Message from Jamie Holloway
For eleven years I have been learning to live well with chronic illness. It hasn’t been perfect. I haven’t always been successful at achieving my goals. It has been a chaotic, messy, learning experience that has made my life adventurous. I have learned a lot about how complicated, dangerous & even emotionally, spiritually & mentally draining living with several diagnoses is.
I am asked by my many doctors, nurses, caregivers, friends, family, strangers & store clerks how I have maintained my good attitude despite the many medical adventures, I have lived through, that might have left me feeling bitter, angry, broken & unforgiving. All I can say is, I made decisions & I followed through. One decision was to fight for me. Jesus fought for me so why shouldn’t I?
I also realized, I didn’t want my crawl through lifelong sickness, just for my own benefit. I wanted to be a wellness advocate & help those who are in the same predicament. I wanted to be one of the helpers that Mr. Roger’s speaks about. I do this by reminding myself that my attitude can help me navigate through the dark channels of chronic illness.
I am determined to say thank you to the doctors, nurses, caregivers, anyone who helps me. Showing gratitude reminds you that your life is not over just because you are sick. I say thank you & I mean it. I also decided that I didn’t want to become idle. I want to actually accomplish something, so I started writing.
I believe communicating my pain, needs, & being willing to listen as part of communication allows me to be able to be in a good relationship with my team. I have a good support system of family, friends, doctors, nurses, & caregivers who allow me to achieve many of the goals I have made. I am able to live in my home & able to keep on breathing, writing, reading & loving on my boy, Nicholas.
Since 2017 I have been an owner of Wellness Works NW. I serve as the Research Manager. I am a lead writer & my column is called Chasing Wellness.
Book Reviews
I love reading. This is one thing that keeps me busy and not feeling sorry for myself because I sometimes feel useless in my condition. I have enjoyed every book I have read, even if some of them weren’t my favorite. I enjoy the process of reading and reviewing books.
Read Jamie’s Latest Blog Posts…
Praying God’s Promises
Praying and meditating on God’s word has been and will be one thing that I do that helps me through the many challenges that I have and am facing when it comes to my health. I sometimes feel like I’m not doing it correctly. In Linda Evans Shepherd’s book...
Shift Your Thinking For Success
Success is something we humans want to achieve. In Dean Del Sesto book Shift Your Thinking For Success he shares 77 ways to help you achieve success for business or life. What I love about this book are the short chapters with each suggestion so that you...
Boundaries for Your Soul
Recently I started back to counseling because as I am going through the process of weight loss surgery I knew that I needed help emotionally in handling the challenges. Then I received Boundaries for Your Soul by Alison Cook and Kimberly Miller. I felt God...
Engraved on the Heart
I apology for not being able to show a picture of Engraved on the Heart, unfortunately when I received this book it was damaged. The post office sent a note saying, sorry for the damage to your package. Although, the outside of this book is damaged I still found value...
Tailor Made
Being authentic has been a life lesson for me. I grew up not being allowed to be who I was created to be. When I reached my 30’s and discovered I had several chronic illnesses I realized the importance of being authentically me with Jesus’ help. In...
Learning About Ketoacidosis
In one of my last articles I wrote about What Are Ketones, what they are what their job is in our bodies. In this article I will tackle the subject of Ketoacidosis. Being a diabetic and deciding to do the Keto Eating Plan means I have to be keenly aware of where my...
Dangerous Good
When I picked up Kenny Luck’s book Dangerous Good I didn’t realize it was geared towards men and their identity in Jesus. Even though it is geared towards men and their relationship with Jesus I am still glad I read it. The reason why is so that I know how they...
Designed for More
Unity and community seems to be all over the news and the internet and in Lucas Ramirez and Mike Devito’s book Designed for More they write on this subject through the lens of Jesus. I love that they use as an example the murmuration of birds. I am in agreement...
Chaos
I’ve been stuck in not knowing what to write about, so I haven’t written anything but book reviews. A lot has happened in the last few months, I have started taking the nutrition classes that my insurance company requires me to take in order to get gastric bypass...
Okayest Mom
Adoption has been a part of my family. My brother and his wife adopted a girl, and in a way I was engrafted into a new family. It was called guardianship, but it was adoption in a sense. As I was reading Natalie Gwyn’s memoir about her...