Author of The Widow in the Woods
Sometimes, I think we get stuck in a holding pattern. It can happen in any aspect of life. When I achieve X, then I’ll be able to do Y.
When I reach this goal, then I’ll allow myself to enjoy life.
When I have saved up this much money, when I’ve moved to a better location, when I lose 50 pounds, when I get married, when I get more fit…
We put things off until “when…”
I’ve generally not been a person to do that. I am pretty action-oriented. I put my stuff in storage and traveled extensively over the past five years. Some people thought I should wait until retirement, but I opted instead to do it immediately.
And I’m so glad that I did.
The thing about “when” is that it may never arrive. We’re only allotted a certain number of days on this glorious orb, and we have no idea what lies ahead. It’s essential to make the most of your life right now, regardless of your circumstances, or you might just end your time here stuck in that holding pattern.
Some background
If you’ve been reading this blog and getting my newsletters for a while, you know that I suffered a pretty severe injury almost two years ago. I injured my ankle, but I didn’t think it was that bad. I kept traveling and exploring, and I have absolutely no regrets. I saw a physical therapist and began to improve, only to finally suffer such a setback that I had to cease my travels and come home to (I thought) recover.
Now, what follows is not meant as a plea for sympathy or a whine-fest. I feel that it is the necessary background, and I’m presenting it as factually as possible.
I saw a specialist as soon as I returned home. This was just over a year ago. He did some treatments and insisted on very limited activity. When I first began seeing the doctor, I could walk a mile or so without tremendous pain, but as treatments began and failed, it got so bad I could barely hobble to the mailbox at the curb.
I had a ruptured tendon, and it was not healing. I mostly stayed off my feet for three months, yet my condition was getting increasingly worse. I sought a second opinion.
I had a major surgery in April to reconstruct my foot and ankle, and transfer a tendon to replace the one that was damaged beyond redemption. This required a month and a half of absolutely no weight-bearing at all. After 6 weeks, I began physical therapy and was delighted that I was making progress faster than expected.
Then, disaster struck, and a different tendon ruptured. I was back on bed rest and completely non-weight-bearing. I had a second surgery to repair this injury, and now I’m back in bed yet again for another six to eight weeks.
You can imagine the frustration. I went from traveling the world, walking miles and miles every day, hiking, and experiencing so many new things, to leaving my apartment maybe a dozen times in a year. I went from a bum ankle to being completely unable to walk.
But here’s what I realized about the past year.
I wasted it because I was waiting. Waiting until I was better, waiting until I could go hiking, waiting until I had totally recovered and could put this all in the past.
The doctors kept giving me these arbitrary dates in the future when I’d be restored to full mobility, and I chose to wait until those glorious dates to go hiking and travel and be “normal” again. I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t come up with very many solutions for prepping while disabled because I was so very convinced that this situation was temporary.
It’s not. It will be at least another year before (and if) I am back on my feet. The doctor is not optimistic that I’ll ever regain the function I had before.
If I had made the necessary adaptations to living like this a year ago, I wouldn’t have missed out on … well… LIFE… for the past year. I haven’t been to the movies, to a restaurant, to the store, or barely even outside – for a year.
Getting out of my lower-level apartment is nearly impossible without help due to all the stairs and uneven terrain. And even with help, it’s exhausting, risky, and painful.
I didn’t adapt.
I kept following medical instructions and resting and waiting and waiting and resting…
And a year later, I’m at an even more difficult point than I was before, and recovery is not assured at all.
This may sound like a lengthy complaint. Please understand that it’s not. It is the background that I need to provide to discuss the entire point of this post.
Now, I’m adapting.
In a way, getting the rather grim prognosis at my last doctor’s visit was a relief. While it’s certainly not the news I had hoped for, at least I know that I can’t continue waiting for “when” this happens to live my life, make my preparations, and adapt. I had been expecting it after the second surgery, but for some reason, continued to wait for permission to accept my circumstances. For some reason, I wanted the official word from the doctor.
Now that I have it, it’s rather freeing, in a way.
I went through the stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression …. and with the prognosis, I’ve finally reached acceptance.
During the depression stage, I knew that I had to accomplish something. I felt like I’d wasted a year and I was so upset I couldn’t imagine things getting any better. I forced myself to put my head down and accomplish just one goal – finishing my first novel. I’ve said I’d write novels since I was a little girl, but time has slipped away from me and I’ve focused more on non-fiction.
