It's 3.50pm and so far today...

...I've cared for Steve alone (NOT joint things like putting the groceries away or making us both a drink) for 4 hours and 15 minutes, which means I've just got 45 minutes of care, for Steve alone, in the next 4 hours to have reached the daily minimum of care to get carers allowance.  Steve, OTOH, has cared for me alone (not joint) for 3 minutes.  If I include the joint things then the totals are that I've spent 4 hours 28 minutes caring for both of us, compared to Steve's 9 minutes of joint care.

If I react the same to my second Covid jab then there will be significantly less care for Steve starting on Friday afternoon, but pretty much the same of him caring for me... might increase to half an hour a day if I'm lucky, based on 12 weeks ago.

Just booked my...

...2nd Covid jab for Friday, just after lunch and adjusted Monday's grocery order, so other than literally 6 cans of ginger beer and 6 bottles of pop, the entire order is for Steve on Monday, so about £35 worth off stuff just for him and £6 for me that's gotta last us 7 days.  I bet Steve'll complain about how little stuff he's got again, too.  Depending on how much pop I get through before Friday, I might take off 3 bottles of pop and add another 6 cans of ginger beer to Monday's order, just in case it affects me as badly as the first jab did.

Gonna email the enabler now to give her as much notice as possible about how ill I might be feeling next week.  I've asked Steve and he said "see how you feel over the weekend first" then rolled his eyes at me, so yet again I'm having to do things that I've asked him, as my carer to do.  To give him appropriate credit though, he's done 2 things (made me a bottle of squash and tried to make a phone call) which in total has added up to 3 minutes of care so far this week.  I bet I won't get any more support out of him for the rest of this week though - if he's feeling really supportive then he might get me a single can of ginger beer on Friday afternoon, but that'll be it then.

News for 3rd May 2021

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

3rd May 2021

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So far this morning, I've...

...not done as much as I was hoping.  I've:  

• set the virus scan running
• refilled my pill box 'cos I seemingly forgot yesterday
• taken my morning pills
• made and brought in Steve's breakfast
• weighed myself
• uploaded last week's Fitbit spreadsheet to my homepage
• brought the recycling stuff back in
  

which means that I can spend the rest of the morning, (and if it's like yesterday then the majority of the afternoon too) sorting out the daily news for you all.  Gotta remember to do my exercises today too though, so I'll go and do them now then I don't need to move off the sofa until Steve wants a drink, the rubbish has gone and our groceries have been delivered and put away.

 

I was wrong and I'm sorry

Steve's still got his cake on it from 24 hours ago, so I've had to use my plate to make his lunch which means I'll go without lunch too.  I've eaten prescisely nothing so far today and it'll be too late to eat in a couple of hours, which ain't gonna help with my weight gain, but Steve doesn't seem to give a damn about that... it's "I'm alright Jack and that's all that matters" with him.

 

Battery is now re-charging, rubbish and recycling gone out for another week...

...the cake tray is soaking, and to quote Steve, "that's me done for the day now" even though all he's done is the washing up and taking the rubbish and carboard bags to the bottom of the stairs (literally 3 of his big steps from the middle of the kitchen) and left me to do everything else.  

 

Same as always.

So looks like it's down to me to make lunch again, for the 5th day this week, even though he's my carer and swears blind to anyone who will listen that he makes every meal, every day, and cares for me for 10-12 hours every day, despite the spreadsheets for the last two weeks proving that it's actually more like fifteen minutes a month or 3 hours if you include the 2 meals a week that he cooks for both of us.

I'm gonna start adding a support lable to each blog post where I talk about how much we actually support each other, starting with this one.

Fitbit charged up, virus scan completed, exercises...

...done and the spreadsheet uploaded to my site.  The laptop battery is now at 59% which means it's used up 41% in about an hour, which, considering my Fitbit was getting charged up using it too, isn't too bad at all!

 

Gonna work on my author news and just click on one link at a time then code and save the page, before I start on the next one I reckon.  Saves wasting the morning.

 

Mornin' all

How are you all doing so far today?

 

I've set the virus scan running, made a hot drink ☕ for me an' 'im, set my Fitbit charging, taken my morning pills 💊 and unplugged my laptop battery 🔋 for its monthly discharge.

 

My body definitely prefers me to take the Calcium at lunchtime, away from the morning Iron, not just when I take the FA, so I'm gonna keep doing that now 'cos I want my body to feel as well as possible, so if that means taking pills at different times then so be it 🤷

Gotta remember to do the rubbish and recycling and to refil my pill box after I've taken the Calcium at lunchtime.  I brought in the final slice of cake for Steve to have with his lunch 🍴 yesterday but he still hasn't eaten it, so I won't be able to have toast, so it'll just be bread and spread for breakfast and I bet he won't cook for lunch either, so it'll be the same again for lunch too.

Gonna wait until my Fitbit has finished charging up (and draining the laptop battery quicker 👍🤣) to do my final set of exercises of the week, then I can sort out getting it coded and uploaded to my homepage.  Might leave off doing the news until a bit later so that I don't lose my HTML if the battery dies in the middle of doing it, which would make me sooo angry and send my blood pressure through the roof.

Talking of anger... I've been suppressing my anger all my life but each time I reduce the doseage of the AP it all erupts like a volcano before I can stop it and end up hurting everyone by expressing opinions that they don't like but I've been forced to keep to myself for their comfort.  Do you happen to know of any safe, quiet, non-public ways of expressing it instead of upsetting everyone please?  I've never been taught how to safely express my emotions, so have been suppressing them for the last 35-40 years, only for them to explode when I reduce my AP and I've got no control of it, other than self-harming which I wanna avoid going back to if I possibly can.

6 hours and 10 minutes of care so far today

I've provided Steve with individual care (as opposed to doing things for both of us) for 6 hours and 10 minutes so far today.  Steve (who's supposed to be my carer for 35 hours a week) has provided 2 minutes of care for me (he refilled my bottle of squash) today, yet he's registered as my carer even though the last 13 days have proved just how little that really is.  If I add up the amount of care he's provided for both of us this week, it still only adds up to 2 hours and 54 minutes for the entire week (and 2 hours of that was when the cake was baking) and my total, adding in the care I've provided for both of us, adds up to 16½ hours, so neither of us have cared for one another for long enough, but I've done over 5 times the amount of caring that Steve has and I've done 5 times the length of caring that Steve has, yet he proudly wheels out the carer lable whenever he wants to!

 

I've taken my last pill of the day and Steve's asleep again, so I'm gonna shut down and head to bed soon.

 

Nite nite orl.  Sea ewe in the morning.

News for Beltane (1st May 2021)

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

1st May 2021

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