Taking control: Tiahuia
After a serious stroke in 2006, Tiahuia Abraham forced herself to slow down and reduce stress, while staying active at the same time.
Earlier this year, Tiahuia Abraham took part in a diabetes self-management course in New Plymouth – Your Life, Your Journey – run by Diabetes NZ in partnership with Pinnacle Midlands Health Network and Tui Ora Whānau Health and Wellbeing.
It made her think back to life 20 years ago: ‘I was like a workaholic in those days. I didn't know I had diabetes or high blood pressure.’
She had a high-stress government job and was President of the Pan Pacific and South East Asia Women's Association. She’d also been deeply involved in the Māori Women’s Welfare League for many years, eventually becoming National Area Representative for MWWL, the Aotea Kaunihera President, and Aotea’s coordinator for the National Kohanga Reo while in her role as a Welfare Officer for Māori Affairs. ‘When I think about how I worked, it's no wonder I had a stroke. It was just full on.’
She says she was lucky that, when she had the stroke, her granddaughter was with her and took her straight to the doctor.
The stroke led to a loss of mobility on her left side and the discovery that she had type 2 diabetes. ‘Until then, I didn’t really even know what diabetes was.’
The road to recovery
Some time after the stroke, one of Tiahuia’s daughters was working at an aquatic centre, and suggested that her mum go along.
Tiahuia has never looked back. ‘I knew that, for me, swimming would be the exercise to do. The girls at the pool were really good to me, and I always had somebody watching me – although there might’ve been a couple of times where I probably overdid it and had to go straight to hospital from the pool!’
Swimming helped her recover faster than she’d imagined she would. ‘I say to people who’ve had a stroke, if you can get into the pool, do. That was what helped me.
‘A lot of people couldn’t believe that I’d had a stroke and where I was at. Next thing, I could’ve gone back to work if I wanted to. My job was still there. But after getting mobile again, I started thinking about things, and I thought, “No, I think I’ll take early retirement.”’
In practice, this meant reducing her workload, rather than stopping altogether – and she also has 25 grandchildren and 31 greatgrandchildren. ‘My moko live all over Aotearoa, but I try and have as much time with them as I can’.
‘I found it really hard to slow down, but now I’m enjoying it. If I don’t want to go somewhere, I won’t. And I’ve always been up at half past five, six in the morning, but, just recently, I went back to bed one morning and woke up, and it was eight o’clock. I thought, “That’s the first time I’ve ever done that!” First time ever. It felt awesome.’
Leaving behind the stress of certain types of work has been a relief as well. ‘Sometimes I get my computer and sit at the table and catch up on things … When I think how the computer and all those devices were my job years ago, I think, “I can use that learning to easily connect with my moko via technology.”’
Te Ara Hīkoi
Tiahuia joined Te Ara Hīkoi. This is a swimming group in Taranaki that removes financial barriers to give people the opportunity to focus on their health through swimming, aquajogging, and walking.
Te Ara Hīkoi fundraises to give its members heavily discounted access to Todd Energy Aquatic Centre in New Plymouth. That means unlimited swims, spas, and saunas – any day of the year except Christmas (the only day the aquatic centre is closed). The one commitment when you join Te Ara Hīkoi is that you must attend its monthly meetings to whakawhānaungatanga.
For Tiahuia, it’s been a wonderful way to exercise and connect with others. She tries to meet the group and swim every day, although sometimes she takes a break during the school holidays: ‘All the kids go down in the holidays, so I think “Oh I’ll let them have the pool in the mornings, and we can start back once the holidays have finished.”’
Often, after swimming, ‘We finish with a spa, then we might go somewhere for lunch, then we meet again the next morning.’
Te Ara Hīkoi began as a group for people 65 years old and over, but, recently, seeing an increase in medical conditions in younger people, the group opened up more widely. One of the new younger members is Matire Ropiha, the Taranaki Diabetes Community Co-ordinator for Diabetes New Zealand, who has type 2 diabetes herself.
Matire was delivering the Your Life, Your Journey diabetes self-management programme for Pinnacle MHN and Tui Ora WHW, and Tiahuia – along with her husband Steven, who also has type 2 diabetes – decided to enrol.
Your Life, Your Journey
The course was every Friday for six weeks, and Tiahuia says it has given her new information about how to take control of her diabetes more fully. She has a much more detailed understanding of how diabetes works, how the medicines she takes work, and all the ways that diet affects diabetes. This knowledge gives her the power to make more decisions for herself over her health.
‘Even during the course, we really cut back, my husband and I: we’d have our porridge or Weetbix and maybe a poached egg on toast, and that’s us for the day until lunchtime. Then I’ll just have a salad sandwich or something like that, and then when it comes to teatime we look at each other and say, “Well, what are we going to have for tea?”
‘We talk about diabetes all the time now in our house, especially watching the mokos. We don’t really have any more fizzy drinks or anything like that now. We just have water, and the kids are having almond milk. We don’t have loads of butter like we used to. And we quite like celery!
‘I was with our greatgrandchildren in Auckland yesterday, and just seeing their lunches going off to school now … their mother gives them beautiful healthy lunches.’
Since completing the course, Tiahuia has been going out of her way to recommend it to other people. And the message about reducing stress is one she wants people to hear as well. ‘You’ve got to learn to slow down. Even to my 30-year-old granddaughter in Auckland, I say, “slow down”.’
Hauora and self-management
Matire Ropiha, who runs the Your Life, Your Journey programme and is also a new member of Te Ara Hīkoi, says,
‘One thing about Te Ara Hīkoi that I love is that you have to self-manage. It’s up to you to go and sign up to go to the pools, and get in and out of the pools without help. It’s a big push for taking responsibility for your hauora, which I really align with.
‘That’s part of this diabetes self-management programme too, and I agree with that philosophy. It’s like, “OK whānau, we need to self-manage.” That’s one of the messages I push on this programme, because, as a diabetic, it’s an important aspect of managing our diabetes.’
Benefits of aquajogging
Aquajogging is a great way to exercise with little impact on your joints, as the water supports them.
Pushing against the water strengthens muscles and joints and gives a great aerobic workout with little recovery time.
During winter, aquajogging in a heated pool is a realistic workout for many.