Why Do Weather Changes Make Me Sicker?!
This will blow you mind
Hello warriors, how are you?
Well in Stoke, the storm has been impressive. There are a LOT of trees down, fence panels missing, wheely bins all over the place and leaks in homes.
Also, for many of us with chronic illnesses, major weather changes means an increase in pain. I kid you not, the other day my mum and I were both a wreck. I felt like the day had been at least 26hrs long and it was only 11:30am when I checked the clock.
Everything is sooo much harder with pressure changes and I don’t understand why! Hang on let me Google this FFS….
OK, my original title for this newsletter was: Storms: Trees Down & The Chronically Ill (lol)
But now I have Googled this, I changed it.
You know when people say its better to move to warm country if you have arthritis? Well, when my life first changed for the worst, I was going to emigrate to Australia. I started the application process and then spoke to my Specialist, he raised to key points:
And:
And!
I have always known weather changes make me worse and my Specialist, very early on explained it is NOT the cold that makes it worse. Its PRESSURE CHANGES.
I also know that if the temperature changes by more than 3 degree’s in one hour, my body shuts down and I will be in an ‘ill sleep’.
But, I did not understand WHY this happens. I have never done much research on my condtion as I feel that many Doctors have to spend a lot of time undoing ‘Google self diagnosis’.
But, now I am working with John (my Physio), I have someone I can ask questions and he is very honest if he is not knowledgable enough to know the answer. It is massively helping me understand my body and then adjust my abilities to improve my quality of life!
I hope if any of you are reading this that struggle with chronic illness, weather changes or both; this helps you understand a bit more (what is happening).
Achievement of the week
This week I had some work done on Gertie, finally the guttering is sorted. This was the 4th person I employed to do this, there has been damage done to Gertie as the first person that fit the gutter did such a naff job and then trying to get someone to sort it was a nightmare.
It’s the same guy that did my decking! My achievement is that the dogs and I had to move out of the Gertie whilst he was on shift. So, we moved into my mums bedroom as Matilda would freak out at the gentleman doing the work, if we stayed in Gertie. And we couldn’t stay in the living room as Matilda would freak out at the cats.
Matilda has so much FEAR and a high prey drive. She is a million times better but either scenario would be too much for her. Me and my mum did not do well. As you know I cannot predict how I will feel. When my body shuts down, I have to sleep.
Well it did that one day…..I can’t even be bother to type this as it just feels like moaning. The achievement is…..its done!
I also managed to do one client meeting, it was one of the hardest cases I have worked on so it took me double the amount of time it normally takes. Doing the meeting knocked me off my feet for a day. But I am so happy I did it.
Every day, I have managed to get up (apart from the day after the consultancy) and work at my desk. The time I can do this is getting longer each week. I am really hopeful that this Christmas I will be well enough to be awake for it!!!!
And I think we (CENTURION – my physio) and I are on track that I will feel better Jan-Apr, so instead of this being my worse time of year: I will gain some ‘ability time’ back!
What has made me happy
Matilda has got being cosy down to an art form:
Ollie nearly swam, by choice. But still bottled it hahaha
I managed to sell all but one thing on Marketplace so I raised enough money to pay for the guttering to be done (it was leaking water over my front door a lot). This was urgent. I also managed to get enough money to pay the mortgage in January and have £70 to spend on my mum for Xmas.
This makes me happy every day:
Books I have read
Yes!!!!
Arthritis update
I have great news, I am defo on the mend. I am not quite back to my version of normal, but this week there has been a significant change in my energy levels.
Also, my pain levels have increased……well not really. How do I explain this? When I become bedridden, my body just shuts down. I physically am not able to move at times. I am beyond exhausted. When my fatigue is this severe, I cannot explain where the pain is the worst as my brain is not working properly and the pain is masked by the fatigue.
That might sound like a good thing, but I would chose pain over fatigue any time. Well, OK. I would NOT choose pain that requires Morphine, but the levels below that. I would chose that over fatigue so severe I am not able to get out of bed.
So, the fact that as I type this my ribs are really hurting, my right hip is not happy. My left shoulder is a tiny bit grumpier than normal…..the list could go on. But at least I can sense the worst areas again! This is really good news. I have adjusted my pain medication accordingly.
