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Mentor

"Quality of life"......a gift that just keeps on giving.

Posted by Chris Trout, Volunteer Mentor @artscaping, Jan 8, 2021

The 2020 Holidays are over. What was your favorite gift? Was one of your gifts what I call a “quality of life” gift? Was it a new special pillow that made you sleep better? Perhaps you were given something that made your life a little easier like new shoes with a softer sole. Or maybe your family gave you a Mayo gift like the Pain course or a Habit workshop?

It’s never too late to think of and thank yourself for your endurance, generosity, and kindness to yourself. And these may be things that you have never mentioned because you didn’t want to be a burden or a nuisance or appear to be selfish.

I went crazy this year and got three of my quality of life gifts. I’ll share them with you and hope you realize how very important they were and are to me.

1. My MFR therapist began to feel that one session a week was not sufficient. So, we set up a six week trial of 2 sessions per week. The difference in tolerance was amazing. I didn’t have to endure increasing discomfort for 7 days….just 3. And so….gift #1. When I let my family know they found a way to help with the additional cost called a “stocking stuffer”.

2. For over a year I have been noticing more and more pain in my hip. Several years ago, I had an injection which was done poorly and so I wasn’t too excited about trying again. This time I had a chat with myself. “Why, Chris, are you going through increasing pain when there is a solution?” So I gathered my strong determination, had the injection, and am just jumping for joy. And my insurance covered it. Great…..another quality of life gift received and appreciated.

3. My 2021 quality of life gift brigade begins tomorrow when I have my preliminary appointment to fix my arthritic thumb. I can no longer open a jar or turn a key in the door lock. Seven years ago I had anchovy surgery on the left thumb. It is perfect. Now, why have I let the other one reach such a painful stage? I really don’t like surgery but this one is relatively doable and I won’t need too much help at home.

So Happy Holidays to me.
And thank you friends and family who shouted encouragement and helped support my wishes for a few things that just needed to get done.

What items would qualify for your quality of life? Let’s all share and help each other develop our 2021 list of can dos and must-dos.

Be happy and content in 2021.
Chris

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Aging Well Support Group.

Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Jan 13, 2021

A quality of life gift that I received this year is a new FitBit. A year ago, I gave mine to my mom to try. She was so motivated, I didn't dare ask for it back. For my birthday she gave me a newer model. I've been enjoying the new charge this has given me to keep up my workouts, steps and water intake. I'm enjoying the new energy and better sleeps.

REPLY
4 replies
ess77 - Elizabeth | @ess77 | Jan 13, 2021
In reply to @colleenyoung "A quality of life gift that I received this year is a new FitBit. A year..." + (show)
@colleenyoung

A quality of life gift that I received this year is a new FitBit. A year ago, I gave mine to my mom to try. She was so motivated, I didn't dare ask for it back. For my birthday she gave me a newer model. I've been enjoying the new charge this has given me to keep up my workouts, steps and water intake. I'm enjoying the new energy and better sleeps.

Jump to this post

Hello, Colleen. I'm ckg them out, and laptops, at Best Buy later this week if am able. I looking for a FitBit that does what I need but no more and is waterproof! Not too picky, eh? Just don't need a loaded one....anyway, those are the 2 things that I'm getting for me VERY SOON, little gifts to myself. Love it, to have permission to be nice to me. The best...Blessings all, Elizabeth

REPLY
1 reply
suzanne2 | @suzanne2 | Jan 13, 2021
In reply to @ess77 "Hello, Colleen. I'm ckg them out, and laptops, at Best Buy later this week if am..." + (show)
@ess77

Hello, Colleen. I'm ckg them out, and laptops, at Best Buy later this week if am able. I looking for a FitBit that does what I need but no more and is waterproof! Not too picky, eh? Just don't need a loaded one....anyway, those are the 2 things that I'm getting for me VERY SOON, little gifts to myself. Love it, to have permission to be nice to me. The best...Blessings all, Elizabeth

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@ess77 I just wanted to say I got a pretty good fitness watch for Christmas. It was gotten at Amazon. It records my sleep and breaks it down to how much of each stage you got and what percentile each is. It does the heart monitor with a graph of your heart rate for 24 hours. It does steps, calories burned etc and is supposedly swim proof. All of this data us transposed onto your phone and you can refer back.

