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…
Book Review: The Love Note
I love reading novels with strong women. I even love reading historical novels about strong women. The Love Note is a historical type of romance novel that features a strong woman who wants to be a doctor in 1865. I love that. I’m not going to ruin the story by...
Book Review: The Key to Love
I love reading novels especially since part of my chronic illness is having sleepless nights. I love getting lost in a story so I can forget about my pain and not being able to sleep. Recently, I read The Key to Love by Betsy St. Amant. I love novels about strong...
Fear of Suffocating!
Warning: This is going to be a dark post. I am going to share a lot of disturbing and painful things in this post and it may trigger some. If you are easily triggered I won’t be offended if you don’t read this. I am having a hard time sleeping tonight. I have a...
The Conqueror
I enjoy reading historical fiction so when I was given a chance to read Bryan Litfin’s novel The Conqueror which is based on Constantine’s army rampage through Germanic lands I wanted to dive in. I don’t know much about Constantine’s goal of turning all...
Quiet Times with God
Diving into the word of God and spending time with Him helps me deal with the frustrations of living with a chronic condition. I do this in many forms, from reading devotional books, listening to Podcasts, and the Bible app on my Kindle. There is so much angst in the...
Review: Point of Danger
If you follow my blog, Instagram, Facebook, or my Twitter page then you are aware that I live with a chronic illness. One of the tools I use to deal with my is distraction, and I use reading a good novel as a distraction from my painful days. I love mysteries. I love...
Praying for Emily
Cancer sucks, but when it is a child who is fighting cancer it triple sucks. In Praying for Emily by the Whitehead family they share their experience with cancer. This book will make you cry, it will make you rejoice...
When Women Pray
Praying, I have a lot of self-doubt when it comes to praying whether I am by myself or in a crowd. I also have known some people in my life who use prayer for sermon purposes. You know like the Sadducees that Jesus condemned with their standing on street...
Possibility List
I’m sitting on my bed listening to some classical music with Nicholas, my big furry cat by my side. Nothing feels more comforting than evenings like this especially with all the emotional and physical violence going on in the world lately. Friday night I watched a...
Book Review: The Mind of a Conservative Woman
With all the chaos happening in my country, I live in the United States, there is so much pain, anger, fear, and my opinion matters more than your’s. I decided to step back and listen to what people’s opinions are on both sides, conservative and non-conservative...