Deigh

Here in NZ we have a radio station called 'Concert'. It is non commercial and plays mostly Classical music with the odd slide into serious jazz. Between midnight and 6am the music is pre-recorded so there is no chat from operators, no new flashes and no weather forecasts. It is an ideal station to listen to if I cant sleep so I have my beside set tuned to it 24/7. I have plugged in a set of 'pillow speakers' which go under my pillow and I can only hear if my ear is directly over them. My partner alongside me can hear nothing. To mute the sound I can either switch off the radio, or better still just slide the speaker a short distance away. This is an ideal way to fill my sleepless hours and most times I drop off with it still operating. I have to tolerate the odd screeching soprano and some pondering Nordic folk music but that is a part of the mystery of life. Alternatively I can switch over to a USB with 1000 carefully selected jazz tunes but that is not good for inducing sleep! Deigh

wow, that was some report you gave us there. I've had a near permanent headache for the last few weeks and was overjoyed when a brain scan early this week showed that there was no malignant growth to blame. Home tests for Covid showed that I was clear and now we are a search for a solution to the problem which is high blood pressure. Take care, there are not many of us left you know! Deigh

One small trick I took on recently is to avoid TV for the last hour before bed. The blue light emitted is not good for for you. Dunno why, you'll have to ask an expert. The full plan should be to avoid being near electronic things like radios and even phones at sleep time. No way is that possible for me, I rely on my bedside radio for the time and also to entertain me when not sleeping. Deigh

Establishing a sleep pattern has been difficult for me for many years. My pattern for many years was that I dropped off to sleep instantly but woke again about 2 am and could not drop off. Eventually I gave in to this tossing and turning and donning dressing gown would make a cup of tea, take a couple of disprin, move into computer room and use the internet for an hour. I would make up the sleep with an hours nap after lunch. Being self employed I could do this. Over the next few years I wrote 3 books during this time. This all ceased when we became grey nomads in our campervan and days were so tiring that I slept exhaustedly every night. My stroke eight years ago stuffed up sleep patterns again and I have great periods getting back into a comfortable regime. At this moment all is well, but the afternoon nap is a permanent thing. I wrote once in this forum explaining how I undertook painting the Great wall of China mentally to stop my brain working on problems! I'll see if I can find the article and get it re-printed, you might like to take over painting where I left off because I failed to finish the job. Deigh

Valerie loves family photographs and for the last few years the senior grandkids have taken over the organisation of the family Xmas meetings and the last one was two years ago and she got this attached pix. Last Xmas our eldest son has refused vaccination so there was no meeting. With a bit of luck this year may work out better for her.

I'd be very interested in what temperature you call 'cold'. According to our local weather reports your temp is about 30C. Here we are having cool nights but the sun is still shining brightly all days and putting us in the region of 25C. This is comfortable! Deigh

Sorry, cant help with your question, completely out of my field but someone else will have some answers for you. I just want to welcome you to the forum and hope you will keep in touch. Deigh

One Auckland based friend has caught covid and there have been a few local scares but nothing on the doorstep. I expect our Doctor will be telling us about flu shots shortly. Everyone is expecting flu to be serious this year but I hope they are wrong. Our summer is hanging on and we are still having very warm sunny days even though it is autumn. I'm still in shorts and short sleeved shirts and enjoying it although the nights are getting coolish. Deigh

No local cases we know of but I nearly sneezed while in a supermarket the other day and had to take extreme measures to muffle it rather than cause a panic. Deigh

Limbo does rather describe the situation. Nobody likes it but most of us prefer it to the alternative. Valeries annual Christmas family photogaph was abandoned last year since one son has refused to get vaccinated and put a kybosh on the occasion. Personally my speech recovery has gone backwards with the absence of people to chat with on my daily walks. Having the odd shouted conversation across a street has been a poor substitute. Yesterday our leader eased off many social gathering restrictions, this is probably a bit early but very welcome, the country is missing out badly on overseas visitors using our tourist facilities and that has a roll on effect on every other industry. I look forward to a bit more freedom over our approaching winter. Deigh

Yep Willis, I also would like to thank Keli for working on this. We seem to have a few problems with the site at this time which could explain why we are not getting new members joining us. For instance I'm not getting notifications via E-mail when someone adds to a message of mine. I don't know whether its my computer or the site that is at fault! Deigh

Heather, I've kept in contact with Keli regularly and have put in my ideas on how to improve the sites performance. That is as far as I can go. I'm not getting notifications from this site nowadays, I dont know whether this is the sites or my own computers fault. The chat forum seems to be working as well as I've known it. Occasionally we have a full house there and when that happens you cant hear yourself type! Deigh

