NaBloPoMo 2019 – Day 2

I’m hoping to do a proper catch up post this month (mostly for future Danni’s benefit) but this week has been a bit of a rollercoaster.

The Good – This week was half term for Sammie, and she was able to come over on Tuesday which was awesome. I wasn’t up to getting out of bed, but it was awesome seeing her. We mostly just chatted and had a takeaway. I’m really happy she likes spending time with me, and that she appreciates my silliness. She’s awesome.

Also on Tuesday the physiotherapist came out to try and help with my left leg, which has decided it doesn’t want to be straight. The appointment went about as well as it could, and they gave me some exercises to try and coax it into behaving. They understood that I have to be careful about energy use so have reduced the amount I’m to do and I’m to use my own judgement about how often and when to increase them. They also said they’d ask someone about finger splints which I’m hoping will make my hands more reliable (as half my problems using them is my fingers bending backwards).

On Thursday I managed to go on my computer. It was freezing a lot when I was trying to use it, so I spent most of my time doing a reformat. It seems to have helped, though I’ve yet to reinstall everything I need. I also went into World of Warcraft and though I didn’t get the Headless Horseman’s mount this year (it’s only been 10 years of trying) I did manage to collect enough treats to get one of the Hallows End pets before having to come off.

The not so good – My digestive system really isn’t happy with me at the moment. I’m back to bringing up food a day after eating it, it’s being really crampy and generally slow, and my usual methods of sorting it out aren’t as effective as normal. When it has been moving it’s been when I’m alone so I’ve been having to ask Johan to come home which isn’t ideal. I’m hoping it sorts itself out soon.

I’ve had a cold for the past few weeks and it’s not shifting. It’s frustrating as it means I’m less able to do stuff. The worst part is my nose getting blocked when I’m asleep, and instead of just swapping to breathing through my mouth I’m woken up feeling like I’m suffocating. I can’t wait for this cold to go so I can sleep my normal level of terribleness.

I’m a bit sad I’m not well enough to go watch the local fireworks display tonight. I’ve got payback from the physio coming out and Sammie being here, so even going into the living room would be too much, nevermind outside. I really enjoyed it last year. There’s another display on Tuesday evening that’s close enough that I’d be able to go if I’m over this payback and get over this cold, but I’m probably being a tad too optimistic. Johan has gone out to the pub he usually gets breakfast from after Parkrun as the landlord is leaving, so I’m home alone tonight. I’m glad I have my earplugs.

Overall I’m still really happy, especially from seeing Sammie. Just wish my body would behave better and that chronically ill peoples were exempt from normal people illnesses like colds. I like being able to breathe.

Week 43 Review

Danni in bed with short, messy, unwashed hair.

I did remember to take a photo this week, even if it was nine minutes to midnight on Sunday evening while writing the previous post. One day I might do something with my hair, like comb it or wash it ๐Ÿ˜›

The beginning of the week I was mostly useless due to payback. When I wasn’t sleeping I was feeling completely rubbish, and even handholds were very painful (though I still insisted on them as I need them).ย 

Thursday I finally started coming out of it, and after debating options, decided going on my computer was my preferred activity as touch was still too painful for practical things or being hoisted, but typing and moving a mouse I could do. Had loads of emails to sort out and I spoke to Sammie which was good. I also played WoW, probably for too long as I came off Friday morning due to pain, which then stopped me sleeping for a while. Whoops. I also realised that my digestive system had basically been on strike for two weeks, and made a plan with Johan that if I couldn’t sort it out myself that weekend, then we’d get the nurses in.

Luckily on Saturday it woke back up, and as I knew I’d be pretty constipated after over 2 weeks (even with eating less than normal due to payback) used a suppository to help things along. I am so grateful they work for me, and without anywhere near as much pain, nausea and vomiting as laxatives. Still not fun but it could be worse. As usual I was knackered afterwards but it was expected.