I finished and published The Widow in the Woods exactly one week before the second operation. It felt better than any project I’ve done in a long time and it gave me hope for the future, hope that I’ll still be able to contribute to the world in a meaningful way. It helped bring me out of the dark place where I was struggling to accept my circumstances and find any light ahead.
Of course, I’m going to do everything I can regarding physical therapy, medical care, and exercise to regain my mobility. But I’m not waiting around until then to live my life anymore. In fact, I began novel #2 the week after the second operation. Telling stories and having readers like them gives me an incredible amount of joy. And that isn’t something I’ve felt much of for the past year.
Acceptance has been such a relief.
Now, I’m able to make plans to make the most of a life that is very different from the one I had expected. And I think this is something that is important in so many cases, not just one of injury and disability.
What are you putting off until “when” your situation is more ideal? Growing a garden? Getting prepped? Exercising? Buying a home? Traveling?
Please take it from me, none of these “whens” is promised to us, even if it is our fondest wish. Instead of waiting for “when,” accept and adapt to what your situation is now. Whether that is facing that a chronic illness or disability may not improve or accepting the fact that you don’t have the perfect rural prepper hideaway, choose to make the most of what you have and where you are right now.
As for me, I’ll be seeking a more accessible apartment soon. I need it to be closer to things like a grocery store so that I can get there on a sturdier knee scooter that I have my eye on. I would like to live closer to one of my daughters so it’s easier for us to connect without her having to travel three hours round trip. Honestly, the area I’m looking at is far from the usual ideal for preppers, but I need desperately to regain some independence, and I cannot do that way out in the country. An urban environment, at least for the next while, is the choice that will give me the best quality of life. They sound like such small goals, to be able to buy my own groceries or go out to lunch. But after a year of feeling like a captive in my apartment, to me, these things sound glorious.
Of course, I’ll be as prepared as possible, but we have to live for now, not for “when.”
I don’t think this is antithetical to living a prepared lifestyle. I think the more active, versatile, and able you set yourself up to be, the better off you will be, regardless. That horrifying SHTF we all prepare for might never come. Or, the SHTF for you could be like mine – something so incredibly life-altering that you have to rethink your lifestyle. And if the SHTF does come, being your healthiest and happiest self will help you weather the storm so much better.
And please, don’t feel sorry for me – I didn’t write this for sympathy. I have just achieved a lifelong goal, and I am really looking forward to the future.
I hope that if something may have been holding you back, waiting for “when,” you decide to live for right now, too.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.
Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
Thank you for sharing this intimate detail of your life, Daisy. I’ve made this horrible mistake of waiting on my doctors to figure out why I’m in debilitating pain after the car wreck I had in January 2024, getting steroid injections that don’t work, and popping pain pills like m&m’s and they rarely alleviate the pain. I have been stuck in fight or flight mode for over 6 years, waiting on shtf. Life is too short. Thanks for reminding me. Praying for ya, Daisy.
Keep on writing those excellent stories and don’t let the turkeys get you down.
Daisy, I am so very sorry for your circumstances and sad to say I can empathize fully. For decades I worked hard, paid off stuff, and saved to be able to travel widely in retirement. The nth surgery prompted retirement, and now, a few surgeries later, I’m still not well enough to enjoy the life I imagined. Rather than giving up, I’ve gotten mobility equipment that helps me, and I’m exploring adapted travel. Not at allllll what I’d envisioned, but I will make it happen. It just takes way more planning and funds than I’d anticipated.
Been there – acceptance is probably the hardest – saying it out loud. I became paralyzed from the chest down 36 years ago and couldn’t shut down because I had 2 boys 5 and 6 years old. Over the years, I have found ways to do things most people in my situation wouldn’t even try. People tell me I’m an “inspiration” (I hate being told that – I’m just living my life the best I can), but life goes on…. with or without you. I choose with.
Daisy, you have my deepest sympathy (and admiration) for the problems you have faced. I am having surgery tomorrow to repair my left ankle, from a fall about 3 months ago. I thought my ankle was just sprained, but it was actually broken. I agreed to surgery because the ankle is so wobbly that stepping on a super small pebble will throw me off balance. There is still a bone fragment floating loose and ligaments torn (thank the Lord, no tendon involvement). No weight bearing for 2-6 weeks.
