Last year, I was referred to my local pain clinic to help me cope with the stress physically and emotionally of living with spinal nerve compression.
I was a little sceptical at first, as I’ve been managing my pain and pacing myself for years. I was also feeling very anxious of having to be on a video call and poor my heart out to complete strangers.
What I wasn’t expecting was to meet and befriend some amazing courageous women, who were all living their own nightmares and had varying levels of pain. Everyone was so supportive, but finding myself at 45 as the youngest person on the calls each week didn’t sit that comfortable with me. I carried on turning up on the call and it got easier each week.
Every week we would start the call, showing what we had been up to. My pain levels increased 50% Feb 2020, I turned back to passion of crafting and during the first lockdown in March 2020. I made Bertha, then shortly after I decided to make Bert (Bertha’s dance partner) during the 2nd lockdown.
I was in my element and it was a great distraction from the pain. I started using resin too, first I was making jewellery….
Next up was resin sculpture bowls… these were so much fun to make, I literally let my imagination take me wherever it wanted to go…
I made other things too, never being able to stay on one type of craft for too long. I spent lots of time on Pinterest, discovering so many different medias to work with, here are just a few… 👇👇👇
In may 2021, I was diagnosed with depression (no bloody surprises there after all the shit life had thrown at me) My pain got so bad that I had to close my business in Jan 2020. I felt such a failure and constantly felt like I was letting everyone down. However the worse was still to come…
In March 2021, I woke up one day and couldn’t walk, putting any weight on my feet made my eyes water, after a conversation with my then 10 year daughter, I finally relented and agreed to go on meds (gabepentin), she said she would rather see me tired all the time than in the pain I was in… I had been on it years ago, the side effects were brutal, so I had to send my daughter to stay with my eldest daughter for 10 days. However it took a couple of months of increasing meds slowly to get my pain under enough control so I could walk properly.
It was awful not having her home and I’d lost any interest or capability of continuing to craft. When my partner was in work and daughter in school all day I felt so alone, I’d lost my mojo for anything creative and started losing hours in the day time, it took a few months for me to realise that I’d slipped into depression without realising
Not long after starting medication, the pain clinic video calls started and they introduced me to the world of Art Therapy. Again I was very nervous about doing this via video calls, but within a couple of weeks I was buzzing again and started looking on Pinterest again. I got out all my craft supplies and decided to use all those supplies that I’d been saving for 20 years for the perfect project
I will be doing some more posts over the next week or two showing the projects we did and topics that were covered during the course.
Sneak preview 👇👇
Where am I now? Pain levels have increased 100%, my back pain has now spread into my hips, groin and down the side and back of my legs and I’m probably close to finally get the much needed operation I need to get some quality of life back. The anti depressants have helped immensely, especially regarding crafting, it’s the one thing that gives me peace and a sense of personal achievement..
If you’ve read this far, thank you 🥰
#handmade #handcrafted #makersgonnamake #makersmovement #mycreativebiz #handmadebyme #whatimade #creatorslane #handmadeisbetter #craftsposure #creativelifehappylife #helloimhandmade #supporthandmade #makersvillage #thehandmadeparade #makersofinstagram #abmcrafty #craftaholic #communityovercompetition #creativepreneur #creativedaily #handsandheart #handsandhustle #cylcollective #handmadewithlove
Leave a comment