It’s All About Control

Posted on by Here's Your Gold Watch - Rheutired

10 ways to maintain a sense of Control with a chronic illness

It’s easier to cope with chronic illness if you feel that you have some control over your life and your health. Feeling that everything is just spinning away from you makes life more difficult. Here are my first and best so far ideas. More suggestions are always welcome for a list like this. Please leave them in the comments. We all love to hear tips.

With chronic illness you are forced to be your health manager so it is up to you to gather information and to make better decisions. You need to learn skills for this complex task as you go along, because the days of good health and no worries are behind you, though there is always the hope of having them return. As you go along you will find a management style you are comfortable with.

The first suggestion I would make is to join an online group or community.  They can be a great source of information and encouragement.  It’s harder to find a physical real-time group than one that is on-line. It is also easier to spare the time for online efforts. Yahoo has a more old-school [...] continue the story

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Detoxing: An Intimate Exorcism

Posted on by wholisticlab

By Andrea Shewchuk

I began the process of rebalancing my intestinal flora, cleaning and rebuilding my liver tissue and nourishing my body with cocktails of antioxidants, freshly-pressed juice and a variety of fibres almost 2 months ago, addressing rapidly spreading and debilitating eczema from a systemic perspective. Until now, the process had expressed itself very logically and linearly as not only the eczema cleared before my eyes, but the many other side effects of candida pollution, emergency pharmaceuticals, passive exposure to chemicals, my emotional toxins, elusive unhealthy dynamics etc. gracefully disappeared. Only very once in awhile did I want to think that it couldn’t be this simple. And then I would swiftly abandon the thought.

It has been a week since I returned from a re-visit to the ocean and re-connection to a place of profound development. The week seemed uneventful except for many new stories and memories of laughter.

I had felt drained and the all-too familiar pain in my chest as I feared a return of pneumonia. This ended after less than 2 days when I was woken up one night by the consciousness of thick mucous in my throat. I was confused since my recent history with mucous was lung-related.

My throat burned. Viral, bacterial, a cold, new or retracing. Energy or [...] continue the story

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My Story of Anne

Posted on by wholisticlab

By Andrea Shewchuk

I went into my stationery and boxes to find wrapping for the trinkets I would take to Susan tomorrow.

I had wondered late last week, before, where the calendar had gone, through our recent move and other clearings, what had made the “filter” process, my mind drifted momentarily into the bigger concept of change, impermanence, importance…

I rooted around in the envelopes and cards, and there at the back, peeking out, was Anne’s 2011. She had given it to me and said that hopefully it would be marked with many more times getting together in the future.

Anne had sent Susan to buy a gift each for me and my mother when we had lunch late in 2010 – mine was the 2011 calendar, The Twelve Muses.

Mitch Albom’s have a little faith is ironically, by accident, deliberately, by the hands of coincidence, well-placed next to me as I write.

Anne, her husband and my parents were mostly, almost, lifelong friends, intertwining business and pleasure and the cottage and boats and families and travel, sharing party sandwiches, deli food and everything else that presented itself on the path. This is how I came to know one of the best friends in the world, Susan, the daughter of Anne.

Anne was [...] continue the story

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Perinatal Loss – Open to Hope Radio

Posted on by Open To Hope Foundation

Published on Nov 13, 2012

Christine Jonas-Simpson is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at York University in Toronto. After the loss of her own baby boy in 2001 she began to focus her arts-based research on how human beings live and transform with loss. She is currently working on a documentary series and is the author of the children’s book, Ethan’s Butterflies.

 

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Nurses Grieve Too: Insights into Experiences with Perinatal Loss

Posted on by Health Leadership and Learning Network

This ground-breaking documentary shares what grief is for nurses who care for bereaved families with perinatal loss. This research-based documentary answers the research question: What is the experience of grieving, for obstetrical and neonatal nurses caring for families who experience perinatal loss? Nurses describe the professional and personal impact of grieving, what helps them and how the experience has changed them and help them to grow. The documentary makes the invisible grief of nurses – visible. It aspires to support nurses so they no longer feel alone or isolated in their experiences of grieving, as many nurses can carry the pain and memories of the families’ loss and experiences with them for years.

Jonas-Simpson, C. (Producer) (2010). Research team: Jonas-Simpson, C. (PI), Macdonald, C., McMahon, E., & Pilkington, B.

Funded by AWHONN Canada ; Canadian Nurses Foundation: The Nursing Care Partnership Program (made possible with a grant from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation). ; Faculty of Health, York University ; Health, Leadership and Learning Network: The Interprofessional Education Initiative, Faculty of Health, York University

To purchase this film, please visit the York University Bookstore.

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