What will my purpose be?

 Finding a purpose. I definitely have been struggling to find a purpose that could be passionate about again. Before being diagnosed with GBS, one of my purposes was working in the Data Collection section of Health Records. I was involved with sharing the data collected by our coding specialists to physicians along with our coding specialists too. In addition, I was a part of training new staff or assist in the cross-training of a new coding discipline as well as representing my health zone (Calgary Zone) on a provincial data collection workgroup or representing Alberta on a national committee to review our national coding standards. For me, I found it interesting as I learned from each task. 

Unfortunately, with my diagnosis of GBS, almost everything has been taken from me - starting from scratch you would say. Reinventing myself - challenging for sure as my “right now”, I have to face it has a quadriplegic with limited movement, none that can allow me to do any of my daily basic needs by myself. Gone from an independent woman to a woman who is totally dependent on others for basic necessities in daily life. Went from owning my own bi-level home to living in a 350 sq ft room at a long term care facility. Went from having a full time, good paying job which I enjoyed doing to now having no job and being reliant on long term disability. Definitely a hard pill to swallow. Where do I start to be able to move forward in my life?

One vital key in any recovery is to have a positive attitude towards life. Being suck in negativity is a such dark place. Your pessimistic about life, your personality changes to a negative attitude to things; eventually no one wishes to be around you which becomes lonely. For me, I am so blessed with having an awesome support group who help me acknowledge my negative days but helps me go back to feeling positive again. So the next steps were to find a physiotherapist to help me keep my muscles atrophy further. Since some movement has come back by starting physiotherapy sessions, it has given me the motivation to continue forward in my recovery of GBS. I can’t do much about regaining my independence like it once was. Being a quadriplegic and require total care,   I will always have that dependence on others. So finding a purpose(s), is my next focus of taking back my life. 

With technology, the health record is moving from being paper based to being fully electronic. In my current position, I cannot go back to career, as I can’t pick up a phone with my hand, or type on the keyboard with my fingers, or turn and hold the pages of the health record charts. By the changing to a fully electronic record there a glimmer of hope that I could go back to my career again. With the proper tools to assist me like a touchscreen laptop, a mouth stick to use the electronic keyboard, I can see the possibilities of returning to at least to be a coding specialist. Brings a smile to my face actually. 

This summer has shown me another purpose that I would imagine. I do not think it would have even occurred had I not been diagnosed with GBS. The purpose of being an advocate not only for myself, but for others or to share my voice about what my provincial government is doing with policies or passing bills in parliament that impact me and others. I realized I should share my voice, share my concerns - write to the members in parliament, where decisions are made - become an advocate. To date, I have written to AgeCare Corporate sharing my observations and experiences living in one of their facilities, especially during this Covid-19 pandemic we are experiencing in 2020; written to Alberta’s Minister of Health Tyler Shandro about my concerns of what he has been doing to Alberta’s healthcare system; written to the President/CEO of AHS Dr. Verna Yiu acknowledging and recognizing the physicians and the rest of the AHS staff who have for me; written to Alberta’s Premier Jason Kenney about what his party is doing to Alberta’s healthcare system; and today I wrote Premier Kenney again but this time it was about the oil & gas sector and the environment. Some other topics come to mind fo the future - wheelchair accessibility; architectural design of LTC facilities and the need to have wheelchair accessibility within the facility; and ensuring enough staff at LTC facilities to allow our daily basic needs are met while keeping both residents and staff safe. 

I have received compliments from family and friends on how well done the letters have been written. Plus a few of my physicians have emailed back appreciating the kind words. Unfortunately, haven’t received any replies from the people I wrote to yet. Though at the end of the week, I will be having a meeting with our facility’s general manager and AgeCare Corporate VP of Care Services. This meeting coming from my July 12, 2020 letter to AgeCare Corporate. 

I had always thought, I am only one voice, how is that going to make a difference? Over these past few month, my view has changed a bit. My view now is, I might be only on voice, but I am also one voice of many. Now from that viewpoint there could be a  potentially for change to happen.