Friday Tidbits: Bits & Bobs of Help

An idea of the switch-in-the-cord idea,though not the sort of lamp I'd use for bedside. (But oh so pretty!)

It's Friday again and once again I'm so happy to see the week is coming to a close.  (I've written that a bit too often lately, haven't I?)  The family's been stricken with various degrees of the bug which never went away, all because of the freakishly warm winter of last year.  More than ever, I'm personally looking forwards to a few good, hard freezes to kill off as many of the viruses and bacteria as possible, those looming around our town. Last night hubs was almost spitting bullets because I had sheets of sweat coming off of me as I tried to write my post. Today, I can see that the worst is almost over, but I still just want to sleep, though still not sleeping as much nor as well as a "normal" person would.  Everything's relative!

Oh Dyson DC35, how I love ya!

• In fact, talk about sleeping: I've had more sleep this week than I've had in years!  I wake up and am totally miserable but finally fall back asleep for a minimum of a two-hour nap, unable to keep my eyes open.  Who knew there could be an upside to my flu?  
• Not too long ago, my BFF and I were on FaceTime and one of the things that came up (we CAN and DO talk about everything, anything and nothing, for hours at a time) was that she brought a gem of a vacuum cleaner.  She recommended that I buy the Dyson "digital slim," dubbed by Dyson to be "the most powerful cordless vacuum."  Well, I finally ordered it from Amazon and their description is no exaggeration, so good, in fact, that I quote:

• The Dyson Digital Slim vacuum cleaner has twice the suction power of any other lightweight cordless vacuum cleaner in use, making it the most powerful cordless vacuum. It is ideal for quick, flexible cleaning on all floor types, stairs, upholstery and inside the car. 

• Dyson engineers developed the DC35 for versatile spot cleaning- it’s suitable for every floor surface: carpet, vinyl, tile and wood. It has a motorized floor tool with two types of brushes. Ultra-fine conductive carbon fiber brushes remove fine dust from hard floors. Rotating nylon bristles remove ground-in dirt from carpets.

• The detachable long-reach wand is made from lightweight aluminium. It reaches high, low and into awkward spaces. You can also remove it and use DC35 as a handheld. A docking station conveniently stores and recharges the machine when not in use, or the battery can also be recharged separately from the machine."

I was thrilled to see that it was all and more than BFF (and Dyson) had described.  It's especially good for anyone who is sick and can't do much.  It breaks down into small parts and you can actually do stairs with a minimum of effort.  There are no pesky cords to mess around with (I absolutely have an OCD-like loathing of cords of any sort) and can grab it quickly for a small job like the carpet that's by my bed, without worrying about overdoing it.  And because it's so easy to use, you end up using it a LOT!  (Actually, it's quite addictive!)  For more on this miracle product, see this link.  It's worth every penny!  Check the before and after Christmas sales as BFF found a 20% off sticker price on Black Friday weekend, too late for either of us, alas, though we're not at all remorseful because it's just THAT incredible!  And a note: I had a bit of a sparkle and glitter episode from some Christmas ornaments we recently bought.  It was EVERYWHERE.  The Dyson DS35 took on the mess as if it were fighting the merest of jobs.  Phew!  

• With Christmas quickly looming ahead, I'm not sure we'll even get to finish the trimming this year. As soon as the lights were up on the tree, the ER runs started in.  It's a rather nasty GI bug. Forget about the outside of the house: we've only slapped a wreath onto the front door, this in a neighborhood and town known for its "city of lights" reputation with well over a million tourists coming in for the festivities.  Frankly, I'm surprised the neighbors haven't run us out of town yet. (I'm certain that they're giving us a year's grace period before doing so, so we have GOT to get back on track by next year!)  I'm trying my best to be mature and realize that hubs and I are no longer young enough (what???) to do the outside decorations ourselves and will have to start looking for someone to do the honors next year.  I suppose, too, that that IS the responsible thing for the person with CFIDS/ ME/CFS and/or fibromyalgia to do, though how I hate giving in.  But, it's all about "health credits" and "spoons" now. 
• And finally, such a seemingly mundane "little" thing which is driving me loony-tunes.  I'm looking for the lamp I had by my nightstand before we'd temporarily moved up to the attic.  It was the sort that has the on/off switch on a cord and, it turns out, it's such a great feature to have.  The on/off switch would rest against the side of my nightstand and it was so easy to just move my hand over ever so slightly and have the light off.  Instead, now I need to reach all the way over, through a jungle of items, trying not to knock anything down as my hand searches for the actual lamp in order to turn it off in the "usual" fashion.  Nine times out of ten, it wakes me up if I'm just about to fall asleep, often with a bit of a disaster as things fall over. With the little cord by my side, it was so easy to turn the lamp on and off... absolutely wonderful for the insomniac. If you have trouble with sleep and get upset because of the lamp issue, consider the lamp with a (toggle?) switch on the cord.  Oh my: who knew that there IS a wire out there that doesn't get on my nerves, but the very opposite.

