Be Excellent To Each Other

I have an ant infestation in my new house, around the kitchen annoyingly, which despite repeated attempts to exterminate with ant powder, is not showing any signs of slowing down.

Little bastards.

Take off, nuke the site from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure

Do you know where the colony is? Ant powder in the colony is the only way IME

Aardvarks.

I don't, unfortunately. I think it's somewhere inside the kitchen, somewhere that's inaccessible to mere mortals such as myself.

I have a pest controller coming on Thursday morning to sort the blighters out. I used him before, many moons ago, for the flour mite infestation that I had in an old flat.

I told him this on the phone, and he thought for a couple of seconds and then said "you used to keep tarantulas as pets, didn't you?"

Shockingly good memory!

I fucking hate ants. I also have a dog, so I’ve become familiar with Indorex which is a flea spray for around the house. Indorex (and other types of the same thing you can get from anywhere like Pets at Home. Basically it’s an insecticide for getting of fleas) is FUCKING LETHAL. It might not get the Queen of the ants but it’ll stop the fuckers dead in their tracks. It ain’t cheap at about £15 or so for a massive can of the stuff but it’s the only thing I’ve ever used against the army of little bastards that will ever stop them. I spray some outside around the house to stop them coming near and bugs just being dying all over the place. Yeah, it ain’t a friendly spray. It’s like agent orange for insects.

Yeah, I used Indorex for a flea breakout once. It was ridiculously effective.

My Covid jab has been cancelled for a second time. First time I had to wait two weeks to rebook, now it was cancelled 30 minutes before my appointment this morning. I’m booking it elsewhere this time, and it’s tomorrow, but my appointment anxiety is in overdrive.

I work for the NHS so I had my first three jabs, but I skipped it last year - I think I was just a bit jabbed out and because my mum (85 but with the heart/lungs of a much older woman) got Covid and survived and then so did BASTARD TONY at work (who you'd think would die if he stood up too quickly) also survived it, I sort of figured Covid just wasn't a big deal anymore.

Thing is, I keep running into people who got Covid and it's left a lingering lowering of fitness/energy in them. I'm seeing that more and more. I always think that 'energy levels' are super subjective but I feel like I might jab up this year as I'm working hard to keep the fitness I have and really can't afford to lose much more of it!

My hope is that any infection I do get will be less impactful in the short and the long term. Have you had it before? I’ve caught it twice, this year and last year. I’m incredibly grateful to have avoided it in the initial year or two. I’m not sure how many Covid jabs I’ve had. Maybe eight? I know I ended up with extra due to an admin error at one point, but I’ve kept up with my jabs, like I do with my ‘flu jabs.

Apart from the appointment anxiety element, and a slightly sore arm (though my last booster didn’t give me a dead arm at all), I figure it’s little to no effort and hopefully a little help.

I was significantly less impacted by my current COVID bout than I was when I got it in 2021/2. Back then I was completely wiped out for a few days.

Whether that's because of a different variant or a higher level of immunity after several vaccinations I don't know. Anecdotally it's less of a problem for most people but some still have a really bad time with it.

Once. In the MOST STUPID WAY EVER.

You know how people conceal zombie bites in films and you think no one would ever do that?

Well, in 2022 I went to see the band Turnstile with my brother. I live up north but my family are all from London so I went to stay at his flat. Spent the day hanging out, went to play snooker etc. Then in the evening got the Tube up to the venue, sat next to him for the whole gig (we had seats right at the back but that's fine as I'm old and Turnstile are a young punk band). So we're talking with all this noise in the background between sets (ie - yelling in each others' faces).

Then, very cagey, the next day he says 'we should test for Covid' so we do. He's positive. Then he says 'ah right... yeah I had a very faint line yesterday but thought it'd be alright.'

TWAT! You're 60! He knew better, he just didn't want to miss the gig.

So I had full blown Covid for a week when I got home. I slept in my study for five days and then five days in my wife still managed to get it.

Oh no, I’d have been SO MAD about that. Especially as he had literal proof that he had it. The thing is, if he told you, you could have at least made an informed decision.

Russell has been completely laid out for a couple of weeks both times. Last time I didn’t get any rest at all as Russell passed the infection to me and then got better, but instead of getting back to routine he decided to hang around me all day and not letting me rest, so I just had to suffer through both it and him.

More appointment drahma:

After two cancellations previously I had a notice saying that today’s appointment was cancelled. I remade an appointment for tomorrow before cancellation, and so then phoned my doctors surgery to see if they were doing them as that’s where I had mine last year.

Yes, they said. I could book one for today, at 5:12pm. Excellent.

Ten minutes later they phoned back to cancel. Again.

So now I have rebooked another, in ANOTHER place, for tomorrow.

Absolute shambles.

