2020 Achievements

I thought I would get in there and start listing some of my achievements this year 

I learned how to make granny squares, then made lots of squares to give away to children living in refuges, made a blanket for Billy's Christmas present and made 2 infinity scarves.

The blanket was photographed before I had sewn the ends in

This is me, modelling one of the scarves. I forgot to take a pic of the other one before I gave it away.

And I started on my latest book

 

Been Busy With my New Hobby While Helping Local Children

 I started learning to crochet granny squares a few months ago and have since been donated lots of yarn.

I'm currently helping out Street Knits, who have a facebook group HERE, by crocheting square comforters for children staying in refuges.

Street Knits is for those who knit garments for Warming up the Homeless to distribute to the homeless on the streets. Each garment has a label carefully sewn into it as a form of identification. If one of our homeless meet with an accident or die, the emergency services will know that they are known to us and that we can offer assistance, if necessary.

My latest designs are here. I call the red/pink/brown design my icecream square as it reminds me of Neopolitan ice-cream

False Memories Can Destroy Relationships

 

Article Here

Open note to the person or people to whom this may concern.

Please have a read of the article this post is linked to.

This is why I would never go to a therapist nor encourage anyone else to.

Too many relationships can be destroyed because memories are not static and can appear to be genuine when they are completely false.

After repeated conversations on Psychology (generally) and false memories (in particular) over many years, I have sadly had to make the decision to walk away from someone who was someone I used to be close to.

If they happen to come across this blog they might know that this note is for them, but more than likely they won't since they appear at this time to believe the memories they have been sharing with friends and family.

Suggestion for Hungry Children

 So we have had "Clap for the NHS" (nothing changed) and "Clap for the carers" (nothing changed there either), so I have a suggestion.

Why not try out the 'third time lucky' principle and do something to help hungry children in the UK

At 8pm on Thursday, why not stand outside our homes and bang together plastic lunch boxes for 2 minutes then finish this event off with with a food fight 🥔🥐🍑🥕🥨🥖🌭🍔🥝

COVID-19 Response Regarding Face Coverings

My husband and I have been shielding since before the COVID crisis as we both have serious medical conditions.

I have been housebound for several years due to a compromised immune system so I really need people to wear face coverings around me. While I know that I am exempt from wearing face coverings, I also know that I can be an asymptomatic carrier so choose not to go to indoor public spaces. I cannot be around asymptomatic carriers either so avoid indoor public spaces for this reason too.

Back in 2015 I caught a cold and ended up with multiple organ failure, cardiac arrest and several days in a coma. I still have long term issues due to a related brain injury. It's vital that we don't risk infecting others.

Chicken Dinner Anyone?

 I was in hospital for 3 weeks in 2016 following a collapse at home with multiple organ failure. When I got moved from intensive care, I couldn't remember the names of foods but this lovely lady kept me fed in hospital because for some reason I remembered her. I lived on mainly chicken dinner for at least a week before I came home

Medical Update and Progress

 A few months ago I was told by the practice nurse that a recent blood test showed I had prediabetes. This was just before the weekend then a Diabetes nurse phoned me on the Monday to offer me advice.

Then a few weeks later my fasting blood sugar had gone silly as I was getting readings of over 12 mmol when it should be below 8 mmol. This indicates that I have developed Type 2 Diabetes withing a few weeks of the initial phone call.

So...I visited Diabetes UK where I discovered they had a half price offer of the Low Carb Programme which you can find HERE 

I signed up straight away and have now got my fasting blood sugars down to around 6 or 7 mmol, which is brilliant!.

Pictured above is my latest toy. Billy asked me if I wanted one after seeing it advertised on TV. I don't get commission on recommending this and there wouldn't be any point as the place where I bought it from has sold out. I am really impressed with this as it's helped with my fitness and circulation so much, I am getting a lot more done every day. The flat hasn't looked this tidy in ages.

So what with the new toy, the low carb programme and the love of my good man, I am doing wonderfully well :)

On Working From Home After Lockdown

 While nature has it that humans work better as part of a community, going out to work takes us away from our family and neighbours (local community) and dumps us in an unnatural environment in so much as the people we work with these days are less likely to also be our neighbours.

We don't now generally have an entire village employed by the same boss, so modern work environments are not natural extensions of our evolved communities. Contrived getting together of people from different backgrounds is not how biologically healthy communities work.

Science and social constructs are not the same thing

No Longer Seeking MS Diagnosis

Hi Everyone

I first asked a GP about my symptoms back in the late 80s and he told me he suspected a central nervous system disorder after doing the usual neurological tests GPs can do. He referred me to a neurologist.

The neurology appointment and consultation arrived early 1991 and he repeated the same tests the GP had done then said he was all for sending me for further investigations. He then asked me to wait in his side room while he took a look at my medical notes in case he missed something.

After 10 minutes or so he told me that after reading my notes he had decided that since all my symptoms were most likely due to mental health issues (anxiety because I was mum to 2 children with special needs),he felt further investigations weren't needed. I would no doubt get the same response now as I am currently caring for my husband who is terminally ill.