But, I decided I wasn’t going to wait to get better. I have worked hard in my garden, getting veggies and herbs planted, watering almost daily (I live in East Texas and August is HOT!), canning, cooking, everything that I always do. I have prepared canned and frozen meals for the time period when I won’t be able to stand in the kitchen to cook.
While I am not looking forward to another surgery (I have had 4 major surgeries in the past decade), I am ready to face this one head on.
So true! I was diagnosed with several pain causing ailments 3 years ago. I have definitely been in a holding pattern of “when they fix it so I don’t hurt then I can go back to my life.” Well, it can’t be fixed and now like you I need to learn to adapt. Thank you for sharing your story, it’s very encouraging for me to hear. BTW I bought The Widow in The Woods. Absolutely the Best book I have read in a while!
I didn’t realize the extant of your injury, Daisy. As someone who is a dedicated introvert/homebody, I can’t identify with losing that ability to go anywhere and do anything whenever you want, because I’d rather be at home. However, I CAN understand getting stuck in the ‘waiting’ room.
It’s been nearly 5 years since I got ‘sick’ and I can’t wrap my head around being like this for the rest of my life. I’m stuck in angry because, while I’m doing a lot of the things I want to do, they take so much out of me it feels like the joy gets sucked out with my energy and I’m just going through the motions. I feel like I’m waiting to enjoy what I have for when it becomes less of an effort. The problem is, I’m starting to wonder if that day will ever come.
My ideal life is so close to Grace’s, living in near solitude on her mountain, but she’s in great shape compared to me, and I worry that if and when I embrace that life, I won’t be able to hold up. I don’t want to be a burden to the few people I want to be around.
I’m so glad you’ve found some relief from the ‘waiting’ and I can’t wait to read whatever you write next!
Such a good word….like a loving kick in the pants! Bless you and I say a prayer that that new apartment for you will be found quickly and be even better than you dreamed!!!
Excellent article!!! All of us need to periodically evaluate life as it is and make the most of it. Great advice. Don’t wait until a crisis forces us to do so.
Thank you for this article and the reminder to start now, whatever our goals are.
Great article and a good wake up call for us all
Thank you for sharing! As always, it’s useful info!
I will share this in hopes that it might help you as you’ve unknowingly helped me prepare for my husband’s foot injury.
First thing first, look up “iWalk” on Amazon, this is a mobility crutch that my husband has used since April.
Back story;
My husband has type 2 diabetes and unknowingly broke his foot around last Aug (23). He walked on a broken and almost club-like swollen foot until April of this year. He had seen 2 medical professionals before finally going to a Podiatrist. He found out he has what is called charcot foot. The jist, due to his neuropathy and out of control blood sugar he chipped a bone in his foot and then the bones started separating and a waterfall of other issues followed. The Doc was upfront that my husband HAD to get his diabetes under control and the Doc’s main goal was simply to save my husband’s foot, not to have to do a knee down amputation.
At first we thought surgery was a given to put his bones back in order, thanks to you sharing what you got for your first surgery I borrowed a knee scooter and got crutches for free. We also had a shower chair for my 85 yo MIL that lives with us. I started slowly purchasing things like a bigger shower chair, the elevated knee pad you suggested for after surgery, the silver cream, etc.
Thankfully his bones are starting to heal on their own (He finally took it seriously to get his blood sugar in check), which means IF any surgery has to happen it’ll just be on the bottom of his foot to shave part of a bone down that is protruding.
Back to the iWalk… My husband tried the knee scooter and hated it (he’s like a bull in a China shop. lol). Crutches, kinda the same b/c he didn’t like using them and couldn’t balance well. Enter the iWalk. He can walk w/o using his hands for the most part. He has to take his time going somewhere b/c he’s not the most graceful, period. Lol The iWalk has also allowed him a sense of freedom b/c he can still work and go places on his own. Also, I HIGHLY recommend putting a big foam pad between your knee and where your knee meets the iWalk. That has been my husbands biggest relief comfort wise.
Here is the link if anyone wants to watch the video this gal does (which was super helpful for my husband). I do not get any money for sharing this! I hope it can help someone else..
