Take Control of Your Health

So.... It's flu season. This year I have been fortunate enough to work in the public schools. I love every minute of it. Even as a sub, I get the satisfaction of seeing the light bulb blink on when students understand things for the first time. And as a sub, I am blessed with the ability to touch more lives! However, I wish they could keep their germs to themselves.

How about a little back story. I know. Who really cares, right? Well, I'm hoping that my experiences will help others with some of the same problems. I have psoriasis. Not really health impeding at this point but truly miserable, disgusting, and embarrassing. I can't wear dark clothing because... Well, I won't be too graphic.

Last winter, I had had enough. I decided it was time to see a dermatologist seriously. Of course, I'd been before. They've suggested over the counter medications, shampoos, oils, steroid creams. You name it; I've tried it. I even asked about tanning. See, one of the causes of psoriasis is a vitamin D deficiency which your body makes with the absorption of UV rays. The doctor flew off the handle. The gist of it, I am entirely too susceptible to skin cancer to spend any time in a tanning bed.

After a lot of discussion, he prescribed Methotrexate. I figured, if I was able to step into a classroom without students asking me what's wrong with my head, the side effects were well worth the risks. For a few months, that was true. I even bough black shirts!

http://www.joyfuldrops.com/joyfulblog/

Somewhere along the line, it stopped being effective. Now, it's flu season. While I normally have a solid immune system from spending so much time with children, this year seems to be quite different. I have caught nearly every sneeze and sniffle that the students have. It appears that the side effects of the medication is catching up with me. And I don't know about you, but a cancer fighting medication should not list lymphoma as a side effect.


This is where I get to the point! I have been chosen to participate along with a group of bloggers to take what I'm dubbing The Joyful Drops Challenge. Starting early next week, I will blog through my experience. As the picture says, it's time to take control of your health and that's just what I plan to do.

Change your life.

I suffer from a truly horrid negativity more days than not. I get this feeling like the world is going to crash down around me and I'm not going to crawl from the rubble with enough vigor to save my own life. Maybe it's just a result of today's world where books like Hunger Games and Divergent take the population by storm. Maybe it's just our inability as a society to take responsibility for ourselves.

Think about it. Each day, our world comes a step closer to being one of our favorite dystopian novels. We spend more of our energy criticizing others for their choices than we do considering our own. We suppress others for being exactly who they want to be because we are too worried how others will accept us.

It's time for a change. 

The time has come for each person to reach inside and find what makes her own personal world turn. Make yourself happy and other will follow. Show the world that happiness truly is contagious. It's not your outward appearance that matters, but what's in your heart.

Only you control your happiness.

The rest of my life starts today. Today, I will make an attempt to smile more. Today, I will learn how to ask for the things I need and not yell at people for not doing them. Today, I will not yell.

What will you do?