Better days are coming!

 

So yesterday my occupational therapist and her colleague came to give me a trial run of my new motorised scooter, similar to the one pictured here.

It has all terrain wheels and an hour's worth of charge, plenty for me to go visit my sister who lives nearby.

It is part of my Aged Care package and will make my life so much better since I can no longer drive.

This scooter requires no knee action which is great for me as that was the reason I can no longer drive.

Also my bath lift seat is coming in a few days and I am looking forward to that as well. I have bought some Magnesium bath flakes to soak myself in. I am hoping it will lessen my fibromyalgia muscle pain...

As far as hygiene and travelling independence goes, I can say that better days are coming! 

Enough acid to rival Chernobyl

 

I have been on Somac for GERD for at least 20 years and I have just learned that it has been allegedly responsible for giving stomach cancer and kidney disease to many users.

Honestly, I don't know what to do and so I have made an appointment with my doctor next week to discuss it.

My GERD causes me to aspirate my acid and stomach contents thus inducing aspiration pneumonia three times so far. I am now in a dilemma to know what to do.

There's been a class action in Australia and it seems that many people have suffered after taking it. I will update after I have discussed it with my doctor.

Honestly, it's a bad time to stop using them with being stressed, tired and fighting a long fibromyalgia flare. I pump out enough acid to rival Chernobyl's meltdown.

It is what it is!

 

So it's Christmas Eve here in Australia. I am struck down with a vicious fibromyalgia flare. 

In recovery from going out for medical tests for both myself and my daughter, I am trying to find some spoons to take a shower before bed.

As I mentioned, Chris and I are cancelling Christmas this year. In light of how I am feeling, it is just as well.

Chris is recovering from a fall last week and is not feeling the ho ho ho either.

Apart from a traditional Christmas lunch courtesy of Lite N Easy, we will be taking it easy tomorrow.

We are going to take Holy Communion online with my sister and son at lunchtime and that will be the extent of our celebrations.

As I said in the last post, it is not an ideal Christmas, but it is what it is.... fibromyalgia wins again! 

We're going for a run

As you know, I have had to resort to using a wheelchair when I go out.  It is not something I am happy about, but it is a necessary part of adapting to my new normal.

Along with walking, there are a few other things I have had to adapt to as well. 

I sit on my shower seat. When I get out, I sit down again and dry off. That's about all the time I can stand.

Most times, Chris stacks and unstacks the dishwasher and this has stopped me having to stand and bend.

I always use the dryer even in good weather. I miss the smell of sun-dried clothes, but it is what it is.

I do make my bed for company, but even so it is just pulled up quickly, nothing fancy. I can't stand to tuck it in and I can't bend either...

With the ageing Australian Government Package, I have a support worker come every two weeks. She changes our beds.

Also within this Home Care Package, I can order ready cooked frozen dinners from Lite N Easy. The meals are designed by a dietitian and cooked by a chef. They are quite delicious and save me from having to stand to cook and I know we are eating well.

I am grateful for all this as it allows me to still be mistress of my home in spite of illness, pain and disability. But even so, I find myself longing for the soon rapture of the Church.

It will be so glorious to not only see my Saviour, but to be able to breathe easily, feel joy and go for a run...

Loving Australian Damper

The other day, we ran out of bread and Chris and I didn't feel like driving to the shops. 

Now I cannot make a decent loaf of bread so my  friend suggested trying damper. It is a bread that has no yeast and has been baked since the dawn of settlement in Australia. So I tried my hand at making Australian Damper.

In the past I have used bread makers and have tried endless recipes for no knead bread without success. Oh, it tastes great straight out of the oven with lashings of butter, but as soon as it cools off, it is as heavy as lead. It even breaks the birds' beaks when I throw it out for them! haha

But this method for damper was so easy and we both enjoyed it so much. Why not give it a try?

Are you a senior Aussie?

 

These days groceries have gone through the ceiling and it is very hard to be able to afford meat and fresh fruits and vegetables.

When you are chronically ill and disabled, cooking becomes a real chore and meals can become less tasty and nutritious.

