Sleep

All posts tagged Sleep

Migraine Helen

Published April 10, 2023 by helentastic67

Migraine Helen

If this post could have a longer title, it would be “How to get a migraine in one easy step!” What’s that? I imagined I could sneak a little fun social catch up into my boring life without consequences.

Anyone with disabilities will tell you, they will try every now and again to put something fun into their life to break the monotony. But while its great at the time it always comes with a cost. I’ve been trying to get to something in the inner West for about six months. A friend goes to something every Wednesday and I’d booked my Friday carer to go with me, her plans changed and another carer was able to assist me. I’d arranged my local artist friend Larissa MacFarlane to join us. She’s the friend from the radio interview I did from a few weeks ago. You can catch that interview again here if you missed it.

Lara was also the driving force behind the advisability Murals “Disability Pride!” Already, I digress, the event I hear you ask? Drag Bingo. The venue required me to get up and down a flight of stairs. I haven’t been to a Drag show for twenty years, back at the (the greyhound) But Drag and Bingo? You will never hear the word “Bitch!” Repeated so appropriately in the same night. Zena Ghost was her name; you can see her on Instagram. She had three costume changes throughout the night. The last one she had worn to the recent Melbourne Grand Prix, she had mentioned three Drag Queens had been employed for the event, they were told to dress “Conservatively” I don’t think she hadn’t? She finished the set with Rihanna’s “Shut Up & Drive!”

If you want to read more on the Melbourne Grand Prix other than my experience while working in a big shed in Richmond twenty years ago, hearing the cars practice the weeks leading up to the race, hearing the news helicopters overhead and living in Prahran, close by in the ‘90’s. I’m just saying. Noisy and Loud! So, happy living Northside during footy and Grand Prix season, check out William’s blog. He knows what he’s talking about. http://www.williamsperfectride.com

But, I digress again. Here’s how Hell gets a migraine? Sitting this close to the stage. It’s too close. With the lights and the loud, the 360’s sensory overload. It’s too much.

Oh, yeah, and all the audience participation. The Pronouns being thrown about just needing to be included. Calm down? I get it’s a safe space for the LGBTQI+ community but when the Drag queen found a badge of a footy player, she looked towards the table of Hetro Admin chicks to see if there were any takers. Sorry if you are into AFL or Rugby, however in Australia the players of these sports have not had the best behaviour in public or otherwise and have rightly been publicly shamed for posting poor social behaviour on social media. Female comedians have made jokes that if straight women stop having sex with them, we could breed them out. Because apparently bogan sport’s men breed bogan sports people. Sorry, you all know it’s just the men, elite sports women don’t do stupid things in bathroom urinating and catching it on smart phones to later posting on social media. Smartphone, it’s an oxymoron, isn’t it?

So, Thursday, the day after Drag Bingo, Migraine Helen, it hurts! Feel awful, I normally describe myself as having a migraine every day that ends in “Y” but they are the Walking/Talking kind of migraine where I can still manage a semblance of adulting. But occasionally I need to reassess my day and greet my carer with a succinct “You need to listen to me. You need to hear and understand!” Because the first mission is for us to get out and get a Jab of Tramadol in my arse, then it’s back home to bed before it knocks me out. So, any goals that needed achieving had to be communicated effectively before I’m out. Thursday being the day before Good Friday means my shopping and any Hunter/Gathering must get done as Good Friday is a public holiday. My regular Girl Friday who is often out doing my shopping on autopilot was not my Girl Thursday so I’d had to tell my carer which milk to get and which kitty litter, etc.

I knew I’d be spending my Easter weekend alone on my couch watching TV, eating good food and chocolate. I just hadn’t expected I’d be doing it hung over from a Migraine and I don’t even drink! I do not know how people that drink do it.

A regular prize in bingo was a shot of “Wet Pussy” (A short glass of some sort of potent Peach drink), the woman at our table that won it several times but donated it to someone else because she didn’t drink. Drag Bingo is definitely a drinking game.

