What do Navy SEALs and Kidney Patients have in common?

[noahvale]

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[CHeatherS]

Thanks Noahvale, this sounds interesting.  I think it kind of follows a philosophy I have come to these last few years, but more of a focus and list to go on.....  I usually give others this kind of advice, but probably need it myself.  I am doing better with the sleep, but could do a LOT better.  And I want to get this down before I go for transplant, which is going to be the end of August.  Meanwhile, the noisy machine at night, and of course alarms.....  and wondering, will there be another alarm....  is kind of focusing on the negative, anticipating something other than restful sleep.  I shall ponder these things...

Blessings,
Heather

[MooseMom]

noahvale, this is some of the best advice I have seen in a very long time.  Thank you very much for posting these coping mechanisms; they are invaluable.  I'm going to print them out and save them.  Again, thank you.

[kitkatz]

Funny, I do all of those things already.  Maybe that is why I can sleep at night doing nocturnal dialysis. I find getting through the next half hour or even the next five minutes on the machine is a good goal to set sometimes when the run has been rough.

[MooseMom]

Funny, I do all of those things already.  Maybe that is why I can sleep at night doing nocturnal dialysis. I find getting through the next half hour or even the next five minutes on the machine is a good goal to set sometimes when the run has been rough.

Well, you always have been smart!  I let myself get overwhelmed to easily; I'm not as smart as you are about these things.

[kitkatz]

Not smart, been beaten down so much, I just had to learn ways to cope with my life.

[MooseMom]

Learning from the beatdowns is the very definition of "smart".

[Dannyboy]

Great post noahvale.   I'm gonna give the techniques a try.  I could use a good night's sleep, too much anxiety/worry going on.
---Dan

[noahvale]

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[jbeany]

Nice list!  I know I've been doing some of it unconsciously, but I'm a list maker, so this looks great to me.

What strikes me as funny was having undo this training in order to start thinking a bit more long term after my transplant.  I had been so focused on "Survive right now.  Period."  for so long, that after I got through most of the transplant complications, and then my grandmother's illness and death, it took me a while to refocus on having long term goals again!

[paris]

Good thoughts, Noahvale.   Like Jbeany, I have spent the past years just getting through today and not planning anything ahead.  And now, I am having problems with long range goals.  I still think "I may not beable to do that in 4 months".   It is still new to me to plan things for the fall or for next year.   I will start visualizing and then encouraging myself to believe in tomorrow again.   

[Jean]

The breathing routine really works. Sometimes I just have to have 15 minutes sleep, and it always works for me.

[kellyt]

Learning from the beatdowns is the very definition of "smart".

That's a great quote.

Very good information, Noah.     When I was younger, long before being diagnosed with kidney disease, I would do this really strange thing to help me fall asleep, but have since heard from professionals that it's a good tool.  Go figure.  I used to lay there with my eyes closed and pretent I was in a coma.  Crazy, right?  I would relax my whole body as if I were in a coma and I would then see/pretend that friends and family were coming in to visit and talk to me.  It worked.  I just hope it wasn't a little foreshadowing.   

[CHeatherS]

Jbeany and Paris, there is an issue that I am dealing with.  I think that I have really learned how to "be here now" this last couple years,  but now I am scheduled for a transplant on August 22, in far away Seattle (I am in Alaska).  After being quiet, and "here now" for these last several months, years.....  now how to get ready for traveling, and being with (an as yet unknown caregiver) others and away from my little world, it's kind of freaking me out.  That, plus a wedding that is  supposed to happen at my house next month, for my dear daughter who is at this point seemingly not very excited and noncommittal about any of the details.  I wonder if that is why my heart is beating irregularly of late....   and will that delay my transplant?  I can't see a cardiologist until the end of June.  Sigh......  get through this moment.....  I can use all the help I can get here....   

Thanks
Heather

[jbeany]

Jbeany and Paris, there is an issue that I am dealing with.  I think that I have really learned how to "be here now" this last couple years,  but now I am scheduled for a transplant on August 22, in far away Seattle (I am in Alaska).  After being quiet, and "here now" for these last several months, years.....  now how to get ready for traveling, and being with (an as yet unknown caregiver) others and away from my little world, it's kind of freaking me out.  That, plus a wedding that is  supposed to happen at my house next month, for my dear daughter who is at this point seemingly not very excited and noncommittal about any of the details.  I wonder if that is why my heart is beating irregularly of late....   and will that delay my transplant?  I can't see a cardiologist until the end of June.  Sigh......  get through this moment.....  I can use all the help I can get here....   

Thanks
Heather

It is a mental adjustment after transplant - you get really focused on your health and the limits it imposes.  It takes purposeful effort to break past those self-imposed and formerly necessary barriers, but, boy, it's fun when you finally figure it out!

I say if dear daughter is non-committal about details, hand her the stack of what you have attempted to plan - every last scrap of paper, picture, magazine, business card, etc. and tell her to give it back when she has a concrete picture in her head of what she wants.  Get it out of your hair! 

[lmunchkin]

Noah, your posting this reminds me of a book I read back in my Hippie days called "Be Here Now". Can't remember the Author, but it was a mind mechanism that trained people to live, think & breathe in the moment. Not the future nor the past, but in the moment.  Different wording but same principles!

lmunchkin

[kellyt]

Noah, your posting this reminds me of a book I read back in my Hippie days called "Be Here Now". Can't remember the Author, but it was a mind mechanism that trained people to live, think & breathe in the moment. Not the future nor the past, but in the moment.  Different wording but same principles!

lmunchkin

I need to read that book.  I have a hard time just enjoying now.   I've become a "what if".  "What if I had done xyz." or "What if I do abc and xyz happens".  Makes me and my husband nuts.

[MooseMom]

I, too, have real difficulty with living for today...being here now.  I have wasted about 7 years, not daring to commit to anything or hope for anything because I was expecting to be on dialysis sooner rather than later.  I know that none of us know what the future holds, but we pre-dialysis people know all too well that the future just isn't looking real great, that things are going to get a LOT worse before they will get better, and that's a hard thing to live with year after year.  I haven't been terribly successful living for today when the future looks so painful, but I do try very hard to find simple pleasures in each day.  I wish I was a generally more optimistic person.  I'm definitely a work in progress, and I am very admiring of people who have discovered how to feel real hope in the future despite having a progressing kidney disease.

[lmunchkin]

Kelley, I will ask around and try to find out.  Lord it was so long ago.  But I'm sure it is in the archives.  I read alot of books, and that seems to keep my mind of other distracting things life can throw at us. I love to read the Bible and I pull alot of strength from the word. My favorite story is the book of Job.  Talk about someone who went through hard times!

I will try to find out something for you Kelley! 

lmunchkin     

[kellyt]

Kelley, I will ask around and try to find out.  Lord it was so long ago.  But I'm sure it is in the archives.  I read alot of books, and that seems to keep my mind of other distracting things life can throw at us. I love to read the Bible and I pull alot of strength from the word. My favorite story is the book of Job.  Talk about someone who went through hard times!

I will try to find out something for you Kelley! 

lmunchkin     

Thank you!  I read slowly because everytime I sit down to read I get tired and my eyes just start closing.  lol   But I do get through them eventually.  I would greatly appreciate it. 

[Seamus]

Some of the best advice I have received in many years.  Thank you