Sunday I managed more computer time so video chatted with Sammie, and watched Doctor Who. It’s a good thing I’m not scared of spiders! Spent several hours working on the last blog post, much of which was fighting with the lists as they kept breaking. It’s been a long time since I had to write lists out in html but the visual editor wasn’t working. Hopefully it’ll work better today. (It didn’t. I’ve reverted to the classic editor even though I like some aspects of the Gutenberg editor because constantly editing html is too much right now, but it has just been reported on GitHub so hopefully it’ll be fixed soon.)

  • Overall mood – Mostly good, with Thursday and Friday being awesome. High symptoms except Thursday and Friday.
  • Average daily sleep – 11 hours 20 minutes
  • Longest sleep – 17 hours 4 minutes, from Saturday evening to Sunday morning
  • Clothes changed – 0 (too much pain)
  • Wipe wash – 0 (ditto)
  • Water wash – 0
  • Hair wash – 0
  • Books read – 0 (I think I need to pick an easy fiction book)
  • TV watchedย  – Doctor Who
  • Streams watched – 0
  • Youtube watched – Caught up on Wednesday and Thursday
  • Music listened to – 0
  • Podcasts listened to – Episode 62 of Welcome to Night Vale
  • Blog posts written – 1
  • Penguins cuddled – Nicky and Isabella
  • Johan hand holds – Yes, even though they hurt
  • Johan hugs – 0
  • Time on Twitter – 11 hours 10 minutes (average 1 hour 35 minutes a day)
  • Time on Reddit – 19 hours 56 minutes (average 2 hours 49 minutes a day)
  • Time on Facebook – 27 minutes
  • Other –
    • Twitter is good for not feeling so lonely. And Bilbo pictures.
    • Reddit is good for entertainment when brainfoggy. And cute animal pictures.
    • Doctor Who was awesome. And scary. I would have liked to watch it with Johan but he wanted to go on his computer instead.

Game Stuff

  • Games played โ€“ 7
    • Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
    • Cross Stitch
    • Neko Atsume
    • Godville
    • World of Warcraft
    • Juneโ€™s Journey
    • Pearlโ€™s Peril
  • AC: Pocket Camp Level โ€“ 131
  • Godville Heroine Level โ€“ 60 (84% done)
  • Godville wood for ark โ€“ 47.2%
  • Godville savings โ€“ 2 million, 122 thousand
  • Cross stitch completed โ€“ 0
  • Most played game โ€“ Animal Crossing (12 hours 5 minutes, average 1 hour 43 minutes a day)
  • Other โ€“
    • Fishing event in Animal Crossing. Played a lot and managed to finish it with just under a day to go. Did use the gold fishing rod though.
    • Got Storms Wake to exalted in World of Warcraft. Only Proudmoore Admirality and Tortollen Seekers left to do.
    • June’s Journey is really fun. Pearl’s Peril is also good.
    • Gaming is awesome ๐Ÿ™‚

Week 38 Review

Danni is in bed smiling at the camera. The image is tinted with a purple light.
Being visible for Bi Visibility Day (if only online)

Overall a good but quiet week. Lots of sleeping and rest, and then playing Animal Crossing or World of Warcraft when well enough. I’m so happy to be able to play as much as I do.

I’ve been slowly working on being propped up more and supporting my own head. This was going pretty well and then I caught a cold. Johan had it as well so I suspect he got it while out and passed it on to me (he tried to blame Sammie but it had been too long since we saw her for it to have come from her). Despite him having a cold he ran 24 miles on Sunday. He can be a silly sausage sometimes.

Spoke to Sammie quite a bit, and also one of her friends at the weekend who asked me for help with homework for some reason. Then I got told I know a scary amount about blood. I knew that medical obsession as a teen would come in useful eventually ๐Ÿ˜› There’s some interesting stuff going on into artificial blood substitutes that are now on the GCSE syllabus which is cool. I had to look that stuff up because it didn’t come up 16 years ago.

Had a weird problem where I couldn’t get onto any of the This is Trueย websites if I was on Virgin Media (home broadband) or Virgin Mobile, but I could access them from a VPN or Three (I currently have two contracts until I can figure out asking for a PAC without using the phone, but my phone takes two sim cards so it’s not a big problem). I’m not sure what the problem was, but it got fixed after a few days. Hopefully it won’t happen again as I really like those sites The newsletter is awesome as well – I’ve been a Premium subscriber for a while and it’s definitely worth it as I can read the stories at my own pace.