Highly recommended if you wanna see an impersonation of a Britney Spears-era 15 year old teenage girl dancing in her bedroom like no one is watching. Not a negative. Then Drag Bingo is for you.

Meanwhile, it’s Easter Sunday morning 4am and I can’t sleep. Hence, I’m writing this.

Meanwhile, Melbourne is also in the 40th year of the Melbourne International comedy festival and I went all out and have five tickets this year. (I’m doing hard Mass and it’s not been running 40 years, but it started in 1987. Can you do the sums? Please.

My first comedy show is tomorrow night as in Tuesday. So far so good. The next is Saturday night and the people that I got tickets to go with me have already pulled out so I’m trying to find two others to go with me and make sure I get home in one piece.

Hope everyone survived Easter.
And hit Like!

Inconsistency

Published November 9, 2022 by helentastic67

Inconsistency

Wow, anyone noticed lately I’ve been a little less than consistent? Yeah, I really don’t like being inconsistent. I’m actually always found ways to have routine, even when I did not have study or a full-time job, I built things and life into a routine. Maybe building this and consistency made it easy to keep my AVM be unnoticed for so long. Maybe it’s how I coped. Or the signs of it, I don’t know, it’s a working theory.

So, if you have been following, you know there has been chaos, emotional trauma and grief and my normal routine has been thrown out of whack.

Two brief visits to the country have meant returning home I’ve needed a week just to catch back up on the normal. People assume having carers is set and forget but it requires ongoing maintenance. Having events out of the norm means shuffling, more intensive organising stuff, Admin, housekeeping. It all starts to back up on me. Mail, letters that require action grows, phone calls, emails, new groups plus Zooming.

In times of stress, I’ve always needed more sleep and every now and again I get a migraine where I just can’t function and I’m in bed by 3.30pm and I’m hungover for days despite deadlines and events.

On Thursday last week I went to the AGM of the NGO I’ve volunteered with for over ten years. I’ve been a voting member for 4-6 of those. You member the group that was under valuing me and bullying me. Yeah, that one! I stepped down. Even by choice, with all the other grief and stuff in life to deal with, it was a tear in the corner of my eye moment. I was asked to stand so a room full of mostly strangers could see who I was and asked if I wanted to say something. I did but wasn’t in any state to speak. Nor, would they have wanted to hear what I would have said.

Add to this my carer wore perfume that day. She made the statement “it was her thing!” I’m like, “Get another thing!” And then the migraine to boot.

On the Sunday, I did a BBQ gathering in a local park to celebrate my recent 5-Oh! And upon arrival found the BBQs did not work.

Having some WTF Moments of late, and not coping. Things continue to slip. It’s now practically Wednesday and Tuesday came with two carers arriving because I forgot to cancel one and it allowed me to do some outsourcing and some catching up. My small stack of hospital referrals and letters for appointments has gone. And while this is not the post I’d intended; I will start on the next. A BIG AWARD TO BE REVEALED! Some updates on all the important things and finding new ways to write since I’ve got bigger issues with my one good hand.

TO BE CONTINUED………



Sleep

Published December 5, 2021 by helentastic67

Sleep

“You cannot bank sleep Helen!” I cannot tell you the number of times Ms Jillian kept saying this to me.

I listened, but I’ve never learned, I’m being honest and I have realised, all my life I have always had a TERRIBLE sleeping pattern and God help me, I can’t change it.

So, on the weekend in the afternoon, I get the best sleep I will have all week. That’s when I’m trying to catch up on the sleep I didn’t get during the week.

My new Ms Jillian mentioned in my first appointment, my sleeping pattern and I straight out told her she needed to choose her battles. She thinks I was kidding, I’m not.

Hot Off the Press – 19th May 2020

Published May 19, 2020 by helentastic67

Hot off the Press!

Sometimes, blogging about the here and now and the most important reason to blog gets lost in all the detail. So, being careful to consider someone else’s privacy.

Imagine being 29 and all you want to do is survive, to thrive, with a pre-diagnosed medical condition, you have a stroke!

Again, not my story, but a friend.

After over a month in hospital, being tested for everything including CoVid19 and with no answers. Sometimes, this is the way. No answers.

Being kept company by parents, day and night so nurses give the best care. The same care they would give to anybody without disabilities or pre-diagnosed medical conditions. No matter what they are. A short stint in in-patient rehab, where physio appointments went cancelled because of the low expectation of recovery. Parents needing to still be there to advocate for their child to make sure they get what they need.

What to do now?
Well, the hospital and the patient, to be fair want the patient discharged ASAP. The patient obviously very keen to be home where his parents can arrange the best for their child. Well, adult child and the parents could get a reasonable night’s sleep, to continue to love and care for their child as only parents can.

So, in a perfect world, a caring parent/advocate/carer applies to the NDIA for a change in circumstances, so the patient can go home. Extra carer hours can be utilised to provide adequate care in the home. Plus, some much needed respite for the parents. And sufficient physio and Occupational Therapy to return to at least the bare minimum or return to the same level of independence my friend had in the comfort of their wheelchair, not so very long ago. Is it too much to ask? Is it even possible? I guess we don’t know until my friend is in the best environment for this to happen. Which is clearly at home.

They can’t go home until these things can happen.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I don’t have the funds to pay for these kinds of things, so the NDIA, a government organisation should prioritise these things, no? Let’s see how long it takes for my friend to be able to go home.

And lastly, I’ll leave you with this great quote that I only know about because a great Aussie disability advocate used it.

Disability is seen this way………
“The soft prejudice of low expectation!”

Please share through your networks to show your support. While these stories go untold people get away with providing sub-standard care. Let no single person with a disability be left behind!

Cheers,
H

Sleep

Published January 6, 2020 by helentastic67

Sleep

There is never enough when you have a brain injury. Never enough. Add, crazy bitch hormones as I call them, the Peri-menopausal hot flushes, sliding into the pause.

More sleep, much, much more sleep.

But, finally following up on my visit to the clinic. Yeah, I’ve been busy and am now circling back to the thing. I had to go to an older building that is on the same block as the St Vincent’s Hospital in Fitzroy. Seen this entrance for years wondering what was in there. Well, now I know.

I went in a little early, off Nicholson Street and was shown to my “room”. Mum had been to a sleep clinic in the country and told me it would be like a self-contained hotel room.

Mine, no it wasn’t. The room had a single bed – expected. An armchair, nice place to put suitcase and sit to take off shoes and AFO’s – check. A small hand basin, oh nice. Where was the bathroom? Apparently, there were only three of us in the inn that night, me and two men and I got the room closest to the ‘Men’s’ bathroom.

Super! Where’s the lady’s bathroom? Oh great, no shoes or AFO’s. I’ve gotta go for a nice long walk to the lady’s bathroom. Past the waiting room, finished with a big vinyl chair in Orange.

Now, I’m a kid of the 70’s, we had an orange car.

And an orange kitchen bench. (Yes, mum! I hear your voice, it was Mandarin) Sue me! I’ll let you be the judge.

The Doctor who was showing me around was the same age as me and we bonded over the orange of our childhoods.

You know those moments you meet people and if you meet them in completely different circumstances, you might become friends.

We bonded over the fact that neither of us live with other people. I bluntly stated “I fucking hate people!” She laughed and said I was her spirit animal.

 

 

Connections

Published November 3, 2019 by helentastic67

Connections

That moment when you realise you didn’t sleep with the right people when you worked in clubs, back in the day. To be fair, I didn’t sleep with anyone back in the day. Well, not no body, but boyfriends. Clearly, not the right people.