I was feeling  all this when my Aged Home Care Package was reactivated and it was with sincere gratitude that I was able to access Lite N Easy Meals. 

They are created by dietitians and cooked by chefs and are very tasty. My Aged Care Package pays 70% of the cost and I can order 28 meals every two weeks- or more often if desired.

If you are a senior in Australia, check out your eligibility for you Aged Care Package. You will be glad you did.

When the spoons are gone forever

 

The Australian government allocates $53,000 pa in a care plan to try to keep aging people in  their own home if possible. It works out cheaper than putting them into a nursing home. I am so grateful to live here where there's help because aging is no fun!

A lot of oldies here have to sell their home to get into a nursing home and/or have their aged pensions garnished. Chris and I have absolutely no assets to garnish and the Aged Care Package here is means tested.  

We rely on the Aged pension and that is all we have... so we qualified. 

We have worked hard in our lifetime, managed our homes, worked outside the home, brought up our children and possibly, even grandchildren. Now we find either that our spouse has passed away or is also suffering the effects of old age and cannot help up either.

There's no shame in asking for help. Even Sacrificial Home Keepers eventually run out of spoons and they are gone forever.

Time on the phone paid off

After nearly a whole day on the phone, I am happy to report that we were approved for help. 

Our aged care home package will start in 3-4 weeks. It includes transport, home maintenance, podiatry, and grass cutting. 

Later on as we get older it will include meals on wheels... but as long as I can cook, we would prefer our own cuisine. 

Once a year someone will come and wash our windows for us. The is all part of the Australian Government's plan to keep seniors in their own home instead of a nursing home.

I had to access three different goverment bodies today via phone with a waiting time of an hour or more, but with the ability to be approved so quickly and for the blessing it will be, the time on  the phone paid off.

 

It still is that for me!

 

Yep, it's still Safeway for me!  With fibromyalgia brain fog and old age, tell me the new name of a place or person I knew, and it is lost forever... they will forever be the name I first called them!

So I had a phone consult today and the doctor wants to wean me off prednisolone after only four days.. it hasnt really done it's job quite yet, so I am going to spin it out for a few more days ...

Today I have washed some minkie blankets off our beds, ran and then emptied the Roombas, cleaned the toilets and ordered online medicines and groceries.I  did some rounds of crochet in between tasks..

Chris loves bangers and mash so that's what I will be doing for tea tonight..

The Prednisolone fills me with fake energy, but I don't care... I will milk this Polymyalgia rheumatica situation for all it's worth!  I know I won't be long on the meds so I may as well turn the antsy feelings for my good...and get the benefit of some pseudo spoons!  

For those who don't know... in Australia Safeway Supermarkets took on the name Woolworths many moons ago: but as I said, it still is that for me!

The downside of country life

So  the other night I was going into my bathroom when I noticed this huntsman on the frame near the door. My heart nearly stopped!

Walking into the bathroom, I must have passed close to this horrid spider who could easily have jumped on my head and such is my fear of spiders, it possibly would have killed me in a cardiac event brought on by fear!

Not an overly big spider by huntsman standards, he would have been about 3 inches across. But he was big enough to induce panic in us as we scurried to find a broom and the fly spray!

I didn't want to lose this guy as we wouldn't know where we would find him, so there was a great over use of flyspray and frantic loud bangs of the broom. Suffice it to say, he got a burial at sea!

It is said that they come in pairs, so we were watching everywhere until his mate was found. And she was...

I was in the adjacent laundry and found her sunning herself on the glass panel in the back door. I grabbed my flyspray and went to spray it, but then realised that she was outside the door. She too had to be gone because I didn't want her coming in the house. I'd had enough excitement with her mate's intrusion.

A few sprays of the flyspray had her on the move, and a few heavy thumps of the broom, and she was no longer. Except for food for the birds and ants. 

Indeed, I had to chuckle at how fast I moved, considering my two damaged knees and fibromyalgia. It's marvellous what an adrenaline rush can do for a body! 

Not only did the fear of losing the huntsman to perchance come back to terrorise me, rattle me, but so did realising that I had married a man who refused to rescue me from dangerous wildlife! Such was my expectation of my knight in shining armour! :)

Don't get me wrong: I still love living here in the Australian bush with my liver-lilied Chris,  but snakes and huntsmen are definitely the downside of country life.

