Not lazy: smart

Anyone with chronic illness that makes you fatigued like fibromyalgia, will know that part of accepting the new normal is planning to do the most you can with the least amount of spoons. That applies to all housework chores and social activities. 

Lately, Chris and I have been ordering our groceries online. This has so many benefits and is worth the $15 delivery fee. It makes ordering the shopping easier by having a list of previous shops to copy from. Wonderful when concentrating is hard when one has brain fog from fibro or medications...

The delivery guy will even bring it into the kitchen and place it on the kitchen bench. It is then just a matter of putting it all away. So much better than handling it at the checkout, loading it into the boot of the car, bringing it all in.

As a Sacrificial Home Keeper, I have streamlined the inside activities, and now I have streamlined the outside activities. 

With paying for delivery, some may say shopping online for groceries is lazy: I say no: it's actually very smart. Designed with the Sacrificial Home Keeper in mind. I am very grateful for it.

Today's list is simple as I am still under the weather:

1. Do dishes
2. Fold clothes in dryer
3. Make our bed
4. Cook lamb stew in slow cooker for dinner

Be fruitful and multiply!

This morning when I came to open the drapes, I was greeted by this beautiful sight! Pink and grey galahs, King parrots, rosellas and magpies were all vying for top tier of our bird feeder!

We saw that they all had chicks with them, proving that our back garden and that of our neighbours was good breeding ground. The pic doesn't do them and their colours justice. They are beautiful!

I am having a better day painwise, but not many spoons. Still, I will take less pain anyday.

The weather is rather cold today with the whole of next week forecast to be low 15-20C and raining.

On my limited to do list is:

1. Cook a chow mein for dinner
2. Clean the kitchen
3. Sort our pills for the chemist run tomorrow

I just smiled as I realised the birds are being fruitful and multiplying! Just as He ordained. I am glad! 

Done and dusted

So as you know, I spent nearly all of yesterday in bed, recovering from a fibromyalgia flare. When I crawled back to bed last night, I fell asleep dreaming of waking with spoons and planning what I would do in the morning.

When I woke up this morning, I felt just like this picture portrays: today is going to be more of the same.

So on today's to do list is:

1. Rest and medication
2. Prepare a salad to go with tonight's frozen lasagna

I know if I don't rest up that this flare will drag on. My home needs some attention, but I can hardly lift my head.  I want this flare to be like my house: done and dusted.

Fibro is as painful as diseases that can be seen

Today has been a complete fizzer as far as productivity is concerned. I have achieved nothing except cook a slow cooker meal for tonight. In fact, I have been in bed most of today. Fortunately, Chris is very understanding, but doctors over here- not so much.

I have to say that in general I haven't found any real help via my GP's or rheumatologists here in Australia regarding my fibromyalgia. I am on the disability pension because I can't concentrate enough to hold down a job (not mentioning pain because there are some days when it is manageable), but in general the doctors over here seem to think it's something one puts on to get out of work! (If they only knew how we want to be able to work- especially in our homes!)

There was however, one GP who wrote me out a referral to go to a pain management clinic. I haven't been because I do not want to mentally put myself in the chronic invalid basket. If I try not to focus too much on myself and the symptoms it seems to help me mentally at least.  So I am trying self-help. Which truly isn't very helpful!

I have seen a rheumatologist recently who openly admitted to me that rheumies are practically useless in helping with fibromyalgia. I nodded my head in agreement!

I have found more compassion for my heart problems than my fibromyalgia. I wonder if it is because that is something that they can see with an ECG or angiogram? Or is it just the Aussie "Stop your whinging,  Mate!" mentality of some over here? Whatever, I would dearly love people to understand that fibromyalgia is a medical problem every bit as painful as diseases that can be seen.

As the stomach churns

 

Today has gotten off to a good start. Although my fibromyalgia muscle pain is really bad, I can live with it. What I can't live with is lack of spoons, but today I awoke with a bit of energy. It is like winning the lottery!

So far today, I have taken my bloods- 10.2!, done a load of washing, made bacon and eggs for breakfast, made our bed and taken the pork chops out to thaw for dinner tonight.

On my to do list today is:

1. Declutter my computer desk
2. Go to Officeworks for a FOR SALE sign for selling our fifth wheeler
3. Fold the clothes from the wash this morning
4. Prepare a pork sweet curry in the slow cooker for dinner

It was a good day until I noticed Xena our cat had vomited on the carpet. There is one thing I cannot stand and that is cat poop or vomit. Chris has cleaned it up for me and sprayed it with Glen 20. There's no evidence of it now.  

I am so grateful to him for doing that for me: I have enough problem keeping my medications down in the morning without cleaning cat vomit. In the mornings my chapter in my life's book is called As The Stomach Churns.... 

