Five on a Friday

Hello.......... Today I'm joining in with Amys' Five on a Friday

Last week I turn 40 eek,  I had a wonderful few days of celebrating, first up a crafternoon a few days before my Birthday. On the day we decided to have a quite one, as I'm really not feeling very well at the moment,  after that I spent the rest of week resting up 'saving up my spoons' as they say in the world of Chronic illness for a big party on Saturday.

 

 At the moment the house is full of beautiful birthday flowers, I'm a lucky girl.

There are cards and flower everywhere, my nephew 'L' said on Tuesday wouldn't it be good if you get 40 cards well I ended up with a few more than that in the end.

On the gardening front, we have a bit of a mystery, as I wasn't well enough to get out, I ordered some sweet peas off of Amazon, I waited and waited and eventually they turned up not quite as expected in a foil packet all the way from China.  I planted the strange looking green seeds !! and this is what has come up!!

I'm calling them the triffids as they are huge, on checking back on Amazon I'd order 'Giant Spencer Wave mix', so I'm hoping that's why they are looking so unusual, if not who knows what I'm growing it's a bit of a mystery.

and finally

It's ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia and Lyme Awareness Month this month. I saw this imaged pop up in my Facebook feed the other day and it kinds of sums things up for me, as it's just how I feel stuck between several diagnosis that don't fit, with no help to get better.  the image is credited to Laura Brown,

I've lost 26 years to this disease, more than half my life I was just fourteen when it struck, at the moment I find myself without even a official diagnosis as ME just doesn't fit anymore.

So I'm just trying raise a bit of awareness, please check for ticks if you've been out and about in the countryside even you're local park or garden, Ticks are majorly on the increase here in the UK and Lyme disease is a terrible illness that the NHS just doesn't know how to treat.

The best I had this year from a NHS consultant is ' it's a grey area of medicine' so if you are unlucky enough to develop one of these illnesses you are well and truly on you're own no matter how sick you are.

Clare x

PS I might not be about much over the next few days as the laptop charger has just given up the ghost and I'm not really well enough to used the desktop downstairs.