It’s Monday, it’s cold but it isn’t wet and there is no school due to the King’s birthday holiday. This week are looking at Costa Rica.
Costa Rica is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is a rugged, rain forested Central American country. The name Costa Rica literally translates to “rich coast”.
Roughly a quarter of its area is made up of protected jungle, teeming with wildlife including spider monkeys and quetzal birds.
It is home to cultural institutions like the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, Costa Rica is known for its beaches, volcanoes, and biodiversity.
Though its capital, San Jose, it has a population of around 5 million and currency is the Colon with Spanish as it’s official language.
The national flag of Costa Rica is based on a design created in 1848 and consists of two blue stripes, two white stripes, and a central red stripe which is twice as wide as each of the other four.
As to how safe it is to visit well the U S Travel Advisory site says exercise increase caution while there and Australia’s Smart traveller site has it as high level of caution needed while there. Other sites say it is a safe place to visit I guess it just depends on what is happening at any given time.
It’s ranking on the Global Peace Index is 123, what that means I don’t know, Australia’s ranking is 22, the United Kingdom is ranked 37 and the USA is ranked at 131. Oh, and last week’s country Nicaragua is ranked 123. I don’t know what it means but found it interesting. https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/
Another wet day ahead by the sound of it, well according to the weather app on my phone. It I s 12 degrees at 5.30am not as cold as yesterday morning. Top temp of only 15 degrees.
Found a note telling me that Jessica’s toilet is broken and leaking from the bottom, it has been reported and now Sam has come here to use the toilet, Jessica has been going to Natasha’s to use her toilet.
Tim went out to put fuel in the car, we are going through more due to him working again.
Tim made crumb steak, chips and eggs for lunch I really liked it but Tim thought both the steak and chips were a little overcooked but not me, for me it was done just right.
It is 11.30pm and for the last hour & a half the top half of my body hasn’t stopped moving and I am so tired but decided to get up and sit for a half hour before going back to bed and trying again. I haven’t had a night like this since the increase in my medication.
After I went back to bed at 11.50pm after having something to help me settle and I did settle till 2am when of course I had to pee and then found I had to pee every hour or so, it was a long night of broken sleep.
Still up at 5am, the temp is 10 degrees at 5.30am.
I felt pretty cold this morning, Jess asked me to go over and wait while the plumber fixed the toilet which I did, I was just standing at the door wondering how I was going to get out of her house without falling when Sue arrived. I felt like crying, she helped me out as the plumber was done with whatever he was doing. I had to ring Tasha and tell her about water on Jess bathroom floor as there was no way I could clean that up. Jess was in bed asleep.
I am annoyed that the new bra I bought has hook & eye closure at the back. I thought it was a pull on over my head type of crop top bra. I will check tomorrow if that is what I ordered.
Had a damn good night woke only once to pee then when the alarm went at 5am. At 5.30am it was only 6 degrees, by midday it was 16 degrees.
Tim was home between 10.30 and 1pm, he had to have another ultrasound on his stomach.
I had a productive morning doing 9 household chores and by the time I was done I was exhausted. So, then it was time to put my feet up and do nothing for a while. I am one of those people who likes to get as much done as possible first thing in the morning.
Had another good night, woke at 4am to pee and then again at 4.55am which is when I got up and damn it is a cold morning temp of 6 degrees again but feels colder than yesterday.
Tim has another CT scan this morning, since starting this job he has had 4 different medical appointments but says today’s scan should be his last.
My blood glucose level was 4.1 this morning.
Tim was at the Xray place a long time they had trouble putting the cannula in and he was feeling frustrated when he got home.
By midday it was 18 degrees but still felt cold, the temp dropped to 15 degrees by 5.30pm.
I am feeling sad this afternoon, but I don’t know why.
JESSICA’S BIRTHDAY SHE IS 35 TODAY
I am up, washed and dressed for the day, the temp is 10 degrees. My BGL is 5.5
Saw Jess as she got home from work, called out happy birthday so came over and we talked about nothing for about half an hour. I rang Sam at 7.10am as usual and she answered but at 7.30am no answer. I wasn’t bothered but when Sam had not turned up by 7.55am I started to head up and stopped to call for Sam just by yelling for her then I rang Jess, by this time it was nearly 8am and we had to get a move on the driver arrives between 8.05 -8.15am.
The day warmed to 17 degrees.
This afternoon I was feeling like I wasn’t important enough for Tasha to bother with, not how it is but how I felt, I rang to ask her why she hadn’t got back to me about helping me tomorrow, she could tell I was upset and came down to talk to me. We had a long chat about how I was feeling and afterwards I felt better, not great but better.