Home at last

When my mother passed away, I was not able to keep a lot of the things she left me. My sister took them on the understanding that if /when I wanted them, they were there to pick up.

As you know, we lived in a fifth wheeler for six months, so I didn't have room for all the things I loved such as Mum's tea pots. When we rented again, I asked for them back.

I have a few household chores to do today, then we are going to clean the fifth wheeler for sale. God willing. I still depends on how many spoons I have today.

Today's to do list looks like this:

1. Do a couple of loads of washing and dry and put away
2. Cook pork chops in the slow cooker for dinner
3. Clean the fiver if enough spoons

I was showing my friend around yesterday, and she noticed Mum's teapots. It was just a small thing, but I felt happy that the teapots that had been promised me since childhood had come home at last.

Ending the chapter

So today we put our fifth wheeler up for sale. We were travelling round Australia but 3 months into it, I tore my meniscus in my left knee and I couldn't manage the 5 steps into the fiver. Eventually I became housebound and 3 months later, we decided to sell it and rent again.

We live in a country township which is quite a distance from my family and friends, so we have made a point of having them over each weekend.

Today my old friend from school days, Ann and her partner are coming to see us. We met when we were 11 and we are both 67 now. I am so grateful to God that we are still close. After seeing the house and a cuppa, we will be going to the local pub for a meal.

Yesterday and today I didn't take the new diabetes medication called Forxiga. It gave me thrush and a kidney infection. Plus my sugars went from 9 to 10-12.3! Fasting... still you have to try don't you?

So on my to do list today is

1. Tidy the house
2. Enjoy my friends

Oh, and check the advertisments to see if anyone has responded to the ads for the fiver. It's sad that we didn't manage to travel like we hoped, and selling the fiver is ending the chapter.

House of happiness

We love our new home, but it sure gets cold up here. This morning we woke to 10C and the windows were running inside. Thank goodness we have a large reverse cycle air conditioner/heater.

Today I plan to vacuum and wash the floors, dust and clean the bath and toilet. This will have to be after the usual morning chores. God willing, I will have enough spoons.

On today's to do list is:

1. Clean the kitchen
2. Make our bed
3. Do a couple of loads of washing
4. Dust
5. Vaccuum and wash the floors
6. Make a slow cooker bolognaise sauce for spaghetti tonight.

I have chucked out some leftover cake for the birds. It is like an airport here this morning. 

I am planning on getting some plants in baskets to hang along the front verandah. Currently, I am doing a google search to know which ones would be not only pretty, but hardy. Our house is a house of happiness and the plants can reflect that...  

Chronic illness: it is what it is!

So the day has started off without any appreciable spoons. However, I have purposed to do some chores in the house regardless. Simply because they have to be done.

With the last two days slack on housework, there are dishes and washing and some other chores that are shouting to be done.

My sugars are still 10.4 this morning in spite of taking the new diabetes medications for a week. So I accept that I am never going to feel really well. Fibromyalgia and angina coupled with back pain also seem to do that. So I am going to just concentrate today on the most crucial homemaking tasks: having clean dishes and cups and some clean clothes and towels.. No lists today, this is all I can manage.

So today's list of to do's are:

1. Soak and wash dishes and put away after air drying
2. Catch up on the washing and put it away after the dryer has finished
3. Cook some lamb stew in the slow cooker for dinner

Granted it's not much to do, but my body feels like it's trying to climb Mt Everest. But enough procrastination: I must push on. No fairy godmother is coming- I'm it!  

It's mundane. It's frustrating. It's tiring! But it is what it is!  It's chronic illness! 

You can't have one without the other!

Having to pace myself yesterday, I woke with some spoons which was just as well as we had to take our daughter to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. She is a survivor of APML leukaemia and she needed her six monthly blood tests in preparation for her visit with her haematologist next month.

As we had to be in Melbourne early, we had an early start from home. We virtually just had breakfast, dressed and ran out the door. So no lists or housework plans were made. That will have to be tomorrow.

The trip was 400kms all told and it was very tiring. For all of us. We all had a nana nap when we got home.  We got some fish and chips on the way home as we just wanted to eat and crash.

In this picture of the Alfred, you can see the room I was in when I had my 3 stents put in in 2007. It's the third level, last window on the right. Chris and I would watch the helicopters come in on the heliport just in front of the hospital. It is built over the road and leads directly to the Trauma Centre.

So, housework wise, it was a dud of a day, but we were able to help our daughter with her cancer journey, fulfilling our promise to her the day she was diagnosed. 

In chronic illness you sometimes have to push yourself to live the life you want. It isn't easy: in fact it takes a lot of determination and prayer.  Lots of both. I don't think you can have one without the other!