Support Groups

It is important to surround ourselves with encouraging and loving people to ease the recovery, keep your positive wisdom, and help feel better about yourself throughout the ups and downs of rehabilitation. There are different kinds of support groups to fulfill our needs: online support groups, forums, live meet-ups, Weight Watchers, professional networks, social parties, and probably the 2 most important support groups; family and friends. Larry has been the most extraordinary supportive, patient, and understanding husband through this difficult journey. He always seems to know the right thing to say to make me feel better and cheer me up, and he is very affectionate and always willing to massage my aching legs! His mother, Carole, is a great listener and is very understanding. Unfortunately, she has been though a lot of physical pain in her life so we can relate to each other. She has very good advice to share and together we often come up with ideas and solutions to help make things better. Jim and Edna, Larry’s father and step-mother, have also been very supportive. They check up on me regularly and they were the first ones to take me out to a restaurant after surgery, which was good for my moral. They also landed me a box of movies to help with my boredom! My great friends Lisa and Arlene have also been wonderful in calling me on the phone to chat and going out with the husbands. Friendships helped me getting back into my daily life and to feel normal again. My cousin Sophie is a nurse and she was especially helpful in the very beginning when I was in a lot of pain and struggling with the medication. It has been nice to share our lives stories and we have been getting closer throughout this process; she is the sister I never had. Interestingly enough, my 83 year old grandma Monique and I have been going through similar experiences during the past few months as we almost lost her but she got surgery and is now living with a pacemaker. Last but not least, my extraordinary parents: even if they’re 3000 miles away in Québec, we have a very close relationship since we manage to talk and see each other on Skype every day, but I still miss them! (I have a big family and I want to say “Thank You” to all of my aunts and uncles on both sides of the family that I haven’t mentioned and who has been there for me.) Again, surround yourself with a supporting and positive environment to feel that people care about you and that all the efforts and pain through the healing are worth it!