Yep Jannelle, there is something seriously wrong with the site, despite 2000 new stroke cases a day in USA we havnt had a newcomer since late December! I'm very reliant on the site for my wellbeing and would hate to see it vanish into the ether. I use the chat group regularly and am surprised you havn't found your way onto it. Perhaps the time is inconvenient for Oz. I also make a point of throwing something into this forum regularly just to keep it a bit alive. Call it a finger variation of mouth to mouth resuscitation! Deigh

The world as you and I knew it is in a mess, but to come to think about it, this has been the same since man arrived on the earth! my wife got a bit upset about the Covid restrictions the other day but I pointed out to her that we two had survived early childhood when people were dropping bombs on us, not been hit by the bullets they fired, as adults survived three serious bank collapses, two world depressions, several nuclear threats, food shortages, three epidemics and even Trump's efforts at goverment......so we can handle Covid. Deigh

Found this message in the stroke chat opening room today, hope someone of importance has noticed it and working on the problem........ ysteriousNewbie 1d Hello, can someone please help? Trying to get hubby registered as a new user but the form always rejects the submission, saying "there was a problem." He filled out the contact form to try to get assistance and there has been no reply. We are technical people and have tried on latest Chrome and Firefox to no avail. This has been going on for several weeks. He is terribly depressed and it would help him a great deal to engage with other stroke survivors. Thank you, Lisa MysteriousNewbie 1d P.S. I am sending this request on his behalf because he has trouble typing. Deigh

I have one lung and have my spleen removed so I'm in a rather precarious situation. There is not point in me living like a hermit so I'm carrying on as normal whilst taking reasonable precautions. Life is too short to do anything else! Deigh

NZ has had a jump in numbers today, 360 cases of Covid, this is the worst figure we have ever had. Bit Scary. I needed to sneeze when out on my daily walk and muffled it the best I could before local panic could set in. Deigh

We seem to be very fortunate, locally there have been very few cases and thanks to our Jacinda's team the spread throughout the country has been well contained. Nevertheless we are sticking to the much hated masks and recording all our visits to shops and other places. Schools have re-opened and so have some club activities. Our local ukelele classes have started again, meeting in our leaders open garage and keeping official distancing rules. One of the interesting facts about the distancing is that there has been very little spread of the common ailments like colds, apart from a few sniffles probably from pollen I've had a remarkably free breathing time over the last year and my annual bill for paper hankies is well down. Deigh

Brilliant writing Mark, just the information we all need to arm ourselves in case we catch the virus. or at lease to be able to compare with anything we pick up by accident. Nobody has mentioned the coldness before so that info was most welcome. I believe the rest of your family also got caught as it spread. All the very best with your recovery exercise plans. Deigh

Janelle, I sympathise with you. My wife has had similar problems for many years. Mostly they ended up with scratches, cuts and bruises but recently have become more serious. The first one was a broken arm, followed by a few months later a broken hip. You will be aware of all these because I passed comment on them via this forum. The main problem for us is trying to find a common factor so we can avoid repetition. This has proved extremely difficult, many were just through not paying attention and letting the mind wander away listening to birdsong or studying passing vintage cars. One was probably ignoring hot sunshine on the back of the head and others just stumbles when exercising. If there is a common factor it is nimbleness, with more of this ability most of the tumbles would have been avoided. Our plan at the moment is to improve her footwork and reaction time. Deigh

Brilliant effort Loni, sometime after a stroke the realisation comes that you, yourself, are the only one who can find the effort to make a recovery. This came early to you and you have obviously made the most of the situation. Hope to hear from you again. Deigh

Two excellent letters here, Quite agree with heathber, There are rules that have to be obeyed in order to exist at all but sometimes it pays to kick the rules aside and live, even though you know you will pay for it. I'm continually being told off by my wife for overdoing things and every now and then learn and make adjustments so that the excesses are manageable. Life at any cost is not worth it! Life is for living. Deigh.

Thought I'd better add my contribution......I had shingles when I was 29, I was a part-time fireman at the time and was furious about the situation. Shingles was for old women, not young men was everyones attitude and I had to take some ribbing by my companions. The nagging pain in my ribs was relentless and just sapped my energy. I was completely off work for six weeks but was able to mix with others and even attend firemen's training evenings as long as I did not take part since the virus was not transmittable. In those days there was no relief for the pain except aspirin, which honestly did not help much. I presume that nowadays there are other drugs available. Deigh