Busy, Busy Bees!

Heya folks, we have all been busy, busy bees in my household recently.

We have all been doing well, except for my sleeping but that is always off so no big news there.  I have had some fantastic news today about my Type II diabetes…..  I have it managed and under control with NO MEDICATION!  This is coming from a guy who, at the beginning of this year, thought he was going to have a heart attack in the next year or so (as my doctors informed me) and was at higher risk of cancer, stroke, heart problems etc.

Top right – 315 lbs, top middle – 308 lbs top right – 301 lbs
Bottom right – 301 lbs, Bottom Right – 294 lbs

I truly started my weight loss journey properly at the beginning of this year in January when a new Slimming World class opened up in my area.  I decided to go to the classes just to keep me focused and motivated at first, but even before that I had been desperately trying to lose weight.  I am 5 feet and 8 inches tall (a shorty for a guy I know) and at my heaviest I weighed a whopping 315lbs….yes I shock myself now when I think of it!  This was through a combination of back problems, pain, inability to do exercise and also some pretty lame excuses really.  I never used to pig out on food anymore since I got my binges under control but by then the damage was already done.  I did eat the wrong foods when my emotions got on top of me and that was really hard to break away from.  I have always used food for ‘comfort’ eating which again, was another habit I found hard to break.

I can say now VERY HAPPILY as well I might add, that I am a massive 78lbs lighter than my heaviest weight and I have lost a whopping 16 inches from my waist!  My sister came around the other day and I grabbed my suit I wore last year and put it on and showed her.  I was lost in it and I think she got a bit of a shock from it as well.  It felt great to be able to ‘show off’ how well I have done but I still find it hard to accept the credit……yet.  I don’t want to get too complacent because I still have a fair bit more weight to lose to be at a healthy weight for myself.  I don’t want to think that I can sit back and relax and not keep striving for that ultimate goal.  In two years time it will be my 15th wedding anniversary and I would love to be able to renew our wedding vows looking like a million dollars.  Zanna has been doing fantastically well in losing herself but she really shines at helping me with my loss.  She puts up with the grouchy, sleepless monster that waits to lynch her in the mornings sometimes and she puts up with the indecisive, picky, annoying, stressed hubby when he cant figure out what to eat for dinner.   It is just another way in which she makes my life a brighter place and I would not be anywhere without her.

So, what else has been going on?  Well I have been tapping away at the keyboard loads writing creatively for university and I am having so much fun and I have been reading books, plays, poems etc. like they are going out of fashion.  I will hopefully get chance this week to write the piece for Natalie from turkishtravelblog.com after she gave me the words yearning, historic and masterpiece.

We have also been doing a bit of work with Addison Street Carers Association who organise events for the children who use the local short break care unit that our daughter, Pretzel, uses.  We have had a spooky Halloween party, we had some of the members in Newcastle Keep doing a sponsored ghost hunt, we have the Christmas fair and Christmas party coming up this week as well.  It should be a great time and we always have a good laugh and a lot of fun with the kids and staff from Addison Street as well.

We are also meeting up again with some of our lovely SWAN North East buddies at the Alan Shearer Centre in Newcastle this Sunday which will be fabulous.  It is so nice to meet up with other families who can fully understand how intense and tiring caring for an undiagnosed child can be and just how little help is given to us because our children don’t fit a check box.  There is no judgements, no comparisons and no prejudices in the group, just a lot of kids and adults getting together and enjoying a good old chin wag!

So by the time we get all that out of the way we should be heading towards Christmas Day itself and then into the New Year.  I am starting to think now about New Year’s resolutions after the success of my weight loss one this year.  Obviously I will be keeping that one carrying on but it would be nice to challenge myself with something else as well.  Maybe write a novel by this time next year?  Maybe to get more involved with SWAN UK?  Maybe to do more exercise and have more family time together?  Who knows, there are so many!

Have you thought about resolutions or goals you want to set yourself for the upcoming year?  Tell me about them because you never know we may be able to do it together and spur each other on!

