Competitions!

Something fun I do when I feel upto it (or can be bothered!) is entering competitions, mainly on Twitter. It has become a bit of a joke amongst my friends & family that I always seem to win!! I never won anything until I joined Twitter & I seem to have just been really lucky since.

Most of the competitions are where you re-tweet a tweet. For those not familiar with Twitter it is just sharing the competition tweet on your own timeline, like sharing a post on Facebook. Sometimes you have to answer a question but it's never anything too testing! A good day for them is a Friday when a lot of places run "Freebie Friday" prizes so it's a busy day in the online competition world ;-)

The first thing I won was some Sleep-In Rollers, which came with some lashes & spray tan. Then not long after I won some more so I had them sent to my friend!

Since then, I have won various things but I only enter the ones I actually want to win! Some people go for every one going & I often wonder what on earth they would do with the prize if they did win it as there are some bizarre ones. The buzz of winning takes over I suppose!

One of the best things I think I won was a heated throw by Dreamland. I already have an electric heatpad by them & had wanted one of the throws so when I won I think I probably did a little happy dance! They are so cosy & don't take long to warm up. Plus heat helps with my M.E pain so it's brilliant.

Some other stuff I have won include (from the things I can remember!!)
Make up
Nail polish
Handbags
Vouchers (I won another £50 one on New Year's Eve for F&F at Tesco... woooo!)
Chocolates
Games
Jewellery
And today is Freebie Friday & I have just won some fudge!!

You do get a buzz when you find out you've won & it doesn't take long to enter so providing you have the energy it is worth trying! Have fun & let me know if you've ever won anything :-)


ME Mummy A
xx

Goodbye 2014

This last year has been very mixed as usual. I have been poorly for so long (coming up to 12 years) that it's difficult not to dwell on the fact that it's another year gone & you're no better bla bla bla. This year I feel like 2015 is just a bunch of numbers & I am not going to start going on about what I expect or hope from it as it never seems to happen!

So many people I know have had such a lot of awful stuff happen this year & it hurts that I can't do anything about it. Suffering with bad health is another thing that you can't do anything about for anyone but given half a chance you would make it go away. However, despite that, there has been positive stuff happen too. Friends old & new have helped make it better with lots of laughter & support.

Something nice that I started on 1st January 2014 was a Memory Jar.  My daughter decorated it & the intention was to write down things that made me smile & fold them up, put them in the jar & not read them until New Year's Eve.

So here we are on 31st December 2014 & I did indeed keep up with the jar! I didn't always remember to write stuff down but it's a good job I didn't as it was full! I sat with my daughter today & she opened them & passed them to me to read. So many lovely memories & things I had forgotten all about. Small things that made me smile. Things my daughter said that made me laugh. Achievements, no matter how small, went in the jar. Places we went. Meeting new friends. Of course meeting Keith Lemon was up there with the highlights!

I am going to be doing a new jar for 2015. When you look back over the year & all you can remember is being poorly or having bad stuff happen, then it's lovely thinking of all the things that made you smile.

Happy new year!

ME Mummy A
xx

Illness on top of chronic illness

As if it isn't bad enough having M.E & never feeling well anyway, when I am unlucky enough to catch some sort of virus or bug or lurgy (!) it makes everything a million times (or so it seems) worse.

I started feeling like I was coming down with a cold a few weeks ago but it just kept lingering & didn't really get any worse so I (stupidly) thought I had got away with it. Wrong! For about the last 4 days I have had a cold. For healthy people a cold is just that. It doesn't affect them too much & they can carry on doing stuff. However add chronic illness into the mix & it becomes so much worse.  I am quite prone to sinus infections after a cold so I am having to try things to stop it happening like doing sinus rinses & using steroid spray which I have in just in case. If I catch an infection it makes me mega poorly so I really can't afford to.

Whenever I get ill it affects me so much worse than it would if I didn't have M.E. Even something as simple as a cold makes you feel like you have full blown flu even though you haven't.  I have the flu jab now & have avoided getting it the last 3 years since having the jab.  I used to catch it every year without fail & couldn't risk it anymore as flu & M.E is pretty much the worst combination ever!!

It is the school holidays at the moment & because I've felt so rough I've not been able to do stuff out of the house with my daughter, which I am finding quite upsetting today. As you will know if you read my blog I already find it hard not being able to do a lot of stuff but when you're ill on top of ill it really does get to you.

She knew I was upset earlier & before going to the cinema with her dad she brought me this note she had written me. She really is the best. My little sunshine ♡

ME Mummy A 

xx

Festive season & missing out

I am writing this because I am feeling pissed off & need to get it off my chest! My family have gone to a local coffee shop & the kids are meeting Santa. I am however too poorly to go out & yet again M.E has ruined something for me.

I have been doing well being positive lately but it's times like this when it hits you & you just feel so sad at having to miss out. Again. I have had a few very stressful things happen this week & it has all caught up with me now. If I had ignored my body & pushed myself to get ready to go out, I would likely have collapsed before even getting in the car. There have been too many times where I have made myself do stuff knowing full well I wasn't upto it & the impact is has on me is just not worth it.

The festive season is difficult for anyone suffering from (chronic) illness for various reasons. We have to try to rest as much as possible to enable us to get through & cannot join in the festivities like everyone else around us. We feel hungover when not so much as a drop of alcohol has passed our lips & the chance of a mad night out is a fine thing!

Having children at this time of year is extremely difficult as (for me anyway) you want to be doing fun stuff with them & have visions of going to Winter wonderland type places & doing things like ice skating & eating hot sugar doughnuts. The reality, if even well enough to get up out of bed in between resting, is being snuggled under a blanket whilst watching Christmas films & drinking hot chocolate. Which isn't all bad I suppose! But the way it makes you (me) feel when all you want is to be doing "normal" things is quite soul destroying.

My daughter asked if I was going with today & having to say no breaks my heart. Every time I miss out it breaks me a little bit more. Who wants to miss out on precious times where memories are made? This life is no fun.

Sorry for the slightly negative post, I just had to write while I am feeling like this. I don't want pity but this is the reality of chronic illness.  Us poorly people are some of the strongest & I wish I could give us all good health for the new year.

Never take for granted what you have & appreciate everything.

Lots of love & sparkle
ME Mummy A
xx