In the 30+years since, all of those symptoms have got a lot more noticeable and others have been added.My current GP knows about the new symptoms but I'm still know nearer getting a diagnosis than I was 30 years ago. 

I have had friends accuse me of malingering as I have no diagnosis (dumped friends now) and when I was in a coma following a cardiac arrest four years ago, hospital staff told my husband and my son on different occasions that they thought I was a hypochondriac. I can only assume that this is on my medical records as I hadn't talked to any staff at that point.

I am currently working from home as a writer and also run a bunch of on-line stores so it's not like I am just a lazy so and so.

I'm really posting to say that acceptance without fighting for a diagnosis has simplified my life so much and I am a much calmer and happier person for doing this. 

Why I Don't See My GP

Conversation in early 2016 went like this

Doctor: Have you got a cough?
Me: No I don't have a cough
Doctor: What is your cough like?
Me: I don't have a cough
Doctor: Do you cough up lots of phlegm with this cough?
Me: I don't have a cough
Doctor: Hand this test request into the nurse on your way out
Me: What's the test for?
Doctor: Don't worry,the nurse knows what it is

When I got home I did a bit of research and the test was for COPD which has a persistent cough as it's main symptom.

A couple of weeks later I ended up in hospital with multiple organ failure, went into cardiac arrest and spent several days in a coma in the ICU.

Facebook Annual Reminder of April 2020

I’m adding this to my status so every year it will pop up on my memories. This is so I will NEVER forget the way the world changed in 2020...

Queen Elizabeth II 👑 addressed the nation at 8pm on Sunday 5th April. Shortly after this the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital himself with Covid-19

The PM had previously implemented a lockdown across the country on the evening of Monday 23rd of March 2020 ⛔️

Excel in London is now known as the NHS Nightingale and will be a hospital for up to 4,000 patients, most of whom are on ventilators suffering from Coronavirus (Covid-19). Similar venues being are being used in cities across the country. Opened by Prince Charles at 11am Friday 3rd April.

Community support groups established, to support the vulnerable, elderly, immunocompromised and people in enforced isolation due to exposure, in their community 🧓🏻👴🏻

From Thursday 26th March at 8pm and every Thursday night thereafter, we all stood united on our doorsteps, balconies and open windows and applauded and cheered for all our amazingly brave NHS staff 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 who so courageously and selflessly battled on to try and save as many lives as possible ❤️

Petrol ⛽️ price close to home 🏡 was £1.03 per litre for unleaded.

Schools closed on Friday 20 March, potentially for the remainder of the school year. 👨🏻‍💻 Parents were home schooling and teachers were doing remote learning using apps like Zoom for a virtual lesson.

Social distancing measures required of a minimum of 2 metres ☹️

Tape on the floors at grocery stores 🏬 and others to help distance shoppers 🛒 from each other.

Limited number of people were allowed inside stores, therefore, queuing outside the store doors, still 2 meters apart 🏬

Non-essential stores and businesses mandated to closed 🚫 People who can are instructed to work 👩🏻‍💻👨🏻‍💻 from home 🏡

The Government Paid 80% of wages to all employees across the country who were furloughed due to Covid-19.

Every airline ✈️ grounded either all or at least 85% of its fleet. All crew were grounded and some used their skills to work for the NHS in Nightingale Hospital, the Ambiance Service, 111 telephone handlers or community support.

Air pollution improved. Rivers cleaned up. City & traffic emissions reduced. ♻️

Parks 🏕 trails, entire cities 🏢 closed or restricted to locals who can get there by foot. Not permitted to drive anywhere to exercise.

Entire sports ⚽️ 🏉 🎾 seasons cancelled. No Wimbledon, no end to the Premiership, no Boat Race, no London Marathon. A virtual Grand National was held on 4th April 2020.

Olympics postponed to 2021.

Concerts 🎫 tours 🚌 festivals 🤹🏻 entertainment events 🎭 all cancelled

Weddings 👰🏼🤵🏻 family celebrations 🥳 holiday gatherings 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 even funerals ⚰️ cancelled 🚫

Families got creative and found entertaining ways of passing time by doing Tik Tok videos or going Live on Facebook. 🎥

Singers and bands played live sets on their driveways or on their balconies for all to hear 👂🏽

Households that can’t see their friends and loved ones come together across the country by using Zoom or Houseparty to play games or host pub quiz nights.

No masses, churches ⛪️ are closed 🚫

No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, then 10 or more, then 3 or more. Now, Don't socialise with anyone outside of your home ⚗️

Children's outdoor play parks are closed 🎡

We are to distance from each other. Shortage of masks 😷 gowns 🥼 gloves 🧤 for our front-line workers.

Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill 🤒 in many parts of the world. Formula 1 racing teams and Virgin Galactic designed and produced ventilators in the space of a week.

