January Chat

Dot

Hooray for early morning coolness. I went for an early night too.

Shout out to let everyone know there is a very sweet movie on SBS World Movies this afternoon, called Master Cheng. It starts about 3:15, but it is at SBS On Demand too.

(I do love my free-to-air telly, the Big Fat Quiz of 2021 is on tonight too).

alt text

artist55

This post is deleted!

Dot

Good morning,
Cooler than yesterday here, but quite warm, grey and still.
Thinking of everyone waking up to see what today will bring.

@artist55 a very enigmatic post Sending you good wishes today.

Best wishes to you all,

Nat

Hi all,
I hope the start of 2022 is treating everyone well. @Dot and @artist55 i also headed to bed early on New Year’s Eve. I think the last few weeks of Chrissy prep and festivities decided to catch up to me so I have stayed in bed since! I will have to keep practicing my pacing as I feel I’m not so good at it just yet. Practice makes perfect!

One of my beautiful sisters and her partner had come over to celebrate and stayed for a few days. I am glad because I was not feeling amazing and it meant my partner got to have some nice normal social conversations that didnt revolve around my degree of unwellness.

@dot, it’s very good to hear that your neck is feeling better and you got some time in the garden too! I do love gardening, I must admit it is more challenging than it used to be but I am still hoping to plant some veggie seeds in the garden this week before the next hot spell arrives.

Hope everyone has a peaceful night

Dot

Good morning,
It is Monday and a pleasant temperature. Hooray!

it is a pleasant temperature where you are too.

@Nat Good decision. I hope your bed time is helping you recover from that Christmas stress. Lovely that your partner had some good family time, and could get their head to a different place.

I hope you are able to do a little bit of gardening. It is so easy to overdo it, and I have had times where nearly everything died because I wasn't well enough to look after it, but nature is wonderful and never gives up.
I hope you are able to get your seedlings!

Best wishes to everyone, Let's hope a symptom or two are taking a rest, another symptom is calming down, and there are no new strange ones at all!

Cheers all

Glimmer

Happy-ish New Year to all.
I’ve been in a blue funk and my glimmer disappeared. Christmas, covid and ill health. A good combo.
@Dot I hope you’re recovering well from the Christmas festivities and your neck is feeling better. I’ve had a sore neck for about 4 months that even my Chiro can’t fix.
And @river your futon looks really comfortable. I hope you had another good sleep last night.

Dot

@glimmer
So glad you have been able to pop in here @Glimmer
This can be a brutal time of year (and 4 months of neck pain doesn't help ).
I do hope that glimmer is able to return soon so precious.
But in the meantime, blue funk with attitude.

artist55

@dot Not trying to be enigmatic -just too dopey to figure out how to insert a picture from my phone!!

Here is another attempt (from the PC this time):
![alt text](![image url](image url))

Dot

Well that is a cartoon worth waiting for @artist55
Oo the trepidation.

Hello everyone,
Grab a cuppa and come on in. How are you today? What's happening?

It is cool and grey here. I am enjoying that very much. And rain due tomorrow to do my garden watering duties, phew.

Here are some medals: take two! You deserve them

river

@dot I am having the worst day.

Last night I was so PEM'd I fell asleep in a weird twisted position after eating, then when I got up I had excruciating stomach pain and could barely move. I was crawling on the floor to get to the bathroom initially because of fatigue but on the way back the pain got so bad I had to crawl along at a snails pace periodically lying down because I was in such agony!

Luckily made it back to bed where lying down eventually resolved the pain but it didn't fully go away and I woke up this morning with pain in my esophagus whenever I breathed in or burped. Have a hot pack on my tummy now which is helping I think.

I have lost the ability to eat normally, my old nausea has returned and I need to go back on steroids but I'm scared to start them while my stomach is hurting like this.

I got a text from my support worker that he is a close contact and needs to isolate. I am really ill and desperately need help and I don't have a backup support worker. Lesson learnt I guess haha - I'm interviewing a new person tomorrow.

artist55

@river so sorry to hear that you are feeling really unwell . I do hope that things turn around for you soon. Good luck with finding your new support worker.