And that's it for the day!  I hope that everyone's doing their best, only better and enjoys the weekend!   Ciao and paka!

The THING About Waiting Rooms...

Legs in training....

Since I promised to bring survival tips for my hoped-for readers, here's one 
that may appear to be a bit unorthodox but a real winner for me.

Anyone with any sort of chronic illness is very susceptible to germs and viruses 
from everywhere.  Obviously.  Duh!   With CFIDS/CFS/ME, our immune systems are 
hinky, thus the "ID" in CFIDS, the "Immune Dysfunction" syndrome part.  Our 
immune systems are over-active and under-active, both at the same time, so very 
contradictory in an illness full of contradictions.

I need to meet about every month or so with my long-suffering GP, who of 
everyone I've ever seen in my plethora of doctors over the past 37 years, from 
New York City across the good old USA, has been the best and most successful 
help in my care.  We make a good team, actually, as we've together tackled 
research and question seemingly everything that comes our way.  Some years we're 
gung-ho about learning every new thing, other years we just throw up our hands, 
give up and go into survival mode.  A small-town GP, he's more than a bit 
understanding and has more patience than I could ever dredge up, which is not to 
say we agree on all, but just that he's one of the best things that's ever 
happened to me.  Oh, he does sometimes see me as a bit of sport and I just know 
the man often revs me up to hear what will come out of my mouth next.  But 
compassion when need be, it's there!

However, I hate the germs and viruses that I seem to bring home each and every 
time I see him...or my dentist for that matter.  With my dentist we've agreed 
any work that needs to be done can start around April, once flu season is over, 
but must end by September, before flu season begins.  And the best part, 
perhaps, is that he's enforced these parameters at times when I've thought to 
myself, "flu season be darned," crazily thinking I was just too careful.

I can't exactly not see my GP, however, for so long.  So after many years, which 
included two serious bouts of pneumonia, we've worked out a system that seems to 
be the answer to some of the problems of my funky immune system.  My 
long-suffering hubby goes to the office, as I stay behind in the car with a book 
or my Kindle, signs me in, takes care of whatever finances need to be addressed 
and actually SITS in the waiting room for the moment when my name is called.  He 
then quickly runs out to the car and we go in through a back door, thus avoiding 
as many sneezing and coughing people as possible.

How I wish we had some sort of system like that when the kids were little and 
you'd take your children in for a "well visit," only to bring home three kids 
laden with chicken pox or some of the other childhood illnesses lurking in the 
pediatrician's office!  But I digress....

To tell you the truth I am always tempted to take some sort of germ-killer in a 
can and spray it at all within my reach.  Despite many outrageous things I HAVE 
tried, Lycol'ing my way to an exam room is even too much for me, SO FAR.

Yes, I may sound like a diva, but here is an example of why this has become a 
necessity.  I came down with a common bug going around one winter and was sick 
as a dog for two solid years.  Just as I was in the home stretch something 
strange happened to my legs...they turned blotchy and mottled with lovely shades 
of purple and red.  They've stayed that way for the most part, unfortunately.  
They are of huge interest to my doctors...they seem to love looking at them and 
speculating as to how the heck THAT happened.  I'm not so easily amused.  And 
poor hubby - my legs were what he'd first fallen in love with, only later my 
sparkling personality!  <wink!>

So, if your immune system is really wacko and you know that a needed or required 
visit to your physician may cause you to come down with everything down to the 
seven plagues of Egypt, consider my strategy.  Granted, it may be difficult to find 
someone in your life who's willing to sit in a waiting room full of sniffles and 
sneezes but it's a heck of a lot harder to come down with a bug that can take 
months and months to rid yourself of.  Plus I find that with each "flare," we do 
get more permanent damage to our bodies.  Ask my legs.