Rough Patch

Yesterday was very bad. Once I finished updating the Blog and Dad had checked it worked I went to bed very tired, only to find the bed soaked with sweat and G very wet and clammy. Also the sheets are burred, old poly/cotton mix which now irritates my very sensitive skin so I toossed turned, tried reading and 2 hours later finally drifted into a very poor slumber only to be woken an hour later by DS,2 playing with my hair again, bless him. Manged to get us dressed by 10:45 but I was barely mobile, very foggy and in a lot of pain. Geoff showed up as planned and took us all to the hostipal for an appointment with the pedatric surgern. I managed, slowly, to walk to the entrance and give David's name by which time I was so wobbley that G had to get me a wheel chair. For the rest of the day I was only able to walk 5-15 steps without wobling and spent the rest of the day either sitting or in bed. Happily I slept very well for the first time in weeks it seems.
This morning I woke around 11 am very confused at the lack of having my hair played with. DS,2 was at nursery and G was home as he is working short weeks this month while he sorts himself out. I needed a knee brace but otherwise felt full of energy by the time I had dressed but in the kitchen making drinks I keeled and found I had to sit for the afternoon. Time and again I tried getting up to do things and repeatedly was driven back down by lack of energy. Very depressing and at the worst I hooked out my devotional and did 2 sections with G. That and prayer helped me accept my thorns. G took my garden reclining chair that I brought over from Amer. last summer and I enjoyed a long hour sitting in the sun in our allotment alternating pure resting with taking notes on my seeds for planting this year. G brought out the mower after getting DD,4 from school and started that. I tried digging a bed and managed a 2-3 foot section before suggesting a trade with G figuring I was better taking the less energitic job. Taking frequent 2-5 min breaks we got the job done, I threw a bunch of broad beans to grow as green manure in the freshly dug bed and I harvested some purple and green kale and purple sprouting broccoli that was lovely in G's prawn stirfry as well as some purple Brussel Sprouts that sadly were overcooked. After a lecture about whinning that included that mention of DS,2 getting "a Dora" video while she went to bed early and some crying we had a lovely time with a very good DD,4 while DS,2 had many trips to the naughty step for hitting, kicking etc... Ruth. He's really becoming a bruiser but immediately he apologises very well and gives her a lovely cuddle. Hopefully this will be a short phase.
That's all for now.

FibroHouse North

Sunday, We went to the first annual conference of FibroHouse North in Penrith. I drove the whole way there, but not well and struggled through the rest of the day with 2 short attacks. The great thing was that since I was surrounded by other Fibro sufferers they all understood, didn't ask loads of questions and were very supportive in a non obstrusive way. Further I wasn't the only one suffering there, one of the speakers, a great guy to talk to, had to sit during his speech and it was cool because we all understood.
It was a great day, swapping information about drugs, symptoms, treatments, doctors, politics with a postivie focus and discussions about how to drive/encourage/push the NHS/Doctors/etc... forward. Interestingly it was repeatedly mentioned (and I've seen it all over the net as well) that most of the imformation and treatments come from america. It was also encouraging hearing form others about many of the problems I've had; "Doctors saying there's nothing to be done" family saying it's all in your head, people believing its just for attention, etc... It's nice knowing I'm not alone and also there are fibro sufferers out there who have had a worse time of it than I. And certainly, as one college pointed out, there are a lot of people out there in worse shape than we are.
We stopped off at Whinlatter park between Keswick and Cockermouth on the way back for a nice little walk and I even managed to pick up a couple of pallets from a skip for my allotment :') YEAH! I've practically become a pallet spotter in the last few weeks searching the roadsides for them. They are very handy for allotments and at least one of them will become a new gate for us.

Otherwise, here's an update on our progress if I can get it to work.

hmmm....

Saturday has come and gone

Hello everyone. It's been a rough week, as I already discribed, with exhaustion from all my prior work, sinus infection, and period pain which at least explains the bad stomach cramps I had earlier in the week and removes concern of a stomach bug. I'm on the good old Amoxicillian and feeling better for it and I am trying to pace myself better. Thursday night after getting the kids fed and to bed and haivng a rest, I decided to have a go at the radiator. The video, which has taken some time to compase is large so you can hopefully see the detail of the paint blistering. 1 pic/2 sec played back at 20 pics/sec



I have struggled to get anything done since as well, but I try to balance resting with keeping moving, to avoid stiffness, and getting some jobs done. Friday we went to bed at 8 or 9, though we staid up in bed watching some of the Titanic Specials. Today after sleeping in some, I drove to pick up Ben, but only made it a block or so before I pulled over and discovered a flat tire. Geoff was very effecient, getting the spare on before Ray, our neighbour, could drink his coffee and come out to help. And the tire was fixed and paid for by 12:30 pm. Ben's dad was kind enough to bring Ben over and the plastered walls have been painted with a freshly sieved basic white emulsion. and our new door as well as the toy shelves have been sanded cleaned and varnished with Deep Mahogany Varnish. I had a nice webcam with a very patient Kathy who forgave me wondering off several times to get things and paint awkward areas while talking as well as bearing with noise levels and technical difficulties.