Had a reasonable night, I was restless around 11.30pm last night and got up had a walk around the house and went back to bed at 11.50pm and went straight off to sleep. I slept till 2.30am then had to pee but straight back to sleep then again at 3.30am, followed by 4.50am which is when I stayed up.
It was 11 degrees at 5.30am and my BGL was 5.3. The temp was 13 degrees at midday.
It is also a wet morning, I had to get Jess to walk up with Sam.
Also, around 7.45am I started to feel drained and having difficulty concentrating on stuff and a bit confused. I sent Sue a message as I do each morning and she was so worried she came to check on me, she said I looked awful, and I felt awful and extremely tired. I ended up having a nap in my armchair after which I was much better.
Sue rang me at 11.45am to tell me Sandy is very sick and has been taken by the ambos to hospital her BGL was 2.1 and her blood pressure so low it was unreadable. This is because she has gastro and is seriously underweight at only 40kg, which is about 88 pounds for my American readers.
At 2.30pm Sue rang in a state as our brother who was supposed to be taking over watching Sandy’s kids from Sue rang and said he wanted Sue to spend the night. She could not do that and was having a meltdown. I got angry with our brother as I feel that he and my SIL do not understand how hard it is for Sue to function at times. They don’t understand about her BPD. I sent him a message and Sue could not stay with the kids and something else was in fact worked out so Sue could go home.
Had a good night after the heartburn was gone at 5.15pm yesterday I suddenly got pain in my chest between my boobs bad pain after about 5 minutes I felt like I wanted to burb but couldn’t. I spent the next half an hour in pain with Sam comforting me and pouring me fizzy drinks to help make me burb after I finally did, I was right and settled down for the night.
Read on Facebook that Sandy is home now and doing better she isn’t well, but she isn’t as bad as she was yesterday.
The temp at 5.30am was 10 degrees and my BGL was 5.1, by midday it was a nice warm 19 degrees.
I went down to Coles with Tim to get a few things and managed ok, came home to find Tash was using the dryer and of course Tim went off about it, which pisses me off he is making a mountain out of a mole hill in my opinion. Also got scripts while out cost me $211 but that is for the month and for a total of, I think 7 different meds, one of which isn’t on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme or PBS which is $69.
Good morning all a cold wet morning here in my part of the world and it’s Friday so it’s time for some more about Parkinson’s Disease.
Here is a little more about treating this condition. Generally speaking, the treatment of many medical conditions is standardized but not with PD the drugs used, the timing and the size of the dose have to be adjusted according to how severe the patient’s symptoms are.
Usually if you are in the early stages or have a mild case you will require only small doses of the drugs. However, as the disease progresses that changes any you may need higher doses and more than one or two different types of medication.
Drugs like Madopar and Sinemet are given in the more severe cases. With the dosage being increased as needed till the maximum tolerated. It is at this stage that other dopaminergic drugs may be added to someone’s treatment.
Madopar is what I take.
Many patients also need medication for depression, constipation, pain, sleeplessness, confusion and pain.
The main go to drug seems to be levodopa which can offer an improvement of about seventy per cent which is far greater the other drugs. However, like all drugs it has side effects so these need to be considered both short- and long-term side effects.
Levodopa is absorbed from the intestine and carried via the liver and bloodstream to the brain. The conversion to dopamine involves something called decarboxylase which unfortunately is found throughout the body. Which means left to its own devices the body would convert the levodopa into dopamine long before it reaches the brain where it is really needed.
This is why levodopa contains a harmless chemical which keeps it intact until it reaches the brain.
Hello, everyone, here we are at another Thursday and that of course mean time for a little more about BPD and this week we are looking at chronic emptiness.
It seems that people with BPD feel a pervasive sense of hollowness, which can start in early childhood for some suffers this would include my sister. I feel she has felt this hollow, empty feeling for most of her life.
I can remember Sue referring to herself as the black sheep of the family because she felt like she never fitted in or belonged and that we didn’t want her around. It would make me angry because I never thought of her in that way. I now know that this is due to her BPD but back then none of us had heard of BPD.
I also now understand that episodes of trauma can exacerbate these feelings of emptiness and trust me Sue has experience several traumatic events in her life.
What I didn’t know until recently was that to fill that void those with BPD would look for external rewards such as shopping, eating, drugs or sex. Of course, these things would only temporarily fill the void and like being on a blow-up raft with a slow leak you need to constantly top it up.
The emptiness they feel is like chronic depression, extreme boredom, being completely disconnected from like and apathy.
This is why someone with BPD strongly desires to feel whole to the point of it being overwhelming. They often don’t know who they are and are always desperately looking for a solution. They want and need for the emptiness to end and to feel part of something.
