This is Part 2 of a 3-part blog post series regarding events leading to a second Total Knee Replacement (TKR) surgery, taming surgery anxiety, and post-surgery recovery. Read Part 1 here. So you’ve made the decision to have joint replacement surgery. What next? For me, I needed to get my anxiety about the surgery under …
When I was in the Army, it was my job first, to learn to speak and write German, then translate the words to English. I love languages. I love to read. I love to write. I love words. But I realize my body’s been speaking to me in a language I don’t recognize. Communication in …
Having just had knee replacement surgery, I was unprepared for another surgery so soon! But life gives us answers we don’t want sometimes, and this past week (birthday week by the way), I spent in the hospital having an emergency appendectomy. Your pain is not real! Have you ever had laparoscopic surgery? A lot of …
I love Jim Gaffigan’s bit he does about people asking to try on his glasses. They put the glasses on and then, astonished, they say, “Wow, you really are blind!” The comment is meant innocently enough, but it feels icky. During my monthly “therapy session” at the hair salon, my stylist/therapist and I were discussing …
You probably think this song is about you… I’m thinking a lot about vanity lately. Carly Simon’s voice keeps ringing through my head telling me it’s true… I am vain. I don’t like to think of myself as vain. An exaggerated sense of self-importance is an unattractive human trait. You might ask what’s got me …
All disease begins in the gut – Hippocrates Studying Korean Natural Farming (KNF) has me learning about the soil microbiome and how important it is to plant health. Spraying topicals on a plant might bring temporary nutritional benefit or disease protection, but nothing affects its health more than the soil it’s grown in. And what affects …
It’s been years since arthritis has allowed me to sit behind a desk full-time, but my accountant brain still kicks in sometimes and has me thinking of pain in terms of debt. Like your earnings, you have a limited amount of activity to spend before you go into debt. Pain debt. What does pain debt …
I just found out that May is National Arthritis Awareness Month. My immediate reaction to that is (in a Kramer-from-Seinfeld voice) “Oh, I’m aware of it”. I’m aware of arthritis as I wake up in the morning and take inventory of what’s hurting today …as I head out to the garden with a list of …
Prescription drugs? NSAIDs? (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs i.e.: Ibuprofen, acetaminophen…) Are these the only answers to chronic pain? Wouldn’t it be nicer to have remedies that don’t come with a laundry list of side effects? Navigating the maze of alternative treatments is overwhelming. Unfortunately, the field is crowded with dubious salespeople and some vendors who genuinely …
My formative years were a weird dichotomy of first traveling the world and delighting in new sights and cultures, to life in rural Arkansas. For most of my life, I have believed that the years my dad spent in the Air Force were the best and the years in rural Arkansas left me wanting. But …