From 2016 woes to 2017 whoo hoo's

MY HEALTH

Well, here we are almost at the end of 2016, another year shot.  It has not been a good year for many, myself included.  I have been facing a decline in my health for some time now, and I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.  I am only 52 and face many health issues that I am more frustrated with than you even care to know.  Starting with Diabetes, it has taken 3 General Physicians, (GP's), 2 endocrinologists, a Nurse Practitioner,  a specialist and about 7 years to finally get my sugar level below 10.  Not to mention a plethora of medication equalling to the frightening amount of about $2000.00 per month in medication.  Can you say holy crap?  

Now if this stupid diabetes isn't enough, lets add a few other illnesses.  I had an MRI done just before we moved up to beautiful Northern Ontario.  The only thing that it came up with was that I have Osteo-Arthritis.  So, of course over time, pain has been building up from that.  In the last few years there has been more development of issues.   I went to see a physiatrist who found out that the base of my pain in my hips have been caused by severe bursitis on both sides.  I have also recently been to see a Neurologist who had discovered that I have severe carpel tunnel in both of my wrists.  

And if all of this isn't enough, I recently found a legal document that claims me to have a mild right sided learning disability.  Which I have found out that me going for certain types of jobs, ie. a cashier, or anything that involves money, its just setting me up for failure.  It also explains many, many, other things that have happened over the years.  I have always been able to find a job, never had a problem in that area, but keeping the job was a different story.  I would get bored and for one reason or another, I always found myself at the unemployment centre looking for another job.  For years this has been an unexplained mystery but now, there has been a pattern through the eyes of this document from 2008 that was never properly followed up on. 

The final thing is that I will be going to a sleep clinic in the middle of January.  When I went to my first appointment there, I had to fill out this 30 page form that took me almost 2 hours to fill out.  Just from that alone, (before doing the test) they already know that I have sleep apnea and insomnia...whew...So, do I really don't want to know what any other synopsis' are going to come up from this test?  I will go anyway...just to see what else goes down.  The best part is, that I won't have to go through this alone, my Abby will be with me for the whole night and next day.

The very worst thing of all of the above is that I do not remember ever waking up refreshed, I am tired and groggy and dopey a lot of the time, 

So having said all of this, the time has come for me to be seriously considering ODSP which means I will not be working at this point in time for a while.   So I will have time on my hands.  I have been so caught up in the "woe is me" dilemma that, now its time to do something about it.  2017 is going to be a better, and healthier year, since I am such a wimp at being sick.

MY INTENTIONS & GOALS

It was interesting that I just happened to open up Facebook to take a bit of a break from writing and I saw the above and it made me smile, thank you for that Karen, its so very inspiring for me because this is my main goal for 2017 and beyond.  I could not have said this better.  So here is what she posted:

My beautiful friend and sister-in-art Karen Lukens, said it the best, as quoted "I'm seeing so many posts about how bad 2016 was. I think it was pretty good. I woke up above ground everyday, I had food in my refrigerator and clothes on my back. Running water in my cabin, electricity, I had a roof over my head. I didn't live in a war torn country. I had the Internet, a cellphone, a computer. I have awesome friends, family and a great husband. Oh and my dog loves me unconditionally. Sure, there was some stress, a few illnesses, people died. The elections were no fun, I didn't like either candidate but I was still free to vote. It's called life and I'm just thrilled to still be alive and living it."  (Karen Lukens is a fabulous artist, she creates adult colouring pages that do nothing but make me smile, you can take a look and purchase her pages if you want here, https://www.etsy.com/people/KarenLukensArtist) 

Health aspects:

It is my intention to move around more this year.  The mail box is a tad too far away (takes 1 hour there and back) to walk to in my condition at the moment but I want to do some snow shoeing, and go to places like Arrowhead Park to check out their snow tubing...sounds like amazing fun.  

I also want to start exercising and seriously watching my food intake, more now than ever to keep my sugar levels below 10 first and below 6 in a perfect world.

And one of the biggest things I would like to even dare consider making a commitment to other than the above is to create something different every single day.  Whether it be an ATC, a post card, a greeting card or a journal page....

I will be tracking my success right here...posting photos of what I make and do....

thanks for reading and HAPPY NEW YEAR