Hello everyone, here we are at Monday again and this week we are still in Western Europe with the country many people consider the country of love, France.
It is a country that includes medieval cities, beaches and alpine villages. It is known for its fashion houses, awesome museums and the Eiffel Tower, oh and of course its wines and what some call a sophisticated cuisine, just to name a few things. Although this Aussie gal doesn’t think of snails and frog legs as sophisticated, they are more on the gross side for me.
The capital is Paris, it has a population of around 68 million it was founded on the 10 Aug 843AD.
The currency is the Euro since 2002 before that it was the Franc.
The flag is a vertical tricolour flag with blue, white and red which has been around since the 15 February 1794, however, in 1976 a lighter version of it was adopted.
It has a unitary and semi-presidential system of government which consists of an executive branch, a legislative branch and a judicial branch. Executive power is exercised by the president. A semi-presidential republic also know as a dual executive republic, is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet.
It is the Prime Minister of France through the government and parliament that overseas much of the nation’s day to day domestic affairs. The President wields significant influence and authority in the fields of national security and foreign policy.
The country has problems with terrorist attacks and the national terror warning is at its highest level, and of course there is crime in France as in every country.
Since 1495 France as played a part in around 130 wars.
What a night I had up and down like a yo yo either needing to pee or just feeling restless. I have been up since 4.50am. It is 9 degrees, my BGL was 5.2 and it’s cold.
Yet again Facebook removed the post with the link to my blog saying it’s spam, just so annoying.
When Tim got up, I turned off what I was watching as I do so not to bother him, I commented that I was very cold after a few minutes Tim got up and went down the hall. He didn’t come back, and I found him in his office with the heater going. I was annoyed but he didn’t get why.
Tim spent a fair bit of time out the back getting rid of weeds, it left him exhausted, and he had to do it bits and pieces.
Got to a top of 15 degrees.
Had a good night woke only 3 times to pee and straight back to sleep afterwards. It is only 9 degrees this morning and my BGL is 4.1.
It reached a top of 15 degrees or for my American readers 59 degrees. I was so cold that when Tasha came down with washing for the dryer, I was so pleased as the dryer is in the dining room area, and it helped warm the area and I was in the lounge room part it is all in one and having the dryer run warmed it nicely. In fact, when Tim came home as he was doing a split shift and commented about the dryer, I told him I was so glad she was running it due to how cold the house was. He said nothing more about it, I also told him I hoped she had a second load for it as the house is so cold.
I went to meet Sam, but Jess was already there.
Had a good night and woke only once at 2am that I can recall, I woke with the alarm and a headache at 5am. The temp was 10 degrees or for those in the USA 50 degrees my BGL was 4.3.
After a while the headache went away and I started to feel better, I managed to read emails, read blogs, post a blog. Vacuum out and wash both the kitchen and bathroom floors, do a load of towels and unpack the groceries.
By midday it was 16 degrees or 60.8 degrees for those in the USA.
This arvo I wrote one letter I now have a small pile to be posted.
What a cold morning, only 6 degrees when I got up at 5am have the heater going in the lounge room and thankfully I have a heater in the bathroom so when I have my wash and get dressed in the morning the room is warm. My BGL was 4.3.
I am very cold this morning and had the heater going for way longer than normal.
I have times when I am sad for no reason or over something minor and I can’t shake it. I often have moments when I feel so unimportant in people’s lives, maybe that is because I am I don’t know now I feel flat.
I woke with the alarm, I was dreaming, can’t remember what it was just that I was, and I woke with a heavy head. Although after a wash and some moisturizer I felt a little more awake. The temp is only 2 degrees this morning and I don’t know my BGL as the machine needs a new battery.
After Sam left, I thought I would stop at Tasha’s and get her to post some letters off for me but unfortunately her door was locked, and she was in her bedroom blow drying her hair and couldn’t hear me. Even though I was standing at her bedroom window, waving my arms around and calling her name, and I could see myself in her mirror she still didn’t see or hear me. I sent her a message saying I wanted to see her. She went out before seeing the message, text back saying she would be down after the gym, she didn’t turn went somewhere else instead.
