Bonus Chapter - Getting Back On Track

I don’t know how many times I reached for this tip sheet  because it was very valuable information.

A setback does not mean that you’ve failed; it just means that you need to start again – immediately.

Learn how to reclaim your routine.

1.     Don’t expect to start where you left off.

2.     Evaluate your current position and set goals accordingly.

3.     Come back to the right frame of mind.  Try to keep confidence in yourself when you relapse.  Instead of expending energy on feeling guilty and defeated, focus on what it will take to get you started again. 

a.      Imagine yourself back on track.  Recall the aspects of your past successes that you enjoy most.

b.     Come up with a tantalizing reward to give yourself when you meet your first goal after resuming your program.

c.      Partner up.

d.     Divide the overwhelming aspects of your goals into smaller chunks and give yourself the option of stopping at the end of each one.  However, when you reach the checkpoint, encourage yourself to move on to the next one rather than quitting.

e.      Rather than focusing on why this is difficult, concentrate on how good you’ll feel when you get back on track. 

Reclaim your physical and emotional health. 

Lymphedema Expertise - A Personal Journey

In the recent past, I got a call from a beloved Aunt.  She had just learnt she has lymphedema and she turned to me.  I would be able to give her guidance, I, in her mind, was an expert. 

I’ll give her one thing; I’ve been in her shoes.  And I wasn’t there any longer.  Oh, don’t leap to the conclusion that I no longer have lymphedema, I do.  Lymphedema is a chronic condition.    There is no getting over it.  That was my first lesson because before I had lymphedema I didn’t even know what chronic actually meant.  In my mind chronic meant severe, or serious.  But it means forever.  That’s the first hurdle I had to face.  Forever is quite a bit to get used to. 

My life is over – is how the first words came out.  Only in time was I able to modify that to be ‘my life as I knew it was over’.  And then only after much more time and huge efforts both mentally and physically have I been able to say that ‘my life is so much better now’.  Not with any qualifiers concerning lymphedema, but simply and absolutely better and that directly because of my lymphedema.

One of my first realizations is that pain is a powerful motivator.  The story started there for me, but no story is complete without an audience.  So now I will tell you.