So part of my cPTSD results in a lot of appointment anxiety, and let me tell you that right now it is at MAX VOLUME.

I work for the NHS and it's so fked now in terms of how bad things are with appointments.

I guess that's 13 years of Tory governance and whatever but the standards are so low now.

My previous boss used to be a nurse back in the 70s and she was saying how back then if she left any kind of messiness or didn't make a bed perfectly, the matron would slap her leg and make her do it properly. Now, yeah, that's some old school bullshit that nurses shouldn't have to tolerate, but two years ago my wife's aunt was in the Royal (a hospital in Liverpool which is absolutely dogshit) and was woken up at 2am on a ward of elderly women because the nurse there was breaking up with her boyfriend over the phone loudly.

The NHS has been enshitified. But it's also a miracle that it's as good as it is as well.

You can’t beat a nice bit of family drama at this time of year. Is it really that hard to just leave a suboptimal situation alone?

Both parties have valid reasons to be unhappy with the other, but one of them appeared to make moves to smooth things over before pressing the nuclear button a month later. I suspect the involvement of another family member who hasn’t helped, but I’m trying to stay out of it as much as possible.

Sorry to hear that Doctor Z. It’s a bit of a difficult time for families that have rough patches. When you feel obliged to get in contact or spend time with people, or gatherings bring you into contact with those you don’t necessarily see eye to eye with.

No family is free from drama.

As if it's spring daffodils are coming up and the Japanese quince is flowering.

On the other hand we're hearing tawny owls doing their autumn calls.

Not to mention it being 8C again this evening, after several days of heavy fog.

Giphy "this is fine":
https://media3.giphy.com/media/mjjXtyaoQJ6BlhkpWp/giphy-loop.mp4

And it seems there has been even more shenanigans resulting in one of them being arrested and not able to return home. They then had the nerve to ask if they could stay with the family member that they had launched a nuke at, but was told no.

And after being released on bail, started phoning the family members that they had wanted to stay with and gave them a load of abuse.

That sounds incredibly stressful for everyone ‘involved’ (involved against their will).

Yep, not ideal at all, and I’m being deliberately vague just to avoid dirty laundry being recorded on the internet.

So, I’ve done something to my rib and/or back.

I started with a pain in my side, just below my breast, where the bra band might go. It started as a discomfort spreading to a pain, but over the past couple of days it has worsened and spread so now it’s between my ribs all the way from my spine to my sternum. No position I stand/sit/lay in helps to ease or minimise the pain and it feels like both an ache and a sharp burn.

I ended up phoning 111 at 3am and they got me and appointment for this morning. The doctor said he things it’s muscular, though I think I might have some nerve pain there, too. If backache could have toothache, this is how it would feel.

I’ve tried paracetamol, ibuprofen, naproxen, a TENS machine, Deep Heat (to which I seem to have become allergic and which clauses a rash and blisters to make things extra spicy), and honestly it’s relentless and last night after finally falling asleep I woke up crying.

The doctor has prescribed something called Nefopam, which I’ve not heard of, but I hope to goodness it does something as I’m going to just spend my days crying otherwise.

I gave birth to a 9.5lb baby without any pain relief, and this is the closest pain I’ve come to that experience.

I am soliciting your sympathy, yes, but I also want you to tell me these painkillers are going to work and that you had this once and got better, then please rub my back and tell me something uplifting.

Russell has been ace and sat up with me last night and is helping me not lose my mind, though he’s working now so I’m going to try to listen to Midnight Burger for a bit, but I need my village around me now because I’m feeling pretty bleak.

Blimey that sounds awful! I get back problems occasionally and they wipe me out pretty badly.

The last one I rode out with a combo of stretching, some cool gel (found it better than deep heat) and blasting the sore bit with hot showers.

I’m sure the meds the dr has prescribed will take the edge off x

Ouch, that isn't good!

Have you strained muscles whilst lifting things?

Heal fast!

Thanks both. Yeah, maybe while listing something or twisting my torso too far. I don’t remember a specific ‘ouch’ moment, just a steadying increase in pain.

I’ll ask Russell to pick up some cool gel. I can’t use the deep heat now that I’m apparently allergic to it so I’ll ask him to get some freeze gel because it’s worth trying.

Oof that sounds awful Mimi hope the painkillers help and it eases off ASAP!

Thanks Jem. I’m feeling kinda sorry for myself. I’ve hurt my back numerous times before but this feels different,

Meant to say, Z, that putting the hot shower water on it does feel much better whilst I’m in there.

That is not good Mimi, I had something similar the other day (but no where near as bad as you've got it)

I just woke up with a pain in my left side, it felt like I had been hit by a car or something, I found the only way to be relatively pain-free was to sit facing forward and keep my left arm down by my side. Then it was just an irritation, but if I twisted, or lifted my left arm at all, PAIN!

