On Wednesday I called my doctor ‘Margaret’.

I said it with great confidence.

His name is not Margaret.

I was a bit dysautonomic at the time.

Memoria, a ladybug, and a fledgling year

Happy new year, all. It’s still January so I think it’s not too late to be expressing new year verve. 2007 wasn’t that flash. 2008 was delightful. I’m pumped about 2009 and the adventures to be discovered therein. Sometimes you can feel a good year coming, like a train rumbling in the distance.

So far this year I’ve listened to ‘Dreams from My Father’ on recommendation from a thoughtful friend – was fascinating – and the perfect antidote to ongoing Christmas payback. (Am reassessing future Christmas involvement.)

Today my friend brought lunch around and gaily said, “Meals on Wheels!” as she came in the door; my cousin emailed; and there was a ladybug walking daintily on the office wall next to the bed.

Am about to have an online-chat with the fam to coordinate my ‘care’ for this year. (Shall I put in a special request for pavlova?)

Will leave you with last night’s riveting late-night discussion with my living aide-mémoire, he who shields me from total confusion. Behold my razor-sharp mind.

him: what time did you get up this morning?

me: rrrr, not sure.

him: hey, thanks for your text today!

me: did i send you one?

him: yep.

me: was it a nice one?

him: yeah, it was actually.

me: that's good!

him: did you email the GP?

me: i did not. is it on my list?

him: yes.

me: which list?

him: all the lists. white-board, laptop and next to your bed.

me: i’ll look at the lists and remember tomorrow.

him: good night, wifette.

me: good night, life partner.

him: HUSBAND!

me: hooo that’s right, i forget we’re married now!

him: you didn’t forget, and you know it!

me: [that noise your cheeks make when you smile in the dark]

him: i can hear you smiling!

Here’s to good memories, meanderings, and little flapping wings.

Life goes on

Saw the link to this organisation on the SA ME/CFS Society’s site, it seems like a great resource:

Life goes on - Strategies and choices for the seriously ill and those who care for them.

It looks like a positive and helpful organisation. They offer telephone counselling for patients and carers for the cost of a local call – and the counsellors themselves all have personal experience of serious illness. There’ll be online counselling in future, too. As far as I know there hasn’t been anything exactly like this in Australia before. There is Lifeline of course, but this one is targeted specifically at sick folk and carers. I have no personal experience with them, nor do I know anyone who has, but it looks good. Just mentioning in case it’s helpful to anyone out there: if not you, then perhaps a loved one, or if you work in healthcare, your patients/their families. Sometimes half the battle is knowing what resources are available!

The twelve seagulls of Summer

On a sweltering, overcast day in December we went for a wheel down to the river. We ate fish and chips with friends under a cotton tree with wide, spreading branches and yellow flowers; saw sea gulls, ibis with curved bills, slender she-oaks, and water lapping gently at the shore. My feet touched grass.