Authorpreneur Dashboard – JoAnne S Lake
Beyond Embarrassment
Biographies & Memoirs
JoAnne’s story is engaging. It inspires, while offering suggestions for managing life’s hurdles. In an honest, will-to-succeed style, this journey focuses on neurogenic bladder and bowel condition in which a person lacks control due to a brain spinal cord or nerve condition. The source can be aging, a chronic health condition, trauma, or many other causes. Often called an under active or over active bladder or bowel, its symptoms vary but the difficult daily reality is shared. • Valuable guide, much like a fresh prescription filled with practical advice • Educates, empathizes, and encourages women who struggle with the same health issue • Written with a girlfriend-to girlfriend feel, sharing the path to survival and success • Sprinkled with Tips and Knowledge Nuggets that high light points of importance • Encouraging and equipping the reader to live every day to the utmost With medical input from expert medical research librarian and Biosleuth, Julia Parker, readers will discover current research and facts equipping them to meet their medical challenges and work with their medical teams. Valuable for healthcare professionals to share with patients
Book Bubbles from Beyond Embarrassment
Doctor will this particular exam help me?
This excerpt from my book is such a perfect example of a doctor going through the motions of an exam and me not asking enough questions at the end. I hope that if a situation happens to me or you too, we take the time to get the answers. It is important that we understand how to help ourselves.
Drug Watch can help sort out options
We as consumers need to be aware of what is going into our bodies. A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, diabetic neuropathy or a stroke that lead to a neurogneic bladder or bowel can be frightening. We need to resist the urge to take all the drugs offered before we know what the consequences are to our bodies. Sometimes a treatment can have adverse effects. Please take the time to learn about the medications you are taking. www.Drugwatch.com This awareness group aims to educate the public on drug and health issues. They provide readers with updated information on dangerous medications and faulty medical devices/ implants. These resources help those who have been injured by FDA approved medications.
The Stigma Hinders us Looking for Help
A big part of why I wrote this book is to take the punch out of bowel and bladder problems. I was typical. Because of my embarrassment of bringing my symptoms to my healthcare professionals, my physical complications got worse. Beyond Embarrassment includes 5 letters from other patients who grappled with the symptoms, the embarrassment, and the isolation of the condition. My hope is that this book will help women understand their bodies and feel at peace with a diagnosis of neurogneic bladder and bowel.
What came first, Depression or Infection?
I am interested in learning about how chronic infection can cause emotional drain and physical soreness. Recent medical evidence has reported that despair and a wounded spirit, can be caused by infection. During my years of undiagnosed urinary retention, I kept busy and tried not to give into the lethargy I felt. I worked and coped, but now that I understand that my chronic bladder infections contributed to my lethargy, I wonder about all the women out there suffering from depression and sore bodies. Is that possible that they are fighting an undiagnosed infection?
Our Physical and Emotional State are so Intwined
How often do we as women feel dull, agitated,Crabby, tired, worry about being lazy, and WHADAH..What do you know? A full flown bladder infection hits the next day. I have heard that on psych wards, one of the tests they do on a new patient is a urine culture to see it there is a bladder infection going on. I get it!
Neurogenic Bowel and Bladder are connected
My urine retention, neurogenic bladder, was caused by damage to the nerves that support my bladder. What I did not understand initially was that by loosing the function of my bladder I was also loosing nerve function in my bowel as well. I knew I was chronically constipated but I did not understand that I was paralyzed down south, period. Now I eat a lot or raw foods and exercise. This has helped my digestive system greatly. My bladder of course has been a different story. Support for that has been tricky but possible.
Broken and finding my Beauty
The second half of Beyond Embarrassment is devoted to the readers of my bolg. We have excellent, insightful, questions from readers, such as, "What causes Neurogenic Bladder and Bowel?"and insightful letters from people who have bladder and bowel problems. This generous correspondence explains how we grapple with this diagnosis. The sentiments from the comment and questions feature of the blog are real and honest.They were my saving grace and the beginning of my coming to terms with my own physical condition. Many readers to my blog are my mentors, teachers, and now friends.
Beyond Embarrassment is more than my story
I wrote my narrative as I blogged about the topic of neurogenic bladder over several years. My story is unfortunately common because bladder problems haunt many.Then the greatest thing happened, I got a friend interested in the project. I was no longer alone in my toil. Julia, my friend, medical research librarian and the best Biosleuth ever, worked some magic. I had so many questions like: Why did this happen to me? Do others have this as well? What causes it? How can I cope? Julia's research has added so much to my story. It was completely validated. A person who reads our book will really come to understand this ailment.
You may be Suprised by your Medical DIagnosis
Urinary Retention was the verdict. "What is that?" I thought. How uncool. Who in their right mind wants to talk about their bladder. It is an unspeakable body part.I wanted to cry. I was not even expecting a life-long diagnosis. Use a catheter to pee everyday of my life? Give me a break!! Why did I have such a repulsive attitude towards a body part?
An Attitude Change was in Order
Now I am bold when it comes to my health story, this is new for me. I have not always felt this way. At first I was horrified then embarrassed by my diagnosis of neurogenic bladder. After trying to learn more about this condition I got mad because I could not find information on how to live a normal life and started blogging. I didn't care what I wrote about because I had a pen name, Trudy Triumph. Much later when I decided to write a book, my editor, suggested I try to start the book with my hardest day ever. This first sentence, of the first paragraph,of Beyond Embarrassment, was my "horrible day story" because I did not want anyone to know. I was ashamed. Working at a school is like working in a fish bowl.
