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Smiling my way through life is not easy but I have faith it can be achieved and here are just a few reasons why!

Got to love when you lose all your work because the browser freezes and someone WordPress didn’t save your work. Yikes!! So let’s see if I can remember what I was saying so beautifully before. LOL.

For March 2021, A Chronic Voice has provided 5 writing prompts and I have chosen to address 3 of her prompts – smiling, breathing and incorporating! For my August 2020 answers, visit the post here.

Smiling My Way Through Life

One of the most common compliments I receive has to be my smile. Not trying to be boastful but my lips upturned into a smile are my most attractive feature. So when passing someone I know or even someone I do not know, I will often work those mouth muscles and bestow a smile upon them.

But what’s behind that smile?

Is it love? respect? amusement? even frustration?

I would have to say that more times than not, since becoming ill, the smile may be genuine but it is tinged with pain.

I would have to say that more times than not, since becoming ill, the smile may be genuine but it is tinged with pain. When you live in chronic pain, there is always pain influencing your actions and words and thoughts. So, especially when I see someone I love, I will greet them with a genuine smile but behind it is the hope that they don’t see how much pain I am in nor ask the question we all hate – ‘how are you?’

Even though I love them and appreciate their concern and taking the time to check up on me, I wish that I could be in their shoes without the pain and either a career girl or a stay-at-home mum.

Prescription for Contentment

Thankfully I sat down and re-read Linda Dillow’s Calm My Anxious Heart and was reminded of the prescription for contentment.

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By re-reading that chapter alone on contentment, I have been able to have a great sense of contentment that allows my smile to be even brighter and not tinged with regret quite so much.

How Do You Breathe with Chronic Pain?

This prompt really spoke to me because as many of you might know, I have a rare lung disease called Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis. I have had to have a couple whole lung lavages at Cedars-Sinai because of the fluids in my lungs that make it hard to breathe and required me to be on oxygen 24/7.

I, Praise the Lord, have been able to get better so that I am not requiring oxygen on a constant basis and can even walk the dog around the neighborhood without horrendous chest pain (!!) and without needing my oxygen! In fact, my Pulmonologist and I just had a phone consult and he was thrilled to hear that my oxygen levels have been close to perfect at 96! That’s like AMAZING considering it used to be in the 70s sometimes before I had my lung lavages and was on oxygen. Scary stuff.

Can Masks Lower Oxygen Levels?

Nope! I may not be a doctor but I can say from experience that I have had no issues wearing either a cloth mask or a surgical mask! My oxygen levels remain consistent either way and I feel like I have plenty of air to breathe in and out on walks around the neighborhood and visits to the doctor’s office. Even when I have to be face down on the table for procedures I am quite conformable with my breathing!

Incorporating New Routines Into My Daily Life

Building a New Wardrobe After Losing Weight

I have been on the Myers Way (Autoimmune Protocol Diet) since January 2nd of this year and one of the positive side effects is that I have lost almost 20 pounds in that time. It means I can go through my closet and create a donation bag for Salvation Army! Isn’t it exciting and fulfilling to be able to put together a pile of your clothes that are too big and frumpy looking? Love it! And to have clothes that now fit that once had been too tight.

Writing My 1st Novel

I have dozens of drafts saved on my computer. Dozens! Most have a few chapters and then either my interest fizzled out or I ran into a roadblock.

And then I got sick and my hands were a principle complaint for pain. Thankfully I found compression gloves helped me. However they only help so much meaning to write a blog post, let alone a book, is very time consuming and painful. I often have to take long breaks and come back to my work. (Which is why the fact I lost my original post is so annoying. All that pain I put into the first draft.)

So it was quite a gamble when I decided to pull up a blank page on my word processor application and began to type a story that had been begging for me to write for years. I have been able to accomplish 8000 words so far which is no small feat for me. Hopefully I will continue to have enough strength and patience to keep at it. (Fingers Crossed.)

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

2 Thessalonians 3:16

So there you have it! My March 2021 writing prompts are finished and I hope they have been insightful and useful for you. I cannot wait to see what the rest of the Chronic Illness linkup ladies (and gents) come up with. You too can find their posts here. Enjoy!

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