Winter warming coffee talk: health update (hiatus apology)

Hello my luscious loves! I'm back to posting on a more regular basis, building up to posting daily like it says on the tin! I'd like to first of all apologise for my silence, it's not out of a lack of content or passion for this blog and it's readers more so than it was about health challenges. 

After just over a month of staying out of the hospital, trying to act normal and attempting to maintain a long stint of good kilter, on January 23rd my health took a turn for the worst. I was at home on my own when I felt a sharp pain affecting my left side through my chest, collarbone, ribs and upper middle back. In panic I contacted my mother who rushed straight home from a meeting to be by my side at which time the ambulance arrived. I was to go on a scary experience going in and out of consciousness, reacting to Entonox (gas and air) with an elevated ECG whilst being rushed to hospital with sirens blazing. At this point I was being treated as a heart attack case because of what the ECG was showing and my history with Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome. 

To cut a long story short I ended up staying in hospital for four tough days and the elevated ECG and excruciating pain and breathing problems were diagnosed to be Costochondritis. It's a painful condition which involved  swelling of cartilage in my rib cage and chest wall thus the trouble breathing. It took up to three weeks after being discharged from the hospital to feel anything close to human and to survive without oromorphe, naproxen and cocodamol or any help breathing. 

During this time and as always my family were golden. They rushed to be by my side, they took days off to spend all day by my bedside as they often do, my brother brought me a late Christmas gift he'd bought me in San Francisco (pictured above) and my parents kept my fruit basket overflowing with enough food feed the whole ward. My extended family also travelled for hours to come and see me and my church family went into a season of prayer and fasting on my behalf for a month of Mondays ending last week, keeping our phones busy with encouragement and check up calls. One special church sister never fails to visit me bearing treats and always prays for me and she was another rock in this time. My cousin came and took me out for a drive when I was stuck in recluse mode forcing me out of my funk! All of the above and more left me feeling like 1) I'm more than a conqueror 

2) the good in my life outweighs the bad 

3) I'm going to make it out of this and I'm determined to make something of myself so these people's love and prayers count for something. I'm truly blessed to have so much love in my life and I don't take it for granted. 

As it stands I'm doing so much better and I have more faith than fear. I'm in hot pursuit of a music manager and a keyboardist/ guitarist to start rehearsing the songs I wrote in my down time  and prepare to gig over spring and summer. Some other amazing opportunities have presented themselves, the fruits of which you will see very soon!!! I'm so excited! 

I have a few performances coming up and I'm judging a local talent show and got some projects lined up with some so this stint of illness propelled me to be more fierce in the pursuit of my dream. 

In all this I've been forced to think, restrategise and get my life in order. First in line was putting my vision boards together and positioning them where I can see them and read them everyday! 

It's important to expand your dreams into clear set long term and short term goals. The more you see them and work on them everyday, the more of a chance you have to keep your focus and see them turn into a reality. 

Secondly and I'm still working on this, regular chats and coffee breaks with good friends who are the iron to my iron. Of late I've been meeting up with a treasured friend who gets me like no other, for coffee dates and catch ups with herself on a more regular basis and every time afterwards I feel like I've been to a spiritual spa! 

 

With the kids being present most of the time I've found instant joy and gratification being hopelessly maternal.  Such interaction has eased the winter blues and made me recover quicker. 

I would highly recommend anyone going through a tough time to spend some time with the children in your life once in a while and observe them. Here's why:

1) Kids are trusting, innocent and remain untainted or coarsened by dissapointments 

2) If a child wants something, there's nothing that can deter their hope and faith and they usually get what they want

3) Children have big imaginations that we all once had but in our quest for knowledge and education we rewired our brains into a numb state of rigid routine and facts. 

4) Kids always find a way to make everything they are doing fun. It may come as a nuisance to adults but if you observe kids, simple tasks turn into fun and though fun overtakes being thorough, they still have that quality in them that often disappears as you get older. 

Some may argue that children have nothing to worry about pertaining to money woes, work stress and family worries which makes it easier to be happy and carefree. To this I've always said that happiest people act like adults and think like children. 

That's not to invalidate the importance of maturity or the need to use skills of diplomacy and tact which kids naturally lack. It's  to implore adults to keep dreaming and believing, keeping grey clouds at bay, everything will fall in place as it should. 

As always thank you for reading. Warmth and love to all

Kymmiisha

Xo