Refrigerated trucks for the dead outside hospitals in the USA 🇺🇸 Italy 🇮🇹 Spain 🇪🇸 China 🇨🇳 and more.

Panic buying 🛒 sets in and we have limits on toilet paper 🧻 disinfecting supplies, paper towels, staple foods, hand sanitizer 🧴 Flour is hard to get because the packaging comes from China 🇨🇳 and borders are closed 🚧

Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses 🏢 switch their lines to help make visors, masks 😷 hand sanitizer 🧴 and PPE 🧤

Fines are established for breaking lockdown rules 🤑

Stadiums 🏟 and recreation facilities overseas open up for the overflow of Covid-19 🦠 patients.

Public Park 🏕 areas turned into caravan parks for stranded tourists to self isolate 🚐

Press conferences daily from the PM 👩🏻 and other government 🏛 officials. Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths ⚰️

Government incentives to stay home. Barely anyone on the roads 🛣

People wearing masks 😷 and gloves outside 🧤

Essential service workers are terrified to go to work 👮🏻 👩🏻‍⚕️ 👲🏻

Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families 👨‍👧‍👦

64,727 deaths globally so far as at 4 April 2020. 4,313 in the UK.

This is the Novel Coronavirus 🦠 (Covid-19) Pandemic, WHO declared March 11th, 2020.

Why, you ask, do I write this status?

One day it will show up in my memory 💭 feed, and it will be a yearly reminder that life is precious and not to take the things we dearly love for granted 💕

We have so much we need to appreciate that we take for granted.
Be thankful. Be grateful 😌
Be kind to each other - love one another - support everyone 🥰

We are all one! Stay home, stay safe. ❤️

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GP and Medical update

Got a phone call from someone from our GP practice just to try to bully me.

I was told to stop trying to have my meds delivered without informing the practice. I explained that I'd already had this conversation with one of their colleages the previous day when it was suggested I ring round to find a pharmacy that would deliver.

Stupid woman said that she didn't want to talk to me and Billy on the same call.Clearly she had never had a conference call...lol

Upshot is, that I still don't have my Levothyroxine which I have been trying to get for a fortnight. So I have now run out completely and have switched to T3 (Liothyronine) instead 

I have bought this book by Paul Robinson

New Coronavirus Alert

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent virus threat and
have therefore raised their threat level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon,
though, level may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.”

The English have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea
supplies nearly ran out.

The virus has been re-categorised from “Tiresome” to “A Bloody Nuisance.”
The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was in
1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from “****ed Off” to “Let's Get the
Bastard.” They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have
been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its alert level
from “Run” to “Hide.” The only two higher levels in France are “Collaborate”
and “Surrender.” The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed
France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military
capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from “Shout Loudly and Excitedly” to
“Elaborate Military Posturing.” Two more levels remain: “Ineffective Combat
Operations” and “Change Sides.”

The Germans have increased their alert state from “Disdainful Arrogance” to
“Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.” They also have two higher
levels: “Invade a Neighbour” and “Lose.”

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat
they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy.
These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy
can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its alert level from “No worries” to
“She'll be alright, Mate.” Two more escalation levels remain: “Crikey! I
think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!” and “The barbie is
cancelled.” So far, no situation has ever warranted use of the final
escalation level.

Coronavirus Advice From Piglet

"Where are we going Piglet?" asked Pooh.

"We need to get supplies," said Piglet. "For the Coronavirus"

"Ahh," said Pooh, nodding in understanding. "Things like bread, milk, cough mixture, tissues and cat litter even though we don't have a cat?"

Piglet did a little laugh, and a sort of leap and bit of a cough. "No," said Piglet. "No, those aren't the sort of supplies we need at all! What we need are family sized bags of chocolate buttons, massive toblerone, jelly babies and crunchies and a freezer full of stuffed crust pizzas, and all of the Prosecco that we can possibly carry, so that when we get quarantined we won't mind it even slightly. THOSE are supplies."

All of a sudden, Pooh thought that the idea of coronavirus didn't seem quite so bad, and actually, getting quarantined with Piglet and their supplies really didn't sound such a terrible thing after all. "Oh Piglet," said Pooh. "I really do think you are a very wise animal."

Politics explained

Socialism: You have two cows. Give one cow to your neighbor.
Communism: You have two cows. Give both cows to the government, and they may give you some of the milk.
Fascism: You have two cows. You give all of the milk to the government, and the government sells it.
Nazism: You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes both cows.
Anarchism: You have two cows. Keep both of the cows, shoot the government agent and steal another cow.
Capitalism: You have two cows. Sell one cow and buy a bull.
Surrealism: You have two giraffes. The government makes you take harmonica lessons.

This top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date

By Melanie Curtin

Everyone knows they need to manage their stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in your personal life, you can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as you can get to calm your nerves.

So here’s a science-backed one: make a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth.

Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one’s health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.

Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck.

The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.

According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, which conducted the research, the top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date.

In fact, listening to that one song — “Weightless” — resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants’ overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates.