This week on Romance Writers Weekly, Leslie Hachtel wants to know what we are most grateful for this this Thanksgiving. Hope you’ve already visited A.S. Fenichel.

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This has been a year of changes…

In February, one of my supervisors suddenly passed away.  I’d worked for her for over ten years. The shock resonated with one of my other supervisors who then decided to retire. Meanwhile, in March, my son entered our city’s fire academy. Excited and proud as I was for him, it was another adjustment tempered with stress and worry for him to do well and complete the grueling seven month process.

Fortune smiled in July when the supervisors, I’d lost were replaced with outstanding people with a great work ethic. With luck it will remain so and I’ll be with them until it’s time for the big “R” (retirement).

By the end of August my son had completed the academy and was in the process of taking final state and national tests. I thought I’d been handling life’s changes well enough when my body gave a wake up call. Nothing life threatening, but an annoying and mentally challenging condition…tinnitus. The ringing in my ears came out of nowhere.

As a writer, I plunged down a rabbit hole researching this condition. Bewildered and despondent by the multitude of issues possible for causing this condition and a less than optimistic cure, my heart sank.  

The picture brighten when my hearing test came back in the normal range. 🙂 According to the ENT (ear nose and throat) doc they’ve recently added headaches to the list of causes of tinnitus.  They’ve discovered not all headaches have visual disturbances like in some migraine suffers. Headaches may contribute to auditory disturbances. He believes my ringing is caused by headaches, related to stress.  Inflammation from allergies and diet might also be a factor. 

Extremely grateful for still having good hearing, for the first time in weeks, I held hope for a recovery. I was offered anti-anxiety medication but after reading the side affects, I decided to try a more holistic approach.

Citrus bio flavinoids, allergy meds and magnesium supplements are now in my daily arsenal. I’m working on my stress levels with meditation a “mindfulness” approach. Thanks to a wonderful Ortho-Bionomy massage therapist, the headaches that I thought were fueled from tinnitus have decreased. With these changes, and two weeks into a Whole 30 dietary change, I have noticed a lowing in my tinnitus symptoms. I am GRATEFUL many things this Thanksgiving!

Hope you are grateful this Thanksgiving. Now on to
Leslie Hachtel’s grateful post. She had a new book out, Bound for Morrocco.

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