Last year at this time I was nervous eyeing up everything on my plate. 2010 was shaping up to be action packed! Chris and I were planning our wedding, a 2 week cross-country road trip, home and garden projects, looking forward to my sister’s wedding and he had several multi-day (and one four-week) military trainings on the calendar. Would I have the gas to survive the year?
In early 2008 I was diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome and I spent two years trying to figure out how to manage my responsibilities and still have enough in the tank for fun. That's not to say I didn't have fun! I met and developed an amazing friendship and relationship with my husband and advanced my career but it wasn't easy.
I was constantly exhausted, in a lot of pain and generally wasn’t very happy. I felt very limited by Sjogren’s and the symptoms that often overlapped with Rheumatoid Arthritis and/or Lupus. It's easy to see why I was worried about surviving 2010!
But everything changed late in January. I attended a support group for Sjogren’s and a woman approached me during a break. She said, “I’m 80 years old and I’ve traveled all over the world and have 6 great-grandkids. You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it.” If asked, I sincerely would have guessed she was mid-fifties; I NEVER would have guessed 80! She offered me a few more words of encouragement before the meeting started up again.
Right then and there I decided that I wasn’t gong to be “sick” for the rest of my life. I promised to take care of myself, maintain realistic expectations and not dwell on my limitations or bad days.
I realized that if I spent the rest of my life over-analyzing every muscle ache or swollen joint I would always be worrying about something and wasting precious energy obsessing about what I couldn’t do instead of saving it up and using it for an adventure.
In 2010 I changed my attitude. With the right amount of planning I can do anything and keep up with my family and friends.
- I carefully plan my days to bank extra time and energy for evening dinner or happy hour plans. I also know I need to schedule down time for myself.
- I work hard at work, use my comp time to go home early when I can and try really hard to leave work at work!
- I eat healthy as much as possible when confronted by bad choices I try to remember how awful I feel after I indulge in something delicious- but bad for me.
- I try to exercise regularly. This is probably the hardest because I feel better when I’ve been exercising regularly. But, when I feel like crap it’s hard enough to find my work-out clothes much less get out the door!
2010 was about figuring out how to survive and 2011 is about taking those tools and strategies to the next level. Not sure what all 2011 has in store for me, but I did just sign up for a Warrior Dash in July!
