20 March 2023 Neurology Appt

Hello to you. How are you? I’m pretty much the same. This morning my Aunt and I went to a neurologist appt. He did tests to see my reflex response like tapping my knees and wrists and touching the bottom of my feet. He couldn’t find anything so wants to do an MRI and see if anything shows up to explain why I’m experiencing the swaying motion when I walk. He was familiar with Mal de barque syndrome but wasn’t aware of any connection between getting tased and brain and nerve damage. So we shall see what happens.

I was grateful to have my Aunt there with me. When I was married, I had my husband with me all the time. Now that I’m divorced I have to rely on family and they are so happy to help! I am truly grateful and blessed to have supportive family and friends.

A reflection:

Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of social media posts from people from my generation reflecting on what it’s been like growing up when we did. I was born in 1968 and it really is amazing how much we have advanced in some ways and regressed in others. With people living longer there is a mich mesh of generations co-existing at the same time. There is a lot of overlapping between generations. A lot of people seem to want things to go back to “normal” and as I see it what we are experiencing is our new normal. Everyone just wants to do and be what they want but there are forces pushing back against it. Specifically the LGBTQ+ agenda. As a woman who has struggled at times with being born a woman and accepting my lot in life I sometimes get jealous of women who have decided to go through with trans surgery. Specifically top surgery I hate having large breasts. A lot of these types of folks end up on Tik Tok and I am drawn to their pages and stories. One person I was drawn to, can’t remember there name but they laid it out that if you are identifying as trans it is a mental illness. You have to get an official diagnosis in order to go forth with trans surgery and hormone therapy. I had never heard someone say that before. I have found drag queens fascinating. My ex and I used to watch Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Most of the contestants were gay and some trans. You don’t just wake up one day and decide these things. Most seem to know early on that they are different. I was probably 5 or 6 years old when I remember telling my Grandma I was supposed to be a boy. I was one of two female grandchildren, the rest were boys. So it makes sense I would think that. I am glad to be a woman despite the drawbacks! When I was a teenager I was anorexic and bulemic and really thin and athletic but struggled with my weight. I had short hair and was often mistaken for a boy! Anyhew it’s interesting to see the generations getting older clashing in social media. Terms like identifying as binary and stuff I just don’t understand. To me, from my own experience, everybody just seems to be trying to belong…to find their tribe. I am trying to find mine again. I had one in Texas but it split apart. I am attending a Bible study with a nice group of women from church. As welcoming as they are I still don’t feel like I fit in. Is team Jesus my tribe? Just as I am?

Since my last psychotic break or episode it’s been really quiet for me spiritually, mentally and physically. As I’ve mentioned before I get real tired easily and that’s probably due to being overweight. There is more of me to lug around. The medications I’m on have brought about silence in the creativity department and my spirituality is quiet too. I’m having trouble finding my tribe – who or what do I belong when at times I don’t have the clarity to express a single thought? This post is the longest I’ve done in a while!

Generation X seems like I’m part of a broken generation. A generation of people that worked until they got broken so now our days are made up of medical appts and new diagnosis! I have seen and experienced so much brokenness. Everything from being born when Martin Luther King was killed to stuff like Columbine, Sandyhook, the Challenger explosion and 9/11. The technology boom in just a short time. I remember computer data being processed on punch cards! I’m 55 years old and sometimes I feel ancient when I reflect on all I’ve lived through. God must have some use for me yet!

I’ll close for now. Just reflecting and thinking about where I’m at and where I want to head this leg of my journey.

16 December 2022 Asking for Help

Hello to you. How are you today? Today my thoughts turn to something that has never been easy for me to do and that is asking for help. I’ve always been self reliant and independent but since I’ve moved here to Idaho and the health issues that have cropped up I have been having to ask for help and thanks be to God it’s been there!

What is it that keeps us from wanting to ask for help? Pride? Fear of making debts we may not be able to repay? Lately I’ve been asking Jesus for his help a lot. I’m hoping for some miracle that only he can deliver in regards to my health. May be that’s why I’m going through this at all – so that I might get closer to him. Not try and rely on my own strength and understanding. That’s what it seems like anyways.

I’m grateful for my family here helping me get through what I’m going through. They are extensions of Jesus in my life.

16 February 2022 Wednesday

Check out 16 February 2022 Wednesday chat https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1300060243

Hello to you. How are you. I hope this finds you well. Today has been a day about choices. This morning I had an appointment with my therapist in her new office and I had never driven there before. Well my GPS on my phone let me down and I ended up making wrong turns more than once! So frustrating! By the time I got there I was frazzled. I just felt so out of it and that’s due to my taking 100 mg of Hydroxyzine last night in order to sleep!

Tomorrow I hope to talk to my doctor about sleep options. I’m supposed to be taking the Hydroxyzine for anxiety not sleep! When I went to the grocery store today I looked at over the counter sleep aides but just am not sure about taking those while taking lithium.

My therapist and I talked about how when your mind and body aren’t acting like they should that it’s harder to make good choices. I have been feeling like my body is betraying me lately. In the past when my body hurt I was able to heal and move on. Now the pains show up out of nowhere and they last longer. I know, “welcome to getting old!” I’m trying to make good choices- lean on my faith in God. Some days it doesn’t feel like God is listening or cares.

“Knowing I will feel however I decide to feel today fills me with hope and enthusiasm.” (A Woman’s Spirit )

7 December 2021 Focus On What You Want

Hello to you! How are you? I’m having a late start to the day. I just didn’t want to get up! I’m experiencing minor depression – just part of being bipolar and also the weather…SAD. Bad combo!

This morning I’m reminded of something I learned a long time ago. Focus on what you want not what you don’t. What you focus on gains power. For example I have started and restarted this very blog post like 3 or 4 times today. The previous attempts were all focusing and giving power to what I don’t want in my life. My complaints. My aches and pains. Getting old. I don’t want to give power to what ails me…..I want to give thanks for what doesn’t cause me to suffer. That’s not to say I want to lie to myself and not acknowledge that negatives exist, they do. I just don’t want them to rule my life!

Pulls out the mental gratitude list:

God, Link, home, food, clothing, working washer and dryer, good phone, internet, reliable power, water, working car, family, friends, quiet neighborhood, healthy body and healthy spirit.

The list usually grows when you start with one thing! If you can get to gratitude your on your way . Yesterday Soul Angel and Energy Healing shared this on their post and I want to pass it along to you. I am always asking God about my purpose in life! According to this I am living my purpose each time I follow my heart:

Fb post Soul Angel and Energy Healing

2 December 2021 Evening

Hi there! How has your day been? Good I hope! I’m starting to get in the habit of writing in the evening. It’s helping me get through these long nights. It’s starting to get darker like at 5 pm and that’s a long time til bed time! Do you have trouble with this time of the year?

I got my first Christmas card today! Glad I bought a couple cards last grocery trip. It was from my friend all the way back to my first duty station at Travis AFB CA. It’s so wonderful that he has stayed in touch all this time. There are so many people I miss that I worked with.

Today was an uneventful day…..what’s new right?! We did manage to push through and get out for a walk. My body sometimes puts up so much resistance to doing things. Lately my upper legs really have been hurting when I stand up…..getting older sucks!! The body aches in places it never used to, skin tags and other bumps on the skin, dry skin, dry mouth and brain fog. I can remember stuff but it comes out of my mouth wrong – not as sharp and clear as things once were! I’m at a weird time in my life ! No use in complaining though ….just makes it worse!

“Remember the blessings more than just a few….praise for the sunrise each day born anew. Praise for waking two feet to reach the floor….praise to embrace the adventures just beyond the front door.”

1 December 2021 Morning

Check out Morning coffee with Jackie 1 December 2021 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1221118106

Good morning to you from here I hope this finds you well. How are you?

A lot going on in my drawing today. There is a plan unfolding I just have to keep taking the next steps! Metatron’s cube is large and in charge.

Not sure what the plan is for today. I managed to navigate my way through Ridleys this morning and got groceries. I miss having Kyle go and get them. He was such a great shopper. I picked up some Christmas cards so I could work on those we shall see!

“Everywhere I go I hope to see you. So many faces in new places. I look at each one and find only pieces of you.”

I had to do a couple takes on the video today. It’s all impromptu….hopefully if you can watch it there will be something for you. Sometimes it’s nice to have company.

27 November 2021 Good Morning

Check out this video Morning Coffee With Jackie 27 November 2021 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1217476092

Good morning how are you? How’s your day going so far ? I’m getting started with my day. I’m getting in the habit of doing the Twitch recordings first thing. Some people do better with videos than just reading. I’m finding my way and appreciate your patience with this process! One of my friends said she had a fail experience with trying to watch the video because you have to have an account . Please give me feedback if you have trouble watching the videos.

Last night I had a wonderful experience of going to see the lights in Caldwell with my friend Lisa and her Grandson Colin. We liked the dragon that breathed fire! There were a lot of people there which was kind of overwhelming for Colin and I . We played on the instrument station for a little while and that was fun.

Today is laundry day. It’s one of those gray days where you just don’t want to do anything . This evening I have a crystal empowerment group so that’s something to look forward to.