I sent her a text about food she said ok, so I thought Tasha was going to bring me something for lunch she didn’t, so I had nothing well 2 small biscuits and a caramel koala. This put me in a mood which lasted a few hours. However, thankfully before going to bed I decided to give her a ring and say goodnight. We talked and I felt better so the day ended well.
Another cold start to the day with the temp at 6 degrees this morning and my BGL is 4.3, it dawned on me last night if I took the battery out and put it back in again the machine would work and it did, still need a new battery though.
Sue came over for a visit, she was here for an hour, we talked and laughed, and she shredded old documents.
Tasha bought me Macca’s for lunch. Got to a top of 16 degrees but didn’t last long before it starts to drop again.
It started to rain at 2pm so I sent Jess a text asking if she could meet Sam, no reply, thankfully it didn’t rain for long and I was able to walk up and meet her.
I am finishing up this entry at 1.15am Saturday morning as I woke up and became restless so decided to get up for half an hour or so. At this time it is 8 degrees.
After returning to bed at 2am I slept ok, I had to get up three times to go to the loo in three hours but each time I went straight back to sleep.
It is 9 degrees, my BGL is 4.7 and I must wake Tasha at 6am so she can make sure Blain gets of to work on time and she is taking me for blood tests.
Tim and I went out to do some stuff, he had an appointment with the optometrist and of course he needs new glasses that’s going to cost around $500. I went to the chemist and to Hot Bargain, then I went and waited in the car for Tim.
Next, we went to Lake Fair Shopping centre so Tim could cash in some empty bottles after that we went to Big W and I was able to get a 2pk of crop top bras, another long sleeve singlet and a new pair of Pyjamas pants.
Here we are on another Friday, so want to know more about Levodopa, if the answer is no you may want to visit someone else.
When someone has been on a high dosage of Levodopa for a long time the brain changes its response to mechanisms and becomes more and more resistant to the drug.
As a result of this the patients will often find themselves developing different reactions to the treatment. Often the reactions are not the right type with severe abnormal involuntary movements to severe stiffness and slowness in their movements. These types of reactions can be a major problem, changes can be made to dosage as well as other changes but once these side effects have developed it is rarely possible to suppress them completely.
Naturally these abnormal movements cause a lot of distress to the one with PD but also to their loved ones who may become embarrassed by the reactions.
The movements are typically writhing movements of limbs and body or chewing or licking of the mouth with a strange look on the face. If the movements become so bad they interfere with balance and walking the benefits and not so good and reducing the dosage becomes a must. This can be hard for the patient, but it is better to reduce the dose which must be too high as it is the high dosage that is causing the problem.
The period of action in a single dose is about four hours which is why it is taken after each main meal. I take mine every four hours. It sometimes becomes necessary for the first dose of the day to be taken early in the morning before attempting to wash and dress. As time goes on, we start to learn how our bodies react and when the meds are wearing off. Some say there is no point in taking it before going to bed, but I disagree if I don’t take it before bed my body will not settle.
Many notice over time that the length of time they feel ok after the meds reduces and some patients need to take their medication every two hours.
There is a controlled release version of the drug, but it takes an hour or more to kick in which is why some like to take it at night before bed.
Here we are at another post about borderline personality disorder or BPD and this week we are looking at psychotic symptoms.
Around 20-50 per cent of suffers will have psychotic
symptoms.
So, it seems that when under extreme stress, those with BPD may experience what we call psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions or some other form of extreme paranoia. What the hell this condition really sucks.
Can you imagine how it must feel to firmly believe that someone is out to harm you or that impending danger is just around the corner, with something terrible going to happen to them.
Thankfully those things are not every day common place, but they can happen. What I far more common is dissociated traits such as having the feeling of being detached from your body or from life itself. Even though I don’t have BPD I have experienced this dissociated when I felt like I was outside of my body watching things happen. I have only experienced it once.
I didn’t realise that dissociation can cause memory issues most likely to happen when the person dissociates regularly and for long periods of times.