Today, I attempted to share my administrator’s son’s Crowdfunding page to people I used to work for, back in my club days. Said son has CP (if your recall?) mentioned on the 22nd May 2019.

https://hellonwheelslifeonehanded.wordpress.com/2019/05/22/todays-lunch-22nd-may-2019/

And you guessed it. Deleted!

FUCK I HATE PEOPLE!

I made people rich, drunk and got them laid. What did I get for all my clean living? Screwed!

I hate people.

 

Wake Up Dead

Published November 1, 2019 by helentastic67

Wake Up Dead

Is it just me or am I crazy? (don’t answer that!) I get that I have a lot of migraines. I get that I would rather sleep to fix my migraines than take pills. I’m not saying I’m completely against drugs. I’m just suggesting my first option is always sleep, chiropractor, sleep, then drugs.

However, when I go to bed at 7pm, it’s fucking serious. I don’t even think I want to go to bed that early as a baby. It’s even more serious if I send a message to family to ask them to check on me in the morning in case, I wake up dead.

This generally gets a thumbs up, just saying. Is it normal that family don’t think to follow up?

Anyone?

This happen to anyone else?

Please Comment

 

Sleep 24/7

Published September 20, 2019 by helentastic67

Sleep 24/7

Now, I know, I know, I’ve likely written other posts about this natural remedy to fix all “sleep”.

We are told there are many things in life that makes us require sleep at different times.

Babies need more sleep.

Grumpy kids need more sleep

I distinctly recall a day when my mum sent me off to bed for an afternoon kip.

 

Today’s Lunch – 18th September 2019

Published September 18, 2019 by helentastic67

Today’s Lunch

Good Mental Health Day

Really struggling to keep on top of things at the moment. Failing at so many things and feeling sad about it. Allow me to list but a few………

Failing at my emails…..
Failing at my followers emails……..sorry. Very, very sorry. Still!
Failing at getting to bed at a more reasonable time.
So, failing at sleep clinic!
Failing at being a good friend, so I’m told ……….
Failing at getting my shit done so I can maintain some semblance of a pain-free life.
Or at least making it look like I’m not failing at life.
Failing at keeping anxiety and depression at bay.
Failing at not swearing at my GP appointments.
Said Fuck 7 times yesterday! I asked.
I thought I had been holding back!

Felt like such a zombie yesterday I had a double-shot latte with lunch. I had a brain grain salad. It is very good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s lunch, a Moroccan chicken salad and instead of my standard medicine today…. I’m having a London Fog!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for the Little Red Truck, always brings a smile to my face…

On the upside, it’s only mid-September and I’ve achieved my New Year’s resolution. I finished that bottle of Baileys I had been storing in my fridge for the last two Christmas’s. Got a taste for Baileys now. Also had a delivery from my Egg-Dealer! It always makes me Egg-cited! Get it?

Cheers,
H

Today’s Lunch – 14th August 2019

Published August 14, 2019 by helentastic67

Today’s Lunch

Good Mental Health Day

Oh my God, is this week over yet!? I cancelled my osteo appointment Monday. It was cold and I needed a long weekend.

Yesterday, I had my follow-up with the sleep clinic. Not a sleep over just an update with the specialist. I checked in and went back out to get a coffee. Thought today I might give you a recap in photo form of my appointment yesterday? I don’t consider myself particular photogenic as I look in the mirror these days and think it is what it is. So, your welcome!

Me before coffee…

 

 

After medicine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And before I get to today’s offering. You may recall, the lovely Caroline my masseuse has been in Italy. She’s been doing a little gardening while her husband has been doing some maintenance. I think it’s safe to say neither know how to do Holiday.

 

They are in Casole d’Elsa 11K from SAN Giminiano. South of Florence, north of Siena. And I’m quoting her directly, it is too crowded to go there this time of year. She took these photos just for me yesterday.

 

And finally, today’s offering is a homemade sausage roll with a burning chilli chutney with side salad and medicine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m in Thornbury today at Cafe Crunch as I was running out of time. So, I’m close to acupuncture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,
H

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