macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Broken China – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Broken China

Hello, there! I woke up at 3:30 last night with rotator cuff tendonitis pain. While the over the counter nighttime pain reliever got rid of the pain, it may have worked a little too well. I woke up at 9:30 to the remnants of a puppy party!

Crawling on the floor picking up pieces of whatever they had chewed, I discovered the knobs on the drawer in my father’s gun cabinet had been pretty thoroughly gnawed.

If I were fully sighted, would I have noticed it before this? Not sure, but my guess would be yes.

Putting away dishes a little later, I had several, small bowls leap out of the cupboard and hit the counter with a resounding crash. Thoroughly scared Maggie. Although she is the rowdy pup she is also the more sensitive one.

Of course I did not have shoes on again. Dealing with shards of white bowls on a light-colored floor, I had to call my husband for help. Why can’t any of my ‘disasters’ happen with good contrast!?!

If you have not been following along I want to mention this is the second time I have been standing in the middle of a mess of broken kitchenware. Sans shoes, of course. If Lin would be so kind, I believe we could get a link for you…here. There are some suggestions I stole from the experts. [Lin/Linda: Sue’s page is called Did You Drop Something?]

While I really cannot say any of the occurrences this morning incited a panic reaction in me – I actually thrive in chaos; tedium drives me insane – I suspect some of you might have had a meltdown. Vision loss plus insane, chew-happy pups plus broken china. OMG!

I remembered I was just given some 100% natural (and, yes, I know a good, stiff whiskey is 100% natural, too) ways of dealing with panic and anxiety. Thought I would share.

The sympathetic nervous system is the one that activates your fight or flight response. It is the one that causes your heart to beat faster and you to experience stress. Good when it is needed but not needed all of the time!

The system that brings you down again is called the parasympathetic nervous system. A big part of this system is the vagus nerve.

They are finding stimulating the vagus nerve helps with panic and anxiety. The most popular technique, as you may know, is breathing from your diaphragm. There are, however, a number more strategies you may wish to try.

In 2014 Newsmax published a list of simple tricks to reduce stress through stimulating your vagus nerve. Immersing your face in cold water is helpful. Another technique is to suck on something that will immerse your tongue in saliva.

According to a 2017 article in Optimal Living Dynamics, singing, humming and chanting are helpful in stimulating your vagus nerve. This article also suggests some of my favorite things: socializing and laughing, exercise and yoga.

Controlling your reactions to sight loss and its problems is almost as important as caring for your eye health itself. Next time you find yourself stressing, give some thought to your vagus nerve.

And repeat after me: Ommmmmmm…….

written Dec. 12th, 2017

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