Went to my first Expert patiants program

suncatcher

It was good. I was the youngest. They were a lovely bunch and i cannot wait to go back. My action plan goal was to eat more fruit and veg. I was off to a good start as we were given a lunch of mixed sandwiches,salad. fruit juice and fruit salad for pudding.

The topics covered this week.
Over view of self- management and long term health conditions.
Making an action plan.
Relaxation/cognative symtom Management.
Better breathing.

We had twp tutors as one was training. He was too quiet and i had difficulty understanding him but the other tutor recaped over it. I really enjoyed the experiance though. from joanne

valval

sounds great and having recap great incase you missed something dinner sounded great am having loads of fruit salads as so much great fruit about val

dreamdaisy

That sounds really good, suncatcher. Do they give you notes or did you have to take your own? It does sound as tho you have picked up some good ideas - stick to the action plan and keep us informed! DD

speedalong

Sounds really useful, how fab.

If the learner-speaker is there again next week - you could always just mention to the other trainer that they are a bit too quiet as you won't be the only one struggling to hear, or sit a bit closer.

Do you have to set a goal each week?

Speedy

suncatcher

dreamdaisy wrote:

That sounds really good, suncatcher. Do they give you notes or did you have to take your own? It does sound as tho you have picked up some good ideas - stick to the action plan and keep us informed! DD

we will get notes on week 4 as people if they are given them on week one they have found people dont go back. you can take notes your self. Let u know how i get on next week

suncatcher

speedalong wrote:

Sounds really useful, how fab.

If the learner-speaker is there again next week - you could always just mention to the other trainer that they are a bit too quiet as you won't be the only one struggling to hear, or sit a bit closer.

Do you have to set a goal each week?

Speedy

Yes i think we do as on the program of things we are covering there is time to talk about the action plans and make em. It will take time to put new ideas into practice. If you add them one at a time its good. I just hope i keep up with the fruit veg thing everyday all ways

speedalong

Yes i think we do as on the program of things we are covering there is time to talk about the action plans and make em. It will take time to put new ideas into practice. If you add them one at a time its good.

Sounds like it is well organised and well planned.

I just hope i keep up with the fruit veg thing everyday all ways

It will soon become habit and normal for you. Factoring in fruit and veg into you daily life helps ie always have piece of fruit with your mid morning break ... etc Then it just becomes part of everyday life.

Speedy

dreamdaisy

It is easy to do, it doesn't take much effort. One portion of either is not a huge amount: last night's bangers were supplemented by new potatoes, (smallish, 4 each) green beans, (twelve each - we happened to have 24 left!) carrots (medium length, one each, sliced) and courgette (sliced and steamed for a couple of minutes.) The Husband had juice to drink (that's his five!) I had wine ( two small glasses but it's grape juice !) Sorted. DD

speedalong

I had wine ( two small glasses but it's grape juice !)

Mmm!!! :roll:

Speedy

woodbon

Hi, It sounds much better than the one that I went to. Mine was only a seminar and not very interesting. We were suppossed to do relaxation, but the person that does that part of the course was off sick. :!:

Basically, they tryed to cover too much in too little time. From my point of view, we could have done with the seminar as just an infromation introduction, to see who wanted or needed to go on a proper course.

I'm so glad that yours is much better. I have bought some books and they are helpful, but it takes disipline!
Love Sue

hileena111

Hi, Have you thought of your action plan for next week....at least the weather is decent.....we were asked what we would like to be able to do in about 6 months time approx and then each week we had to do a different action plan to work towards that goal. My course was in the winter and my goal was better mobility so my action plan would usually be something to do with walking a little bit....typical it was such lousey weather LOL
I enjoyed mine but {here anyway} you can only do one...I wouldnt have minded going again later on as a refresher. So when challenging arthritis came up in our area I went for that.....ver very similar except everyone has arthritis of some sort or other instead of lots of different chronic illness. I've still got my experts patients manual to refer to and it must be about 7 or 8years ago that I did that one
Glad you are enjoying it
Love
Hileena

chris7

Hi Suncatcher

Glad you enjoyed it and feel positive about the next one. Sounds like a worthwhile course and am pleased things are looking up for you again. Good luck with the action plans, it is nice to feel you are achieving even small goals. Perhaps we shall see some more poems too!

Take care
Chris

suncatcher

Well thanks for the replys. I managed to stick to action plan more fruit and veg. This week im trying to squeeze in a bit more excercise. Im trying to make my gym day more permanant on a friday. I even walked today back up to school to pick up son and we walked back for a change. I had a really bad night did not get any sllep at all.
I did feel a slight dizzy feeling for a few seconds two or three times and was not with it this morning. I forced self still to go i did and really enjoy it again. I rested for a while after before getting son. The fresh air walking did me good. I am tired just hope i can sleep.

This week we did
1)Problem solving
2) talked about last weeks action plan and started another
3) Difficult emotions
4) Excercise Benefits
I am going to get perdomiter to chart walking.
Will fill you in about next week thankyou for your replys from joanne

suncatcher

Well thanks for the replys. I managed to stick to action plan more fruit and veg. This week im trying to squeeze in a bit more excercise. Im trying to make my gym day more permanant on a friday. I even walked today back up to school to pick up son and we walked back for a change. I had a really bad night did not get any sllep at all.
I did feel a slight dizzy feeling for a few seconds two or three times and was not with it this morning. I forced self still to go i did and really enjoy it again. I rested for a while after before getting son. The fresh air walking did me good. I am tired just hope i can sleep.

