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| day lilies |
A few cool days. But no rain. The garden looks shaggy, I pick up dry stalks, pull out plants that didn't make it. Others don't seem to mind the lack of water. We need to make changes. Smaller leaves, deeper roots. Two days ago, I furiously watered the lot, it took ages. Too late for some anyway.
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| white agapanthus a friend brought from Madeira |
My father talks about the dry summer and I can hear the concern in his voice. Something he rarely shows and never about people. But land, dairy farms, rivers, aquifers, forests, even after 30 years of retirement, all that matters so much to him. We also talked about the tennis and the soccer worldcup or rather, he did because what would I know about that anyway.
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| tiger lilies |
After much deliberation and a couple of angry painful nights, I increased my medication last week without consulting the expert. Today I lost my nerve and called in to my GP and she waved all my concerns away with a brisk smile and a couple of reassurances and, don't worry, it's still a low dose and why don't I give you a sick cert. Which I declined and she shook her head in sorrow.
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| purple heart lilies |
Let's face it, I'll never be rid of cortisone - no matter how careful I am tapering the stuff - and my digestive system will never fully recover.
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| happy tansy |
I have been eating comforting bland porridge, crunchy plain toast and delicious alphabet soup (from a packet) for the last couple of days, topped with probiotics, and just one slightly milky cup of coffee. Surely, something good will come of it.
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| queen feijoa |
But hey, I can move my hands, fingers and feet with considerably less pain, sleep without colics waking me at all hours and the mouth ulcers are in the single digits again. This is the life!
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| ecchinacea |
I intend cycling to work by Thursday or maybe even Wednesday.
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| trumpet vine |
You are brave.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous (but thirsty) flowers! I don't understand "sick cert" but I do understand your trying to live a normal enough life while dealing with sickness and all the awful things it brings into your life. Thanks for being just you, and talking about your decisions, which I can support without knowing why or how you arrived at them. I love reading about your father (my he's retired a long time) and how you think.
ReplyDeleteA sick cert is a doctor's certificate that would permit me to stay home from work with full pay. It's required from the 3rd day of illness onwards and may be valid for 6 weeks (of full pay). Should I need to stay off work for longer the statutory health insurance kicks in and pays 80-90% of my salary for another 65 weeks of regular sick certs abd after that comes either early retirement or social welfare. But I am not there yet.
DeleteYour pictures are like old friends to me. Favorite flowers I can't grow in Central Florida. Nice to see them. I hate what this disease does to you. Thankfully you are a fighter. Just out of curiosity, what is the normal retirement age in Germany?
ReplyDeleteUsual retirement age is 65. There are various options to retire at 63 or 60 or any time in between either due to disability/illness or with a percentage cut in pension payments.
DeleteYour flowers are beautiful, and you are so incredibly strong, Sabine.
ReplyDeletesuch lovely flowers. I wrote down a couple of them to see if I can find/grow them. your red day lilies are gorgeous. all mine are variations of yellow or orange or coral. I just cut back all my ecchinacea over the weekend. armloads of prickly dried up seed heads and stalks dropping seeds everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI did that myself, took it upon myself to double my dose of a med I was taking for the afib, without checking with the doctor. I'm off that med now and on another. here's hoping you are on an upward trend.
The mouth ulcers sound horrible. Talking, sleeping, eating all become intolerable with mouth ulcers. I hope you feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteThe flowers are looking great -- at least these, the ones that have survived! That tansy is great. It looks like our yarrow in England -- must be a relative. Glad the medication change isn't significant enough to worry about, but hopefully it will make a difference!
ReplyDeleteCould you be allergic to sodium lauryl sulphate, I am and checking all medications (including those prescribed) keeps me clear of mouth ulcers. They are so painful and are in almost all toothpaste, many shampoos even in suppositories for yeast infections. Hope this helps you but if not maybe it will help someone else. JOYCE
ReplyDeleteThanks for the thoughts but mouth ulcers are a very common side effect of the immunotherapy drugs I have to take. The only thing that helps is obsessive dental hygiene with toothpaste NOT containing sodium lauryl sulphate.
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