Category: NaBloPoMo

Danni

Day 15 – Hole

2019, Danni, NaBloPoMo, Real Life
A large trench with brown water at the bottom, surrounded by barriers.

Fixing the power cut yesterday left a huge hole in the ground outside our flat, and the barriers blocked the ramp which is the only way I can get in and out (the other entrance has steps). The workers yesterday said that it would be sorted today.

They did sort out a bit of a gap this morning, but though it was big enough to walk through, it wasn’t big enough for a standard wheelchair, never mind my long one. This was a problem. As the workers had disappeared by the time my care worker got here, she couldn’t ask them how long it would be, so I asked on Twitter.

A nice person told me where to look up dug up holes (one.network) and it said the hole outside my flat would be fixed by the 20th. Now I don’t go out very often, but not being able to get out safely if needed makes me very anxious. I also just want to be able to if I happen to be well enough one day. I did not want to be trapped until Wednesday.

I sent a tweet to Northern Powergrid asking them what I was meant to do. They responded saying they’d send contractors to see if they could fix my access and though they couldn’t say when, it would be as soon as possible. At about 8.30pm we heard workpeople outside again, and they’d shifted enough stuff that Johan thinks we should be able to get me through. Result! I feel a lot better knowing I can get out if I want or need to. Happy Danni.

I thought that would be the end of the hole related events for today, but I was wrong. Shortly after the workers had left, a couple of people decided to go through the barriers, resulting in one of them walking into the hole. Johan looked out of the window to see what on earth was going on, and saw one of them trying to pull the other out of the hole. When they noticed him watching they weren’t happy to be watched, but I found it hilarious. As it’s been raining on and off all day the hole is half full of water but I’m not sure I’d want to bath in it. Maybe next time they’ll walk around the barriers instead.

Other than the hole stuff, today has been a bit of a mixed bag. I still feel rubbish from the flu jab and noise and stuff from yesterday. This morning Sammie wasn’t well so she didn’t make it to school, so I sent her some art supplies and chocolate via Prime Now. Being able to do that is awesome. I’m trying to start planning Christmas things but my brain is a bit bleh from everything, so maybe that can wait a little bit. I’ve at least figured out Sammie’s main present.

Tomorrow Johan has Parkrun but otherwise doesn’t have anything planned, so I’m hoping to spend some time with him if I’m awake. I think I might also listen to another episode of the Bilbcast as it’s awesome. I need to teach Sammie how to listen to podcasts on her phone so she can listen too. Bilbo is good.

Danni

Day 14 – Power Cut

2019, Danni, M.E., NaBloPoMo, Physical Disability, Real Life

I’m hoping that one day soon I get to have a peaceful day where I’m not just trying to minimise payback from activities and external events. Today was not going to be that day.

I didn’t sleep amazingly well last night, so I was hoping to be able to nap a bit this morning. That wasn’t going to happen. The council contractors arrived at ten to eight to start doing more work on the upstairs flat. I’ve got no idea what they’re doing or why it needs so much work when the last tenants were only there for a few months, but it involves drills and banging and lots of stomping on the stairs and slamming of doors.

Soon after 11am I got a phone call from Northern Powergrid on my mobile. I didn’t answer because I can’t manage phone calls. What I did do was go on the website to discover that there was a power cut in my area, including my postcode. At this point I still had power so I just carried on trying to distract myself from the noise, while also trying to get my phone and tablet charged (I had accidentally knocked my phone charger’s plug out so it hadn’t charged overnight, and the charging port on my tablet is pretty dodgy so I have to keep messing with it to get it to charge).

Lunchtime and it was one of my regular care workers, and she had a new one shadowing which I was okay with. She told me that half the street didn’t have any power, which confirmed what I’d seen online. The new care worker seemed nice and liked my care book and my penguins, so hopefully if I get her again it should be okay. Only problem is she has the same first name as one of my other care workers so that’s going to be confusing, especially as I forgot to ask for her surname.

At some point there was noise outside as well as noise from upstairs. It sounded like they were digging up the path outside my window (they were). Just before 3pm, I lost power. Luckily my phone had gotten pretty charged up by then, so I was able to let Johan know immediately. My mattress pump started complaining about the lack of power, but I couldn’t figure out what was causing the noise.

I keep a couple of torches next to my bed partially in case of this (and partially as one is also a laser pointer I like to play with) so I was able to use one to grab my battery powered penguin lights and I also spotted a load of glow sticks. I tried to find my battery pack but it wasn’t in my reach, so I grabbed the glow sticks and made a necklace, two bracelets and a butterfly toy from them. The glow sticks are a couple of years old so not the brightest now, but since my room is really dark without lights they still looked cool.

A very dark photo of Danni. Their face can just be seen by the light of a purple glow stick necklace and glow stick toy.