This emptiness they feel can be incredibly anxiety provoking to the point of traumatic, it can and does also make someone with BPD feel as if they are broken which causes them immense anger, shame and fear. They will often feel they are not good enough and wonder why the hell anyone would want them in their lives.
It is hard on those of us who love and try to be as supportive as we can because there is only so much, we can do and say. Sometimes all we feel we can do is give a hug.
Good morning from me to you this Wednesday, here is a little more about the bombing of Darwin during WW11.
Just before the air rain alarm went off there were 70 waterside workers unloading vessels and when the pier was hit these men found themselves stuck ad on the edge. Dozens of them ended up in the water and had to swim through burning oil. Twenty-two are known to have died.
There were of course many heroic deeds happening like the men in the water being pulled from the water by med in small boats.
The Darwin Post office after the bombing
In the town the post office was hit killing nine people, these were the postmaster, his wife, their daughter and four female telephonists who were essential workers and their supervisor and another PMG worker.
Taking shelter in an air raid trench
The air-raid shelter in the post office garden where they went for safety took a direct hit.
Another business bombed was the hospital, but no one died there.
One story of a man escaping injury during the attack was that of Reginald Rattley a 26yr old telephone mechanic who had tried to shelter with the postmaster and other only to there wasn’t room so went over the Esplanade cliff to the beach. As he jumped a bomb-blast lifted him bodily onto the sand where he landed safely.
By 10.30am the first raid was over it lasted just over half an hour.
Tuesday is creature day and this week’s creature is the Yuruani Glass Frog. These frogs can be found in Central and South America. Their habitat is generally wet lowland forests near streams or rivers. They are usually found on leaves of shrubs; they also frequent waterways with brilliant red jasper rocks.
Its skin covering its belly and chest area is transparent so you can see its internal organs like its heart and bones. They are only small, around 2cm long. There are sticky pads and webbed toes that allow it to lay its eggs on the underside of leaves that hang over water. When they hatch the larvae fall into the water.
Its back is yellowish-green with lime blotches which blend perfectly with the leaves on which they live. It also has bulging golden-brown eyes.
Hello everyone, let’s kick off this week with a little bit of info about another Central American country this week it is Nicaragua.
It is the largest Central American country set between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is known for its many volcanoes and lakes and its two coastlines with coral reefs and mangrove forests which are rich with flora and fauna.
The capital is Managua, the country has a population of around 7 million. Its government is a republic, and the currency is called Cordoba. The official name of the country is the Republic of Nicaragua. The official language is Spanish.
Their flag is a horizontally striped, blue white with a central coat of arms. The coat of arms includes a triangle for equality, a liberty cap for freedom and five volcanoes between two oceans, symbolic of the five original Central American countries between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The flag was first adopted on 4 September 1908 but not made official until 27 August 1971. It is based on and inspired by the flag of the Federal Republic of Central America and flag of Argentina.
It isn’t a country where peace is the norm, in fact there have been a number of civil wars like dating back to 1926.
Right now, it is a country where certain security precautions need to be taken, especially for women travelling alone. The Nicaragua government says it is not a place at war or overrun by drug cartels. How safe it is I have no idea but not a country I will be going too.
I don’t feel as cold this morning, it is 10 degrees, I slept well and feel good this morning. Well, the temp went up to 12 degrees by 9am but by 9am I was so cold I was shivering. I was seated in my armchair with 2 crochet rugs over my legs. I sent Sued and Sandy messages about how cold is, gave Sue a laugh the way I said whatever it was I said.
Jess needs someone (because she is a big baby) to ring housing to tell them she has a broken window. She has no idea how it got broken but suspects it was a bird flying into it as they have done that many times. I tried to report it online but there was no option to suitable, so I asked Tim to ring and report it. He said to ask Tasha to do it. Talk about passing the buck. I suspect I will have to ring tomorrow to do it.
Jess came over and she and Tim had a long talk about the roads around the Uni, as Tim will be doing Uni runs with his new job and Jess is a security guard at the Uni
The temp got to 20 degrees.
Up at 4.52am to pee, so stayed up and had the heater in the lounge-room on and the one in the bathroom while I washed and dressed. It was only 8 degrees at 5.30am.
I had to turn the heater on for a little bit as the cold was giving me a headache. By midday it was 19 degrees.
Tasha went and bought me bread, if you have bread then you have something to eat.
I rang up about Jess’s window and someone came out this afternoon and replaced it. Tasha met the guy and spoke to him, and I hung around while he did the job, Tasha went to meet Sam as it is the school’s early day.
