Active Recovery & The Journey to Heal

I can feel myself taking the small steps to regain independence and it feels so good. Exhausting, but good. I celebrate all the small victories and am grateful every day to wake up, live in this lifetime, and for the opportunity to heal. Even though my energy and stamina last only about one hour every day, those thoughts of gratitude are constantly on the forefront of my mind. 

I am entering the next stage of healing which is active recovery. And let me tell you, I say ACTIVE because it is!! Every day I attend 1-2 appts to actively support the recovery from surgery, chemo and radiation. It’s so crazy to think that before my diagnosis I was a healthy person. No aches or pains, just a noticeable loss of energy. But now due to the treatment that saved my life, I am learning how to do things correctly that I never even had think about such as speaking, swallowing, turning my head, lifting my arm and resting. So this is a week in the life of recovery:


Monday: Acupuncture, Physical Therapy
Tuesday: Speech/Swallow Therapy, Chiropractor
Wednesday: IVC, Mineral and Nutrient Infusion
Thursday: Chiropractor
Friday: Pain Management/Active Release Therapy

In the midst of those appointments I do make time to rest. Those are doctors orders and they’re the experts! I limit visitors because my white blood count is still very low and to engage with others steals much needed energy from my family at this point. But I make sure to take a nap, do some writing, or watch a movie/show on TV. In fact, the majority of the day is still in bed.

Although my body is healing, my brain is pretty active! Thankfully my anxiety has subsided and my thoughts are more into creating again. It feels good to be “back in my body”, so to speak. Remaining patient for my body to catch up to my mind is a true practice of slowing down and remaining present, but if it means a full recovery (which I plan on having), I’m up for the challenge! And I have all the love, support, dinners, childcare, and donations of my friends and family to thank. They have provided me and my family the time and space to dedicate to healing and we are eternally grateful. I could not do an ounce of this without knowing I had a crowd of cheerleaders behind me. And, THAT's what life is about.

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