My afternoon care worker arrived at about half three. She couldn’t heat up my penguins as no power means no microwave, but she was able to sort my other stuff out using a torch. She did quickly look for my battery pack and some spare batteries for my penguin lights as they were pretty dim, but couldn’t find either. She also turned the alarm off my mattress pump which I was very grateful for.

Once she was gone I spent most of my time listening to the Bilbcast while on Twitter and playing with my glow stick toy. The noise from upstairs had stopped (I guess a power cut will do that) but the noise of digging up the path was pretty horrendous. Bilbcast on near max volume plus ear plugs and ear muffs meant I just about managed. The lack of heat (I usually have warm penguins, an electric blanket and a heat pad) meant I was starting to get cold and pain was becoming a problem, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Johan got home around quarter to six, and I immediately set him to finding me some warm socks and my battery pack (which was in my medicine drawer for some reason). Just as he was looking for replacement batteries the power came back on. We got confirmation via one of the workers that it was going to stay on so I got my penguins heated and turned my blanket on. It helped.

Since then Johan has gone out for a run, and via Twitter I was able to sort out getting Northern Powergrid to only send me text messages in future. I’m hoping not to have too much payback from this, but I’ve been running off adrenaline all day so we’ll see. I still have a cold and my arm is sore from the flu jab. Hopefully tomorrow will be quieter, though there’s a massive hole in the path that needs to be filled in.

Danni

Day 12 – Flu Jab

2019, Danni, M.E., NaBloPoMo, Physical Disability, Real Life

Using the it’s still the 12th somewhere in the world rule as my nap turned into a full sleep 😛

Woke up on Tuesday to really loud drilling upstairs. Unfortunately I also had sleep paralysis so there was nothing I could do make the noise hurt as much. I’ve told Johan to check on me next time as he’s able to pull me out of it. I did manage to move after a bit, but I felt horrendous.

After I’d calmed down the nurse arrived to give me my flu jab. Was done quickly but made me nonverbal for a few hours. Not a major issue just annoying especially when the carer was here.

Ended up asking Johan for all my as needed meds as still felt horrible with everything from the morning. Was just about to go to sleep when Sammie messaged and I ended up talking to her for a bit. I was planning on just napping then writing this blog post but slept through to this morning.

Right now my arm hurts and I feel rotten. Probably combination of flu jab and yesterday’s sensory overload. I think more nap is needed. Hopefully there won’t be more drilling from upstairs (I can hear work being done but it’s quieter up to now). I’m hoping to wake up again when Johan gets back from his volunteering.

Danni

Day 11 – World of Warcraft

2019, Computers, Danni, Gaming, M.E., NaBloPoMo, Penguins!, Real Life, World of Warcraft

It seems I really needed that sleep. Once I woke up this morning (from a nightmare which wasn’t ideal) I was feeling much more like myself. Still full of cold but otherwise mostly at my normal level of functioning.

Since I was awake and kinda with it for once, I decided to go on my computer while Johan was at his volunteering. First was finishing reinstalling all the programs after the reformat last time I was on, and then I went into World of Warcraft.

In WoW at the moment there’s a 15th anniversary event going on. There’s some fun things included like revisiting old raids and fireworks, but most importantly for me is a 15% buff to reputation until January. To be able to fly in the newer areas you need to get revered (second highest) reputation with several factions, including two newer ones. I’d done all the older ones, but still had those two to do. I was able to get one of them to revered today so I’ve only got the last one now. Unfortunately my Rustbolt Resistance rep is only at friendly even after doing all the dailies I could today, so as I need to get through honoured as well it’s probably going to take a while until I’m able to fly. I did have fun with a jet pack in the Mechagon zone though.

The other advantage of being on my computer is that it’s so much easier to sort things out. I was able to get my emails sorted, buy various items that were in my baskets, and finish moving over from Chrome to Firefox. I was also able to go on video chat with Sammie for a while, which was awesome.

There was a lot of noise from the flat upstairs this morning. Banging, drilling and loud voices mostly, though at one point my lightshade was moving so whatever they were doing was vibrating the ceiling. I’m not sure if it was the council, their contractors or a new tenant moving in. Johan checked outside but the only van out there was a stairlift one, and they weren’t fitting a stairlift. I’m glad I had my noise cancelling headphones or there’s no way I’d have coped, and going on puter wouldn’t have happened.

I also changed my top today. I got a new one last week, so I’m wearing that. It says “Protect Earth – Penguins Live Here” and has a very cute penguin picture on it. I had to tell Johan not to pinch it until I’d worn it as he likes it as well 🙂

Tomorrow I think I’m having my flu jab. No idea when that’ll be, but I’m hoping it’s a nice nurse. I know it’s not going to be the awesome practice nurse that did Johan’s as she couldn’t come on a Tuesday 🙁 I’m a bit nervous but since flu was what triggered my ME I really don’t want to get it again. Having a cold is bad enough.