Our little haven

 

So yesterday was a day of horrible fibromyalgia pain and fatigue. I felt a little down so I came to my couch and sat next to Chris for a cuddle and rest. 

We love feeding the birds that come into our back garden and all through the day, our garden is like an airport. Birds of all types come to dine and drink and it is so restful and fun to watch them.

They have their own little antics and natures and they can be quite amusing. And apart from watching their different natures and antics they have something else that we find very attractive: they have babies.

It's such fun to watch the mothers feeding their babies and to watch the babies venture further and further from her as they learn to feed themselves. They fly but are still juvenile and yesterday their mothers were distancing themselves from their chicks and refusing to feed them, much to their annoyance. 

The magpie juveniles are especially raucous and squawk even with food in their mouth. They are almost always feeding. The minor bird mummy also is weaning her chicks from her and as soon as she moves away, they follow like the duckling family juveniles do. So fun to watch.

But by far, my favourite birds are the Kingfishers which have also had babies. Whilst laying on the couch, I can see outside and I was delighted to see a mother Kingfisher with one of her three babies on our garden swing.

They were watching the porch which was covered in birdseed for the galahs and rosellas. I had thrown out some cut up luncheon meat, and they were waiting for the magpies to vacate the porch so that they could dine. Kingfishers are shy and besides, magpies are three times their size. So they wait.

It is the season for little white cabbage moths too. They are flying around the agapanthus plants and I guess they are mating because they seem to be in pairs. As are the pigeons that come for the seed.

There are three that regularly call in and partake of the parrot seed on the ground. There's a little female who just wants to eat, but there also is an amorous male who has romance on his mind. He pursues her constantly and hopes to make her his by dancing for her. 

He fans out his tail feathers and hops towards her, then takes a few steps back. He repeats this courting gesture until she tires of him and runs a few feet away. But he is insistent and pursues her over and over again. I hope that he wins her heart as it is such fun to  watch the young birds as they leave the nest under their mothers supervision.

We have a bird bath/feeder in the back garden which we used to fill with seed, but now with torn meniscuses in both knees, I cannot get down the steps to fill it, so they get fed from the back sliding glass door. I just toss the food onto the back porch. They don't care where it is. 

They are quite used to me now and I have them almost eating out of my hand. So much so that as soon as I open the door, they come flying in to the garden from all directions, calling each other.

We have water in the bird feeder and in a plastic container in front of the steps. They bathe and drink and sing and they enjoy our back garden as much as we do.

It's a lovely place to recoup one's spoons during a fibromyalgia flare. The daily scenes are so peaceful and we love our little haven and we know the birds think of it as their haven as well. Their constant visits and frequent broods of chicks speaks of a place of plentiful food, water and safety.

We are grateful God lead us to this little country town- it is a gift from Him: our little haven

You can say that again

So today we have shopped online but most of the food we ordered was unavailable. So we took a trip to Aldi  and managed to get  meat,  chicken and cat food.  Most products are being limited now.  There are distribution shortages of staff due to Covid. 

There's a four hour queue to get tested or one can do a Rapid Antigen Test at home, but there's a shortage of tests and it's very difficult to get one. People who can't get tested are isolating and missing out on work just in case they are positive.

Our Prime Minister suggested that as most Australians will test positive soon so he told us to make sure we have paracetamol aka Panadol on hand so that we can manage symptoms at home. (Lotsa luck with that one!) So people went out and stripped all pharmacies and supermarkets of all brands of paracetamol. 

To top it all off for me is that once again, my antidepressants haven't made it off the wharves. They don't know when they will be available again. So it's lucky that I have extra Panadol on hand for my fibromyalgia and an extra box of antidepressants. I am so grateful to the Proverbs 31 wife in scripture who was always prepared and laughs at the time to come. 

A past Prime Minister of ours once famously quoted that life wasn't meant to be easy. You can say that again. 

But then again, maybe not!

