health

The 10th of April started no different to other days.  At pottery I was dimly aware of pain in my breast but I was too busy playing with clay for it to register.  I’m 50, I get odd aches and pains.  That night the pain had escalated to unbearable and I barely slept.  The next morning I told my GP …

When Cliff bought our new mattress a few years ago I loved the comfort of it, but a full night’s sleep became a thing of the past.  Every night I would wake many times, so hot that it felt like my skin against the mattress was burning.  I would wake and move off the hot patch many times during the …

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdmOx7JnBJk/?taken-by=sulaskimmingstones Before I document how long it takes for a black eye to heal, I had better first explain how I landed myself with a shiner.  Actually a shoddy landing was responsible.  Eyes full of question marks followed when I went out in public, poor Cliff was afraid to go anywhere with me,  when people see a woman with a …

Unless you have a child with dangerous allergies, you just can’t understand the almost paralysing fear when they have a reaction to an allergen.  Fjord is allergic to eggs, some antibiotics, bees, pollens, dogs, yeast, peanuts and more but worst of all and most dangerous is his tree nut allergy, and the worst reaction he ever had was to hazelnuts.  …

  Each year Acacia’s birthday is a time of celebration, edged with the depression of dark memories during her birth week.  Instead of cuddling and bonding with my newborn we were separated by the ICU crib while I gazed at her tiny body invaded by tubes and wires.  I sat helpless while she fought for her life against the ravages …

When Fjord was diagnosed as being allergic to eggs, peanuts and tree nuts I was distraught.  Until you have an allergic child you simply don’t understand the minefield which your child will walk in every day.  It’s like them being able to pick up a loaded gun at any time.  From age 3 he knew to ask the ingredients in …

Fjord is 9 years old and prone to wild imagination which can translate to hypochondria.  This time there really was a wolf, when he cried wolf and it bit (well a tick bit but that doesn’t work with the word play).   Several days before showing symptoms of tick bite fever Fjord said that his belly button was infected.  I …

One thing which has really troubled me since Fjord started Gr 4 last year, is the spine wrecking weight of his school bag.  Since they started moving from class to class children end up carrying every single school book around all day and the time table seldom allows even 1 book to stay home.  The school does allow a box …

On Saturday I attended the book launch of my cousin Jackie Barnard’s book The Monster Living within.  After reading the book I feel so proud of her, not only for writing and publishing the book but for her bravery and will to take every possible positive lesson from this shitty hand dealt to her by Multiple Sclerosis. Jackie is one …

Five servings of fruit and veg a day is an ideal theory and one which I constantly strive to meet.  but it is near impossible to achieve.  Cereal is the children’s standard start to the day.  For lunch I’m doing well if cucumber or a fruit is on the plate.  Supper generally includes 2 veg but the tally remains below …