Okie dokies, until next time folks,

Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

Related articles

• Diabetes Symptoms & Causes
• Three Tips To Lower Your Risk For Diabetes: Dr. Mao’s Wellness Living

My hidden illness: 30 things you may not know

Hey folks, I wanted to post this up as I have had it sitting in my files for a while and I never could find the right time to put it up.  It is an article that is all about my hidden illness or in fact my hidden illnesses.  It may be something that you are not interested in but there may be a few things in there that you can identify with or that may even surprise you.  It is not my intention to offend anybody or to make anybody feel uncomfortable but I hope that there may be a little more understanding comes from it about the things I have to deal with on a daily basis due to each different hidden illness.  So here we go with the 30 things you may not know about my hidden illness:

1. The hidden illness I live with is:

Chronic Pain, Diabetes, Insomnia and Binge Eating Disorder

2. I was diagnosed with them in the years:

Chronic Back Pain – 2000/2001
Diabetes – 2010
Binge Eating Disorder – 2003
Insomnia – 2011

3. But I had symptoms since:

Chronic Back Pain – 1985
Diabetes – 2010
Binge Eating Disorder – 1993
Insomnia – 1993

4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is:

With Chronic Pain I have had to accept the fact that I need to use a wheelchair to travel long distances and have adaptations made to my house to get into the shower. My memory is now a lot worse and it takes me twice (sometimes three times) as long to do tasks as I used to and if I don’t write it down I usually forget.

5. Most people assume:

That I am either faking it with the back pain, my Insomnia is a “poor night’s sleep” and my weight and binge eating disorder are just because I am greedy and eat all of the wrong foods.

6. The hardest part about mornings are:

Waking up in excruciating pain knowing that the day is going to sap the energy out of me even before I have finished my breakfast.

7. My favourite medical TV show is:

Embarrassing Bodies – Sometimes I wonder how the people on there haven’t pushed for a doctor to sort out the problem. It is fascinating but not for anyone without a strong stomach.

8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is:

My PC as it is where I do all of my writing, studying, gaming, internet use….pretty much everything in my life happens using this. I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing.

9. The hardest part about nights are:

Feeling absolutely exhausted from whatever I have done during the day but knowing as soon as my head hits the pillow I am going to be awake because of my insomnia. Sometimes I don’t sleep for 3 or 4 days at a time which is a nightmare.

10. Each day I take 43 pills & vitamins.  This totals 15,695 tablets in a whole year.

11. Regarding alternative treatments I:

Have tried TENS, Acupuncture, Pain Management Clinics, Massage, Aromatherapy, Herbal Tablets for sleeping, Meditation, Exercise Programs.

12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose:

A visible one if anything as people might realise that you have a disability instead of assuming that you are just ‘faking it’ or that there is no reason for you using disabled facilities. Of course in an ideal world I would have neither but I guess that goes without saying 

13. Regarding working and career:

I can’t work as I am a carer for my disabled daughter. I am currently studying with the Open University to get a degree so that I have a chance at getting a job if I get the chance to when my daughter is older.

14. People would be surprised to know:

That I am constantly in pain as I try to keep a smile on my face and an upbeat attitude when I am out in public.

15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been:

Accepting that I can’t do certain things that I used to do before I was diagnosed with these things.

16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was:

Lose weight as much as I have. I have been trying to lose weight for many years but because of my pain and binge eating it has been very difficult. I have managed to lose over 49lbs (22 kilos) since January this year (2012)

17. The commercials about my illness:

Are non-existent. Nobody seems to talk about chronic pain, insomnia or binge eating disorder in the media very much at all. It is something I am sure affects a lot of people but never gets discussed.

18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is:

Cooking. I wish I could get back to making meals and baking bread as it was one of the things that kept me very relaxed.

19. It was really hard to have to give up:

Playing music in a band. I loved doing this so much but now there is no way that I could jump around on the stage like I used to or move all of the equipment in and out of a venue.

20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is:

Creative Writing and Blogging. I have enjoyed writing for my blog so much that I decided to look into other forms of writing and I’m loving it so far. It is a good way for me to empty my brain and gives me the best chance of sleeping at night.

21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would:

Go for a long walk and picnic with my wife & kids and then come back and play some bass guitar.