This week we did
1)Problem solving
2) talked about last weeks action plan and started another
3) Difficult emotions
4) Excercise Benefits
I am going to get perdomiter to chart walking.
Will fill you in about next week thankyou for your replys from joanne

speedalong

Hi Suncatcher,

glad you managed to stick to your more fruit and veg goal and have already started to tackle including more exercise and most of all that you enjoyed the fresh air. What did your son think about you turning up on foot? Did he enjoy the walk too? I have a pedometer on my IPOD, Marion suggested using one to me - you have just reminded me.

The course does sound helpful, I'm glad you are enjoying it and finding it useful.

Speedy

suncatcher

speedalong wrote:

Hi Suncatcher,

glad you managed to stick to your more fruit and veg goal and have already started to tackle including more exercise and most of all that you enjoyed the fresh air. What did your son think about you turning up on foot? Did he enjoy the walk too? I have a pedometer on my IPOD, Marion suggested using one to me - you have just reminded me.

The course does sound helpful, I'm glad you are enjoying it and finding it useful.

Speedy

He did like the walk dont think it will happen very often though.
The reason i got to get a pedometer is i cannot work out how much i can walk to sponsored walk posters they are in kilometers not miles. The walk im trying is two goes round a track. Its for cardio club so it wont be too bad it will do as a practice for more walks.from joanne sponsered walks.

speedalong

Hi Joanne,

... I want to start using the pedometer for a similiar reason ... I know how far I can walk with out over doing it if I walk my daily walk route - which I add a little bit more to each time I do it. But if I used my pedometer - I could measure my usual walk and then walk anywhere and ensure a) I'd walked enough and b) I didn't over do it.

Good luck with your sponsored walk.

Speedy

Ps 1 kilometre = 0.62 miles, just over half a mile.

suncatcher

webmanager wrote:

By the way did you know Arthritis Care do run this same course? But we call it Challenging Your condition. See in your local area of the website to find out more and if there are any courses being run soon

Webmanager

Are the same topics covered?
This one has people with lots of other people with different conditions on it. They talk about us all having similar probs like fatique, depression etc but we are differant. I am enjoying the course and i have met others with same condition. It might have been better if we all had same.
I will look out for it but if the same i wont learn anything new. thanks joanne

suncatcher

speedalong wrote:

Hi Joanne,

... I want to start using the pedometer for a similiar reason ... I know how far I can walk with out over doing it if I walk my daily walk route - which I add a little bit more to each time I do it. But if I used my pedometer - I could measure my usual walk and then walk anywhere and ensure a) I'd walked enough and b) I didn't over do it.

Good luck with your sponsored walk.

Speedy

Ps 1 kilometre = 0.62 miles, just over half a mile.

Thanks for that i can work out what they are referring to and with a padomitter i will have better understanding of what i can do on a good day thanks

hileena111

Are the same topics covered?
This one has people with lots of other people with different conditions on it. They talk about us all having similar probs like fatique, depression etc but we are differant. I am enjoying the course and i have met others with same condition. It might have been better if we all had same.
I will look out for it but if the same i wont learn anything new. thanks joanne

---

Hi Joanne, I'll answer this one for you.....I've been on both...expert patients and challenging arthritis. They are both 6 weeks long, both have the same goals/targets each week....very similar except that the challenging arthritis one is for people with arthritis/fibromalgia so its more relavent to us...I'm training to be able to take these courses.
Love
Hileena

joanlawson

Hi Joanne

I've just been reading about your course, and I'm glad that you are enjoying it. I completed the same course recently, and I found it very helpful. I had two excellent tutors, as well as a great lot of people to share experiences with. It helps so much to talk to other people who have similar problems as yourself, even if different conditions.

The action plan idea is very good, and I still do it now that I have finished the course. I think the key idea is to make it achievable so that you can feel good when you have done it. My first action plan was to do the ironing ( something I hate ) I did it over 5 days for no more than 15 minutes. This has taught me that it is better to do things a liitle at a time than to try to do too much at once.

Good luck with the rest of the course.

Joan

suncatcher

hileena111 wrote:

Are the same topics covered?
This one has people with lots of other people with different conditions on it. They talk about us all having similar probs like fatique, depression etc but we are differant. I am enjoying the course and i have met others with same condition. It might have been better if we all had same.
I will look out for it but if the same i wont learn anything new. thanks joanne

---

Hi Joanne, I'll answer this one for you.....I've been on both...expert patients and challenging arthritis. They are both 6 weeks long, both have the same goals/targets each week....very similar except that the challenging arthritis one is for people with arthritis/fibromalgia so its more relavent to us...I'm training to be able to take these courses.
Love
Hileena

Thanks for anwering that for me. Good luck with your training from joanne

suncatcher

joanlawson wrote:

Hi Joanne

I've just been reading about your course, and I'm glad that you are enjoying it. I completed the same course recently, and I found it very helpful. I had two excellent tutors, as well as a great lot of people to share experiences with. It helps so much to talk to other people who have similar problems as yourself, even if different conditions.

The action plan idea is very good, and I still do it now that I have finished the course. I think the key idea is to make it achievable so that you can feel good when you have done it. My first action plan was to do the ironing ( something I hate ) I did it over 5 days for no more than 15 minutes. This has taught me that it is better to do things a liitle at a time than to try to do too much at once.

Good luck with the rest of the course.

Joan

Im going to keep the action plan going. It is good as it gives us a goal to work towards and stretches us. I only like ironing when i havent got any or finished it. I hate seeing the pile and what i hate more than the ironing is putting it away.