Showing posts with label asthma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asthma. Show all posts

Tuesday 14 December 2021

Resting my tired twinkle


So I did a thing that stripped me of what little spoons I had. I took a shower and went to click and collect a few Christmas gifts I ordered on line.

I came home and cooked dinner and had a bad asthma attack. I couldn't breathe properly. Chris tidied up the kitchen for me and I sat down for a while until I felt better.

The Mother of all Fibro Flares has paid me a visit. I ache everywhere and feel too exhausted even to talk. It is nearly 9pm here and I am ready to go to bed. 

You just have to listen to your body in times like this. Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up with some spoons.

After 6 months of not seeing my little granddaughter, Taylah, we are picking her up Friday and having her for a few days. I just have to be well enough for that. We have missed each other. Fortunately she is nearly 10 years old, so she doesn't need a lot of care.

I am too pooped to worry a great deal about Christmas this year. We have bought a few things online and that will have to do. Sometimes you just have to rest your tired twinkle! 



Tuesday 19 October 2021

I need him awake and aware


I was a bath a day girl all my life. It just was so nice to soak and think of pleasant things as the warm water soaked away the aches and pains of the day. This was great until my knees packed up and I couldn't get out of the bath.

So obviously the next thing to do was to become a shower girl, and that worked for a while until fibromyalgia took over my life and sucked my spoons dry. I simply had no energy after a shower but that wasn't the worst of it.

No, the worst of taking a shower for me has now included panic attacks whilst in the cubicle. I am so unsure of my knees being able to hold me up that I hyperventilate. Not good when you have limited oxygen in the first place thanks to a hole in the heart and asthma.

I have tried all the hacks for taking a shower safely and peacefully: I have a shower seat, I turn the exhaust fan on so that the steam isn't too bad, I do not have the water too hot. But it doesn't really help much. 

Once the adrenaline takes over and my breath is cut short, the angina kicks in and my heart pounds like a sledge hammer. So I try to not have water running over my face as this sets the panic mode off.

I have managed to shampoo my hair with my back and face away from the stream of water and I have a very quick wash routine so to ensure my ordeal has been successful as well as quick.

In the old days, Chris used to help me shower, but alas, with his heart failure and chronic fatigue, he has enough trouble showering himself and I don't want him exerting himself on my account.

I have got a shower down to a reasonable time and I can be in and out in 10 minutes- out as in dry, powdered and in my PJ's. All I have to do is dry and brush my hair.

Because my spoons fail me really quickly, I brush my teeth before the shower and have my ablutions at night. I can just stagger to bed if need be. And sometimes it is needed- a shower in the daytime can knock the wind out of my sails for the entire day at times.

I admit it galls me that all my little pleasures like bathing and showering make me feel like I have run a a marathon, but it is what it is. What was a routine like breathing every day is now planned with precision around Chris's sleeping pattern. I need him awake and aware in case I fall. 



Saturday 2 October 2021

Sometimes you have to be your own doctor!




It's Saturday evening here. Not much accomplished today except I washed some dishes and will cook dinner soon. 

Chris's face is improving already with his Bell's Palsy and he can open his eye almost fully and his mouth is not as drooped. He is regaining his speech again and is not slurring his words as much. 

His sugars are way up because of the Prednisolone he's been taking. Consequently, he has been sleeping on the couch most of the day. The doctor wants him to discontinue the steroids so this morning was his last day. 

I was awakened by asthma early hours of this morning. The inhaler didn't help much but I still went back to bed because I was needing to sleep. Especially with my night medications. If I don't sleep for 9 hours, I can't focus properly. Plus I am having the Mother of all Flares with my fibromyalgia and can't stay awake.

We have watched all 14 seasons of Heartland and are now waiting for Season 15 next month. We miss it. There's not much on TV or Netflix that we really want to watch. But I like watching something with Chris.

We put our clocks forward an hour tonight as daylight savings ends. I hope to get a better sleep tonight and I have decided to take some of Chris's Prednisolone if the asthma comes back.-it is an average of a week to get into a doctor up here.  

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do! Sometimes you have to be your own doctor!