gwennefarrell

Yesterday was a good day. I had previously submitted a claim to my benefit carrier for my custom made orthotics. The cost of those orthotics was $600 including the initial assessment. I was concerned there would be a limit on the amount they would pay and if the assessment was actually covered. Turns out the limit was $550 so the net cost to me was only $50. The best part is I can get a new pair every year. Given the cost to me I think I will take advantage of this.

Back in 2020 when the pandemic had caused so much of society to shut down I was bored. At that time my business had basically tanked and I was barely leaving my house. I reached out the the President/CEO of the United Way of BC and asked if he could find me some volunteer work to do. The UWBC was at that time doing food hubs but I explained that due to the health issues of my siblings, I couldn’t have that much contact with others but could do administrative type work from my home office. Within 24 hours I was connected with Brella Community Services (formerly Seniors Come Share Society) and things were put in motion.

When I first started with Brella it was doing their telephone tree where one day a week I phoned a list of isolated seniors. Three years later and I still do those calls just to check and see if they need help with anything. Then I learned that Brella did the community volunteer income tax program and since I had done taxes for others for years I signed up for that and just completed my 3rd year of volunteering for that service. Next came agreeing to lead a seniors’ walking group. Then they asked for volunteers to help facilitate a care givers’ support group and it fell right into my skill set so I volunteered for that. So now during tax season I volunteer about 50 hours a month. I admit, I love doing all of this because I feel good about giving back to the community.

Brella is a wonderful organization that helps seniors. Besides the programs I mentioned above they have things such as a day program which brings together seniors with health issues and provides them care for the day. Through the United Way they support the Better at Home program which helps seniors with simple non-medical day to day tasks. Another fabulous program is the Friendly Visitor which offers at home visits to isolated older adults. They also do community lunches and coffee groups which are always well attended. This list by no means covers all the services they provide so I will sum it up with they provide a variety of support services to older adults. On a side note, my sister approached them because I was away when she needed to be driven to a low eyesight clinic in Vancouver. Brella arranged a driver for her for which my sister just had to provide gas money. That’s the great kind of support they provide.

As you can see, I am passionate about this organization. Once I learned about all the valuable services they provide I was hooked. Pretty sure I’ll be sticking with them for a long time.

Wahoo, 2 days in a row I have been able to workout outdoors. Yesterday I started the morning with a 6k walk down to the beach. Of course since it was Monday that meant walk with the seniors. Finally at the end of the day it was walking the dog for a senior. It was pretty perfect in the temperature was nice and mild and the sun was out. While today is a bit cloudy it was awesome to be able to do a 5k run first thing. Looks like I will get to do this every day this week.

Last week was National Volunteer Appreciation Week which I didn’t realize until I was at a volunteer fair on Sunday. I decided I should post about the main organizations that I volunteer with and talk about the organizations and what I do for them. It will also be a story of how I came to do so much volunteer work. I’ll note that one is part of a world wide organization, another is all across Canada and the 3rd is from my local area but all do amazing work.

Back in 2005 I was appointed to what was known as the Labour Committee (now the Campaign Cabinet Labour Committee) of the United Way of the Lower Mainland (now the United Way of BC) to represent my Union. Hard to believe that 18 years has gone by since then. During my tenure with the United Way I served as co-chair of the Campaign Cabinet Labour Committee as well as served several terms on their Executive Board (and on various other committees). Today, I still sit on the CCLC but now I represent retired union members and I ensure their issues are also brought forward.

I have had the opportunity to watch the UWBC change so much over what is now nearly 2 decades. When I first started we were very much a community based organization that helped agencies provide services to our 3 pillars, kids 0-5, 6-12 and to seniors. We raised money every year through mainly our workplace campaigns which were held every year. I was fortunate to be part of several workplace campaigns as I would go out and speak passionately about the work the United Way performs.

