Ticks and dinosaurs

Lyme disease awareness

This year is proving to be a tough one. Treatment is working, but energy levels (& computer tolerance levels... eyes, concentration, headaches) are low.

A few awareness points for 2018.

Ticks have a few - million - years on us! That's a lot of time to adapt to environments, spread throughout the world - e.g. migratory bird patterns are thought to be responsible for carrying ticks across continents... although maybe they were there first too. 

Again - tick prevention is best! Use repellent when outdoors and make sure it says it specifically repels *TICKS* on the label.

Ticks carry, and transmit, borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. The bacteria have a 'spiral shaped tail' which they use to bury themselves deep in the body where they set up colonies and excrete biofilms to 'hide' from the immune system (plaque is a biofilm - think old toothpaste adverts with the bacteria hiding under the plaque... imagine it deep inside the body, microscopic...).

The importance of immediate treatment for a tick bite cannot be overstated. The bacteria quickly try to get to 'safer' parts of the body, where it is difficult to reach them with medications. Treating an immediate infection - acute Lyme disease - should* kill the bacteria while they are in this acute phase, and when some bodies may launch an immune response (some people never produce antibodies; the reasons are unknown). If you can kill any bacteria before they travel throughout your body, the prognosis is generally good. 

(*There are documented cases of people who received treatment quickly, but still developed systemic Lyme disease; however the quicker the treatment, the lower the risk.

After the bacteria enter the disseminated stage and the illness becomes systemic Lyme borreliosis, it becomes much more difficult to reach, and impossible - with current medical testing - to know if the infection is, or can be, eradicated from the body. More Lyme experts, who have been working in Lyme endemic areas (mainly in the Eastern U.S.) for decades, are now using terms 'relapse' and 'remission' for patients who are battling systemic Lyme disease.

Please, use this information - don't wait, seek appropriate treatment immediately if you are bitten, or if you suspect you have been bitten.  One bite truly can change your life.

#LymeDiseaseAwareness

Grow positive thoughts

 As I began to recover from Lyme disease, I decided I wanted a project I could work on, something different, something new.  Perhaps it wasn't conscious reasoning at the time, but I think doing something I'd never done before was important.  I couldn't compare the 'before' me to a reduced capability, slow working, inefficient 'new' me (or 'me in progress'.... perhaps). I chose to grow vegetables in containers. I researched, I joined a gardening forum (a PAID subscription forum..... no messing about here; I was going to LEARN & I was going to SUCCEED). 

I'm not sure why exactly I chose container gardening. I considered painting classes, or yoga classes, but I wasn't well enough to make any kind of time commitment,  especially to a course I'd paid for - my health was still very unpredictable (& my wallet not exactly overflowing with spare cash for classes I may or may not have been able to attend) - I needed something I could do at my pace. Container gardening, specifically, removed the physical barriers - I wasn't strong enough to dig, and it let me explore something new. And I discovered I LOVE it! 

THIS is totally true:

Below is an assortment of random photos of growing my own veggies (it quickly went from 'my' garden in the first year to 'our' garden in subsequent years. ... my mum loves it too! And grudgingly, I have to write it is (/she calls it!) her garden now, since I'm not there - but I have got to enjoy it at different stages, for different lengths of time since the year I started it!) 

Initially,  my dad seemed to find the whole thing hilarious, frequently laughing at my excitement when seeds successfully germinated,  and my baby plants began to grow.... then fruit..... Until the next spring when he said, rather hopefully, "so, are you going to grow those tomatoes again....?"

Mostly from year 1 - MY veggies!
But LOOK - we grew a pineapple  (took 2 years)!
Pepper seedlings, baby tomato plants, yellow tomato flower, aubergines (eggplants), baby courgette (zucchini), baby corn plants, cantaloupe melon, accidental zucchini /squash creation, mixed salad leaves, multicoloured carrots, "those [cherry] tomatoes", sugarsnap peas, PURPLE bell peppers, CORN!, PINEAPPLE!, beetroot  (beets) - quite a selection.... & we added more/ tried new things different years. 
SO rewarding, & OK, yes, I got excited! :-)

Research published relatively recently (last few years) that shows microbes in soil might actually affect our human 'microbiome'; and this may contribute to positive mood, and feelings of relaxation and contentment felt while gardening. So it was a GREAT choice of 'new hobby' - all round beneficial.... and those freshly picked veggies and herbs.... just can't beat them!!

"Adopt the pace of nature:

 her secret is patience."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

Strength

To quote my surgeon, who could not have been more right: 

"when it goes on this long, it becomes as much a mental challenge as a physical one."

...... and that was over three years ago. I hope that finish line comes into sight soon.

pinterest.com/gmun22

"The mind is everything. 
What you think you become."
~ Buddha ~