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Todays breakfast is a fast blended banana milkshake, 130 calories, followed by a summer fruits squash, 3 calories.

Regards

Michael

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Well after mum complaining the new medication had made her feel groggy yesterday, the true culprit has finally shown its face. A cold! Which in mums condition is never good news.

We also noticed yesterday that she is getting a little dehydrated. Not as serious as it has been, but needs addressing. So I am on the hunt for hydration options for her. A very fussy drinker, insists she can't drink plain water, fruit squash's, or anything like that. At the moment she is drinking a few cups of tea a day, maybe a can of drink and a glass of lemonade, which just isn't enough.

I will be monitoring her and calling in the doctor if she gets much worse, but at the moment I am keeping an eye on her to see how severe her cold is going to get. She has decided on a day in bed for today, which is probably a good idea. At least I don't have too much of a worry of her falling. I'm sure I can manage to wait on her today, she has worked hard over the last week so deserves a break. Just wish she wasn't ill.

Right, better get to work on today's revised schedule. Just wish I knew where the cold came from!

Regards

Michael

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Today's challenges are multiple, on a number of planes.

Firstly there was sleep. I slept well, there is no doubt there, but after letting the carer in I kept dropping off and waking up thinking someone was calling me or something needed my attention. Dreaming ahead of what was actually happening. All very weird.

Then after getting up, there was mum. Looked ok to me, but insists that after starting her new tablets, anti depressants which make you sleep also, that they are not for her, she feels terrible and will not be taking them anymore. First day on new tablets, give them a chance I said... Nope, they are bad, I don't want them.

Yesterday she was complaining she could not sleep, today its that she IS sleeping.

In fairness, as I type we are in a hospital waiting room, and has dropped off. But this is not uncommon for her as she gets bored so easily.

Then there are the pikey swine in front of me. As we first walked in they were confronting a doctor, the boy was being taken in for a hearing test, and the mum wanted to go with him. No problem there, small child with a strange man, good idea. However for some reason the mother wanted to take HER mother in with them too. Bizarre!

The rooms are small, and sealed to be silent, so the idea is the less people the quieter, duh.

When they came out they have now sat there for ten mins slagging the doctor off for daring to ask one of them to wait outside. And are now complaining how long its all taking. All of 30 mins so far. If its too long, sod off, don't get treated, simple!

However all that said, she has slightly redeemed herself now. As I put the wheelchair up for mum, she helped put the foot stands down for mum, so that's something eh lol.

Right, mum is in for treatment now, so I better get on. Hopefully mum will wake up and cheer up a bit a bit later. Certainly think she will when she looks in the fridge, mmmm. Foooooooooood!

Regards

Michael

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Well, after a trip to the family worker at St Christophers, and then taking mum to see the doctor, we went food shopping. I will come back to the shopping in a second.

Mum saw the doctor for a top up on her meds today and a review. He has decided to put her on a low dose anti depressent to help her switch off a bit (like me) and sleep better at night. Family of druggies we now are lol.

Anyway, back to me (yes yes, its all me, me, me!)

So after the appointments we went to Tesco's. Nearest one to me has just been extended, and my god they have a big range now, amazing. However the day before when we went to a local M&S it was not too bad. But today, in a massive Tesco, with fresh Tiger Bread etc on the shelves, hold shit it was hard. Just writing this makes me wanna run to the kitchen and stuff some bread in my mouth lol.

But fear not, I am not straying from the path. Not just yet anyway. Another weeks time, I will check in with size and weight and see about introducing some food back in. Feeling like this with cravings so powerful is actually quite draining.

Right, enough talk of all this yummy food, I'm going to make a hot chocolate in a but 🙂

Night

Regards

Michael

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Wowza, glad most of that is out of the way I have to say!
Usual routine to start with, carer, breakfast, meds etc. No dog walks yet as its pouring with rain, but craving some fresh air right now.

So the daily grind begun with the post arriving, just one letter today. From the housing association, Dear Mr Snasdell, you owe us £XXX..... WTF!
A quick call later and it turns out when I first set up the payments they forgot to balance the account, and had just noticed it was due. Then also forgotten to calculate my mums benefits from that, so had an astronomic figure on the bill. A few minutes chatting and it was all under control, repayment sorted and weight off my mind.

Feeling good about myself I decided it was time to tackle the council tax too. So called them up, "sorry all our operators are busy".. Yes I'm not surprised, the way you people operate. 3 months late billing me, and demanding arrears made up in one payment!
Anyway I finally got to speak to a helpful woman, who looked at the account. Unfortunately the best she could do was to knock back the first £300+ payment to 1st Feb. Better than nothing, gives me time to get sorted I guess. Thankfully its only 2 payments til the end of the financial year, then we start a fresh. So another weight partially lifted at least.

A few other financials creeping up on me too but I'm sure I can get them sorted out. Just got to stay in the right frame of mind, and be frugal with my spending. Easier said than done when your mother refuses to eat most food!

Speaking of mother, yesterdays walk took us to Beckenham Place Park, never been there before really, other than walking the dogs in the fields. Unfortunately the only footpath we could find went down a big hill and back up another. Mum battled it, we got to the top with a great effort from mum, amazing in fact. Sadly at the top was a muddy green chain walk, which was impassable. So after a short rest off we went back, down and up the hills again. I have to say I'm shocked at how well she is doing walking these days. So well done 🙂

Other than all that, I'm feeling a little grumpy today, not sure why, slept ok, not tired. Probably just the miserable weather outside, which I'm pleased to say is slowly cheering up, so maybe I will too.