 

With the start of our summer tomorrow, we have been having some very lovely days this last week and today. I have enjoyed the respite from constant rain and so has my body.

Fibromyalgia has taken a back seat and I am enjoying having some spoons. It's been so long that it is a surreal feeling. 

I have been washing our bedding after the winter months and will be packing away our doonas. We both don't sleep very well and so we prefer minkie blankets. They are light and easy to throw off if we get too warm, yet warm enough to preclude the need for the heavier doonas for a drop in temperature.

It's such a joy to open the windows throughout the house too. We are fresh air freaks. There's nothing like the smell of the early morning. 

I am going to make up my favourite cookie recipe today. And I think I will bake some sultana muffins for Chris. He loves them. 

In stark contrast to flare days, I have already had my shower and gotten dressed. I need to take our bloods and give Chris his insulin injection. I think I will serve him some soldiers for breakfast this morning.

I have pork chops thawing for dinner tonight. I may do an egg salad to go with them. It's salad weather here at the moment.

As I must pace myself so as not to bring on another flare, I think in between tasks I will go out in the back garden and sit on the garden swing. My friends the birds are so tame that they actually come down to eat almost from my hand. It's so relaxing!

I have a lot of things I want to do today, but nothing compares to sitting in the swing in the sun watching the birds. So maybe I will get all those things done, but then again, maybe not! 

So glad I made that phone call

  

So last night I slept soundly. I had good news that alleviated a few of my worries.

After a couple of months of  my antidepressant being unavailable, I decided to do some investigations of my own.

Firstly, I did a Google search on shortages of Dothep 25mg and was lead to the website of AlphaPharm, the company that make and distribute the pills. There was a number to Customer Service so I rang it and the consultant told me that they would be in Australia and at Chemists by 15th December this year.

Naturally I was overjoyed as I had been thinking that I would have to start weaning myself off them or go on another tablet. I didn't want to do that because it was hard finding one that worked and it has worked well for the last 30 years.

Anyone who suffers from depression will know that once you tinker around with your meds, it can come crashing down very fast and the climb back up is very very long. And unpleasant. I didn't want to go there.

Of course it would have been worse for me because of the constant flares of fibromyalgia. It's difficult enough to cope with them when I am on my tablets. I didn't want to find out how bad it would be without them.

Happily, I won't have to now. I rang our chemist with the good news and he and I are so glad I made that phone call. 

Life is still good!

It's a busy today. I have lots of dishes to wash, washing to fold and put away and a few meals to cook. 

It is a public holiday today as it's the Grand Final of Aussie rules football. We don't follow football and I only found out as our chemist is closed today. Footy is like a religion over here, and if you don't have a footy team to barrack for, you are virtually ostracised! I don't even know who's playing! 

We are in Spring here and today is a bit warmer so I may sit on the deck and get some sun and watch the birds. The sun hopefully will ease my aching neck and shoulders. My fibromyalgia is kicking me majorly.

Life is hitting us both hard health wise, but even so, life is still good! 

It's like a fridge in here tonight.

                                                         

We are just into the seventh day of Spring and I am so glad to see the back of our winter. This house is old and has no insulation and I feel the cold real bad with watered down blood. Chris laughs at me, saying that Australian winters are mild and don't last long. 

I have no desire to live in England or anywhere that has long dark winters and snow. We average out no lower than 1C or 33.8F though we did see -1C a few mornings. As nice as snow looks, you can be sure I won't be joining in making snowmen!

Although changing weather effects my fibromyalgia, I still enjoy the different seasons in each day of Spring and autumn. And I just adore the smell of early spring mornings and the abundant blossoms on our neighbour's tree overhanging the fence. It's such a pretty pink and when it loses its leaves, it leaves a pink carpet all over the lush green of our grass.

With some Spring  mornings and evenings still being cold, I am looking to buy a heater for my study. I am sitting here with a wheat pack on my chest to warm me up!  It's like a fridge in here tonight.

Life is good in spite of setbacks

I am trying to keep up with my home making duties. I have to do some dishes and clean my kitchen.. My knees are paining me so much today, that I won't be able to do much more. 