So, it is not unusual that people with BPD will dissociate into safer states, these states may look like a completely different person. By this I mean they may regress into that of a child, or a stronger personality then they feel they really are. This doesn’t mean they have multiple personalities. It is referred to as splitting and it is something they may or may not be aware is happening. It is a way of coping.
These symptoms may be so severe that people with BPD may be mistakenly diagnosed with schizophrenia this is because BPD is often misunderstood even by healthcare professional.
Good morning, it is bloody cold here in my lounge room and yes, I have the heater on, but we don’t have big room heaters only small fan heaters.
Well on this cold Wednesday morning we are going to start our look at the Battle of the Coral Sea.
After the attack on Darwin there was naturally fear that Japan had its sights on Australia as a colony, however, access to Japanese records tell us that even though the Japanese Navy had put this forward it was rejected by their high command.
The purpose of the attacks on Australia was to weaken its value as an American base, this of course was unknown, so the fear was there.
During March 1942 the Japanese advance continued and they occupied many of the islands east of Papua including the Solomons and Bougainville. Important Japanese airfields had been established on the islands of Tulagi and Guadalcanal.
In late April US Intelligence detected a major Japanese flotilla heading towards the Coral Sea, its codename was Operation MO. Its objective was the invasion of the small but strategically important town of Port Moresby in Papua.
Allied ships were instructed to head to the area and prevent this happening and the lines were set for the Battle of the Coral Sea, which was fought from 5-8 May 1942.
The US forces were the main protagonists on the allied side with the Australian ships and planes also involved in the fighting.
On the 29 April Operation MO under the command of Admiral Inouye were ordered to attack Port Moresby. The Japanese had seven transports, five destroyers, a light aircraft carrier, a couple of fleet carriers and three heavy cruisers, a light cruiser and a squadron of submarines. They were based at Rabaul and the islands of Tulagi and Solomon.
Thus, they had a bloody lot of ships but so did the Allied forces with thirteen destroyers, eight cruisers, four light cruisers, two aircraft carriers. Our ships were also fitted with radar an invention at that time still unknown to the Japanese.
Rear-Admiral Frank Fletcher was the fleet commander.
Hello and good morning a I start this I am out of breath as I am in the progress of cleaning the bathroom and just taking a few minutes to sit and type this out.
Sam picked today’s creature, it is the Electric Eel, because she likes the sound of it.
Anyway, according to this book on freaky creatures it isn’t really an eel it is a knifefish, a freshwater species which is known for its ability to make electricity.
It has a long cylindrical body containing cells called electrocytes that store power like tiny batteries. When hunting or threatened these cells can release a charge of at 600 volts which is a bloody it would take a horse down.
Generally speaking, a jolt from one will not kill a human but multiple shocks may, or the person may end up drowning as a result of being shocked.
They grow to 2.5 meters or 8.2 feet and weigh around 20 kilos or 44 pounds, they have flattened heads and are usually dark green or grey on top with a yellowish stomach. They can live for between 5 and 20 years.
They live in streams in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America.
In case you didn’t know it is Monday down here in Australia, it is a cold morning and even though the temperature is rising it is still cold gone from 9 degrees(48f)to 12 degrees(53f).
Since it is Monday, we are looking at another country and this week we are in Western Europe more precisely The United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom is made up of four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland it has been around since 1 May 1707 because of the Acts of Union.
The capital is London, which is in England. The population is around 67 million and the government is described as a unitary state, parliamentary system and constitutional monarchy. The current head of the monarchy is King Charles111.
A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority.
A parliamentary system is a democratic dorm of government in which the party or a coalition of parties with the greatest representation in the parliament forms the government, its leader becoming prime minister or chancellor.
As a constitutional monarchy King Charles is Head of State, however, he doesn’t run the country, nor can he make or pass legislation that resides with the elected parliament.
The flag of the United Kingdom has been around since the 1600’s, although the early one only featured the English and Scottish flags, since the 1700’s when Queen Anne was on the throne it has more or less been the flag we know. Which I am sure most people know as the Union Jack with a white-fimbriated symmetric red cross on a blue field.
