This was our eighth straight day of learning-to-swim weather. The girls are at my in-laws all day every day, only returning home to sleep occasionally. My childhood memories of summer are all country clubs, beaches and boredom, but I suppose theirs will be iPads and swimming pools.

I ran a low-grade fever all week until tonight: After taking a dip ( Read more... )

of poor idahoswede in the hospital today. Hope all goes well!

Okay, so this whole exercise thing is starting to get old. I skipped half of my sessions yesterday because I was just too dang tired. Instead, I slept all afternoon and told myself I'd do better in the morrow. Even though I didn't quite do better today, I managed to get through aqua therapy, physiotherapy, hand training, and a mindfulness session. ( Read more... )

I have adjusted to Arthritis Camp gradually, like slipping into a hot bath. I have to admit I was afraid when I came here: afraid of letting go of the stress, letting down my guard and just being me. When the going gets tough, I don't reflect upon how I really am: the tough get going, right? The tough, the ignorant, and the crazy... It's hard to ( Read more... )

Halland gave me a frosty reception this morning, but I 'm glad to say I have been safely indoors since ten o'clock. I'm much too tired from the poking and prodding that my admission to the rehab hospital (or shall I customize mschilli's appropriate nickname and call it "Arthrits camp?") has entailed. I'll walk you through it later ( Read more... )

Edited to change the user-pic - looks like I need some new ones

Although I am still spending a lot of time at Berchshill, I don't live there anymore. The day of the move, I went around with a cold lump of dread in my chest at this thought. A justified dread, it would seem, but I'm not sure the move can be entirely blamed for what I have been though ( Read more... )

Needless to say, life at home has a more hectic pace than life in the arthritis hospital. Sure, I devised a schedule to take the pressure of having to make countless decisions off my poor brain, but what good is a schedule when one has a five-year who talks constantly and has an incessant need to know ”Why?” and ”How?” and ”When?” and ”Now?” and ” ( Read more... )

For ladyvox and misschili

According to the Kübler-Ross model, the five stages to dealing with grief and/or dying are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. They do not necessarily happen in that order and a person may be coping with two stages at once, revert to previous stages over and over, and perhaps never achieve the final stage. Although ( Read more... )

As the days get shorter, I find myself becoming increasingly frustrated with what I can get done in one day. The Nordic winters make me drowsy, and although I don't suffer from seasonal depression anymore (because I up my meds and sleep more), just slowing down a little bit makes my normally tight schedule downright stressful.

Yesterday, for ( Read more... )

So, guess what happened soon after I posted here about not being able to get sick for the next six weeks?

I'll say this about the things life throws at me: I keep finding more things that aren't as impossible to get through as I thought they would be. Having a viral infection and going to work is doable, as long as you spend every free moment in bed ( Read more... )