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08WJRWR57/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_plhdr=t&aaxitk=15d49ae5f4ad62f8d58ec645ff089a4e&hsa_cr_id=6055988360901&qid=1723131002&sr=1-1-9e67e56a-6f64-441f-a281-df67fc737124&ref_=sbx_be_s_sparkle_lsi4d_asin_0_title&pd_rd_w=ibCzs&content-id=amzn1.sym.8591358d-1345-4efd-9d50-5bd4e69cd942%3Aamzn1.sym.8591358d-1345-4efd-9d50-5bd4e69cd942&pf_rd_p=8591358d-1345-4efd-9d50-5bd4e69cd942&pf_rd_r=AJ28C2GXEZX8WSYVTCV0&pd_rd_wg=4qCzc&pd_rd_r=5ff20458-0622-4778-b5c1-df46640d8b79
Daisy I feel you. I too suffered lower leg injuries – one severed right Achilles tendon soon followed by a ruptured left tendon in my mid 50s.
Being a natural healing advocate and herbologist I did NOT wait. I started aggressive home hydrotherapy of hot and cold on the entire lower leg daily and when they said wait – I requested PT. I got a soft spoken tenacious lady that got me back to walking on my own quick enough to surprise my ortho Dr.
I figured out the reason for the injury on my own and put countermeasures in place to keep that area supported and have never looked back and its been 10 years.
Did I lose strength and some function … yes … do I walk on my own and have relatively healthy tendons … also yes.
No matter what it is that brings you down … make it your new mission to be okay with the new normal or to even take responsibility for your own recovery and miracles will indeed happen.
I feel this article and the other day, your article concerning the recent global stock market crashes, may not be directly related, but very close.
Things are never going to be perfect. Do what you can, now, to get your self as insulated from external factors beyond your control.
Then, act on the things you can control as much as you can, now.
Now, I am not saying go into debt to buy that decommissioned missile silo converted into a doomsday bunker. But do as much as you can to insulate yourself from everything from social and civil strife, economic crisis here in the US, and to what degree you can in case of WWIII.
Your mileage may vary depending on your personal geophysical location, your economic position, even your own physical health.
But do what your can now.
I’m so proud of you for owning your reality. People with chronic conditions or disabilities need to make trade offs all the time. Is the cost of delivery more or less important than the energy it will take me to shop in person? What do I absolutely need to do today and what can wait if it needs to? Hope you find the perfect place and heal quickly.
Hi Daisy,
I feel your frustration and at the same time determination. As I advance in years I am grateful for an old friend who helped me do some rural fencing. No big deal to most people but I am grateful for the ability to just carry posts and wire and tools to do the job. Yet I have friends of the same vintage who have thrown in the towel when it comes to life’s struggles. Being stubborn and cantankerous, in the appropriate context, will get you through. Daisy, you sound like a girl who can put the bit between you teeth, head down and push through. I think all survivors need to have a bit of ‘mongrel’ in them to channel when the situation dictates. Let me close with a story a friend told me of a man who endure chronic illness for a long time. On his death bed surrounded by family he had a moment of clarity right before he passed. He raised himself up and declared his biggest regret, ” I NEVER HAD ANY FUN.”
God bless you Daisy.
Daisy, please know that I am not trying to be a know-it-all or a smart-a– either.
I really think that what I am going to say will help everyone whose comments are previous to this one. Background: After I retired from the Army, I became a fire-fighter. I quit fire-fighting for a couple of years, while I worked as a roughneck in the oil field – til I got hurt. I fell off an oil rig, landed 57 feet down, hanging head down in the Kelly-bail that was standing in the rat hole. That fall broke 13 bones at one time, and I know it was a miracle, and I healed fairly rapidly and painfully, and I could still run in watergun fights with a grandson – until I hit my 80s, anyway. Fast forward. Lately – I’ve been involved, and still am, in Medical Research for over a year, which includes 8 to 10 hours every day, while trying to help my wife get some relief from the symptoms of Tardive Dyskinesia. That’s really the short story – but goes a long way around to tell you something I’ve learned, which amazed this 84 year old man who retired from the Army 45 years ago, and retired from fire-fighting 22 years ago, and now am just tired. I still can walk straight up with normal steps, and told my wife that if I ever start to shuffle along, to take my gun from the holster and just shoot me. I’m medicine free, and healthier than I’ve been in 45 years.
