Medical Musings With Sam My Medical Musings

A few weeks ago, my husband ended up in hospital with a suspected stroke.

After numerous tests, including an MRI angiogram, a stroke was ruled out, but he was told he had short-term memory loss and “wear and tear ” showing on the MRA.

I could have told them that, so I wasn’t particularly happy with the outcome.

Once I was able to view the actual MRA report and do some research, it was apparent the damaged area of the brain was a little more than “wear and tear.”

Within weeks, we were given the diagnosis of Alzheimers disease, and a new life changing chapter of our lives begins.

I'm going to take you on our journey as much as I can to shine a light on this insidious disease. I hope you'll learn from my never-ending mistskes of what not to do, as well as feel encouraged by our love and commitment to each other to provide ongoing support and to do as much as we can to still laugh and live a life of faith and hope.

One thing I forgot to say on the podcast is that my husband is being referred to a neurologist in the hope he might be eligible for medication to slow the process. I'll keep you posted.

Here's some links I also promised to Alzheimers Queensland resources:
https://alzheimersonline.org/dementia-resources/

and my blog post, " Let's Make Some Lemonade,"

https://mymedmusings.com/2022/01/19/lets-make-some-lemonade/

Thanks for listening

Sam xx
www.mymedmusings.com

In this episode, I share my recent complex health update with details not in my blog posts.

I share how I'm coping or not coping but more importantly I share my strategies for dealing with so many changes to my health and life circumstances. These tips are as relevant to chronic and complex illness as they are to any other life changing circumstances.

I hope you will find something that resonates for you.

If you would like to keep up with my musings on a weekly basis you can check in with my blog at www.mymedmusings.com.

Thank you so much for listening. I so appreciate your support.

Love, Sam xx

#change
#plans
#ponder
#divideandconquer
#support
#pain

As a patient advocate, I am often called, inspiring, motivating, and full of strength despite my adversities.

While I want to be all those things in order to reach others and help them through their own inspiring, motivating, and incredible chronic illness journeys, the truth is most days I am just treading water.

I feel every inch of my daily pain. I look in the mirror, and my heart sinks at the reflection of the woman I used to be, let alone the woman I’d like to be now.

When we are treading water, we are not drowning. I think that’s an important point. Quite likely to the outside world, we look like we are managing very well.

When treading water, your head is still above the ocean, and while a few waves may threaten to crash over, you are generally afloat. Others would have little idea of the struggle going on underneath the calm blue sea.

Does A Diagnosis Make a Difference?
The diagnosis doesn’t change the outcome in terms of treatment or cure. There isn’t any, but it answers so many questions for me, and that’s priceless!

Everything I’ve experienced now makes so much sense. Yes, it’s rare. Yes, it’s a crazy disease. Yes, it’s progressive, and I’m acutely aware of the ramifications of that as my symptoms and my pain levels increase.

But I now know why, and for some reason, that knowledge removes its power over me. It’s part of me rather than being something attacking me from nowhere.

I hope you enjoy this episode as I share highs and lows and celebrate an amazing diagnostic milestone.

Take care

Sam xx

www.mymedmusings.com

#rarediseaseday
#Osteopetrosis
#cancer

You would be forgiven for thinking this is a Valentine’s Day post given the title I’ve chosen. It is about love but with a twist.

This blog post is about loving life again when chronic illness takes away things we have always loved but can no longer do.

It’s about love and losses.

It’s my musings about acceptance being the gateway to a new life.

Acceptance is not a sad resignation. It’s the pathway to peace, happiness, and freedom from prolonged grief.

Sam Moss

For me, acceptance is acknowledging my disabling rare disease “is what it is”. It’s part of me, but it’s not all of me.

I have formed strategies over the past ten years to adjust to my change in circumstances and to live a contented life.
www.mymedmusings.com

As a new year looms, I have begun thinking about what’s important to me, what’s missing from my life, and what changes I want to make and need to make in 2024.

I've done a lot of sharing over the years!
I’ve been blogging for eight years now, sharing my chronic illness story, my love story, my personal life in general, and I’ve even had my memoirs published in a full book.

It’s been a lot of sharing!

All the while managing my Facebook support group, volunteering for Arthritis Queensland, moderating some of their online support groups.

I also established a podcast two years ago and have consistently recorded and published episodes once or twice a month.

It’s been a lot of sharing and a lot of work.

Each element is a full-time job in its own right.I still want to be an open book, but I need to close some of it to reclaim space to be private, reflective, and hold on to things extra special to me. I need to protect those things that do not require the scrutiny that comes with a public life.

So 2024 will have a strong private focus.

For more on why I'm making this change, this podcast episode reveals all.

Hope you enjoy it!

Love, Sam

Perhaps chronic illness is giving me a Christmas gift. The gift of time. Time to stop. Time to get out of the rat race of life. Time to reconnect with what really matters in life.

In this episode I celebrate Christmas with you, focusing on the restraints chronic illness brings to our personal experience while exploring ways to still have the best Christmas ever.

Plus, there may be a Christmas solo from yours truly at the very end, singing my favourite carol and the solo I always sang at the Christmas Eve Service, in my previous life.
Happy Christmas Everyone and thank you so much for all your support throughout 2023.

Speak to you in 2024.

Take care,

Sam xx

www.mymedmusings.com