My steps have increased from 800-1,000 a day to nearly 3,000 a day! And I did not do that intentionally. I just started pottering more, getting up from my desk and putting clothes away. Getting up and dusting the TV (if was baddddddd lol).
Popping to see my mum more; I am not sure she is happy about this hahaha.
The big difference in this flare up is that I have had John with me (my Physio). We have consistently continued with our twice weekly meetings. It’s the first time I have NOT felt alone in a flare up. I am going to write more about this next week.
PIP
I have had to cases recently that have been a right head fuck if I am being really blunt.
Both of them resulted in the client not getting anywhere near the points they should have. With the first client……by the way this took me ages to figure it out. We focused on her Postnatal Depression.
I figured the mental health of a new mother would be priority. What I didn’t realise was this:
There are different statements about how long it lasts, but remember with PIP they pick the part of the information that suits them. In this case, with treatment you should feel better within a year (ish). (I understand NOT all cases are like this).
Once I learnt that. I realised that we needed to focus on another one of her conditions that totally controls her life.
I then had another client where they communicated extremely well to DWP, but were not given the appropriate points. You might be thinking: but Charlie, you always say they never give the right points straight away (or rarely), so what’s the difference?
When people get points from their PIP assessments I can tell a lot from them. Clients are always quite impressed when I can review the score and then guess aspects of their lives. So, with my skill base now, I can look at the outcome and then try and identify the root cause.
For example this could be:
Communication issues from the client
A lack of evidence
The client focusing on the wrong conditions (that do not score points)
Hmmm as I type this, those are the main causes. OK, back to my point. So, with this client, I couldn’t understand the issue. I had to get help so I contacted John (my Physio).
I had no idea how much Physios have to study. As John and I are spending so much time working together and I think as he loves to learn as much as I do; I will ask him to explain things to me (and use diagrams LOL).
He was then able to education me about this clients condition and wait for it……this blew my mind!!!
With treatment the client would be able to get their life back!!!
If I had been physically able to, I would have fallen off my chair LOL. I was sooooo happy for the client. Then really worried as I was just thinking:
‘Fuck. Right now they ARE suffering. BUT. Its not bad enough to be entitled to PIP. BUT!!!!! Even better, they can get treatment, feel better and forget about all of this PIP shit!’
So, what to do. I did not sleep much as I just kept going over and over how to word this. In the end, I just said it. And the client was amazing! Rightly so, they are still continuing with their claim as the treatment has not started.
With all my heart and soul, I desperately want them to get their life back. Rarely do I meet people so close to improvement. Let’s face it, people do not book services with me for a sore elbow. They come to me when they are truly impacted by their conditions.
I am going to do a video about this as if I have experienced this twice in the space of a month (first time); other people will be experiencing but may not have the background to be able to pinpoint the root cause!
What I am looking forward to
I am able to do 4-6hrs a day with my brain at a pretty good level this week. So, next week I am going to keep working on the test that I think will be a game changer for people applying for PIP.
I have 4 more sections to write the questions for and FAWKES is working on the software and testing phase. We hopefully will be able to start doing mock tests next week; I want to run each section (prep food, washing, etc) with varying answers and check I have the right level of questions in place.
I have a meeting with my YouTube coach on Tuesday. I have a number of videos I am about to record and I cannot wait. I am gutted about the channel. I know it cannot be helped when I decline so badly and this means I have missed uploads and newsletters. It really impacts my mental health.
I feel like I have not been providing enough support for our community. So, feeling much better (not compared to pre-chronic illness – but compared to two weeks ago); I am so happy.
I know I will feel better when I get a load of these guides filmed and edited!
I am also attending a ‘webinar’, my first one about how to develop products so you can help people without have to sit in a consultancy session. I am well excited about this and I want to be able to do webinars myself so this will be very helpful.
I have two client meetings, these are current clients. One is where we have been waiting for appointments to be done so we can add to their evidence. The other meeting is a client who we submitted to Tribunal and he now has a date. I need to figure out some things and I think I know the root cause on this one. I will keep you posted.
I am simply looking forward to being able to make progress!!!!
This weeks video
Take care of yourself
Charlie
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