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| Taraxacum officinale |
Conundrums and contradictions; puzzles and paradoxes, I haz dem ...
To say that the English climate doesn't agree with me is the understatement of the century and I don't just mean that I'm a wimp, start to feel cold at anything under 25C and just don't like it, although I'll admit that all of those are true as well.
No, I am genuinely in serious pain every time it's humid. The obvious difference is that, whereas that was one day in a 100 in Tenerife, here in the UK it has been the other 99 days too. On the roughly 99 out of every 100 days when it's too wet, too cold or threatening to be either or both, I'm in too much pain to move.
And we're not just talking about some minor ache, it's creaking joint and searing muscle pain, alternately both dull and sharp, in my shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, back, neck, hips, legs, knees, ankles, feet ... often severe enough to make me cry, nauseous and prevent me from sleeping.
This is the same pain I've been suffering (and had previously been managing with combination of benign climate, a special mattress, a heat pad and careful balancing of effort versus rest; none of which tools I have available now) since 1995, but as I suspected and said repeatedly it would, has been severely increased in frequency and severity in the British climate. And this is why I've spent the last 7 years begging my mother to make some sort of compromise to avoid it.
Even if she doesn't give a shit about me and the amount of pain I am in, logic ought to tell her that I cannot look after her if I'm reduced to being an invalid.
Of course, she doesn't do logic.
Anyway, you get some idea why it's so difficult to cope, with the pain and with her. And this is supposed to be summer. I will not be able to cope with winter.
Of course I know that if I don't move enough, I'll just stiffen up like some creaky old relic (and do), but it would make matters much worse if I was to get caught in rain, so balancing it to move far enough, often enough to keep myself mobile, is proving beyond impossible.
Whenever I can on a day when it's dry enough, I get out and walk (can't afford anything else) the 2-3 miles to the village and back, despite the fact that it half kills me to do it and takes another few days before I can move again. But I do it, because already, when too many wet days passed and I wasn't able to go out my feet and ankles became so swollen that I could hardly get shoes on - never happened before - which was painful and quite scary.
It took a couple of days with my feet in the air to get the swelling down and, ironically, the only way I can keep it under control is by walking more and, when I'm at home keeping my feet up. The other contradictory thing I was recommended to reduce water retention, is to drink more water.
Now I can walk short distances, or I can lie down with my feet up, but I dare not sit in a chair for more than a few minutes, because my feet go to sleep and / or swell up like balloons. I already couldn't stand for long: that's now reduced to not at all, unless I keep moving.
It's difficult to manage, but how I managed it before was considerably better than taking some prescription drug with "... a monstrous list of side effects that includes diarrhoea, constipation, drowsiness, sleeplessness, hunger pangs, loss of appetite, euphoria, depression...", as The Grumpy Goat so aptly describes it.
More contradictions:
A dry skin problem on my forearms, wrists and hands that I only used to suffer in winter in Tenerife, has flared up painfully already. At the other extreme, oily skin and a plague of "teenage spots" have returned to my back and face and, one or other has me constantly itching and scratching like a flea-ridden moggie.
Oh, why the pic of the dandelions? Dandelion root, is a powerful and safe diuretic for reducing fluid retention, dandelion root promotes liver detoxification and dandelion leaves support kidney function. May have to try that.
