@MJG017
Now it’s my turn to apologise M. Your very welcome email came on 19/10 and today it’s 26/10 and I’m only getting back to you now.
I am so pleased to have heard from you and there is absolutely no need for you to apologise M. And I am very flattered that you consider me a friend. I’ve felt a ‘connection’ with you too and wish it was possible for us to have more direct communication. I’d love to meet up for a coffee or a smoothie. It can’t be wine because sadly I’ve found it doesn’t mix with the meds - two evenings in a row recently I had ONE glass of wine - the first night I slept very badly, the second night I had bad nightmares as well.
Everybody seems to be coping with a lot in various ways and I am too. The world has become a hard place to live in. But the alternative is ores. We all seem to be trying to keep up and deal with more than seems fair.
Congratulations M on being a finalist for the 'peer work student' award - how did the night go ? A win for you, I hope.
I know the feeling of self-isolating too M. Sometimes it feels like too much hard work doesn’t it - but on the other hand too much isolating is very unhealthy too. We need to keep a balance I think. I’m a Libran (birthday 23 September to 22 October) and although I don’t take that stuff too seriously one of the characteristics of Librans is needing to have a balance in most things, and that describes me really well.
This year has been a very mixed bag for me too, but a couple of things have worked out in my favour. One of them being the weather - we did get so much rain, so many overcast and cold days earlier in the year. There were days when I didn’t get out of bed until lunch time because of that weather, but summer has definitely arrived for us now. We had a 36 deg day earlier in the week, today was 31, tomorrow 32 is forecast. It’s been wonderful to see the sun, blue skies and be warm again. It certainly makes a difference to our mental health doesn’t it. But the weather in Adelaide has been a challenge for you too I know. Weather is more unpredictable than ever !
Another major thing that happened was finding a good doctor. The one I had was a good person but just seemed absolutely lost as to how to help me. But my new doctor has me on meds and she understands me and that really make a difference, I almost feel like normal again.
And yet another great event has been adopting a rescue dog about 6 weeks ago. Her name is Billie and the rescue group thinks she’s about 6yo, although I have my doubts about that. She’s very strong and has lots of energy. She’s a Rhodesian ridgeback X cattle dog and is an absolute sweetheart. We are very bonded already, she follows me everywhere, loves to sit on my feet and is insatiably affectionate. It’s quite interesting the impact having a dog can have on our mental health.
On the other hand I’ve had some challenges too. The change in meds has meant I feel so much better and I’ve had bursts of energy to the point I got myself a bit burnt out and needed to slow right down, until the next burst of energy.
The first burst was cleaning out my garage - I had so much that I gave away, put in the red wheelie bin or just reorganised and tidied up to make it easier when I went looking for something. The spare room in my place had become a dumping group for all sort of things too, so I finally got that tidied up. By then I was burnt out.
The next burst of energy came when the weather improved and I got into the little bit of gardening at my villa - I’m in a retirement village. A couple of weeks ago I’d been to my hairdresser who said her husband was doing some gardening for some of her clients - so I jumped on that idea and between us got rid of A LOT of nasturtiums. Geoff turned the soil over, removed as many weeds and nasturtium roots as possible, laid some pavers from the driveway to the tap and positioned a couple of large pots. One of the pots has an Italian style pine tree (a reminder of my time in Italy - I LOVE Italy) that kept getting blown over so pot and plant got planted. Later I planted a variety of cottage type plants, some just seedlings so have needed TLC in this heat while they get going. The downside of that has been that I’ve had two falls in a week - it took me a quite a time to get back on my feet the first time, but I did it eventually. The second time I lost my balance and fell over backwards hitting my head quite hard and getting up was impossible. It was late last night and took ages, but I managed to wriggle my way back to the front door, even got inside and locked the door, but when I wriggled my way to the sofa there was no way I could get up, so I had to call an ambulance and ended up having about 10 hours at the hospital. I had to have a CT Scan and an X-ray on one hand. I’ve got a very bruised finger and a possible hairline fracture with that finger needing to be taped to the one next to it while it heals which makes using my right hand a bit difficult (I am right handed). The doctor informed me “as we get older our brains shrink, so there’s more room in your skull” and “it’s ok love, you still got a brain in your head” - haha ! so Doc had quite a quirky sense of humour.
So there’s always something happening that tests us isn’t there M. The important thing is that we never give up. When Winston Churchill gave a speech on 29 October 1941 part of it said “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Can you consider depression and anxiety the enemy M ?
I’ve got a plaque on a wall that I’ve had for years and I see it everyday - it says “Never Never Never GIVE UP !” I’ll try to attach a photo of it for you.
That about it for now M, so you hold your head high, look after yourself and do the things that make you happy and feel stronger. You’ll get there.
Bye for now M, I’ll be thinking of you. Lula (A)
