Dancing with My Disabilities!: I Click My Heals Together Three Times...There's No Place Like Home...There's No Place Like Home...There's No Place Like Home...And I Find My Happy Place!

Blog Title: Dancing with My Disabilities! This blog was I Already Gave My Right Arm to Be Ambidextrous prior to Read My HIPS, which is now Dancing with My Disabilities. I am doing some renovating and will begin blogging for the New Year 2024. Please be patient, and please continue to support this blog as well as my other blog Chronically Mommy, which is also being renovated to be more up to date. Pass this information on to anyone that you know may be interested in knowing...To be continued...

Dancing with My Disabilities!

Title: Dancing with My Disabilities! I had my shoulder and both hips replaced, and I am changing things up a bit on this blog! I began belly dancing in 2010! Yes, you read that correctly!! I am going to be blogging about my experience as a woman with several joint diseases and conditions who had her shoulder and both hips replaced who now belly dances, dances hip hop, performs, teaches dance to children of all ages and abilities, teaches belly dance fitness classes to adult women, teaches chair belly dance movement classes to people with mobility issues and disabilities, and takes a Pure Barre class as well! I still have pain, but I want to blog about how I have fun too! Please read Chronically Mommy (chronicallymommy.blogspot.com) for info on health/pain and being a mom to a 13-year-old son. I have avascular necrosis in my shoulders, hips, and knees, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondylitis, Sjogren's, fibromyalgia, hEDS, POTS, MCAS, vascular/ocular/hemiplegic migraines, pseudotumor cerebri, trigeminal neuralgia, occipital neuralgia, endometriosis, and chronic shingles. I found out that I have autoimmune arthritis in my cervical spine and a bulging disk in my lumbar spine. Fourteen years ago, my spine orthopedic surgeon told me I had a small amount of inflammatory arthritis in my SI joint. The question was if the spinal involvement was due to Psoriatic Spondylitis, which is a more severe form of Psoriatic Arthritis or is it a new diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis? Now, they have an updated term, Axial Spondylitis, which fits my symptoms and diagnostic proof. Whatever the diagnosis, the treatment will remain the same. I had my left hip replaced in 2003; my right shoulder replaced in March of 2010. I gave my right arm to be ambidextrous! LOL! Lastly, I had my right hip replaced on May 10th, 2012, and I began belly dancing two years prior to my right hip replacement surgery. Yes that's correct! I began belly dancing in 2010, just after my shoulder replacement, before my son was born. I performed for the first time in 2012, five days prior to my right hip replacement surgery. Pain is still another part of my life. It is just a question of when, where, and how much, but I would like to use this blog to write about my experience as a woman with several joint diseases and conditions who had both hips and a shoulder replaced and now spends her free time dancing, teaching, and performing! I began dancing with a troupe in February of 2014, Seshambeh Dance Company. I now take a Pure Barre class on Monday mornings, teach ballet, tap, and creative movement on Monday evenings to children of all ages and abilities, take a hip hop class with all adult women on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, teach a belly dance fitness class on Thursdays to all adult women, and teach a chair belly dance movement class to people with mobility issues and disabilities as often as I possibly can. Join me in my journey! At times, I take 16 to 20 pills a day. I give myself an injection each week on Fridays for my autoimmune/autoinflammatory arthritis diseases. Just when one thing is doing better, something else goes downhill! My attitude, however, is always going uphill! I am 49 years old, have been married for 24 years, and my husband and I adopted Mick in Dec. of 2010! I have a lot on my plate right now, but I take it one moment at a time. I believe that God will never give me more than I can handle. However, I do need to learn to ask for help sometimes instead of always doing it by myself!

Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I've never done before.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these daya are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me, oh.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

I Click My Heals Together Three Times...There's No Place Like Home...There's No Place Like Home...There's No Place Like Home...And I Find My Happy Place!

"We've all heard the expression 'Find your Happy Place.' That may be a tough thing to do as a chronic chick. So this edition of PFAM asks 'Where's your Happy Place?'"

I could easily say my favorite place to go is the ocean. I love the beach and the sound of the water as the waves hit the shore. It is peaceful and relaxing. I could also say that I enjoy walking through a particular park in St. Louis. I love the neighborhood that surrounds it, and it reminds me of when I was younger, meeting my husband, and starting my life as a young adult. I could also say that going to the aquarium in Georgia & Kentucky calms my soul. I have mentioned before that I so loved to dance, so anywhere I could dance would certainly bring out that passion. Of course, I have yet to mention the one place where I truly find HAPPINESS.

I don't have to go very far, you see...

The best part about this place is that anyone can go there, you don't need an invitation, you don't need a plane or a car, and you never have to leave your living room!!! That's right. My Happy Place is a state of mind! I can get there when I am having a relatively pain free day and have friends to share laughter with, or if I'm having a painful day and use humor and laughter to simply release endorphins and make me feel better. They say laughter is the best medicine. Well in this case, laughter, humor, a comedy, a joke, the newspaper's funny pages all can take me to My Happy Place.

I have learned that every single day it is important for me to take the time to think about the important people in my life and anything else that God has blessed me with in my life. No matter how badly I think I have it, there is always something I am blessed with. It is never helpful for me or anyone to focus on the negative, but sometimes we do get stuck in funks, especially when we suffer from chronic illness and pain. If everyday we take that time and focus on the positive, like me you just might find that it helps you get to your Happy Place much easier. It makes since. Doesn't it? When we concentrate on the positive, we are happier than those who dwell on the negative.

It might even help if you take it a step further. You could actually write a thank you letter to someone who has helped you out significantly. You don't even have to actually give that person the letter. Just putting those words down on paper or typing them out on your computer will amaze you. Expressing gratitude shoots the happiness quotient up a notch! Afterward, I'll bet you even stay in your Happy Place longer than if you didn't write the letter.

I have found that finding My Happy Place is easier when I am doing something that I love. I enjoy many different things so I am extremely fortunate to be able to get to My Happy Place often. Writing and blogging, painting, dancing, swimming, and meditating are just a few of the activities that I love to spend time doing. So when I'm able to have fun doing something I'm good at, I'm at My Happy Place in no time. What's better is that one of my strengths is social connection. Given the chance to interact meaningfully with other people and practice self-expression, allows me to choose hobbies that involve others. I get to meet lots of different people, and many times I can do it from home, even online. So how great is it to be able to go to My Happy Place when I'm online, say chatting it up with my facebook friends or other social network buddies who also have chronic illnesses, who are also looking for a social connection, to interact with someone and find their Happy Place!

Finding the time to volunteer, donate my time, do simple acts of kindness, and just being generous basically adds up to doing good to others. I feel that is extremely important to getting to My Happy Place quicker. Ya know why? Well, it raises the happiness factor. It just does. You give to others; you are happier. Therefore, you reach your Happy Place much faster than if you didn't do good to others. Simple!

Mostly though, I am able to get to My Happy Place with my little family. I just have to sit in our sun room with baby toys spewed all over the floor, my hubby making funny noises at our son, my son sounding like a pterodactyl screaming, my dog licking the food off my son's face, and me~well, I am just in awe!!! Yes, this is what I always wanted! I always wanted this! Believe it or not. I prayed for this. Who wouldn't want a child that sounds like a pterodactyl, a dog that keeps their kid clean, and a hubby who sounds just like the baby!? It is exactly what I pictured My Happy Place to be. When I'm here at my home, and in that "Happy Place" state of mind, it's a relaxed, calm, peaceful kind of happiness. But whenever I am away from my home and want to go to My Happy Place, I go here to the sun room with the toys and the kid and the dog and the hubby!

These are my steps to getting to My Happy Place since you can't get there by car, plane, train or boat. You have to train your brain. This is how I do it. I hope it helps you. I hope that you can enjoy your Happy Place as much as I enjoy mine. I hope to meet up with you sometime. Perhaps our Happy Places will cross paths.

First, I decide, "Do I want to be happy right now?"
If the answer is yes, then next, I tell myself that I have permission to be happy.
Then I understand that I am in control of my own happiness.
It is OK to feel my own feelings and to laugh.
Focus on the positive.
Show gratitude.
Focus on my strengths.
Interact meaningfully with others.
Do good and be kind.
Live in the now~find My Happy Place!

It's Time You Understood.

I want you to understand that your arthritis is not the same as mine if you tell me "I have arthritis too in my knee sometimes." That is not what I have. I have autoimmune arthritis. I have fatigue, pain, and stiffness in every joint in my body, take very serious medications like biologics which is in IV form every 4 weeks at the hospital's infusion center and chemotherapy pills. The type of autoimmune arthritis diseases that I have affects my eyes, my lungs, my heart, my skin, my ligaments, my tendons, my salivary glands, as well as my joints. Please visit www.causes.com/WorldAutoimmuneArthritisDay to donate $5 for the cause.