It’s decided…

5 month plan, Health, Necessities 4 Minutes

that today marks the start of my two months hiatus from work! 

You might have noticed that my posts have been far and far between the last month and a half… and there are reasons…!

What most of you don’t know is that I have some health problems that stop me from going to work full time. Mostly because my work entails a lot of time in front of computers, and if there is one thing I shouldn’t really be doing… it’s spending a lot of time in front of the computer! (Which really “sucks” when you want to spend time on your blog 😉 )

Let me backtrack just for a second to get you up to speed!

Early 2010 I was working on an really stressful project at work. Throw in a general problem with back/shoulder/neck, due to poor posture and a couple accidents over the years, loads of laptop work in meeting rooms with non-adjustable chairs, and you have a receipt for disaster. And before I knew it, I found myself with some tense and painful shoulders “up around my ears”, and even as slow as I can be when it comes to health, I decided I needed to do something about them.

In a roundabout way I found myself at a physical therapists office, August 4th the same year. And I have no idea what the heck she pushed, but she just about put me in the hospital, with the worse headache/migraine I had ever had in my life (and I suffer from migraines). I was pretty much a basket case, barely knowing my name, waking up the next morning, it was that bad! And unfortunately, since that day, August 4th, 2010 I have had 24/7 headaches.

Fast forward and I have tried all sorts of treatments, medications, shots and working part-time. It’s been slow going and today I’m way, and I mean waaaay better than where I started. But I’m still longing for the day when I’ll have a full day (or even a few hours) without a headache 😉

Lately, I’ve come to realise that I’m heading in the wrong direction again! Since around Christmas I’ve slowly been getting worse, with a substantial change the last couple of months. All I can do as soon as I get home from work is pretty much sleeping away the rest of the evening, and that’s no way to live!!!

So I’ve made a decision! To prioritise treatment and training over work the next few months.

My neurologist and I have decided that I have 5 “priorities”, which are (no specific order):

  • Treatment
  • Training/workout
  • Work
  • No medication
  • and some energy left over for me personally

As it is these days, I can only seem to partly do 3 out of 5 (and unfortunately, not even well).

So today I’m starting up with a new scheme (can’t give up you know 😉 ) I’m back on medication for a short while, I’m starting up with an osteopath, I will still continue to go to my naprapath, and I have arranged some training with my personal trainer at my sports centre.

My neurologist made me a 5 months plan for my priorities (I have done a quick redraw to put it into English):

5 month plan


So why am I telling you about this?

Well I’m not really sure, maybe it’s to explain why I have been doing so poorly with my blog lately. Why I’ve done nothing about clearing out stuff in June. Maybe it’s a part of moving forward and realizing that health and well-being should be a high priority in one’s life. And maybe I’m even telling you about this, as a gentle nudge to others out there, to not get themselves into this type of situation…

I’ve been struggling with the decision of prioritizing me over everything else, including work. I’m one of those (idiots) that have work as a number 1 priority in life, at the expense of a lot of things including me and my health.

Enough is enough, and on my minimalistic path, I’ve done some thinking about what things add value to my life, and what things are not worth keeping.

Now I’m not saying that work should go out the window (I do need that pay check), but I’ve come to realise – not at any cost, and definable not at the cost of my health. I shouldn’t need to be on medication and sleep my evenings away, just so that I can go to work as much as I do.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my job a lot, and that is part of the problem, I like it so much I have not listened to my body’s signals to slow down, until it was too late. And here I am, 4 years later and still not back to 100%. And I can promise you, that nobody at work is ever going to thank us, for sacrificing life for work 😉

It’s time to find a better balance! And for all I know, my better balance might be only working 50% days. Or maybe taking this break is exactly what I need, to turn a corner and get back to healthy.

I don’t know the answer, but for now, I’m giving this a try.

And for all of you out there who are prioritizing everything else but health!

Do not, and I mean do NOT be an idiot (like me) ignoring your body when it’s trying to tell you something. I did, for too long, and see where it has gotten me! Absolutely nowhere!

Ignoring excessive stress/pain for too long can result in poor health, chronic pain, loss of life quality and not to mention that it also most likely will give you loads of medical bills and can even affect your income down the line.

So please, please – take care of yourselves!

 

Published by Anne Lene @ MinimalistSometimes

Published

26 thoughts on “It’s decided…”

  1. Really sorry to hear about your headache problem. I suffer from something similar, although I can’t pinpoint a cause. I have a constant headache, accompanied with neck, shoulder and back pain, and a lot of the time I try my best to ignore it all because I just don’t know what to do about it! I think you’re doing a great thing by focusing on your 5 priorities. Best of luck with your training and treatments!! 🙂

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    1. I’m so sorry you are struggling with similar problems! I can’t give you any advise either on what’s smart to do, but I can let you know if this treatment stuff works for me or not! Just in case 😉

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        1. I’ll keep you posted 😉 and I sure hope the treatments work too… I’ve already have had my first meet with the osteopath (yesterday) and she’s leaving a very good impression, and everything she said so far sounds sensible 😉

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  2. After 30 years of neck, shoulder, and back pain, I tried chiropractic adjustments and massage for a year. Temporary fix, at best. I’d feel better for a day or so and then the neck pain returned.