Luckily mine started fading in the evening, and went away completely by the next morning, I treated it with ibuprofen and Co-codamol - but they always leave me with an unsettled stomach if I take them for an extended period, so kept it to a minimum.

Hoping yours goes the same way with this new pain relief!

Codeine. Truckloads of codeine.

Not with Nefopam, that’s strong enough.

I managed to injure some intercostal muscle/s from a combination of some twisting movement and also being whacked during a game of footy.

It really hurt and I had to be super careful to avoid any twisting movements as they were painful and made it sore even just breathing. Through a combination of rest and being very careful and extremely deliberate in how I moved, it did go away.

It sucked though as all of those bits move during breathing and at that point I wasn't quite ready to stop doing the breathing thing, so I just had to breathe carefully too (FFS)

It does get better but I do find I take longer to heal than I used to. I used to think I was an unusually fast healer but I realise now that actually I was just young...

Have you used it, Sat? I’ve had two doses so far (each 2x30mg) and honestly I don’t think it’s even taken the edge off the pain. I’ve not noticed any pain relief, it’s just making me feel like I have vertigo, so it’s now 1:45am and the room is spinning and now I just feel in pain and nauseous.

Even when I’m not breathing (resting between breaths) it’s stabbing away. Now any topical relief (the deep heat, the cool gel AND the previously fine ibuprofen gel) are all immediately burning my skin and bringing me out in a rash to the point where I wondered if I had shingles, but I’ve just woken Russell up to check and the big red rash has faded since 11pm when he put the ibuprofen gel on. It’s bloody cruel that I’m now reacting to things I’ve never reacted to before. Literally anything that goes near my skin is causing me to blister. WTH is going on?

Ooof that sounds really uncomfortable and distressing.

Does any posture/position offer slight relief?

None of that sounds good. No advice to offer, just sympathy.

None of that sounds good. No advice to offer, just sympathy.

No, none at all. I ended up calling 111 again at 3am as the pain is getting worse. I’m not sure what it is but I don’t think it’s just muscular. I’m starting to feel really bad all-over now and the pain is unbearable, like I’m on fire.

Hope you’ve got an appointment to get it checked out.

Yeah, I’ve got an appointment for 9:30am.

I’m honestly really struggling now. I’m shivering and painful to touch. That might partly be because the pain is causing me to not sleep, I don’t know, but even gentle fingertip touch makes me cry in pain now. It’s definitely getting worse each day, and I can’t take it. I said to Russell that I’m on the same pain level as when I had Darwin, and I had no pain relief with him and he was over 9lb, so I’m at that level of not coping.

Every single thing that touches my skin is leaving me in big rashes. I wondered for a bit if I had shingles but I don’t think it’s that.

Well I was wrong. I went to the doctor who looked at the rash and my symptoms and said ‘this is classic shingles’.

So I did t know this but shingles affects the nerves and causes nerve damage, which is why my side and back feels like it has acute ‘toothache’. He’s given me amitriptyline, which he said I can take with the nefopam, and also Aciclovir, an antiviral, because he says we may have caught it early enough to maybe limit the lifespan of the virus, but I’ve been in tears overnight and again today. There is literally no resting position and I feel beyond miserable.

Well I suppose it's good to have a definitive answer but on the other hand shingles is bloody horrible. Hope it improves quickly for you.

Yeah better knowing the cause and hopefully the meds kick in quickly for you.

Has everyone in the house had Chicken Pox before?

Darwin hasn’t, but he’s also vaccinated against Chicken Pox.

Russell remembers having childhood illnesses, but he isn’t sure which ones, I think? @mr Russell ?

No, sorry, but if it’s shingles then that’ll be why. My mum had it only a month ago and it was thoroughly miserable for her. They didn’t even diagnose it as shingles initially and she wasn’t lucky enough to get the antiviral! But once she did, I’m sure she started to feel better within a couple of days. It took a while before she was 100% but the worst symptoms were behind her.

Oh Mimi that's rotten, but here's hoping having an answer and the right meds brings it to an end sooner. Thinking of you x

Eesh. Shingles. I remember my mum getting that when I was a kid and she was miserable with it too. I hope it passes soon, Mimz.

Hope it gets better soon Mimi

I hope it's starting to ease Mimi! It sounds like you've had an awful couple of days, I know a couple of people who've had shingles and while they've said it's shit they haven't gone into the details, I guess trying not to remember things like this is why!

I assumed shingles was like getting chickenpox, but it turns out it typically causes nerve damage in a band around the body, though a friend I spoke to today said she had it on her foot.

I’m hoping at least now I know what it is and have a sort of timeline, I can just keep holding it together until it passes. I hope the antivirals help speed it all up, too.