Wakanda Forever!

CHADWICK BOSEMAN

November 29, 1976 – August 28, 2020

2017 Has Been Somewhat Peculiar

Normally I look back on a year and I think “well that was a crock of Benghazi bananas being broken, bashed, bitten, boxed and badly botched”; or “Wow. That was the best ever. Can we replay that year forever?”

2017 had the gall to be both. The year started all sucky like, with not being able to leave the house due to pain. I had to try and find other ways of entertaining myself as the house gets rather confining when you can’t leave.

It reached the stage where I could no longer walk at all and I needed a wheelchair. The doctor arranged for some home physio and Occupational Therapists to come and see me and try and get me back out again.

I found that going and watching people playing games on several gaming streaming sites kept me entertained, as I could chat with people about things I already knew about. As I chatted more and more, then some of them told me that I should start to think about doing it as well.

I tried a little last year on a different platform – Twitch –  but it didn’t go too well. So talking with people on Mixer, an “FTL” streaming platform made me think about it more. WIth FTL, there is no delay. In fact, sometimes it comes through so fast, you hear it on the stream before it comes through your headphones where someone in the party has spoken.

I figured I would give it a go. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? I would be happy if I reached 10 followers, although I knew from the outset that 25 was completely out of the question.

With the help of the physio and occupational therapists, I now use my wheelchair very little, and I have even stepped outside my house three times this year. That is a huge win for me. I am hoping to be able to get out of the house at least once a month in 2018.

So then back to the streaming. I started streaming properly in late September and by mid-October, I had beaten my goal of 10 followers dramatically. On 4th November, I reached a milestone of 100 followers. Beginning of December, I reached 200 and I set myself a goal of 300 by the end of the year.

When the flu, or whatever this pandemic is, hit me on Friday, I was on 295 followers. I never stream on a weekend as that is time for family and friends. My kids told me to do so today though. When I turned my laptop on, I was on 297 followers. I started streaming and people arrived to chat and have a giggle. Then one after the other, three people followed me, bringing my total to 300. That impossible target. 30x more than I ever thought I could reach. And then they carried on coming after I signed off. Currently, it stands at 305.

My goal for 2018 is to reach 500 followers. I just hope I haven’t put it so far out of reach that I will never attain it.

So this year, I have gone from being in a wheelchair to being able to walk (to some degree) again and going from having no followers to over 300.

It has definitely been an up and down year.

I hope 2018 is more up for myself, and I hope it is the best year of your lives for the rest of you.

Be safe, be great, be you.

Happy New Year.

Welcome 2018

 

August Daily Photo Challenge – August 5th – In Your Medicine Cabinet

I don’t go in my medicine cabinet often, but I do scrabble around in there sometimes for plasters or things like that, then a few weeks ago, I had to search in there for a sling and bandages (one of the reasons I had to stop writing for a while) so the cupboard was a bit of a mess. Yesterday, the theme was the Inside the Medicine Cabinet. I decided to tidy it up a bit first, and I ended up throwing out a lot of tablets and medicines as they were out of date.

Don’t assume that you have all the tablets you need for any eventuality. Check the use by dates on your medicines. Using them after this date may have bad consequences. Take ten minutes to just check and make sure you are up to date with everything.

August 05 2015
Inside of Medicine Cabinet

Throwback Thursday: Immortality

I have been thinking about this post a lot lately. it has been just over two years since I posted it, and my parents celebrated their Golden Anniversary which I was so scared of them not being able to.

After I originally posted this, I prayed and prayed and prayed. I asked for a miracle, and I got one. My mother was misdiagnosed. She did not have cancer, terminal or otherwise.

This was posted Sunday December 2^nd 2012

 *****************************

We look at members of our family as being immortal. We hear of something on the news or from someone else or read it in the paper, and our first reaction is usually “thankfully that won’t happen to me”. Even when something happens to extended family, it’s not the same as immediate family. If your aunt or your uncle is diagnosed with a terminal illness, then we feel for them, but we thank whoever that it isn’t our immediate family.

What happens then when it IS our immediate family. When you are told that your father has a disease that kills. Then he trials a drug and is cured. But in the meantime you are watching the weight fall from him as he vomits every night. When the tiniest drop of blood can harm you. But then he is cured and it reaffirms the notion that your family is immortal.

Then your mother becomes ill. Told there is a brain tumour. The thoughts that run through your head are too fast. They operate though and remove it. Once again, your family is immortal. Then she has something wrong with her stomach. If she doesn’t get it sorted, she’ll die. Another operation later and once again, your family is immortal.

Your sister contracts Tuberculosis (TB) and is locked in a room in hospital. They tell you that she has only one working lung and that is not 100% efficient. But she survives. Your family is immortal. Your mother has a stroke. Puts her in hospital for months. She has to learn how to use the muscles on the side of her face again. But she survives. Your family is immortal. Arthritis spreads through her body, getting to every joint and some not joints. But she remains happy because your family is immortal.

Then your father, again, parts of him start to fail. His knees, his back. He has to have operations to fix it. Which he does. Everything is good. Yes, he will have to have other operations, but that’s not a problem. After all, your family is immortal.

And then it happens. That moment that knocks you off of your feet. Has you crying in a corner because your family is supposed to be immortal. These things aren’t supposed to happen to you. They happen to other people. Not you. YOUR. FAMILY. IS. IMMORTAL!!! The doctor’s have to be wrong. They have to be. They’ve misdiagnosed. It’s not cancer. Not your mother. It’s not allowed to be. When they say it’s inoperable, they don’t know that. There’s got to be something. Your family is immortal.

But the specialists are meeting, so there’s a possibility – a small possibility – that your family is still immortal.