How safe is the United Kingdom, ranking 37 on the peace index site it is in the top 25 per cent o the world’s safest countries. There is a relatively low rate of homicides and good foreign relations and overall low internal and external conflict. It is in general a very safe place to visit.
Had a good night up a bit early as I was awake and just lying in bed and thought bugga this I’m getting up. It is 11 degrees at 5.30am. Also, I can’t find my blood test machine I remember Tasha coming in last night and waking me to ask if my test strips would fit some machine, I was asleep and I think I said take a few and try them. Now I suspect she took everything which is annoying.
I managed to hem my new pyjama pants it may be a half ass job, but it is better than how they were.
Tim is working rail today he thought he would be home by 11am but rang to let me know it will be more like 9.30pm before he gets home.
The temp at midday is 17 degrees.
Lunch went well in fact there was a fair bit of laughter and talking but Kathy looked like she felt left out but her sisters did try to include her in the rubbish they were talking about, this was more so when we were having ice cream.
After lunch Kathy & Summer went home and Tasha and Jess went to Costco, Sam stayed here and talked to me it was a wonderful talk about many different things.
NO SCHOOL DUE TO KINGS BIRTHDAY HOLIDAY
Another good night and a cold morning with a temp of only 7 degrees at 5.30am. My BGL is 5.5 this morning. By midday it had reached 17 degrees.
Tim drove Sam over to a mate’s place and will go and pick her up at 5.30 this arvo. As I turned out Jess was home from work and picked Sam up instead.
It has felt like a long ass day, spent doing bugga all.
Been awake since around 4am and out of bed since 4.45am. It is cold with the temp being 10 degrees. My BGL is 4.9 before breakie, my morning reading is always before breakie.
At around 11am I got a message saying my delivery had been made and left in a safe spot and wondered what the hell no one came to deliver anything. He left it in the letterbox, which was annoying as at first, we couldn’t find it. The photo attached to the tracking showing where it was left showed the mailbox for unit 4. Unit 4’s letterbox is above mine it took a little bit, but it was ok in the end I have my parcel and I am happy.
Around 1pm my nephew Dawson turned up for a visit he stayed about an hour, most of the time he spoke about different cars he would like to buy. I listened to him and made comments on the cars but didn’t tell him he would not be able to afford such cars being that they are all priced over $20,000 and he is unemployed and on a disability pension.
Today reached a top of 17 degrees and when I was sitting and waiting for Sam it was bloody cold.
A few years back Tim bought a knee brace for me to try but it wouldn’t go over my fat leg could barely get it above my ankle, well I decided to try it now since I have lost weight. I got it on to just above the knee, but it was too tight. Tim helped me get it off and in a smug tone said he knew it wouldn’t fit. I snapped that at least it went on a year ago it wouldn’t have. Tim replied why did I have to sound snappy, why? Wel maybe if he had sounded a little more supportive and not so smug I wouldn’t have snapped.
Had a really good night, woke with the alarm at 5am a chilly start to the day with a temp pf 12 degrees. My BGL was 5.5.
Sue took me to my doctor’s appointment all went well, just needed scripts and a couple of forms filled in, we also went to the post office so I could get stamps and post of letters. Sue took a photo of me this morning as she said I looked really nice.
It has warmed up to 19 degrees.
It was, however, cold sitting up the top of the driveway waiting for Sam this arvo.
What a night, I had a few different and weird dreams the type where everyone treats me bad and don’t like me or just ignore me like I’m not there. Last night dreams had mum in them acting like I wasn’t there, then there was one which had some weirdo attacking my car, note I don’t drive anymore. The last one I kind of get it involved me looking for a toilet with a lockable door to use. I woke needing to use the toilet.
It is 10 degrees and my BGL is 5.5.
Sandy called in for only 10 minutes to give me a hug and say hi we had a quick chat, but I would have liked a longer talk.
By midday it was a coldish 16 degrees.
I am feeling drained this arvo.
Had a good night from 9pm onwards, before that I slept for 2hrs after 9pm I slept till 3am the up to pee and back to bed till 4.50am when I got up. It is 11 degrees and my BGL is 5.6.