Now. The things I’m going to say have been suppressed and hidden from public view nearly all of my life. Most mainstream doctors do not know about all this, either don’t know it, or just pooh-pooh it, because they weren’t taught about it in medical school and it isn’t allowed to be published in medical journals, and the only way it can be learned is to find it in some old book somewhere, or to get on the right website by accident, or find some old guy that will give you some information that’ll prompt you to dig. I’ll give some links at the end of this blurb, in case anyone wants to check out what I’m saying. But my wife’s story is proof positive about some of it.
Our bodies are absolutely amazing! Just a little info ’bout that: Vitamin C is water-soluble, and it is what our bodies use to produce collagen. Collagen is used by our bodies to make some of, parts of, nearly every part of our bodies. Our veins, capillaries, arteries, gray matter, complete lymph system, tendons, ligaments, muscles, spongy stuff – between disks in our spinal cords & in our joints – all of that and more – it’s mind-boggling. Vitamin C in mega-doses will not harm you. The old saying, “more vitamin C just makes expensive urine” is a lie, nobody has ever proven that vitamin C has been found in any kidney or bladder stone, and not one person has ever been killed by an overdose of vitamins or amino acids or minerals. Not one. Ever. Now, if vitamin C is kept available for your body to use, it is mainly – mostly – held in storage in the adrenal glands. It is stored in other places also. But if your body does happen to get more than it needs it will eliminate any excess in your urine. But every time your body is under Any Kind of stress (illness, auto accident, injury, argument with your spouse, fist-fight, any kind of stress) vitamin C is used up very quickly. Vitamin C deficiencies cause many, many, many, more problems than just scurvy. Fact: Just a little will keep you gettiung scurvy, but a whole lot of it will keep you from getting a whole lot of other stuff.
You cannot get too much of it, if you go about it right, to find your own body’s maximum level of bowel-tolerance using regular ascorbic acid vitamin C – or if you take Liposomal Vitamin C you don’t even need to worry about bowel stuff. Vitamin C has been used in mega-dosing, intravenously (IVC) since the 1930s, to cure: many more diseases than you can even count, such as, diptheria, typhoid, pertussis (whooping cough) tetanus, Flu, Covid 19, and more; to neutralize poisonous venoms from snakes, spiders, snails, etc, with no side effects like the anti-venom poisonous stuff; rebuild discs in spinal cords; cure diabetis and all sorts of pneumonia; help to rebuild tendons, ligaments, and cartilege (sp) etc., and even cure some stage 4 cancers.
Dr Robert Klenner, of Reidsville, NC, healed 60 polio patients (three of whom became his patients after already being confined to iron lungs) Healed all 60 patients with massive doses of Intravenous Vitamin C, and not one of them ever had any muscular problems afterward – 1949.
Dr. McCormick (sp) and/or Dr. Cathcart healed back patient’s bad discs w/IVC.
Dr Hunninghake has healed Stage 4 Cancer with mega-dosing IVC – Riordan Clinic.
My wife, who has an artificial aortic heart valve, takes blood thinners and BP meds… her story:
L-Lysine (water-soluble amino acid) is a part of the helix of collagen. When atherosclerosis sets in, Lysine is what peeks through the cracks in your hardened arteries, which have cracked, just from their resistance to the expansion and contraction required by the beating of your heart and the pumping of your blood. Lysine peeks through those cracks, and Lipoprotein (a) which is a sticky substance in your LDL cholesterol, goes to that lysine and sticks to it to make a patch. Until you get enough Vitamin C to make the Collagen that your arteries and veins need, the cracks will happen again and again, and make more patches over patches, and that ends up clogging up arteries. Now. My wife took 1000mg of L-Lysine, 3 times per day (called divided doses) PLUS 10,000mg of Liquid Liposomal Vitamin C – (1000mg taken 10 times daily, (divided doses), PLUS a few other supplements, actually healed an aneurysm in her descending Aortic Artery, PLUS it dissolved 20% and 30% clogs (respectively) in both of her carotid arteries. We have written proof of it. That is part of Linus Pauling’s (proven many times over to actually cure cardiovascular disease) Therapy for coronary artery disease. Cardiologists either don’t know about this, or just are making too much money dispensing medicine to care. Doctors don’t know about it, and many will pooh-pooh the thought of vitamins/supplements therapy curing anything, simply because they were never taught more than an hour or two about nourishment, and any clinical trials which they have read (which have been published) were never allowed to use large enough amounts of vitamin C in the clinical trials, and therefore are not enough of the vitamin to prove its efficacy.
