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The IHSA creative corner includes poetry and artwork related to Coronary Vasospasm and Microvascular Angina which were submitted to us by patients and their loved ones. You are welcome to browse through our creative corner to explore all of the wonderful works of art we were delighted to have featured in this area.
Have you created any artwork related to either of these conditions? Would you like to share your work with us to possibly have it featured on our website someday, in the near future, and seen by our readers? Contact us today to find out how!
By S. Hilton
My crafting started way back in 2005 after routine knee arthroscopy to check for arthritic changes. Unfortunately, surgery triggered a condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and left me disabled the condition causes pain from the slightest touch and my right leg has no temperature control so it’s usually freezing cold too. I have had several painful nerve block procedures since surgery however there is no cure for CRPS so use strong medication and adapted to live with it. Fast forward to 2020 before my cardiac arrest and I use crutches at home, wheelchair for distance and an adapted automatic car using only left leg. I started crafting to refocus my mind away from the pain and discomfort and keep my brain active too. So, in March 2020, after surviving the cardiac arrest and serious complications I was extremely weak and confused but once again I was able to sit propped up in bed and quill shapes etc. My crafting, and in particular quilling, allows me to express myself creatively and since my arrest provided its own kind of therapy helping lift my mood and provide a safe space to heal physically and psychologically too. Over 12 months I have quilled artwork for the ICU waiting room (my family’s suggestion) cardiac ward where I recovered from having an ICD implant and the local Air Ambulance team who attended my arrest. Once covid restrictions are lifted I hope to present the artwork to thank amazing people but also give comfort to others too.
By A. Pompa
As if I’m laced up
Inside so tight
Constricting the beat
Not feeling quite right
Just one morning please
Awake with no pressure
Nothing sitting on me
Nor feeling of tether
The days my engine worked
Unaware of its moving
Find remembrance
Now pain lingers, looming
Quelling the restriction
A spray or tingly tongue
Aids in my comfort
Reprieving for some
To breathe in deeply
Remain in the quiet
My heart pumps so hard
A silent sort of riot
Undo these laces
Release the free flow
Quiet my anguish
Find normal once more
By S. Brown
Here comes my heartache
Spasms are labour in my heart
No baby in the end
The pain comes and goes
The air squished out of my lungs
My heart starved of blood
The pain grows and grows
It’s deeper longer stronger
Cutting through my chest
My bra feels too tight
I cannot think speak or move
Then the pain has gone
By A. Pompa
A far away scene
A whole lot to sift through
Just a cup and a string
To the mainland of proof
Stuck in the sand
A view of the lively surf
Unmoved, I feel stagnant
Can I undo the curse?
An island of self
Reliant on me
No other can do this
Navigate my sea
Communication seasonal
Rough weather common
This string often one way
Help hard to summon
I hear others out there
Their pleas in number
We need a boat, a bridge
To gather, truth encounter
To link with another
The spirit of fight
In front of me fully
Witnessing all that’s been right
Until we gather
Our numbers a tribe
I’ll wave through my spyglass
Sending powerful vibes
Together we matter
Each in their own
Learning and sharing
A brighter future sewn
By A. Pompa
For as long as I can remember I have loved creativity as an outlet. My first way to get to know myself and reflect life was through my love of words. Journaling and creating poems helped me. Later, I was intrigued by visual art and expressing myself through sketching and painting. Sometimes words and paint combined. Creative outlets are a way to gain insight to whatever is happening in life. It can be cathartic and good for the spirit.
The painting I was asked to share was created just before and during diagnosis of a chronic heart and vascular condition. Its title is “Pain Uplifted.” I was struggling with very low energy, few answers and trauma I wished to transform out of and learn from. I took a photo of me in a protective fetal position and worked from that for the closed-in figure at bottom. There is a broken heart on the ground in front of me. It bleeds out and feeds seeds around me of things I needed to learn from to grow. A larger version of me. A more open existence. A daisy to the left of me is the simplest aspect of my spirit and the zinnia to the right is how much more I’ve grown and drawn strength and color from past things. At the time (during diagnosis), the skies were still gray and bleak, but I’m throwing good energy out to embrace future change.
I am more than a dysfunction. I am more than the physical. Through expression by word or visual art, it alleviates the pressure of ongoing pain. Difficult moments, days and spans of time can be brought into perspective. It can be healing. Focusing on all that is alive in my heart and mind make for less desperate days. If any other person can relate to the image and help them heal a little, it is even more heartening to me.
U. S. Copyright 2019 © R. A. Smoller – All Rights Reserved
By R. A. Smoller
I started painting at the age of 66, but creativity has always been inside of me.
When I was in the hospital with my first heart attack, a friend brought me these beautiful irises. Every day I would look the irises from my hospital bed and wonder, “How long would they last?” I tried not to direct that question inward, but the temptation was right in front of me. Whether rightly or wrongly so, I had already drawn imaginary parallel life-spans between the irises and me. I took the flowers home and slowly, they began to fade but they didn’t die, they wouldn’t die. It seemed to me that they kept fighting to live and they were still so beautiful. I decided to paint them, to freeze a moment in time for the living flowers and for me. In that moment, in that painting, we weren’t glorious, but we were alive, and we were still beautiful.
Nothing and no one lives forever, but the beauty of the irises gave me hope and a much needed spiritual boost. I have painted many flowers since then, but the “Dying Irises” will always have a special place in my heart.
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