I had Facebook remove the link to my blog again they called it spam, what the hell is wrong with these fools.
It has been a cold day with a top temp of 15 degrees, Tasha said that I look tired today and Sue said I sounded tired.
Tasha came down to see me and have a chat, she said she would take scripts to the chemist for me. Blain brought down some sheets to go into the dryer and was glad Papa wasn’t here to go on about using the dryer.
I was lying in bed around 8.30pm and heard Tasha and Tim arguing, she had sent Blain down some sheets to go in the dryer and Tim said something about drying them after 10pm but she wanted them done sooner, he said she most likely wouldn’t come back for them till the morning and I suspect he is right about that. I, however, felt he was making a mountain out of a mole hill, when I asked what did all the carry on achieve he raised his voice and said he was making a point, yeah but what is being achieved.
I am updating this at 12.36am as my body is moving so much, I can’t get back to sleep, so I will finish this and go back to bed.
After I returned to bed at 12.50am I settled and slept well for the rest of the night. It is 11 degrees and my BGL is 6.1 this morning.
It has been cold and wet all-day top temp of only 14 degrees.
Tim went to the shops, and I asked for a bread roll and a small hot chips or 2 scallops he got both hot chips and scallops and a 6 pack of rolls. Why well he didn’t take in what I asked for, thinking I wanted everything.
Here we are at another Parkinson’s day, I will share a little more about levodopa and its side effects. All the symptoms of Parkinson’s tend to improve with this drug but it is most effective with treating the slowness of movement and what goes with that.
In fact, for some the improvement can be dramatic, this I know personally as before I was medicated, I was in a terrible way. I was unable shower myself or dress myself, or feed myself, all of which I can now do again and more.
For many it also will improve facial expressions, rigidity and pain can also be helped, this has also been the case with me at this stage the constant pain in my arms and hips have eased a lot.
The tremor, however, has shown some improvement but not as much as I would like, as I still have times when it can be bad.
I have seen very little if any change in how I swallow stuff and I am told my speech is still pretty soft at times and of course my balance can be off at times.
Now some of the side effects of this drug are that it can cause taste problems with things having a metallic taste mostly tea or coffee. Some say it causes a nasty taste in their mouth.
Other people have had sleep disturbances with their mind being overactive and not being able to switch off. This is something I have delt with for many years long before Parkinson’s.
A pretty common side effect is nausea and vomiting when someone starts taking the medication but usually settles after a bit.
It also can cause loss of appetite with a little loss of weight. Ok since being on the drug I have lost 30 kilos which is about 66 pounds, but as I was seriously overweight this has been a good thing.
Hello everyone, well it is Thursday already and that means it is time for some information about borderline personality disorder or BPD. This week we are looking at inappropriate anger.
As I have explained in previous posts a person with PBD struggle to regulate their emotions. Anger is an emotion and thus no different those with BPD can be hypersensitive and will easily overreact.
The slightest thing may trigger an extreme outburst and due to the PBD they will often become emotionally and physically combative towards others. These flare ups of anger are usually intense, quick and terrifying and almost always disproportionate to the incident at hand. Or has my mum would say they make a mountain out of a mole hill.
Those around someone with BPD will do whatever it takes to keep the peace, they may lie, withdraw, or overly try to please the one with BPD.
Now people need to know and understand that the one with BPD are not proud of this behaviour but often feel unable to stop it, in fact they are usually immensely ashamed and remorseful after the fact. Such outbursts the trigger the overwhelming fear that they will now be abandon because in their mind who would want to live with or me around someone like that.
This then can set off another reaction of internalising their anger, which can lead to them self-harming. So, they are living in a vicious cycle of harming others and harming themselves.
This explains why when in an argument with someone Sue may start throwing things.
If you are with someone with PBD who is in a rage try to stay calm, this isn’t easy, but it is better than getting into a screaming match. Try not to become defensive in the face of their accusations and criticisms no matter how unfair you feel they are being. It will only make them angrier so if possible, walk away take time and space to calm yourself down and hopefully they are doing the same.
joannerambling 