Some Links: Evidently, I don’t know how to insert them, so you may have to copy and paste them.
https://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml (It’s a tossup between this link and the next one, of which one is the best website in the world to find truth about any medical information). Just open the link and keep scrolling down. You’ll be amazed.
http://www.doctoryourself.com/ The website of Andrew W. Saul, PhD. More information than you ever knew is truly available here.
https://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v19n10.shtml (Do you want to die old, or sick?)
http://www.doctoryourself.com/desperation.html (Therapeutic options when desperate.)
Other information:
Must read books: 1. Curing The Incurable, written by retired Cardiologist Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD. (The truth about Vitamin Cs use against diseases and toxins.)
2. Niacin, The Real Story, by Abram Hoffer MD, A.W. Saul PhD, & H. Foster PhD.
(The stories of the cure of Schizophrenia, Arthritis, and many more.)
3. Fire Your Doctor, by Andrew W. Saul, PhD. (Dare to be independently healthy)
4. Practicing Medicine Without A License, by Owen Fonorow, PhD. (The story of Linus Pauling, PhD, (two-time, unshared winner of the Nobel Prize – one for Peace, 1962, and one in Science (Chemistry) earlier, but I can’t remember the year.) This is the story of Pauling’s therapy for cardiovascular disease, and where I learned that atherosclerosis is mainly caused by Vitamin C deficiency, and where I learned how the clogs in arteries are produced and repaired.
Daisy, if you can get to where you can take 29 to 30 grams of vitamin C every day, it will absolutely amaze you how quickly your tendon problems can heal! You can get that much drinking two or three smoothies with the C added.
There are clinics where you can get Intravenous Vitamin C (IVC) after a visit with the staff medical doctor. Some insurances won’t pay for it, but some will, after prior negotiation… but the insurance racket is evil anyway… What’s the dollars-worth of being healed? You go into debt to buy a darn car, so you can do the same if necessary, to heal your body for even less money than buying a used-up old car. I apologize for this being so doggone long. I just felt the need to write it, after reading all those posts that were before mine (when I started writing this, anyway).
Love people through your actions,
Be blessed,
OD
Preach! We have used vitamin C in smaller mega doses to cure colds & flus rapidly (within a day or two). 1000 mg/hour until u have the runs then back off 1000 mg & THAT is YOUR daily need.
Most everyone is deficient in C (& D unless you’re out in the sun daily for most of day).
Do not believe Drs who say what God created will hurt you (but what man can won’t–pulleez).
Daisy, can you tell me why my post of last evening was declined? I’m curious.
Thank you,
Blessings,
OD
Hi! If a post contains links, it’s automatically held in moderation until I can make sure it’s not spam. I think you posted after I was in bed watching Amazon Prime so I didn’t see it until morning. 🙂
It’s very interesting information – thanks for posting!
Okay, thank you Daisy, for your quick response! I love this website, and I have felt like I needed to help these folks get into some ways of healing that treats the root causes! Because it has worked for me and my Sweetheart of over 66 years.
Bless you,
OD
OD your a shining star and inspiration, so are you Daisy. Thank you all OP followers for your welth of wisdom and valuable information. Healing takes time and patience, and the right suplements and attitude. I found some homeopathy works really well for me but not for others, guess its walking barefoot and being earthed.. I found Traumeel is a great remidy for pain and inflamation, well proven. Get the injectibles for best results if not skittish to inject close to problem areas. Take care and lots of good Vitamin C 🙂
Thanks, Kurt. Good to know someone else goes barefoot through the tulips. 🙂 Got to look up Traumeel…
Blessings,
OD
Traumeel-ahhhh, arnica. Been around forever before all the ‘safe & effective’ meds. I always forget to reach for it.
I have used arnica before for headaches & it is effective. I just always forget that I have it if the rarity I take a Motrin. Thank you for reminding us!
Daisy,
Thank you for sharing.
I would like to share something that an older gentleman had told me. I went thru a divorce in my late 20’s and thru circumstances months later I ended up with my 2 young boys. To keep things as comfortable as I could for them I took over the rent on my ex’s house. One day while out mowing the older gentleman living next door came out to talk to me.