Sunday 23rd September was Bi Visibility Day. I’ve known I’m bisexual (or pansexual, but either term works) for as long as I’ve been attracted to anyone, though I was told it was just a phase when I was a teen. It can be frustrating sometimes to have people automatically assume you’re straight (though what a straight relationship would be when one person is genderless I’m not sure). I didn’t really do anything for it, but I did take a photo so I could pretend I’m not invisible ๐Ÿ˜› It was good to see people talking about it though, as some people insist that you can’t be bi for some reason.

  • Overall mood – Good most of the week, awesome on Monday. High symptoms because of the cold I caught.
  • Average daily sleep – 11 hours 57 minutes
  • Longest sleep – 17 hours 40 minutes, from Saturday night to Sunday evening
  • Clothes changed – 1 (Penguin made of penguins)
  • Wipe wash – 1
  • Water wash – 0
  • Hair wash – 0
  • Books read – 0
  • TV watchedย  – 0
  • Streams watched – Method raiding and Trump (not the evil one) playing Hearthstone on Twitch
  • Youtube watched – Lots with Johan
  • Music listened to – Daughter of the Sea on repeat
  • Podcasts listened to – 0
  • Blog posts written – 2
  • Penguins cuddled – Mostly Nicky and Isabella as the others are explorinating
  • Johan hand holds – Daily
  • Johan hugs – Yes! I think we both needed it (I just wish it didn’t hurt so much)
  • Time on Twitter – 10 hours 36 minutes (average 1 hour 30 minutes a day)
  • Time on Reddit – 9 hours 19 minutes (average 1 hour 19 minutes a day)
  • Time on Facebook – 1 hour 40 minutes (average 14 minutes a day)
  • Other –
    • Johan hugs are the best!
    • Johan made us steak on Monday. It was amazing.ย 
    • Colds are ebil. I hope it doesn’t last too long.

Game Stuff

  • Games played – 5
    • Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
    • Cross Stitch
    • Neko Atsume
    • Godville
    • World of Warcraft
  • AC: Pocket Camp Level – 124
  • Godville Heroine Level – 59 (43% done)
  • Godville wood for ark – 41.9%
  • Godville savings – 1 million, 837 thousand
  • Cross stitch completed – 0
  • Most played game – Animal Crossing Pocket Camp (12 hours 19 minutes, average 1 hour 45 minutes a day)
  • Other –
    • Less WoW this week because needing more sleep, but still played a bit.
    • Decided I needed to get Perma-Pepe (an orange bird that sits on your head). I managed to do nearly all the bosses, then discovered one wouldn’t be up that week as it alternates with another. Until then, I have to get Pepe from my garrison every hour.
    • Wednesday was Pirate Day so did the activities for that.
    • When Warfronts were enabled for Alliance did them. No idea what I was doing but it was fun.
    • Finished the clam collecting event in Animal Crossing, and worked on the fishing event. That explains why it’s my most played game this week (that and everything loads so slowly).
    • I’m hoping for a Neko Atsume update at some point as I’m mostly just collecting fish for when more content comes out.

Week 33 Review

A metal ornament, which is round and has a lion's face and mane on it, representing the Alliance in World of Warcraft.
For the Alliance!

We’ll ignore that the photo was taken a week late and is rubbish ๐Ÿ˜›

Monday the 13th was our 8th wedding anniversary. As is normal, I spent most of it sleeping, but before I slept I ordered McDonalds breakfast for us both and we had hugs (which are awesome but very painful).

The launch of the World of Warcraft: Battle For Azeroth expansion was at 11pm UK time, so once I woke up I went into WoW with Johan in preparation, as I had decided to buy digital version of the expansion so I could play at launch. It ended up activating a few minutes early, and it was a mostly smooth experience for us. I managed to get to level 114 and finish the main storyline in Drustvar before having to give in and get more sleep, mostly fueled by caffeine and crisps. Since we both like WoW, it was a pretty decent anniversary ๐Ÿ™‚

Tuesday my Collector’s Edition of the expansion arrived, and I looked at the pictures in the novella book and Johan complained about my Alliance metal ornament thingie having the Horde logo on the back, before he put it under the telly on my Tivo box. I tried taking a photo but as it’s far away, dark and my hands are very shaky it is a bit rubbish.