Oh, forgot to mention, its Day 1 of Week 2 of the ketosis diet, no food since a week Sunday, just the milkshakes. Hunger is not a problem, craving the taste of some foods is driving me mad in the evenings though lol. Feeling good from it all though, and have ordered some more supplies to get me through this week. Not sure how much longer I will keep doing it to be honest. Not crazy about dropping loads of weight, just wanna get my habits back in check before I reach a bad stage where my health is affected. So progress good, health good, activity level up.. All is well.

Have a good day/week

Regards

Michael

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I am currently sitting at home sulking that its raining because I can't take mum out for a walk. As I sulk I look at the TV, and what's going on in Australia, Brisbane to be precise. Unbelievable scenes out there, and with the river expected to rise, its only going to get worse.

Can't really say much more other than I am humbled by their spirits in the face of such devastation. I wish you all well over the coming hours as the waters rise, and hope the damage is as little as possible, and that normality returns asap.

Take care Aussies.

Regards

Michael

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OK first off I should say, up to this point I have loved every minute of being a Virgin customer. Sure there have been a few little nagging points, but all have been addressed successfully.... Until now.

After numerous pop ups and emails from Virgin saying "hey customer, protect your computer" (or words to that effect) I gave in and installed it. It looked simple enough and nice to use. Once installed it ran a full scan, found a few files and stuff then asked me to restart, so I did.

That's when it went wrong, Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) was immediate, and the PC has not started since. On checking the support forums and posting I have been told, if it will start in safe mode we might be able to help, other wise, sorry.

Sure I can whip the drive out, make it a slave, install another HDD with an OS on it, and retrieve the data from the drive, but come on, I installed this shit to make my computer safe, not kill it.

I am sure it never would have happened with a Mac, Apple would have fixed it for me while plying me with coffee and donuts etc, but its NOT a Mac lol.

So I am left trawling the net looking for ways to save the PC without going through all the above drama.

My advice... Think twice before installing this software!

Regards

Michael

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Yup, a new years dawns, but its not because of that. Just recently I have realised how much I have been binge eating, and swore blind that as soon as I could get in the right frame of mind I would snap out of it.... So here I am.

The plan is to try and get into the routine of shakes and a severe diet for a few weeks, and see where we go from there.

The morning has been a little hectic to say the least, so believe it or not, the return to shakes is a welcome and well timed one. 1 minute meals are great, so little fuss, no cooking, and very little washing up. Now I just have to stick to it lol.

So far this morning has consisted of, up early to let the carer in, call the doctors, let workman in for the bathroom, meds for mum, feed the dogs, breakfast for me, and now time to exercise the dogs.

After that its carer in the afternoon, sister visiting, then do mums lunch and meds. Then off out to give mum some exercise.... And so on. Phew.

Had a very early night last night, so feeling a little fresher this morning, so that's a step in the right direction.

Right off to see how the day goes.

Have a good one.

Regards

Michael

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Mum out in Crystal Palace Park enjoying a stroll on the wrong end of a wheelchair.

Regards

Michael

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How much can change in just one day, 24 hours.... Answer, a hell of a lot!

Where do I start, so much to tell, without boring you to death. So yesterdays entry points out I was going to see a counsellor, which I did and am very grateful for. Visiting the counsellor at St Christophers Hospice it was my first chance to see the inside of the place we are trying to get mum to visit on a day basis. And it is fantastic! I know she will enjoy being there for sure, especially the pampering.

I had a long chat with the counsellor, and started to find the points that were really starting to eat away at me. The lack of rest, the explosions of tempers, the constant workload and worry. She is a lovely woman and very easy to talk to, so none of it was difficult to talk about at all. And by the the end of the meeting we had agreed that I will be returning, she will be speaking to mum and my sister, and hopefully we can all start to find some common ground. So thumbs up for that part of the day.

The Virgin guys turned up right on cue, fixed the phoneline in a flash and all is working fine there now, which means the Linkline alarm and pendant is working too now. We just tested it, and all is good there. So another little worry done away with there.

I'm not sure if it was luck or circumstances, but I sure felt like I slept well last night. Waking up feeling rested in a way I have not felt for weeks if not months now. Which brings me onto the next part. Because I feel better mentally today, sitting in the house with nothing much to do is not a worry, and does not feel like I'm hiding away from the world. Fact is its a miserable day outside and really not much can be done with it like that. I will instead get some odd jobs done around the house this afternoon once the carer and nurse have been.

Karen the nurse from St Christophers is visiting this afternoon, to check up on how everyone is doing, and to see that mum is ok following a long sleepy spell she had for the past 2 days. She seems more alert today which is good. But will be good to see Karen as I have a few questions for her, and will be good to discuss them too. She is also seeing if she can get a wheelchair brought over for mum, so we can get her out and about more... Not going anyway today obviously.

Another great relief is the arrival of mums temporary hearing aid. After getting one from Clearer Hearing after mum had her operation back in the summer, things seemed much better for mum, being able to hear was a godsend. But during her stay in hospital the hearing aid broke (ripped tube) and was then lost. Since then its been difficult.
I contacted them about spares but subsequently had to replace the whole thing anyway. So I was delighted when it arrived today complete with spare tubes too... Thank you Clearer Hearing 🙂

Mum is now sporting her new temporary hearing aid, able to hear the tv WITHOUT headphones, which is a first for a long time now, and most importantly, able to communicate with the various people who need to see her like nurses, doctors etc. Best part is hearing the tv without headphones though, as before she was constantly putting on and taking off the hearing aid, which caused the premature wear of the tube in the first place.

Joy joy!

So there you go, 24 hours later, things are quite positive for once 🙂

Thanks for reading.

Regards

Michael

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