There is hope

• by livinlife
• 2010-09-19 06:09:57
• Coping
• 1329 views
• 4 comments

I have had Gerry, my pacemaker for 18 months now and have been a regular visitor to the Pacemaker Club since discharge from hospital.
Through this site, I have found so many other people going through the same feelings and physical effects.
What is particularly noticable is how so many of us have been affected psychologically. Some suffer anxiety and depression for a few weeks, others, for months and years, often accompanied by physical symptoms of stress which can be mistaken for physical illness.
From my experience, it is so important to recognise how we deal with the stress of a potentially fatal condition, especially if it was sudden. No one chooses to have a pacemaker for fun!
All those feelings of loss of health, life span, hopes and dreams. It is almost a grief response to what has happened.
You will get through it. Talk to someone about how you feel. Get help, with a counsellor, a doctor and talk to us, here, where so many understand.
It took me over 12 months, to come to terms with my condition and my pacemaker.
Now, here I am, feeling like I have been given a second chance at life, and really living it.
I smell the roses, love and appreciate my wonderful husband and 2 gorgeous children age 10 and 13 years. I was already involved with a bit of charity work before all this, but have only 2 more days to go, until I climb Mount Bartle Frere in Far North Queensland, Australia - the state's highest mountain, for charity. I am no moutain climber and not very fit, just an ordinary housewife. But I had an incentive. I am raising money to build a waterwell in the Gobi Desert Mongolia through a local group of friends, who have formed a charity to help the poor of Mongolia, called MongoliAid. Next year, my husband and I are taking our children out to Mongolia to visit that well, and distribute blankets we have collected (5000) to orphanages and school dormitories in rural Mongolia.
Find something that you can do, that truely inspires you. Do something that you have always wanted to do. (I started, by learning to knit, at 44!) One step at a time. Like learning to walk all over again. There is hope. Live Life!