    Two months ago, I tried acupuncture and my neck feels better than it has in YEARS.

    Good luck finding the relief/release you seek.

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    1. Ouch, 30 years, does not sound good. I’m so sorry you have had to struggle with that. I sure hope I manage to get control of it a bit before that long! I’ve tried acupuncture quite early after I started with the problem, but it didn’t do much good at that time. I’m going to see how the osteopath stuff is working first. Thanks for the suggestion though, it might be worth a revisits 🙂

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  4. Anne Lene,sorry to hear about your health problems but happy to hear you’ve got your priorities right now! Regarding acupuncture, as a consequence of an accident my brot also suffers from constant headache and is unablt to work. He has found that it depends on who gives acupuncture if it helps or not. Sounds weird but it is his experience. And some acupuncture helps a lot with some type pain (too bad he has several sources ofpain and not all are easex with aacupuncture). Hope you find what helps you!

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    1. Yes I guess it helps getting our priorities right. I’ve been a little slow on that, but better late than never 😉 I’ll try out the agreed plan for now, and if it doesn’t pan out, I might just try the acupuncture road once more. There are also those that say that Botox can help with chronic headaches, I haven’t quite decided to go that route yet (kinda my last resort). Do you know if your brother have tried that?

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      1. Yes, my brother tried it too (and we had loads of fun on his expense because his ears didn’t move after the botox shot, nobody will notice unless you know what to look for. His injury is in the back of the head), and it helped a little for awhile but not so much that he would have had it redone. I think: what ever works, go for it. So horrible to suffer from headache all the time!

        PS Just to encourage you to stick to the goof priorities you’ve layed out now: my brother also got severe allergies and intolerant of electricity, wifi now etc. Nobody quite knows why these developed a few years after the head “crack” to a person who before never had any allergies and as a surfer was fit (and spent 2-3 years surfing even in Norway, he calls the beaches there still his second home) but the heavy medication may have played a part on making him more vulnerable, as I am sure did also being unintentionally exposed to mold for a while. Anyway, now when he knows what causes the problems, he is getting his life on track (but it is and will always be a bit restricted), but I just wanted to warn you to take the messages from your body seriously! Hope you’ll get better!

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        1. Ouch, your brother sure got just about everything in the book, thrown at him! I sure hope he figures out what works best for him, so that he can live the best life possible, even with his problems. Please wish him well, for me.

          Yes, I will do my best to listen to my body, going forward. I think even just the break, will do me some good. Today I’ve been able to tinker around in my small garden, and that soothes my “soul” no ends 🙂

          Thank you so much for your thoughts and comments.

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  5. I can not imagine living in such pain for years. I am so glad you are taking the time to really take care of yourself! I am also glad that you let us all know what is going on with you so we can keep good thoughts coming your way. The blog will always be here and your followers will understand any prolonged absences as you get your health and life back.

    Take care of yourself ( (I know you will, now) and I wish you a speedy and full recovery!

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    1. Thank you, for you warm words. I know there are a lot of people out there that are worse of than me, so I can’t really complain to much 🙂

      I did want to let you guys know what’s been going on, it was hard to make the decision to take the time of, I had to mull it over for quite some time before I came to a conclusion, but I definitely think it’s the right decision.

      I am sort of hoping, with the time off, and hopefully more energy at the end of the day, that I will find my way back to the blog a little more often than I did during June. I still want to move forward with my decluttering, and I still have a few blogposts rattling around in my head. Maybe if I’m good at portioning my PC time, I can get some of that stuff down on “paper” 😉

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  6. I am so, so sorry that you’re going through all of this! I’m glad that you’re prioritizing yourself to the top of the list! I hope you will get some much needed relief with the new 5 month plan you’re putting into place.

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    1. Thank you, I hope so too. So far I’ve had a couple of sessions with the osteopath, I’ve relaxed a ton, read a bunch of books, worked in and enjoyed my garden and I’m only 1,5 weeks into the “program”. I’m on a roll 😉

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    1. It is important to listen to what the body are trying to tell us (we’re pretty bad at that), unfortunately as you have read from one of my later posts, you know my plan didn’t quite work out the way I had hoped, as I’m now applying for disability pension. Hopefully not working and not stressing about trying to get back to work, might just be what I need to get back to healthy… Time will show 😉

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