Up at 5am after a good night only woke once to pee which was at 1am., it was 8 degrees at 5.30am and by 9am it was 12 degrees.
No school for Sam today as it is the sport carnival.
Tim arrived home at 10am, he is finished for the day as he has two appointments this afternoon, one with the physio and one with our GP.
By midday the temp was 18 degrees.
Tim got an email from the Uni about something I didn’t understand, and I thought but didn’t say maybe someone in security may know, it wasn’t till Tim went over to speak to Jess that my brain woke up, Jess is a security guard at the Uni and yes, she understood the email and explained it. It is an app he needs to download and use every time he goes there. It is to prove he has a right to be on the property he must sign in and out again each visit.
A bloody cold start to the day, with a temp of only 7 degrees, slept well woke twice to pee and settle again easily.
Tim said he will be home at 9am and he has yet another medical appointment.
By 8am it was still only 10 degrees.
Sandy rang her car had broken down and she was looking to borrow ours, but Tim is working and has the car.
By midday it was 18 degrees and by 1p it was a nice warm 21 degrees.
I have cleaned the front and back sliding doors, not a professional looking job but good enough.
Another good night we have a temp of 6 degrees at 5.30am.
I bought a new black long sleeve singlet size 18 and this morning when I put it on it felt tight around the upper arms I am hoping after a bit it will feel ok.
By 9am it was 12 degrees, by midday it was a warm 23 degrees.
Sue took me for my eye check-up only got the reminder back in February, I can be slack at times doing stuff.
Sue rang to tell me that she appreciates how I am trying to understand her condition and how I am writing about it so others in the family can read about it if they want to and I hope they are. The family needs to try and understand that this is a real and serious condition, this isn’t something she has chosen to have. It did make me feel good to know she appreciates my efforts.
Up before the alarm this morning as I woke up at 4.50am and just got up, it isn’t as cold this morning with a temp of 14 degrees at 5.30am. There is the feel of rain in the air.
By midday it was 19 degrees, I had a lovely visit from Kelli and the kids, it was awesome seeing them. They were here 30-45 minutes. She also dropped off the wheelchair.
Sue rang me at 2pm and asked me something, I do not remember what and it was only 30 minutes ago, I mentioned that Kelli called in to drop off the wheelchair, she asked how they were I said fine didn’t go into any details though.
Got a message from Aus Post saying our parcel is in one of the parcel lockers. This is good, it means we can pick it up over the weekend.
It is the 1 June, and it is raining but it’s not cold in fact I didn’t need the heater on when I had my morning wash.
It was 5 degrees at 5.30am and only got to 14 degrees during the day.
The Pride Parade Sam wanted to attend has been postponed due to the rain.
Kathy rang and we had a good chat, Sydney told me about something that happened at school. Right at this time I cannot remember exactly what was said, I know it was a group thing and Sydney’s group came first. While on the phone I got a phone call from Sandy asking if Tim could pick Sue up at the Marter, she had another self-harm incident. He went and picked her up.
When I mentioned it to Sam as she asked where Papa was, she was wonderful, giving me a big hug and I told her Sue is the one with BPD and she asked if I understood what that meant. We then had a 15-minute talk about the condition and how hard it is to manage and live with. Sam was amazing.
Well Friday has arrived and that means time for a little more about Parkinson’s Disease, still looking at medication and treatment.
The aim of drug treatment is to keep the patient active, independent and free of handicap. Easier said than done.
Just raising the amount of medication, one takes is not necessarily the answer or in the patient’s best interest. Due of course to the side effects, no point in having the symptoms disappear if one is left in a zombie like condition.
As mentioned before levodopa can be a big help with symptoms often restoring the level of dopamine closer to normal which can help with the symptoms.
However, with Parkinson’s some brain cells containing a substance called acetyl choline react to the lack of dopamine by increasing activity. This of course makes the symptoms worse not better. Treatment with anti-cholinergic drugs can help with that.
These two drug groups kind of come at the problem from two ends, hopefully tending to tilt more towards what would be considered normal.
As the disease progresses it is common to find oneself on a number of medications by having to take as many as five different medications to help one manage some kind of normalcy.
Naturally many would be concerned about taking large numbers of tablets worrying how they are reacting with each other, or if they are accumulating in the body. Neither of these fears are realistic as the drugs do not inter-react generally speaking there are always the chance of it happening, but it is extremely rare and when this happens it is well-recognised and quickly picked up.
Nearly all the drugs used are broken down destroyed in the body within 24 hours, so no risk of a build up in the body. There may be changes in the way the body’s nervous system responses to the medication over time, in general we become more sensitive to them which causes the change in response.
Jo-AnneRamplings 