But things changed. Over the past several years there has been so many urgent issues that have developed. These range from wildfires to flooding, the war in Ukraine and of course who can for get the fact that we went through a pandemic. The UWBC took on these challenges raising funds that were immediately needed to help with these issues. I was honoured to be asked to assist with reviewing grant applications to distribute funds received from the Federal Government to disburse to agencies during COVID. Even recently additional money was received to help agencies who had shifted their work in response to COVID and I was asked again to volunteer to review the applications. I found in all 3 of the rounds of reviews I was involved in that it could be encouraging and at times heart wrenching especially when you have to say no to an organization that was doing such great work but didn’t meet the criteria for the grant.

The UWBC still funds programs for children, youth and seniors. But they also have very specific campaigns such as Period Promise, Food Security and Hi Neighbour. I’m impressed with the shift they have done over the years addressing the needs in our communities and I look forward to continue my work with them for years to come.

My next blog is going to talk about how from the United Way I started down a path to lead me to where I am today.

OK, so rumour has it that once we get through this weekend the weather is going to start to improve. They forecast it may actually reach 20 degrees by the end of the week. This of course figures since we are heading to Mexico for the month of May next Saturday. Oh well, at least I should be able to get my garden planted this week.

This has been a tough week. It started off with me learning that a former co-worker had passed away. He was a very kind man who was so passionate about his work. Then on Tuesday our microwave died on us. Of course it had to be one of those over the range ones so it wasn’t like we could pop out and buy a cheap one. Moreover, we had to wait until yesterday for the replacement to be ready for pick up. Finally on Thursday we learned a long time friend had opted for MAID (for those of you not in Canada that stands for Medical Assistance in Dying). He had been sick for a number of years and I understand that he had gotten to the point that not only was he struggling to breath but he was also in a lot of pain. Of course all of this is on top of checking in on my friend I mentioned in the last post. Boy, not exactly a happy week.

Sometimes when you have weeks like this you have to stop and find some positives. I focus on the fact that my husband and I are healthy and happy. We have some pretty amazing pets one of whom this week decided that he just wanted cuddles all the time. It is hard to be sad when you are cuddling with a pet. We have great friends all around us including ones in Mexico. Yesterday one of our friends sent a message asking what time he should be at the Cancun airport next Sunday to pick us up. I replied that since our flight arrives at 6:45am that we didn’t want to impose and would be taking a cab. This morning I received another message that since he would be up anyways he might as well pick us up. And on a very positive note, the microwave has been installed and is up and running.

Yes, it was a heavy week but I realize that’s just life and it is all about how you handle it. For me it is looking for the good things and I think I found them.

It was a lovely start to the day this morning. It wasn’t raining and the temperature was above freezing. I decided it was the perfect day to do a run outside. Off I went at 6:00am (wearing my reflective jacket of course) to do a 5k. It was a great time to be out running with the exception that I hadn’t brought sunglasses or a ball cap and the last nearly 2k’s I was running with the sun in my eyes. When I got home my husband asked how my run was and I said I really enjoyed it. Those are still strange words to my ears.

Tuesday I facilitated my bi-weekly caregiver support group. It was a larger than normal group this week and I realized I was going to have to keep a tight rein on everyone’s speaking time to ensure all the participants got to speak. One of the participants is someone I know from another volunteer program I am part of arrived about 1/2 hour late. She sat down and right away I thought something is wrong here. When she was offered the floor to speak she burst into tears and I was immediately on my feet standing behind her with my arms wrapped around her as she sobbed. I stood there like that until she got her story out and I felt she ok. When the session ended I gave her a hug that lasted a long time and promised to check on her.

So why is this something to write about, I was just comforting someone. Well you see, I am one of those people that does not like being touched (oh and especially by people I don’t know extremely well). That whole hugging people to greet them or to say goodbye is horrible for me but I do it because you are supposed to. Trust me during COVID I was in my hay day as you couldn’t hug people, to me it was the best thing that happened during the 2 years of restrictions.

But Tuesday was different. I saw someone I know in serious pain and I couldn’t let her go through that alone. I didn’t think about it nor did I think about my discomfort, her needs were by far more important. I thought about it afterwards and realized it was absolutely the right thing to do, my personal issues should never come before the needs of someone who needs help. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I’ve checked in on this person via text to make sure she is ok and has the support she needs and I will keep doing that until this crisis is over for her. It was the right time to just put someone else first.