Most of the week consisted of playing WoW, recovering from playing WoW, and sleeping. On Thursday I had an appointment with the CFS team person, where I was told that important people are saying they have to stop home visits. They’re trying to keep them but if they don’t succeed that was my last appointment. It sucks because I found them really helpful and I think I’d be doing worse without their input. If I had more spoons I’d yell at the important people but I don’t.

Playing WoW has brought up a new issue I have – turning my head for more than a couple of minutes causes pain to shoot up my neck and head on the opposite side. I was getting it while turning my head to see my second monitor, and while the CFS team person was here (which confirmed it’s a problem on both sides). It’s really annoying as being in bed it’s hard to keep looking straight forward all the time. Johan did swap my monitors over so my main one is now in front of me which helped a bit, but it’s still annoying. I’m gonna have to see the doctor about it as it’s new and causing me problems. Hopefully it’s something that can be fixed.

I feel really lucky to be well enough to play so much WoW. Johan is super busy with volunteering and running, and my best times tend to be in the evenings or the middle of the night, so I’m restricted in what I’m able to do when well enough. I really missed it when I couldn’t manage it, and hopefully I’ll be able to continue playing for a long time.

  • Overall mood – Awesome all week. Mostly normal symptoms, and playing WoW really helps distract from the blehness.ย 
  • Average daily sleep – 9 hours 50 minutes
  • Longest sleep – 19 hours 45 minutes, from Saturday morning to Sunday morning.
  • Clothes changed – 2
  • Wipe wash – 1
  • Water wash – 0
  • Hair wash – 0
  • Books read – 0
  • TV watchedย  – 0
  • Streams watched – Penguin cam
  • Music listened to – World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth soundtrack
  • Podcasts listened to – Episodes 44 and 45 of Welcome to Night Vale
  • Blog posts written – 1
  • Penguins cuddled – Lots
  • Johan hand holds – Daily
  • Johan hugs – Yes!
  • Time on Twitter – 4 hours 27 minutes (average 38 minutes a day)
  • Time on Reddit – 11 hours 6 minutes (average 1 hour 35 minutes a day)
  • Time on Facebook – 1 hour 10 minutes (average 9 minutes a day)
  • Other –
    • Desktop computer tracking is working, though I need to work on making my categories easier to use.
    • Caffeine seems to have an overall positive effect on me, making me more alert and less dizzy. I was expecting to crash afterwards but other than needing a long sleep, I’m mostly Danni-normal.
    • Took a couple of days to do a food shop as My Supermarket couldn’t log into my Morrisons account for some reason, so had to manually do the order again. That was not fun.

Game Stuff

  • Games played – 5
    • Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
    • Cross Stitch
    • Neko Atsume
    • Godville
    • World of Warcraft
  • AC: Pocket Camp Level – 118
  • Godville Heroine Level – 58 (11% done)
  • Godville wood for ark – 37.2%
  • Godville savings – 1 million, 585 thousand
  • Cross stitch completed – 1
  • Most played game – World of Warcraft (34 hours 17 minutes, average 4 hours 53 minutes a day)
  • Other –
    • I love the new WoW expansion. The storylines are great and there’s so much choice in what to do.
    • Johan also loves it. I paid for his expansion and a month’s subscription so we can play together (or at least talk about it together, as we both play healer priests and have different playstyles)
    • Reached level 120 on Friday. Was awesome!
    • Finished the fishing event in Animal Crossing, so they released another flower event. Starting to be a bit overwhelming.
    • Did I mention I like WoW? ๐Ÿ˜›

Week 32 Review

A screenshot from Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. There is a black faced penguin with crosses for eyes and has blue wings on the left, who is wearing a purple top with a large yellow star. On the right there is a pale skinned human with a beak and purple hair, wearing a purple and white top. They are wearing matching purple caps. The text says, "Cube and I are matching! This isn't weird at all!".
Forgot to take a photo so a screenshot from Animal Crossing instead. Penguins are awesome.