What’s one thing your grateful for? Put it in the comments! Everyday I’m grateful for my furry faced boy Link! Hugs to you!

18 November 2021 Pushing Through

Do you ever have a nagging physical sensation of being held back when you want to move forward? This feeling that you want to be doing something but you can’t for some invisible reason? But then from someplace inside you push yourself through what is blocking you. Do we even really know what’s in the way? For me one of the things that blocks me is fear of failure.

I heard a sermon by Pastor Steven Furtick today that really resonated. He talked about how God will give you the green light to go but Jesus isn’t going to drive the car….you have to do that! God will give you opportunities but you have to use your feet to get there.

https://youtu.be/OuOOz01LXaU – Get Out Of Your Feelings Pastor Steven Furtick

I need to get out of my own way. I keep giving the keys to my “car” to God and he says “No! I want you to drive!” Some of our most meaningful times have been when I just “randomly “ went someplace. I want to get strong enough for us to have those times again. I called them Missions. When you think you are going someplace you want to go out of the blue but it’s really God sending you out to do his work. No coincidences.

Hopefully something here resonates. Today is one of those writing days. Thanks for stopping by!

9 November 2021 Living

Hello. How are you today? I’m writing a little bit earlier. It’s raining out and I’m grateful but not looking forward to going out in it. I opened the back door to let Link out and he was like “no way!”

So yesterday’s therapy session yielded some nuggets of truth. One was I have an issue with control and the other being patient enough to see what God has planned for me. My therapist shared a powerful quote/message with me, “May be God doesn’t show us his entire plan for us because we’d try to get there by ourselves.” When I was having my episodes with full life reviews using objects in the house to symbolize people, places, things I just didn’t rest. They were like pieces on an elaborate game board. There was always one more move. The message from my therapist is so true. The game of each life is so intricate that in the flesh we just can’t handle it all at once. I wasn’t sleeping. I didn’t want to eat much. I wasn’t spending quality time with my husband or my pets.

I’m so glad the episodes have stopped but my wanting to control everything hasn’t! The control issue goes back to my childhood. My extreme expression of wanting control was my becoming anorexic and bulemic. The bulemia lasted in to my 30’s! I hold on too tight to life. The challenge for me at this phase of life is to let Gods more. I’m not in charge of everything!

After I got home I walked to Rockin M Salon to get a haircut. It was good to see Trina again. she had recently moved from in town to a hobby farm in Emmett. Apparently Middleton has some of the highest taxes in the state. It would have been nice to know that before I moved here! In the past few months she’s lost like 10 clients. That’s significant! I hope I don’t get any surprises at tax time !

“Little child let me take the reigns. Trust me to guide you and alleviate your pains. There are to many pieces for you to hold. I know you are afraid to get old. Let my presence soothe your fears. Let me wipe your tears. I am here. There is nothing to fear. “

21 October 2021 Labels

Hello! How are you today? It’s another crisp fall day. Many of the trees in our neighborhood have lost their leaves. A few have resisted and are vibrant shades of red and gold yet. My sidekick Link is here beside me. I’m so grateful for him.

Labels. I have them.

I am 53 years old and have been a product of the mental health system since about 1991. My primary diagnosis, the primary label is that I’m bipolar. If you are unfamiliar with that term it’s basically having high highs and low lows and the battle is to keep things in the middle or balanced. The primary medication I take is lithium. I’ve tried a lot of other drugs but they didn’t work. The other part of my particular label is anxiety and I take zyprexa for that.

This condition has really fucked my life up.

Something that happens to a bipolar person is what’s called episodes. We can get manic or really high and there really isn’t any reasoning with us. For me I got it in my head that I didn’t want to be on medication anymore. The past couple of years I was manic (high) and refused to take medication and be admitted to a hospital. There was a terrible price to be paid for that- my family was torn apart. I ended up losing my husband, one of my dogs and my house. Something similar happened to my first marriage.

So the common theme of my episodes was the spirit world. This last time I thought I was channeling spirits. People like me are vulnerable to these sorts of things. I wonder if my faith had been stronger if that sort of thing would of happened . There are energy forces at work in all directions. I felt like I was a play thing of these energies. I would get extremely angry. For about two months I was channeling a Joker like energy. It was exhausting because such an energy could see every side to an argument – it just went on and on! During one of my earliest episodes I thought I was Jesus! I guess that sort of thing is common with people like me .

I have been medically retired from the Air Force since 16 Sept 2002. I have not had a job since then. I have done volunteer work but it almost always ended up in a manic situation.

I’m sharing this part of myself to may be help someone else who is either like me or has someone like this in their life and they don’t know what to do.

https://youtu.be/snI9ggCp5xE – Bipolar wars channel on you tube