REPLY
1 reply
imallears | @imallears | Jan 13, 2021
In reply to @suzanne2 "@ess77 I just wanted to say I got a pretty good fitness watch for Christmas. It..." + (show)
@suzanne2

@ess77 I just wanted to say I got a pretty good fitness watch for Christmas. It was gotten at Amazon. It records my sleep and breaks it down to how much of each stage you got and what percentile each is. It does the heart monitor with a graph of your heart rate for 24 hours. It does steps, calories burned etc and is supposedly swim proof. All of this data us transposed onto your phone and you can refer back.

Jump to this post

@ess77
Hi,
What is the name of your watch?. Do you know if the step counter counts steps 2 while you are moving your arm around but not actually walking Some of them do...My daughter’s Apple Watch does so is over inflating the number of steps she walks because it is on all day. Everything else is great. everything .

Thanks Fl Mary

REPLY
2 replies
Mentor
Chris Trout, Volunteer Mentor | @artscaping | Jan 13, 2021
In reply to @colleenyoung "A quality of life gift that I received this year is a new FitBit. A year..." + (show)
@colleenyoung

A quality of life gift that I received this year is a new FitBit. A year ago, I gave mine to my mom to try. She was so motivated, I didn't dare ask for it back. For my birthday she gave me a newer model. I've been enjoying the new charge this has given me to keep up my workouts, steps and water intake. I'm enjoying the new energy and better sleeps.

Jump to this post

Now that is a gift that fits as well as one the keeps on gifting. Thanks for sharing @colleenyoung. Appears that both you and your Mom got "quality of life" gifts. Cool.........

Be safe and protected.
Chris

REPLY
Mentor
Chris Trout, Volunteer Mentor | @artscaping | Jan 13, 2021
In reply to @lacy2 "Hello Suzanne.. that's a lot to take in all in one day. We don't have a..." + (show)
@lacy2

Hello Suzanne.. that's a lot to take in all in one day. We don't have a cardiologist where I live , closest one about 2 hours away and have to be referred but I did wear aheart monitor through famlily doctor before he left town.. this one had sort of suction cups and when I felt heart beating fast etc. I had to click on an attached monitor - when he got results he said he was not concerned with the extra beats! Much better to be under care of a cardiologist IMO. I was told I had Fibro five years ago but since then so many other things theydont even talk about that any more...but it was painful. That's horrible putting up with pain... and not getting much sleep doesnt help... I went almost a year with little sleep but now am back on Clonazepam I am sleeping better; however, there are drawbcks to being on this drug, but was on it for almost 20 years believe it or not til a young dr at hospital took me off it quickly and I went into withdrawal - I must say it was awful and gave me a taste of what it is like for people to be taken off meds. I never abused them, just was continually prescribed them and took them. I do listen to relaxation "tapes" on Utube and sometimes fall asleep listening to them, or not... would that be something you have tried or might try. Sometimes I shut my bedroom door and listen from ipad and sometimes use earphones. Only thing, Utube has ads so I pay about $12 a month Cdn. to not have ads... hope 2021 brings some relief for you.... J.S.

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@suzanne2 and @lacy2........now that's a great quality of life gift....$12 a month for music you can play 24 hrs a day. Have you ever listened to a tulip tongue drum? They are beautiful. Here is one being played on youtube.

I put in my iPods and I am off to la-la land. There are lots of options and I will have to admit I haven't earned this "quality of life" gift yet. I will keep working on it. Learning something new can be fun and ramp up that quality of life a few notches with just a few notes.

Be content and at peace.
Chris

REPLY
1 reply
Mentor
Chris Trout, Volunteer Mentor | @artscaping | Jan 13, 2021
In reply to @fiesty76 "What a wonderful post, @artscaping! So happy to read the three "quality of life" gifts you've..." + (show)
@fiesty76

What a wonderful post, @artscaping! So happy to read the three "quality of life" gifts you've given yourself and your courage in taking them on! Way to go!

What you wrote about: "It’s never too late to think of and thank yourself for your endurance, generosity, and kindness to yourself." is such a timely statement because these uncertain times have required personal changes and adjustments that really can and have challenged our coping skills. Your statement brought this home to me the other day during a conversation with my daughter.

I was telling her how stunned and happy I was in asking my doc to refill some daily meds and doc replied she'd just put me on the Covid vaccine list. Hadn't even considered asking for that! Two days later, I was given 1st Moderna!

My daughter, who is much less effusive than I, (sometimes I have to remind her to "gush more" ...laughing, replied: "I am glad because you are so deserving! You've taken great precautions, remained upbeat with sense of humor in place, and encouraged our family through some scary times this past year" Pure Gold those comments!!!!!

