sharings from Pauline O'Shea, Patient Advocate, Public speaker, Media spokesperson & Writer on the challenges & healing that life has to offer
In the lead up to Christmas this year, a beautiful person in my life and the lives of so many of my extended family died and so, just days before life was supposed to turn festive, came a funeral. Christmas, with its traditions based on the Christian belief in the birth of Christ, seems at… Continue reading LOST & FOUND… how sharing a loss, helped find some healing
With patients, ‘that place’ can refer to the venue where they received their diagnosis and/or treatment, or 'that place' where they were when they first noticed the lump, or experienced the sudden pain that would change their lives utterly. For others, it can be more of an experience, 'that place' in memory that holds the… Continue reading “I JUST CAN’T GO THERE!” But what if going to ‘that place’ is key to helping you heal?
We've all been there, those moments in life where life itself can seem more demanding than we are able for, where we feel exhausted before we even start, where we feel alone on our journey. While I am not in that place at this time in my life, I have been! And the reality is,… Continue reading ‘THE CLIMB’, by Pauline O’Shea, a reflection and poem for those feeling overwhelmed, lost and alone…
I've been ill since last I wrote. It lasted for weeeeeeks. A virus. Not Covid... officially... but a definite stepbrother or stepsister. First came the excessive tired, then the cough, the sore throat, the weak limbs... it felt like someone had pulled the bath plug out... Then there was the chest infection, the reduced oxygen,… Continue reading ‘LISTEN TO YOUR BODY’!… yes, but what happens to the rest of your life while you do🤦♀️ ??
As a heart patient who has survived multiple heart attacks as a result of a condition called SCAD (Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection) combined with a medical misdiagnosis, and then went on to experience a cardiac arrest, open heart surgery and a diagnosis of heart failure, you may think I'd sort of fallen out of love… Continue reading ‘A HEART’, by Pauline O’Shea… a poem written for everyone who has one!
I hope you all had a good Christmas or at least the comfort of some good love and kindness if you didn't. Today I am feeling more poetic... hope you enjoy this, my latest poem... wishing all who read it, all the good wishes it professes... and that you all may experience the jewels of… Continue reading ‘This New Year’, by Pauline O’Shea
While for many of us, Christmas will be a very, or relatively, merry affair, for some, it may not. If you have lost a loved one, a job, your good bill of health, your home, or your relationship over the last year, then Christmas might involve coping with that empty chair, or that other gaping… Continue reading Christmas for the BROKEN-HEARTED…. a tale of finding light after loss
Last week I had the pleasure of being part of a presentation and discussion on the psychological impact of diagnosis. It’s a topic close to my heart, having experienced all manner of psychological fallout to my own misdiagnosis, eventual diagnosis and horrendous legacy of both, from stress and anxiety, to lows and PTSD (more on… Continue reading The PSYCHOLOGICAL impact of illness… why we need to HEAL OUR MINDS, as well as our BODIES!
It’s been a manic few weeks in my world, as I am sure it has been for many of you. September, with it’s new ‘opening up’ and ‘returning to normal’ strategies has seen lots begin again and anew for us. For me, it meant, one child embarking on college, two others returning to school, patient… Continue reading Sorry, but I NEED to say “NO!”
But for this blog, many of you would be unaware that I live with heart failure, or that my marriage ended. To the regular person on the street, the other school parents, the people in my community, I look ‘normal’. How do I know I look ‘normal’? Because when people eventually heard/hear about my… Continue reading “But you look so ‘NORMAL’!!!”… the need to redefine ‘NORMAL’ to bring HEALING.
She had no idea there was a mountain to climb before she was brought to its base. Even then she didn’t know much about it, but felt the journey begin amidst the firm but gentle clasp of the adult hands on either side of her, holding her two small soft hands, with dimpled knuckles, in… Continue reading “The Mountain Climbers” in APPRECIATION for ALL those who accompany us on the journey
After my illness, I instinctively knew that words were going to be very significant to how I got through my recovery. I needed words to feed me hope, light and possibility if I was going to survive mentally and recover emotionally. It wasn’t me wanting to hear medical falsehoods about my future, but it was… Continue reading “Should I put down the pen?” – facing the dilemma… when HEALING for one, is HURTING for another…
You know how it is, your life turns upside down, while everyone else’s looks rosier than ever. Your Facebook feed is full of smiling family pics from the latest staycation hotspot (is it Donegal this week, or has it moved back to Kerry?). You even notice the odd ‘Playa de something or other’ creeping into… Continue reading ‘CLICK & CONNECT’… why finding your tribe, is a UNIQUE and VITAL lifeline in a struggle…
When I regained consciousness in ICU after open heart surgery, bleary eyed and with a raging temperature from an infection that made me feel like I had landed at the gates of hell, the first thing I remember seeing was my Dad’s red coat. He was coming through a door, and talking to me, as… Continue reading The power of LOVE in healing…
When you find yourself describing yourself as ‘Thomas the tank engine’ in the morning, and ‘Salty’, the clapped-out engine, in the afternoon, it can mean only one thing, that you’re talking to a child about living with heart failure. We were having a lovely week away, my daughter and I, taking in the beach, visitor… Continue reading HEART FAILURE & MOTHERHOOD… and learning to juggle the two
There are a lot of books written on overcoming life challenges, 5 steps this way, 10 steps that way, all trying to produce the complete, ‘over it with these strategies’ result. Having been through a few big life challenges myself (cardiac arrest and marriage breakdown, to name but two), I can see the appeal of… Continue reading ‘RISING STRONG’, yes Brené Brown, I think that’s the call, when cometh the life challenge
We had been married for 20 years and together for 29, when our marriage ended. Teens to forty somethings, we had journeyed together from REM to Coldplay and through lots more debatable ‘good’ music choices in between. A marriage is a complex affair. It is a melting pot of history, dreams, intimacy, finances, sometimes children,… Continue reading “CONSCIOUS UNCOUPLING”… sorry Gwyneth, I’m not as good as you at it… but I’m getting there!
I used to think happiness was about achieving landmark moments in life; the good job, the house, the baby, but life has taught me it’s less about the produce of, and more about the ingredients in, our everyday living that holds the key. It takes a while to get the ingredients for happiness right of… Continue reading Recipes for HAPPINESS…
When I was lying in the high dependency unit, post emergency open heart surgery, several years ago, grieving for my life that was, my children that I couldn’t see, and a future life that seemed, back then, so unlikely, I craved, more than anything, human connection. In the long, lonely hours of night, behind the… Continue reading COMPASSION, a vital medicine for the wounded…
It wouldn’t be quite correct to say that I bought my house because of a tree, but it wouldn’t be far off either. It's a large eucalyptus tree, God knows how old, but very mature. The first day I saw it was an exciting day. We were house hunting for a while, when we came… Continue reading THE HEALING TREE…
Holding my new-born and delighting in her arrival, I had no idea that my coronary artery was about to threaten our ability to ever have a relationship. Birth is such a time of newness, hope and promise, that the thoughts of death and ending are probably at their most alien. And for other good reasons… Continue reading When MOM’S GET SICK… the GUILT can be the worst bit
The healing of life 