Finally, I had a decent sleep last night for the first time in over a week. I woke up this morning feeling pretty good so I was even able to get several hours of work done and have nearly finished what I had wanted to accomplish before Friday. It’s amazing what you can do when you are rested and are able to focus.

Yesterday morning I was quite excited when I got up because the weather looked pretty good so I though great, I can do a nice walk to the beach and back. I layered up in the appropriate training jackets and off I went. It was lovely and just the right temperature out to walk at a pretty good clip (note I started out at 6:00am). I was quite happy when I got home and so after rehydrating and resting for a bit I set off at 8:30am to walk up town to meet with my walking group. I was wearing the same layers of clothes and it wasn’t very long until I was thinking hey, it is kind of cold out. It was definitely several degrees cooler than it was when I got home at 7:00am from the first walk. By time I had coffee with the walking group and we set off the wind had kicked up and it was freezing!! Fortunately my husband had a hoodie stored in the back of my SUV so I wrapped myself up in that. Still it was not a fun walk.

In the late afternoon I do my volunteer dog walking. I watched as the afternoon progressed and the weather just seemed to be getting worse. What the hell, I actually had to pull out my heavy rain slicker because it was just teeming out there. Of course the wind was still coming through with gusts making it even less pleasant. Even the dog was struggling with the weather so she made it clear to me after she had done her business it was time for her to go home. Then today I couldn’t figure out whether I should walk to my volunteer event or not and eventually after checking my weather app multiple times I decided it wasn’t worth the risk of getting half way there and a downpour starting.

I just don’t understand what is going on with the weather. Usually by April 1st each year I have turned off our furnace. Today I actually had to turn on the gas fireplace because it was quite chilly in our house. Now I see that when I am out walking the dog this afternoon there is a chance of thunderstorms! With my luck that is exactly what will happen when I start that walk. Sigh, it is still 12 days until Mexico and I can’t wait to get there just so that my feet can finally be warm.

Ok, I know, next I’ll be complaining it is too hot to be running and training in Mexico but at least it will be sunny. I’ve decided if I can always find a work around during the bad weather at home, I can find one there as well.

I have mentioned many times my fear of Canada Geese. Well the other day when I was on my run I went by a park that is nearby us and all of a sudden 2 geese came running out of the park being chased by a cat (it was quite the funny sight). I thought this was odd because I have never seen geese in this area before. Then today driving uptown I saw 2 geese (probably the same ones) crossing the road in a neighbourhood where I have never seen geese before. My immediate thought, oh no, they are taking over the city.

I woke up this morning and I was exhausted. It was so bad that I was seriously considering just rolling over and going back to sleep. After a few minutes I remembered my sister was putting in the effort to make me oatmeal for breakfast so I really needed to get up. I had breakfast and convinced myself to hit the treadmill where I did a 5k walk. I do admit to feeling a bit better after that but it could also be the fact that I had 2 cups of tea and the caffeine had kicked in.

So why am I tired? Since I came home from the trailer last Sunday I have not been sleeping well. It would appear I am back to my normal manic cycle of insomnia. Looking at my Fitbit most nights this week I’m barely making a ‘fair’ sleep score and one was even at the poor level. I know that usually once I hit around night number 4 of this cycle I usually fall into a deep sleep and can go forward. That should have been Thursday night but things happened to prevent that.

My neighbour has dubbed Thursday night (really it was early Friday morning) as a USO – unidentified sound object. The night had started with me not being able to get to sleep for several hours but I think I finally dozed off around midnight. I woke suddenly at around 2am to what sounded like a heavy duty saw running. Seriously, it sounded like someone was in our garage running a saw. I know it was bad because about an hour later it woke up my husband who is a very deep sleeper. I lay there wide awake until about 4am which was great since I am normally up by 5am. All in all I might have gotten in 3 hours of sleep.

You would think that after last night exhaustion would definitely have caught up to me but no, because of a complicated project I am working on for a recent client my mind was too busy drafting up responses to emails that would not make a very delicate situation even worse. Having said that I did come up with some pretty good language for the responses but not until well into the night.