With my little family out-of-state and 15 mos since we last visited person-to-person, Zoom visits with them made a huge quality of life improvement for me.

Another real biggie for me was setting the self-challenge for 2020 of taking 3 walks/week and specifying which days. Accomplishing this deeply bolstered my self-discipline feathers because I'd stopped regular walks after the loss of my dog and there were days when I had to push myself out the door.

By far, the single best and happiest occurrence this past year for my little family and myself was their adoption of two hypo allergenic kittens. Imagine waiting 60 yrs as my hyperallergic sil did to finally be able to have 4-legged furry babies! The photos and Zoom times of him and family with Oscar and Ivan
are beyond fetching!

My self-challenge for 2021 needed a back-up in case I couldn't do the primary one of reteaching myself to knit. With arthritis in my hand, I wasn't sure if I could manipulate the needles so thot' a "no added sugar or salt" day/week would be good. Happily after at least 25 yrs I've begun my first new knitting project. While I've restricted sugar and salt consumption for some time, I found the first day of "no added sugar" much, much harder than that of salt.

Perhaps the single most important quality of life effect of this past year was realizing that due to my contentment in being at home more than most and not suffering the anger and anxiety expressed by others I know about city mandates restricting/closing facilities, I do not feel the stress or dismay so many voice.

Thanks, Chris, for prompting an opportunity to take stock of quality of life impacts and to the forum for having a safe place to recount them. Wishing all continued strength and hope in this brand new year!

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Hey there @fiesty76, I am so glad you were able to contribute to our "quality of life" discussion. 25 years without being able to enjoy your favorite activity.....knitting. Now we have to ask to see the results. What items are your favorites? Do you design them?

And just for a laugh...here is my knitting story. My grandmother made at least 2 dozen sweater sets and caps for my daughter. She seemed to enjoy it. So, one year I ventured into the knitting world....some with intricate embroidery and others with fringes and flowers. After a year or so, I noticed that I had never seen a family member or friend wear one.

And the next year.....I took up square dancing.

Find some joy today.
Chris

REPLY
1 reply
suzanne2 | @suzanne2 | Jan 13, 2021
In reply to @imallears "@ess77 Hi, What is the name of your watch?. Do you know if the step counter..." + (show)
@imallears

@ess77
Hi,
What is the name of your watch?. Do you know if the step counter counts steps 2 while you are moving your arm around but not actually walking Some of them do...My daughter’s Apple Watch does so is over inflating the number of steps she walks because it is on all day. Everything else is great. everything .

Thanks Fl Mary

Jump to this post

@imallears My watch is a Virmee- VT3 Plus5490 About the steps. I look at mine today and says I did 12721 steps. I teach kindergarten so i do a lot of walking.I think!!¡@@.@.@

REPLY
2 replies
suzanne2 | @suzanne2 | Jan 14, 2021
In reply to @suzanne2 "@imallears My watch is a Virmee- VT3 Plus5490 About the steps. I look at mine today..." + (show)
@suzanne2

@imallears My watch is a Virmee- VT3 Plus5490 About the steps. I look at mine today and says I did 12721 steps. I teach kindergarten so i do a lot of walking.I think!!¡@@.@.@

Jump to this post

Sorry about the symbols!!! Accidentally hit the wrong button!!! I really think the steps are pretty accurate. After midnight it starts over again and I am moving my hand around and no steps are recorded! Considering how much I move my arms when teaching I don't think the steps reflect those numbers!!!

REPLY
avmcbellar | @avmcbellar | Jan 14, 2021
In reply to @artscaping "@suzanne2 and @lacy2........now that's a great quality of life gift....$12 a month for music you can..." + (show)
@artscaping

@suzanne2 and @lacy2........now that's a great quality of life gift....$12 a month for music you can play 24 hrs a day. Have you ever listened to a tulip tongue drum? They are beautiful. Here is one being played on youtube.

I put in my iPods and I am off to la-la land. There are lots of options and I will have to admit I haven't earned this "quality of life" gift yet. I will keep working on it. Learning something new can be fun and ramp up that quality of life a few notches with just a few notes.

Be content and at peace.
Chris

Jump to this post

Hi @artscaping. Thank you for sharing. The tongue drum sound is very nice. It reminds me of the handpan. Have you heard the sound of the handpan instrument? Each has a different sound but similar. Here is a video of Tim Tom of Australia playing an axiom. He is featured in many videos. I have met him several times.

Enjoy!

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