Fibromyalgia is back again and spoons are scarce. I am also psyching myself up to take a shower. Lucky we have a shower chair now. Funny how you don't think twice about it until chronic illness comes a'callin! 

With the brain fog, I get side tracked often too. Now I ask Siri to remind me to change the loads of washing over from washer to dryer. I need to find an app to tell me I have left stuff out that should go in the fridge or that I have nuked a night time snack and find it in the microwave in the morning hahaha

I am planning  on using  my slow cookers  a lot today.  I will be slow cooking the pork chops in a sweet curry sauce with  the rice.  I will be making some Jewish Penicillin in another slow cooker  and I will make  a chow mein in the other slow cooker for tomorrow.

After that, I plan to feed the birds and watch them eat...  sitting out on the porch under the apple blossoms on the neighbour's tree... it's the first day of Spring here in  Australia. Life is good in spite of setbacks..

Like, sure that will work!

As you know, I really love watching the many birds that come into our back garden, and I feed them all the time.

Xena our cat also watches them, but I am not sure what her motives are! Anyway, they have gotten used to her sitting watching them and they eat freely in front of her.

Of all the birds, my favourite are the kingfishers and I always leave a treat for them on the actual porch. The others eat further down near the bird feeder, but the kingfishers always come up checking for treats.

It started out with one brown kingfisher, but now there are about four brown ones and two black and white.

No matter where they are, I have my "love glances" from the LORD. He always causes me to turn round or look up just as they appear. He is so loving and good! 

It is winter here and we have rain which exacerbates my fibromyalgia. So today I am planning on just doing my dishes and cooking. Pork chops with mashed potato and salad are on the menu for tonight.

My knee is still so sore and I feel like my polymyalgia rheumatica is coming back. I am toying with the idea of putting myself back on my Prednisolone. We will see.

With opioids being so restricted and my paracetamol aka Tylenol being practically useless, I am going to try to distract myself watching the birds and taking my mind off it. Like, sure that will work! 

Enjoying some morning sunshine

 

Chris and I are not getting enough Vitamin D so we took the opportunity yesterday to sit on our garden swing together and catch some rays.

Xena found some meat I had left out for our magpies and kingfishers and you can see her in the start of the video. 

We just listened to the silence punctuated with some birds calling and we just luxuriated in the warm rays.

Just beyond our fence is a stream running through the back of our property with some paddocks rolling out along the stream edge. The cows come to graze a couple of times a day, moving right along all the paddocks, grazing as they go.

With winter on us now, we try to get outside and get some sun and it is really nice to feels the rays on our skin but I have to be careful as it's very easy to fall asleep. It wouldn't be very restful to fall onto the scoria under the swing.

It's nice to focus on pretty birds, cats and cows and get away from the news and I only really listen to it once a day. I need to know about lockdowns rules and so on. After I find out, I switch it off.  

We have been on lockdown again last week and metropolitan Melbourne has had it extended for another week. It has been lifted a bit for us as we are regional. But we can't travel far.

My fibro and polymyalgia are flaring and I find myself longing to go to bed, but I try to resist going back. I prefer sitting on the swing holding Chris's hand and enjoying some morning sunshine.

It's the only silver lining

 

So there's been 26 new cases of Covid19 in Victoria, and the government has called for a lockdown of our entire state again.

It's a bit of a drag because we are trying to sell our fifth wheeler and family members are trying to move. With only essential workers allowed to leave the house, it will be all put on the back burner until at least next Thursday.

As Chris is unwell and I am suffering from polymyalgia rheumatica and fibromyalgia flares at the same time, it will not be too inconvenient for us to stay put.

I have been weaned off Prednisolone and after just a few days, I wish I could go back on it. Panadol slow release tablets don't do much to relieve the  pain and my fingers and hands are seizing up again. How I wish they could find something that is as effective in pain relief.

So today I only will be cooking dinner, doing a load of washing and later taking a shower. I am so low on spoons that to me it's a marathon.

With this being our autumn in Australia, I am finding the inclement and changing weather effects my fibro really badly.  So in not being allowed to go anywhere this week gives me a welcome break from having to push myself to get dressed and go out.

I guess it's the only silvcr lining.