Dot

@river Oh damn. Sending so many good wishes. Good hot pack, doing its kind work.
Awful news about your support worker. I hope he is okay, and that you can manage until you get your backup.
My witchy hat didn't work very well for the night, but I will try again to magic you the most wonderful worker tomorrow.

iris

@river good luck with the interview and sorry you are feeling so dreadful

Dot

Good morning,

Waking up, checking the symptoms, shuffling out to the kitchen to make a cuppa, wondering how well I can look after myself today. (Neck pain worse again sigh)

At least the weather isn't too hot and still promising to rain on my garden.

@river I hope your managed to sleep better and that acute pain has eased.
@Glimmer really hoping some nice things are happening. Especially that the neck pain might go away (since neck pain is on my mind). Are you looking for new ideas to try?
@artist55 I hope you can spend time in your cool studio today.
@Nat Fingers crossed symptoms are easing after the Christmas chaos. It is a good day to practice pacing. (I hope)
@iris Sending good wishes to you

Hello everyone else, best wishes to you too!

Nat

Hi everyone,
It’s cloudy today where I live and the air smells like summer is having a rest it’s me. my only appointment for the day is done (Chiro) which is good timing given the last few days in bed plus first shift back at work for the year yesterday. I had another 2 hours- tricky and tiring but managed better with extra breaks and the rest of yesterday in bed . Thank you @emsarah for the tip about the Pomodoro apps, I think this will help me to regulate taking breaks when I should instead of ‘I’ll take a rest after I finish xyz’

@artist55, I really like the picture, I think it sums up my thoughts on the patterns of the last few years. Thank you for sharing it, it made me smile and laugh.

@dot, I think I’m still a little out of whack but definitely starting to function a bit better. I have no more plans to leave the house today so pacing practice is a goer . I hope you neck is better soon and that a nice hot cuppa works some magic for you.

@river, sorry to hear that you are so unwell at the moment, sending my best wishes that you start to feel better soon and that the new support worker is good match.

Fingers crossed for a good day for everyone.

artist55

Morning all

Her Royal Hollyness decided that her human pets had slept enough at 4 a.m this morning and demanded loudly that we pay her some attention. Now she’s sleeping soundly by my feet - the cheek of it!

The forecast is for a warm day, so not sure I will get to spend too much time in the studio @Dot. There’s no fan in there and the windows are wonderful for good light but not so great for the heat. Perhaps today I will do some quiet sketching on the couch instead. ️

I’m sorry about your neck pain making a reappearance and I hope that you and @Glimmer will get some relief soon!

@Nat well done on getting a couple of hours work in. The pacing app sounds very helpful to remind (erm…insist) about taking a break. We are all guilty of doing ‘just one more thing’ before regretting it Enjoy your cool weather.

I hope everyone collects at least one beautiful moment for their memory jar today

Dot

@Nat
I am writing this trying to talk myself out of another coffee. I'd be better with tea. I like tea. But I love coffee. Already had two strong ones. Okay, I'll have tea.
for self because I am also drinking plenty of water.

Yay for even the littlest function improvement. I hope you can keep that little flame alight with some good pacing and sensible rest.

@artist55
HRH is reminding me why I banish Miso the cat to the living room at night.
I hope you get some lovely sketching, comfy on your sofa, done.

My poor neck was getting incrementally better, but I was overly optimistic (how do I even manage that still?) and stopped pain relief and anti inflammatories, plus did something that set off my usual bad neck on top of this excruciating different place. I've been doing all the good things. Better not write too much though, it doesn't like it.

Off to make that cup of tea ....

Dot

Good morning everyone. I've got the sprinkler on my poor garden because no rain came yesterday. (Putting the sprinkler on will mean lots of rain today no doubt).

I've also got a cup of coffee. neck a bit better, CFS symptoms not too bad. I'll make the most of a pretty good day.

Some more for you!

Glimmer

Good morning @dot and everyone in CFS land. May your day continue well.
We had 66mms of rain here in the last 24 hrs with more to come so I don’t have to worry about plants dying from lack of water.

Dot

Good morning trembling brave ones, it is another day.
The weather is bearable, Miso is healthy, my neck pain is improving (touch wood and whistle), breakfast is cooking.

Hi Glimmer, Wow, that is a good amount of rain. We had a few minutes worth, which is still better than I manage to give them watering them. maybe some more this afternoon.

Sending out good wishes, what can we make of today?
(reminder to self)
(yay)