Still struggling, brought down by a sinus infection ontop of everything else. I've tried to pace myself and do what I can but little is happening. However some has been done: Graeme, a good friend come over on a really bad day to reinforce the bookcase with his nifty drill which has a countersink tool. Most of the times I tried to do something I had to go back and sit down before I had even left the room. On of my energy went into keeping David happy and fed etc... A few hours later He came back and bullied me into moving, doing all of the hard wotk, shifting furniture, hoovering, fetching things until it was time for me to get ruth and was finished and set up nicely in the Living room. Geoff and Ruth were both pleases when they saw it. So a big thank you to him! and I am trying to make sure it's returned to that clean state before the end of each night.
I'd been talking about stripping the radiator to make it more effient than just adding yet another layer of paint on top of the rest. But does this make an economic or practical difference? I have no idea. anyway, here it is, for a short time at least in large so you can see the detail:



hmmm... says this is a draft. Had anyone seen this before?

Our newest blessing

My brother welcomed his son into the world at 7:40pm local time last night. All are well, praise the Lord!

Holiday is over

Well, my ability to do lots in a day seems for now to be over. For the last 3 days I've been able to only do very little at a time, frequently getting up to do something only to find I must sit again before I can do it.
I crashed completely sometime around 6 today and was not able to move until 10, though I frequently woke up. Each time feeling full of lead and barely able to even adjust myself. Just getting upstairs took G 10 mins of coxing, massaging and manipulating my legs just so I could move. Frankly I'm too tired to be frustrated.
The fog is a lot worse. I can pull myself together for an hour or so, then it's several more before I can do it again, bouncing off everthing both mentally and physically. Wanted and I felt needed to go swimming today, for legs but crashed first.
Too hard to type

Prayers for my brother and his family please.

Progress

Not in my house, though that has happened too but in my marriage. Most recently, G finally got around to giving me the valentines present he had bought me. He baked me a gorgeous allergy free sandwich chocolate cake with butter cream frosting (goats butter and allergy free very rich choclate) and the same choclate melted and drawn on the cake into a C (heart with arrow) G design. With this was the deluxe version of Titanic ( a movie he always swore to not see, 'after all if you've seen the trailer you've seen it all') and a promise to watch it with me. Very nice. And the cake was served with a shot of Kalua (probably why I can't sleep now but very tasty) and some fun playing Boggle. He wanted to play it together online, but I said why not use the game, since I got it. The answer and a thorny issue with G is that he does not like to compete and activly avoids it. Solution, we play the game together outloud looking for a combined record. Compromise and Progress... Yeah
Before that he rounded up the kids a few days ago and secretly made the same cake with just the solid melted chocolate covering the whole top... wonderful and surprised me with it while his parents where here and we all enjoyed it. So I was all the more surprized to find him making another before the first was fully eaten, and boy did that take willpower. So I think my progress with weight loss is now stopped and in fact reversed.

Now to the start of my progress, I've been skimming through Christian wbsites and was again skimming over the LAF website when G caught a headline over my shoulder and asked me to open it for him. and there was a brilliant article that really speaks to both of us on several levels and I am revisiting it to continue to take in on board. It hard to read openly but I feel well worth it. I also feels it answers a question I have been asking myself and God for years, but it isn't an instant answer. The title is The War of Fathers.

Otherwise, DS,2 is doing very well except for 3-4 accidents most days though dry at nights and DD,4, bless her, is going through a very rude and presumptive patch that we are working on. She frequently complains that we are "not fair" Very annoying, good thing I never said that... ; ) I also caught her trying to steal a pair of school trousers that I gave her to hold until I got to the till. You wont be surprised that I got sidetracked thenn forgot about them. Meanwhile DD, 4 had hidden them in her coat because, "She didn't want to pay for it because it had a pretty star on it" I noticed after we left the shop, closing it, and she was trying to keep it from falling out of her coat without me seeing it. I immediately returned (banging on the door of the closed shop) and made her return them and apologize. It took ages to get an explanation out of her but I truly feel that she doesn't yet get the concept of "why" inspite of the explanations/conversations sporadically over the last year. No idea how to get this through to her, but I expect that it will come with time. I'm not pushing it, only discussing it as the occasion arises.

ok, enough for now, I'm tired. God Bless you all.