Sunday, August 15, 2010

Its that time again!

Yep. I'm back. I've been doing some personal writing this summer and I have decided to share it with the 2 of you who actually read my blog. Before I post some of the letters that I have written, I need to let you all in on some background material.

I am 42 years old, married and the mother of 2 wonderful and beautiful girls, now 13 and 8 years old. I have always been active. I grew up swimming in the ocean, surfing and scuba diving. I played soccer for 35 years and played in both high school and in college. I played on rec teams, both indoor and outdoor, sometimes on 2 or 3 teams at a time, for over 20 years. I have played every sport from ice hockey to wheelchair tennis. I taught special education physical education for 17 years. I refereed quad rugby at a national level and coached youth soccer for many years.

For fun, I taught quilting , classes, ran a successful machine quilting business and made some award winning quilts. I have taught myself to be a decent photographer and I'm not a half bad cook. I spent my summers selling my art at farmers' markets and the Portland Saturday Market.

None of this is bragging. I just want you to know where I came from so you can understand where I am today. Three or four years ago, things slowly started to change. I was tired all of the time. I no longer wanted to play soccer and martial arts class that I had breezed through were becoming a challenge. Just getting through my day was becoming more than I could handle. I finally was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I gave up quilting because it hurt my back. I gave up soccer and coaching. I gave up my job and selling at the markets. After 2 years of being medicated up to my eyeballs for depression, anxiety, insomnia, pain and asthma, I began to feel that I was stuck in place and the thought of spending the next 40 or 50 years feeling like crap was overwhelming and depressing. I needed a path to a better place but I had no idea where to start looking. I was waiting for something to happen.

It did.

But you all will have to wait until my next post...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was a female athlete on scholarship through college. At the age of 41, I started having episodes of high blood pressure, fatigue, shortness of breath, etc. My primary doc and GYN both said I was "over 40 and things start to change". My doctor put me on blood pressure meds and tried Lyrica for fibromyalgia. After numerous visits to the doctor I finally went to a cardiologist because of my shortness of breath just walking up a flight of steps.

Come to find out, I had an aneurysm in the aorta near my heart that could rupture at any time. Within weeks I was in an operating room having some new parts put in and repairs to the valves. I was that close to being another John Ritter.

I don't usually participate on blogs but if I can share with the world that you really need to be your own advocate when it comes to your health. To this day, I do not know what led me to question my doctor. I leave it to the Divine or that "life force" within us all.

I wish you good health and many Blessings.

Lindentreephotography said...

Wow. What a story. I think the lesson here is to stop and listen to that life force. Your body knows exactly what it needs to be healed. Its a lesson I am trying to learn.