My First Blog!

Living My Precious Life

Blog #1

Introduction: 

My name is Janet. I'm a 64 year old mother of 4+ and a grandmother of 13 precious grandchildren, the "mommy" of 6 Standard Poodles and one grumpy grandpa. I live in Northern Utah, about 2 miles from a bird refuge, out in an agricultural area, which is pretty neat. I have been a RN for over 40 years, but I am disabled now with PTSD from all the stress I have had to endure while being a nurse, a mom, and wife. Life is like that, isn't it? 

Why now?  

I lost my daughter a little over a year ago, but even before that, I had become very Sedentary. I had experienced a disability that left a very active RN with relatively nothing to do. Though I live in a very nice place, it is absolutely so far away from anything that I had no place I could go without an automobile. I grieved over the loss of this life and basically went to pot. Our cars always seemed to have one down and one driving, which left the active car with my husband and me with the TV and computer. With this type of life-style comes physical problems and other problems resulting from the inactivity. So, in 2012 - I started a "Janet Improvement Action" and started to get going with life. I had a total knee operation to get rid of a bad knee and started on my BS in Nursing on crutches. In the process, I found a class at the university that offered Wellness Classes and eventually Wellness Couching classes.  To say that I took to this like a duck to water is an understatement. I thrived in college and in all of these classes. My PTSD seemed to get better, kind of depending on the class. But I learned tools to use that I found remarkable in my own life. At the beginning of 2014, I was in the 2nd part of my LAST semester of school with a great idea of what I wanted to do...and I had a great part-time job working as an advise nurse too! 

Valentine's Day 2014:

I was working on my homework at home when I received a call from my son-in-law telling me that my daughter had arrested at home and was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital after CPR. I later found out that on the way to the hospital she had re-arrested. My life changed in an instant. We found out that she had severe brain damage because of anoxia, which causes swelling of the brain tissue. I knew that my life had dramatically changed and that no matter what the outcome, I was not going to be able to finish my semester at the university.  While she was in the hospital, I called the university and cancelled my classes, with re-assurances that this was a good idea from the university. After she died on February 26, 2104, I had major life changing issues I had to resolve...and I did my best to take care of things. At the end of it all, I found out that my university wasn't going to drop my semester charges and so I end up owing them $3,000 and I don't have that BSN that I was working on...and I don't have a daugher. She has 3 autistic Spectrum disorder children who now didn't have a mother. Their dad was having allot of issues at the time, so one of my daughters moved into the house with her 4 children to take care of her sister's children. Well, that didn't work out. The pressure was pounding down on me and I really felt like I couldn't take life anymore. I wasn't depressed to the point of being suicidal, but I just kind of gave up on everything and because a hermit. A few months later, I began to have symptoms of Fibromyalgia. The really weird thing was, even if I was on vacation, I couldn't stay awake for any length of time.  (Note: My Son-In-Law has gotten himself together with the help of a very special lady and has taken my grandkids to go and make a new life with her in New York State. He's cleaned up and I'm so proud of them both and my grandchildren's new Grandma and Grandpa absolutely love them!)

So what's going on now? 
Now I am regulated to a Lazyboy chair, as it hurts too much to sleep in my bed. I think even with all of the diet, exercise, and life-style changes I'm looking at presently, I'll probably continue to sleep in a recumbent, zero gravity chair, but I'll get a better one that is new for this purpose. Well, it's time to use my knowledge and all of the cool stuff I learned in college to make a life plan that I can work on to save my precious life. I am going to turn 65 in a few months, but I'm not ready to say good-bye to this life - nope, not at all.

Time for research and to devise a plan: 
Ok, so now I'm into the research part of my plan, to pick a diet. I think I'm going to try to implement a eat-clean-diet! I still have to get a food plan together and go shopping for the right things to eat. This is going to be a real physical challenge for me to do as I can't stand up for very long to cook - guess I'll have to find a stool to cook with.  Next is the physical part. I have a healthrider (picture of a HealthRider) and I've had good success with this machine in the past and I know how to use it. I am going to start out at 5 mins 2x and day for a little while as I am so debilitated physically. I'll blog how that's going and let's see if I can get my high blood pressure down using this machine! If I can get physically stronger, I hope I can reward myself with this nice bike: pedego step-thru comfort cruiser electric-bike; maybe in the spring. 

Next Blog: Let's not forget the spiritual stuff and the Wellness Coaching courses I've completed and some "Ah-Hah" moments that I've had.  This gets into the real meat and potatoes of what is going on with inside me (except for the REAL messed up physical issues because of my current life-style). *Do I REALLY have to give up soda?? (The answer next time and a challenge...)