Skip to main content

Each Day is a Blessing (Posted 4/11/2016)

This weekend I was able to go home and spend some quality time with my family. It is honestly very hard going through all of these medical struggles and being away from your biggest support system. However I feel rejuvenated and ready to take on this next week.


Earlier today I went on a hike. It was a hike I had been on many times before. It's about two miles all uphill and then two miles back downhill. It took me twice as long to complete the hike than it normally does and that's when I really realized how much my Chiari is effecting my life. I'm a person that tends to just work through things and not even notice how it is truly making me feel. Ever since my diagnosis, I've been consciously more aware of my symptoms, what is normal and not normal. I realized that I actually have a consistent pressure within my skull. I thought that was normal, and I guess it is normal on Chiari standards.


Back to the hike.. I love hiking. There's just something about the satisfaction of getting to the end and the pure bliss of looking over the edge of a cliff. Last summer I hiked all the time, and I did this particular hike multiple times with no problem. Today was a great day and I loved being outside, I just see now how much the Chiari is part of my every day. The pressure kept increasing as the hike continued and I became much more fatigued faster than ever before. When I ended the hike, I was pretty proud of myself for making it. I just now know that I really can't do more intense hikes before surgery, or I guess even after for a little while.


My title of this entry on my blog is that every day is a blessing. As I was reflecting on my day, I realized I was thinking a lot about how much pain I was in. Then I started thinking positively. Today my blessings were abundant. I was able to experience a thrill of a hike (even though it was a doozy), I got to hang out with my sister and best friend for hours, and I was able to have a nice dinner out with my entire family before heading back to school. It's the little things in my daily life and my support system that will get me through pre and post surgery times. Today I am blessed, just like I am every day. #CMstrong

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Years

 March 28th, 2016. That was the day my life forever changed.  Here we are now, March 28th, 2021, five years later, and my life is no where where I expected or thought it would be that day when I was 19 years old sitting at Swedish Neuroscience Institute at Cherry Hill in Seattle, still a dance major at Cornish College of the Arts. I don't like thinking about that day in detail, in fact when I do, I feel like I become a different person. The past few weeks leading up to today felt very different than in years past.  On March 17th, I was lucky enough to be able to get my second dose of the COVID vaccine and I feel SO relieved which brought a lot of emotions up for me. My anxiety has eased up a small bit and a weight has come off my shoulders. It's been a year since this pandemic hit, and I've never been more aware of my health then ever before.  Yesterday, my dancers had their first competition in almost 2 YEARS. COVID took away all of our competitions we were scheduled for l
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 4 Post-Op (Posted 5/13/2016)

Well, I had my surgery! Check in time for it was at 6am, so I was up bright and early along with my whole family. My anxiety level was through the roof as expected. The first nurse then called me in and took me back to registration and I had my mom come with me. At that point I had changed into my gown and was on the hospital bed with an IV line in me. It was all happening so quickly and I was so scared that I started crying. Oh and of course I am the youngest patient in there... But my nurse Jenn at that time was super nice and helped me out and so did my mom. Then I had to say goodbye to my family and go down into pre-op and OR. I started crying again during pre-op cause there were so many weird noises, oxygen tanks, needles, and bright bright BRIGHT big lights. My anxiety was even higher. So after I met my anesthesiologist, I was given a calming medication (aka "happy juice") and right after they inserted that into my IV. After that moment, I blacked out and don't reme
Post a Comment
Read more

My Blog Absence (Posted 9/30/2016)

A big hello to all of my followers and a big thank you for being so patient... This is probably the longest I've waited to give an update, but I have had one hell of a month. Side note: One of the best things that have happened this month was the article from South Sound Talk on me. I have the link below :) it follows my story: my diagnosis and how I doing now. So check it out! http://www.southsoundtalk.com/2016/09/08/dancers-focus-remains-on-pointe-through-brain-surgery/ Alrighty, time to get to the real stuff.. Earlier this month or even this week (Chiari brain fog guys am I right?) Any who.. We were talking and we talked about how we hear all of these success stories, but they never or barely touch on the hard times, because people want to hear about the good with success stories. Totally understandable. However I feel like that's why I failed and failed over and over again to post anything, because it truly didn't feel like any good was happening in my day-to-day life.
Post a Comment
Read more