Took this checklist off the internet.
1. A Doctor Whom You Trust
2. A Treatment Plan With Which You Are Fully Compliant
3. A Healthy Lifestyle -- Including Exercise, Eating Well, and Sleeping Well
4. Unshakable Perseverance
5. A Manageable and Accessible Environment at Home
6. A Manageable and Accessible Environment at Work
7. Time for Yourself to Decompress
8. Someone to Turn to for Emotional Support
9. The Mindset That "Feeling Sorry for Yourself" Isn't an Option
10. A Hopeful Attitude for the Future
So. Do I have all this?
1. I trust my surgeon. Nice chap seems very keen to help me.
2. I dont actually have a treatment plan, just a repeatable prescription
3. I eat well but dont excercise enough and sleep is spasmodic, between being woken up by the knees
4. I am certainly trying not to let it beat me
5. Home is becoming more fiend than friend. My problem.
6. Work is ok. I have leeway to move when i need, to take time off when it flares and to work from home when i cannot drive
7. I have my card craft
8 .Emotional support is the hard one. There are people i can talk to but the one person who should be there is the one who cannot cope with it.
9. I allow myself a Poor Me moment once every three months or so. Gets it out of the way.
10 .My operation will give me a whole new lease on life.
There are a lot of people out there in the big bad world with more pain, less hope, less chance of change than i have. People with no friends or family to support them. People with no positive attitude to bolster them. I am lucky in so many ways.
I hope i always remember that.
