Thanks-giving and Lupus

Focus on Thanksgiving

This is the one week of the year when the entire nation focuses on thankfulness.  Giving something means someone is receiving the gift.  Thankfulness is a gift, that when given blesses and honors the recipient.  To be worthy of thanks being given to them, the recipient must have behaved in such a way to inspire the gratefulness of others to such a degree that they are motivated of their own will to offer the gift of thanks in response.

Although lupus certainly is not a person, it at times seems to take on the status of person-hood.  It is often personified in my speech, as if it were an actual being.   Thus, it nearly has personality, perceived to change daily in response to the things I do to it, to aggravate or placate it.  At times it is unpredictable, capricious and even annoying.  Supposing for the sake of argument, lupus was a person, it would not be worthy of thanksgiving based on its demonstrated behavior.  It is off my “thank you” list.

Thanking God the ultimate focus

However, after thanking Almighty God, who is the ultimate focus of my highest thanks-giving, for his unconditional abiding love, undeserved forgiveness and boundless power, there are several things and people surrounding lupus in my life that are worthy of heart-felt thanks.

Thankful for people

People I am thankful for:

My husband for his patience, kindness, comfort, candor, help, encouragement, love and amazingly high opinion of me

My immediate family and a few close friends who believe lupus is real, and have eyes to see and care about my invisible challenges and chronic illness

My church family and friends, for those who care and pray for me, and ask how I am doing when they know my life has become busy or stressful

My supervisors who unfailingly support me, encourage me, accommodate me and believe in me even on my bad CNS lupus flare days

My coworkers who support me and who have made a point to gain lupus awareness, and who take time to ask questions so they can understand

Thankful for doctors

My primary care doctor who was persistent enough to search for an answer when I was arthritic, crippled and pain ridden at thirty

My rheumatologist, who continues to cajole my proactive management of my lupus, pushes me to set goals for improvement of my health, confronts counterproductive behaviors, and prescribe the right balance of medications for optimal management of my lupus

My chiropractor, who uses gentle adjustment methods that neither aggravate my old cervical spine damage nor my lupus arthritis, who understands how auto-immunity plays a part of my total health, and shares faith in God and some lighthearted humor and chuckles with me

My pharmacist, who calls me by name, watches over my drug interactions, and processes hundreds of insurance claims for prescriptions each year

Things I am Thankful for:

Thankful for things

My Bible, whose words are a constant source of comfort, strength, encouragement, wisdom and whatever else I might need at the moment

My piano, and the joy of playing it each morning to overshadow the difficulties of the earliest hours of my day, and that helps me gauge my fitness for driving by helping me measure and improve the quality of my eye-hand-brain coördination.

My house and large outdoor covered patio that gives me ample indoor and outdoor roaming room outside the rays of the sun

Thankful for blog and readers

My bike and the fluid trainer I ride it in for indoor exercise, and for how much better and how much less pain I feel after each workout

My tile and wood floors that are so much easier to clean than it would be to vacuüm that much carpet!

The Lupus Foundation of America, and it’s role in supporting lupus research, awareness, patient advocacy and physician education.

My blog (and readers!) and how much I have enjoyed receiving the encouragement of others as well as having the opportunity to connect with other bloggers, and to inform, encourage and challenge others related to lupus issues.

Thanks-giving and Lupus!

Can I be thankful each day?

This ends up a long list!  Who would have thought there were that many things to be thankful for, with a focus on lupus?

Perhaps if I just think about one of these people and one of these things each day, while thanking God for them, it might influence my attitude positively.  It might just help me keep today’s thankful heart well into the new year and beyond the Holidays.  This might be a good goal, that at the end of next year, I might be able to be thankful for, as well.