22. My illness has taught me:

That there is a lot of intolerance and ignorance in the world about disabilities and illnesses and especially if they are ‘hidden’. It has also taught me to be a lot more tolerant towards other people as well because you don’t know their situation without talking to them.

23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is:

‘You just need to get some exercise and lose some weight and you will be fine’.

24. But I love it when people:

Come to visit me when I don’t have the energy to go out. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it makes my week!

25. My favourite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is:

“Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” – Dennis P. Kimbro

26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them:

You are not the only person who is going through this. Stay strong and seek others who can support you and whom you can support.

27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is:

Just how much I used to take for granted in my daily life. Little things that I would do without thinking now take a great effort to achieve.

28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was:

Sat with me for a whole day and watched films (my wife and kids) so that I wasn’t on my own and bored in bed.

29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because:

There needs to be a lot more done to tell people about invisible illnesses and through invisible illness week there may be a chance to do just that.

30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel:

Very grateful for your time and I am so happy that there may be a little more understanding about my life and the things I go through each day.

So there you have it each hidden illness discuss a little bit.  I hope that this wasn’t too long for you folks and I am sorry that it is all about me but hey what are blogs for if it isn’t for talking about yourself!  I hope you found it interesting at least and now you have a little bit more about each hidden illness I suffer from  so you know where I am at mentally when I talk about these things on my blog.

So thank you for reading this and until next time folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

Related articles

• Eating my way to an early grave (sleeplessinnewcastle.wordpress.com)
• Why men don’t admit to binge eating (theglobeandmail.com)
• invisible illness week 2012 (phylor.wordpress.com)
• Diagnosis, Treatment, And Prevention Of Sleep Disorders (smmirror.com)
• Insomnia and anxiety (butterflywarrior.typepad.com)
• Insomniacs ‘should be given therapy not sleeping pills’ (independent.co.uk)
• Sleep: How to Deal with Insomnia (momitforward.com)

And breathe……..

Hello again folks

Well my final assessment for my University module has been zipped and submitted.I have been like a bear with a sore head and it has driven me up the wall but I am so pleased it has finally gone.

I said to a friend I would write about some of the side effects of my stint of 60 hours staying awake.

Staying up for that length of time has some serious physical effects that are a major pain in the backside. For example the first thing that comes is the dry, tired and sore eyes that sometimes crack or get really dry skin around them.

Then the next thing that comes is the headaches. Now these headaches are some of the most painful ones I have ever suffered. They start as a dull ache across the back of my head and then spread to the front of my head and make me feel like my head weighs about 3 times as normal.

Then the stomach cramps start and it usually leads to some really bad constipation or diarrhoea which can last for a couple of days.

Finally the ulcers come. These are really sore and there can be so many and I also get them on my lips making them swell up like I have been punched in the face.
It usually takes 3 or 4 days for all of these to settle down and I start to feel well enough to function properly again.

So this coupled with the pain meds I have to take and then also caring for my disabled daughter means I have a very hectic life at times as well! But I will start to cover some of that in a future blog.

Until next time Stay Safe!

60 hours and the effects

This is what 60 hours of not sleeping looks like!

Well I have just come off the back of a 60 hour stint with no sleep thanks to the insomnia.  (The pic above is me after one of these kinds of stints) It is a very strange experience when you start getting to that point and things become a lot more confusing and the effects are not unlike being a bit drunk.  The scary thing is that I found I was able to do some of my University work and it wasn’t complete nonsense!

I managed eventually to get some sleep though and it happened so quickly I can’t really remember dropping off.  I have also found though that I cant really remember what happened yesterday or what I did apart from the Uni work as it is written down.  Maybe this blog is the start of a good habit and I should start noting down the events of the day when I haven’t slept.  I wonder if it would make good reading once I am ‘sober’ again.

I still haven’t really got to grips with the whole blogging idea and I will probably take a while to get used to it and I hope it doesn’t bore the pants off any you folks reading this but it is something that I feel I should do and if it just gets things out of my muddied mind and on to the page then it may clear the way for some of the information I want to keep in there.

So the agenda for today is to recover from the sleep ‘hangover’ and get this essay written for my exam so that my module is finished and then I might be able to indulge in my hobby of woodcarving before I start the next modules in August and October.

Until next time Stay Safe!