This week has mostly consisted of playing World of Warcraft and sleeping. I am so happy to be able to play WoW again. I’m doing okay so long as I don’t move, and being on my computer requires very little movement. I’m also very happy to be home.

Most of the WoW stuff I played was the Battle for Azeroth pre-patch events. Darkshore being invaded by the Horde was hard emotionally as my main character has always been a Night Elf Priestess, but the destruction of Darnassus made me cry. The quest A Flicker of Hope was heartbreaking, knowing that there was no possible way to save everyone. I might have helped save Azeroth from so many different threats, but I couldn’t save my home. I liked the Silithus quests that explained why my artifact weapon was no longer super powerful, but I wished there had been more to it. I’m looking forward to the new expansion next week. Sylvanas must go.

I also convinced Johan to resubscribe to WoW, after saying he would never do so again ๐Ÿ˜› He has a lot more catching up to do than me.

Outside of WoW, I’ve not done much. I wrote a blog post for Severe ME day, which took me so long it ended up being posted the day after. Writing that was a ton more draining than playing WoW, so I had to come off puter afterwards. I’m glad to have written it, and eventually I’ll be linking it as it’s more up to date on how ME affects me.

I ended up with a migraine on Saturday, which almost wrote the weekend off. I’m lucky that so long as we dose me up with all my medication I can sleep through the worst of it. Our new upstairs neighbours have been arguing a lot which isn’t great. I know our other neighbours are just as fed up and we’ve got to keep a record of when it happens. I’m hoping they stop, though preferably without one of them being murdered (which happened to our original noisy upstairs neighbours).ย 

  • Overall mood โ€“Mixture of good and awesome. Mostly high symptoms, probably because of the care home.
  • Average daily sleep โ€“ 10 hours 32 minutes
  • Longest sleep โ€“ 15 hours 32 minutes from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning (deep sleep 54%)
  • Clothes changed โ€“ 1
  • Wipe wash โ€“ 1
  • Water wash โ€“ย  0
  • Hair wash โ€“ 0
  • Books read โ€“ 0 (I’ve managed to misplace my Kindle)
  • TV watched โ€“ None (playing WoW instead)
  • YouTube videos watched โ€“ Some
  • Streams watched โ€“ 0
  • Music listened to โ€“ 0
  • Podcasts listened to โ€“ 0
  • Blog posts written โ€“ 1 (Severe ME Day)
  • Penguins cuddled โ€“ย  Yes!
  • Johan hand holds โ€“ Indeed!
  • Johan hugs โ€“ 0
  • Time on Twitter โ€“ 5 hours 47 minutes (average 49 minutes a day)
  • Time on Reddit โ€“ 22 hours 8 minutes (average 3 hours 9 minutes a day)
  • Time on Facebook โ€“ None tracked
  • Other โ€“
    • I forgot to set up tracking on my desktop computer so although I did spend time on Facebook, I don’t know how long. I have fixed that.
    • I’ve not been putting much in my daily diary. Too much WoW playing ๐Ÿ˜›
  • Games played โ€“ 5
    • Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
    • Cross Stitch
    • Neko Atsume
    • Godville
    • World of Warcraft
  • AC: Pocket Camp Level – 117
  • Godville Heroine Level โ€“ 57 (74%)
  • Godville wood for ark – 35.8%
  • Godville savings โ€“ 1 million, 536 thousand
  • Cross stitch completed – 0
  • Most played game – World of Warcraft (27 hours 19 minutes, average 3 hours 54 minutes a day)
  • Other –
    • World of Warcraft is definitely my favourite game.
    • I healed some LFR raids. I told them I was rubbish and just pressed random buttons, but a couple responded I was very good at pressing the right ones. Made me feel happy ๐Ÿ™‚ Most of the groups were good like that.
    • I also helped try and take over Undercity/Lordaeron. Sylvanas destroyed it as well.
    • Completed the Flutterfly event in Animal Crossing with a day to go.