari Malformation and this meme describes my life since my 2013 diagnosis – in a nut shell. Enjoy!

Thank you Mr. Dos Equis XX for that! My Chiari and Syringomyelia thanks you!

Hope you’re having a great Monday.

A-

Follow my blog with Bloglovin’

Chronic Pain + Time Management

It’s no secret that I live with Chiari + Syringomyelia but did you know it’s also the reason for many of my negative thoughts. They are thoughts that trigger self-doubt and lack of confidence. The chronic pain, the aches, the body pain, back pain, the headaches, the stiffness in my neck are a daily reminder of the things that I can no longer do. It can really bring me down – if I allow it to. My days are planned out around the level of pain I’m in on that particular day. So, how do I manage my day to day while living with chronic pain – besides my pain medication of course! …. Time management.

Yes, that’s it, no magic to it! I manage my time wisely, I don’t over do it and I listen to my body – did I mention I have to plan my day around the level of pain I’m in?! Yes, after that, I do whats a priority first and go from there. I don’t have to get everything done, but I do try to do what’s most important. And this can be tough when your day – like mine, will usually include days where I need to visit the doctors or have to do a routine MRI or CT Scan – yeah, those are fun …. said no one! If that’s the case, I’ll tweak my day knowing that my body and brain will be extra tired because of that doctors visit and will consider my day extra short.

This next thing is really important when living with chronic pain and I know it can be difficult to do is, to rest. I need to find time to rest. If I can’t lay in bed, I simply sit down for a minute or two or three, but I need my rest – better yet, my body craves rest. If I don’t get enough sleep, my body will feel it the next day. So, if I plan something where it involves leaving my house, I also have to plan to rest when I return. I do this so that I don’t get the wrath from lack of sleep afterwards. I can get anything from vertigo, to nausea to having vision issues. It all goes south really quickly from lack of sleep.

So, how do I manage my time as a stay at home mom with my babies?! Well for one, they’re all not on diapers – phew, two, I know it’s summer time but they do school related papers for me – no I’m not that crazy mom, and three, schedule! The littlest ones are on a schedule, they take up to a three hour nap or nap twice a day. Meanwhile, the older ones will be eating, reading, arguing playing, etc. And as for myself, this is my time to plan on a post for my blog – like a ‘Meme Monday,’ ‘Reblog Wednesday or ‘Nail File Friday’s’, even something on my online shop, eat and shower! Yes! This ‘nap time’ is ‘mama’s time.’ I do this because that’s what I’ve put on my plate and I so need I to be efficient with my time.

All the hard work and determination you put into anything today will pay off tomorrow.

Lastly, the thing that I’ve experienced with chronic pain is that besides it being an invisible illness, you have to self motivate yourself. You must! No one knows better than what you’re going through than you. If you don’t, this thing – chronic pain, will bring you down with it!

I would love to know how you manage your time while living with chronic pain, share your thoughts.

A-