I’ve only got 2 weeks until I head to Mexico for a month. I am even more resolved than ever that if I am not sleeping down there where I should be fully relaxed then it is time to get back on the sleeping pills.

Here’s hoping that tonight I finally get the rest that I need.

Yesterday I did my first run wearing my new orthotics. Since I can wear them comfortably all day when not training I decided they likely are broken in so I might as well give it a try. I was surprised at how comfortable they actually were when running. I did have a slight pressure point on the top of my foot when I was finished my 5k but it was just a small red mark and nothing painful. I certainly didn’t feel it while I was running.

I’m getting a little frustrated with my Fitbit. As you will have read in previous posts, I live by my Fitbit. It tells me all the important things like distance, steps, calories burned, zone minutes, sleep score, heart rate and resting heart rate. It also gives me my zone goal for each day and tells me when to do a recovery day. Or at least that is what it is supposed to do. Normally I am pretty confident in its accuracy but lately it has become a bit concerning.

It started with the fact that even after doing 5 consecutive days at 300+ zone minutes a day it kept telling me my recovery score was good. I knew this wasn’t correct as those are pretty high training numbers. Then one morning a couple weeks ago I did 5k on the treadmill but according to my Fitbit I had only walked about 3.5k. Note, when I am on the treadmill I set exercise on my Fitbit to ‘treadmill’ so it knows what exercise I am doing. I decided to do a reset which is what is recommended and I figured it was looking ok again.

Yesterday I did my run. I thought I was running at a pretty good pace and according to my time to do the run it was about what I usually do. When I finished I looked at my Fitbit and it said during 47% of my run I was below the heart rate zone that I needed. WTF! As a matter of fact during that run it said my average heart rate was below what it had been when I did my morning treadmill walk. Then, later in the day when I did my volunteer dog walking, my average heart rate was higher than when I did my run. This is simply not possible as the dog I walk tends to sniff a lot so lots of stops along the walk and moreover because she is 13 years old it’s not like she walks along at a really fast pace. To top all of this off, I was on the treadmill today and at one point the Fitbit said my heart rate was only slightly above what it normally is when I am sitting on my couch. Something is just not right.

I’ve done yet another reset on my Fitbit but I fear it is failing. I do have a back up one but unfortunately it is a cheaper version and just doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that I am used to. I am really hoping I am not going to have to go on a shopping spree but I will do so if need be because my Fitbit truly helps to keep me motivated.

For any of you who have been checking for blogs the last week, I mentioned I would be at the trailer and when I am there I tend to get lazy which means no blogging. It also tends to mean no training and eating things I normally avoid. Ok, there also may be a lot of wine consumed as well. I did some walking when the weather was relatively dry (like most Easter weekends it was torrential rains) as I had the dog with me but otherwise it was a relaxing several days watching movies with my sister. I know it is always good to do an occasional reset as long as there is a game plan to get back to it.

Having said that I did have a game plan. Despite my crazy schedule for the next couple of weeks I have planned out how to get at least one set of training done each day. I have also started checking the weather to see when I can move the training from in the garage to back outdoors (looks like Wednesday will be a good day for this). I have planned out what days I am going to do runs and when the focus will be on speed. All of this will be on top of some significant deadlines with my new client.

Yesterday went exactly as planned. I got up first thing and did a good walk on the treadmill. After cooling down it was time for some weights. Mondays are also the day that I lead my group of seniors on a walk so, by 10:30am yesterday I was already at 15,000 steps and I still had to walk the senior’s dog before dinner. Definitely a successful day.

Then this morning happened. I got up at the usual time, ate some breakfast had my tea and then it hit me, tummy troubles. When I realized there were issues I did what I normally do, tried to convince myself to push through it as I felt guilty for enjoying my time at the trailer. I just don’t want to backslide with the progress I have made the past few months so I was working hard at pushing myself to train. However, I realized it was just a bad plan and that missing today was going to have zero impact on my level of fitness. It took me a moment to get back to that mantra of listening to my body.

So, I am pausing for the day. Instead I will focus on the meetings I have to attend and I’ll be back at it again tomorrow. Not to worry though, while I am not training I will still get at least a shorter walk in this afternoon as I do the pre-dinner dog walking.

