pneumonia

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Free resources and articles in the time of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Thank you to the following writers who have recently linked to my 182 recreated wartime recipes page. I really appreciate you making people aware that there are simple and frugal foods out there that store well and can keep everyone fed and healthy during these uncertain times. I’ll shortly be putting together a blog post to hopefully help people make the most of what they have stored in their food cupboards and how the unwanted simple store cupboard foods of yesteryear are once again coming into their own as a necessary staple.

If you come across any useful resources or indeed if you have a useful article that you have written you would like me to share (non-political), then please let me know and I will list it.

Now is not only a time for practicality but also tolerance, kindness and sharing.

Thank you.

C xxxx

Free Resources for Home-Based Living, in the Time of CoronaVirus: Thank you to Milkwood for their article on free resources for home-based living. This article contains a wealth of information on healthy DIY food and medicine making, gardening and growing, wild food and foraging, at home education, mutual aid and community care. Click here!

11 ways to survive a pandemic in the 21st century: Thank you to Domesblissity for linking to my ‘Mock Apricot Flan’ recipe. This was a recipe I also recreated for Waitrose for an article in their magazine (I’ll dig the clipping out one day!). I think you’ll enjoy this article as it’s along the wartime ethos of mending and making do. Note there are suggestions for things that can be used instead of toilet roll! Click here!

28 Surprisingly Tasty Great Depression Recipes you Should Try: Thank you to Morning Chores for including one of my recreated wartime recipes in their list. Please take a moment to look at this list of recipes for some frugal food ideas. Click here!

10 Thrifty Wartime Dishes: Thank you to the Readers Digest for linking to my recreated Lord Woolton Pie! Click here!

In this scary time in modern life, how can we survive food-wise?: Thank you to Ratnamurti and her blog in New Zealand. I’ve linked to her latest post which talks about recession, emergency food measures for the impoverished and her family. Click here!

Food for the self-isolating: Togs Guide to the Pandemic Pantry: In these strange times, food seems more important than ever. Panic buying has reminded us how we need food to live. Also how dependent we are on our shops. It might seem obvious, but it doesn’t normally cross our minds. Click here!

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SOME GREAT YOUTUBE CHANNELS & BLOGS BELOW TOO! (adding to list daily)

Prepper Princess – Love this gal! She lives in the USA, an independent strong woman with lots of self-sufficiency skills working towards financial independence. Click here!

Homestead Tessie – She loves being as frugal and self-sufficient as possible with what she’s got and she loves creating daily videos! Click here!

Compost and Custard – I’ve known Naomi online for over 20 years. She has a passion for self-sufficiency and home schooling, nature, permaculture and wildlife. Click here!

Riverford Organic Farmers – loads of online recipes as well as supplying organic fresh veg via box. Click here!

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The doctor called me in…

b1I’m a blogger, I like to talk things through, I like to discuss, share, talk, read, grumble, scream and giggle. I’m not good at keeping things to myself but I have been doing for a week now, but that’s not me, I need to put this out there for my own sanity, for your knowledgeable feedback…

For those of you that read my blog, you’ll know that I ended up with a nasty double pneumonia around New Year and was hospitalized in the USA (was on holiday). I’ve never been ill like that before..

To skip forward, with some great treatment in hospital thingsb2 turned around quite quickly but after weeks of taking steroids, within days of stopping them my lungs began to get crackly again and I couldn’t lie down in bed. Doctor put me on a steroid inhaler and a regular inhaler with thoughts I am probably now asthmatic. She sent me back for a chest x-ray to make sure the pneumonia wasn’t returning. I felt fine apart from feeling exhausted..

With the x-ray done a few days later I began to get calls from the surgery, eventually we hooked up. My doctor had asked to see me on Monday (it was Friday) to discuss my x-ray.

Of course when you get a phone call like that your mind goes crazy.

Having a weekend to conjure up every possibility of WHY the doctor would want to see me so quickly (thanks Google, I love you and I hate you) I was kind of flat-lining (no emotions) by the time Monday came around. The best I could come up with was that maybe there was some scarring in my lungs…

DOC: “Your chest is clear, there is no pneumonia….”
ME: “Great!! I didn’t think it had returned but am relieved to hear that!”
DOC: “But… your HEART IS ENLARGED. I thought it would be nicer to talk to you face to face about it”
ME: “Oh….” (flat-line)
DOC: “Do you feel OK…?”
ME: “Yes fine… just tired”
DOC: “So we need to do another ECG on you when you have your spirometry (for Asthma) and we need to get you in to do an Echocardiogram to see what’s going on. Has anyone told you that you have an enlarged heart before…?”
ME: “No” (flat-line)

And that’s pretty much it. I should have asked tons of questions (when she asked me if I had any) but at that moment I smiled weirdly at her, looked happy like we were talking about vast quantities of chocolate truffles and flat-lined out of the surgery thinking…. WTF is an enlarged heart?

Later, after I’d woken up a bit, Google reassured me and frightened the sh*t out of me all on one page…

Google: Enlarged Heart

That’s the problem with not asking questions when the doctor asks you if you have any….you turn to Google and Google is rather clinical, practical, to-the-point and perhaps doesn’t consider the variables, the other possibilities…

So I’ve put things into perspective…

a) I feel OK, tired, a little breathless on exertion, sometimes exhausted at the end of the day but that could still be the knock on effect from the pneumonia. They say it can take months to feel 100%
b) No enlarged heart was seen on the x-ray in the hospital in America when I was admitted with pneumonia. This could mean that IF my heart is actually enlarged it most likely happened recently and probably due to the pneumonia, which is good because it’s been caught early and may well revert back!

b3I’ve been talking to people who’ve had pneumonia and developed an enlarged heart. Some made big lifestyle changes and reversed the enlargement, some people went further into heart failure.

MAYBE the x-ray was wrong? Maybe I was stood at an odd angle and things appeared not as they are?

MAYBE if I lose a bunch of weight over the next month while waiting for the echocardiogram and eat super healthy and sleep 10 hours every night everything will be back to normal by the time the test comes around?b4

MAYBE if it doesn’t I’ll be one of those people who lives to 95 with an enlarged heart, no probs! (and yes there are people who do that!)

I’m not feeling sorry for myself, if anything I am just a bit confused and determined to focus on doing everything I possibly can to reverse the situation. Just want the ECHO over and done with so I know what’s happening.(IF anything is happening that is!)

AND if everything is hunky-dory and the enlargement was temporary due to the pneumonia then actually let this be known as the universe sending me another HUGE WAKE-UP CALL and for that I will be enormously grateful.

wakeup1