He told me that he had watched things progress in the situation we were living in and how took over for my kids and they were my life. He then told me about his situation. He worked all his life and waited for retirement to travel and see the country with a new motor home. He told me to do what I can to do things with those boys. Travel , camp etc to not wait for retirement. He said he waited then used that motor home one time and would not ever be able to use it again. He had come down with a type of terminal cancer that he didn’t have long to live. Sad to say he did not.
Fast forward there were times we didn’t have much money but we still were able to do and see things. It doesn’t have to cost a lot to enjoy what we were given. Even now in later yrs we are frugal in our spending on our vacation trips.Hawaii? Alaska? Across this great country? Shop and find or create deals. Packages aren’t necessarily the best and cheapest. For us the last few yrs has been a tent on a homemade platform on our truck. It allows us to go places where many cannot. And what we saved paid for enough gas to go across this country. I could go on and on but enough rambling.
Live and love the life that we all have.
Hi Daisy,
I’ve followed you and your co-writers for years, and commented on a couple of articles, but I had no idea what you were going through. Thanks for sharing your journey. And best wishes for continued improvement.
To paraphrase your comments, TSHTF doesn’t have to be national/global catastrophe. We all can experience personal shtf’s, illness, accidents, loss of income or those we love. Mine was cancer a few years ago, knocked me out for three years, just in time to lose most of another couple, like everyone, from the covid crisis. For five years I kept putting things off, for when ‘things got better.”
Now I finally see a light at the end of writing my own first novel (hopefully release before Christmas). I appreciate your story, it gives me a renewed sense of purpose in get my own project(s) completed while I’m still on the green side of the grass.
As for location – I agree, prep for your best life. There is no right or wrong way, we can offer advice and options, but there will always be trade offs. You don’t have to be a homesteader in Amish country to be prepared. For most people, including some well known survival bloggers and writers, the reality may be urban living. Gosh I loved living in San Diego when my wife was in college. A hundred restaurants within 1/2 mile, trolley line a block away, beach 5 minutes. The dreaded “15 minute city.”
Now I live in kind of a strange mix of rural and semi-urban in an Arizona resort town. At the end of my block is 150 miles of empty BLM land, but Walmart is two miles up the road, the hospital is 5 min away, and we’re on the concert circuit for all the has-been bands I couldn’t afford to see in my youth. Our preps here are a little different, than in the city. We will never be self sufficient. I accept that, and frankly at my age chasing chickens is a non-starter.
But it doesn’t mean we will just roll over and give up either. We will do the best we can, to mitigate whatever we face. That’s really all anyone can ask, or do – the best you can.
Get well and keep writing,
Dusty
You always amaze me with your strength and openness to any situation. Rather than an apartment, could you and your daughter and her boyfriend find a duplex to rent? You would be close, but each in your own space. Most also have small backyards so there would be some green space too. Just a thought. Knowing you, an urban landscape would be no problem to your prepping. You always think outside the box.
Daisy, were you by any chance given a “floxin” antibiotic at any time before your first tendon blow out? In particular, Cipro? Most patients do not know that there is a black box warning for floxins. One of the potential side effects is tendon ruptures.
Nope – and my doctor asked this as well! I hadn’t heard about this until just recently, and I’m horrified that they’re still prescribing it.
The surgeon’s best guess is that it is a genetic connective tissue problem since there’s no other reason that I’d have run into complication after complication. Later we may look into a diagnosis for that, but it’s pretty far down my list right now 🙂
Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your struggle. I applaud your courage, humility, and strength. (Much like Grace!) Things rarely turn out like we planned. Thank you for inspiring us to bloom where we are planted!
to those folks who post links:
you do not have to post anything after a ?. as an example, LW posted an amazon link for a hands-free crutch with a bunch of garbage after the ?. here is the link without the ? and the garbage: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08WJRWR57/. it works just as well as the longer link, and takes up less space.
Hey fake name,
That’s some good advice! Thanks for posting!
Blessings,
OD
One if wait for doctors you will be waiting all your life, they love return business. Is there something that is not helping your tendons, some deficiency of nutrients or weight or any other factor you can think of? Tendons don’t rupture by magic, there are physical causes to such.
Two don’t go urban go suburban that compromise between city and country especially in a part which you can get out of Dodge easily if you need to and yet can still get supplies and such, Integrative Preparedness loves to talk about why he lives in the suburbs of Kansas City and not deep rural. Just try to make sure there is not important military or industrial/datacenter/communication sites in your particular area especially if you are worried about the nuclear scenario.