Finally, after 10 days of my sleep score being poor to fair I apparently got a good night sleep. This is almost normal for me as I go through what seems to be manic cycles of insomnia until I think I reach the point of exhaustion when I finally get some sleep. This had been a longer stretch than normal and I have realized it is getting worse again. I’ve decided to give myself until I get back from spending May at the condo and if it is not better by then I will have to go back on sleeping pills. My rationale is if I can’t sleep when I should be at my most relaxed then help is obviously needed.

I found out today is National Caregiver Day which occurs the first Tuesday in April (note April is also Parkinson’s awareness month). As you know every other Tuesday I facilitate a Caregivers’ Support Group which happens to be today so I think talking about caregivers is a perfect fit for this blog. And learning about today has me thinking of handling the group quite differently today.

If you have ever been a caregiver for someone with serious health issues you know that caregivers are unsung heroes. Unfortunately the way our current health system operates the expectation is that family will do much of the heavy lifting when it comes to taking care of loved ones. I have learned a lot from the group I facilitate including the untold emotional cost of basically sacrificing your own life to take care of someone pretty much 24/7. Some feel they just can’t seek long term care for their loved one whether that be because of emotional ties or maybe more distressing due to financial reasons. Others (often times when dealing with aging parents) feel a tremendous amount of guilt about placing their loved one in care. All of them though to me demonstrate an incredible amount of courage to do what they do every day.

When I realized the importance of today I decided I am going to need to change my group up a bit today. Usually everyone gets a chance to do an introduction and explain what they are experiencing which often turns into an emotional unloading of what they have been experiencing. There is often a lot of tears shed during the session though sometimes we have had some laughter too. I thought today I am going to make this a happy session. I’ve already reached out to the sponsoring organization to see if we have some swag we can give all of the participants as a recognition of what they do. I also want today to be about happy stories so that hopefully everyone can walk away from today feeling just a little lighter for a little while.

So if you know someone who is a caregiver do me a favour and reach out to them today. If you can, give them a little gift or take them a coffee. Just let them know you recognize how brave and strong they are.

Day 3 of my orthotics and I think it is going well. I don’t seem to have any pressure points and today I managed to wear them for 3 hours. I do find the sensation of the arch support a little weird but I am sure I will get used to it. I did wear them while out walking yesterday but I am following instructions and not wearing them for training or running. However, I think if it keeps going like this then within a couple weeks I should be good to give that a try.

Now don’t make assumptions from today’s title that I took the day off, I still worked out first thing this morning. Given that it is Saturday I just try to make sure I get in at least 10k steps which I of course have already accomplished. But today I decided it would be a good day to just hang out with my family. Ok, we live in the same house but really we don’t spend a lot of direct time together. We started out by going to a Keto store and picked up some great (albeit expensive) products including sugar free Daiquiri mix for the trailer (it is really Marguerita mix but we don’t have tequila at the trailer). It was then off to the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Wars for lunch. This is an event we have supported several times in the past and we all had a great time not to mention a fantastic lunch. This afternoon it will be watching a movie while just kicking back together. All of this will continue tomorrow as our grandson turned 9 on Thursday so my husband and I are going to join him at his birthday dinner.

Sometimes my life is just crazy busy and I forget that you need to take some time and just enjoy those around you. It’s kind of ironic because with everything my family has been through in the last 5 years you would think that would just come naturally but honestly it doesn’t. Yes, we do find things to do together but sometimes I have to specifically set aside time in my calendar to make sure I get in some of that family time. I admit every time I do I realize how important it can be. And really, it does put me in a good place mentally.

And on that note, next week is the annual Easter trip to the trailer for my sister and I. This tradition started nearly 2 decades ago with our Mom making it the ‘girls’ time at the trailer and my sister and I decided to continue the tradition after Mom passed. We like to just spend some time together and kick back and not have to worry about things like our brother’s special diet. Instead we have many movies planned around the work I need to get done while there. I’m hoping the weather is at least decent so that I can get my workouts in but if it isn’t, oh well, the time together is more important.

So I apologize now in case I don’t get any posts done but I promise I will do my best.