FRAMED - Skates on

Look out folks, it's that crazy time of year again!

REST EASY - guide to a good night’s sleep

REST EASY - guide to a good night’s sleep

As September heralds in the autumn, in a sense the changing season brings forth a fresh start – a new year if you like. It’s the beginning of the academic calendar, and as such a return to routine. So how as a family can you help yourself with that routine? A good night’s sleep for all is essential. But often, that is easier said than done.

EXAM SEASON STRESS

Encouraging children to do their best

When it comes to exams, recent news highlights the severe stress exam season can cause young children. Meanwhile, around five million students are in the throes of sitting their GCSEs right now across the country. So how is best for them to prepare? And what advice can we follow when it comes to best identifying and helping children through any exam stress?

IDENTIFYING EXAM STRESS AND HELPING CHILDREN COPE WITH IT

Child psychologist expert Dr Ramya Mohan, a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist and Medical Educator with the National Health Service UK, gives her top tips to identifying and helping children to cope with exam stress:

Coeliac V Stomach ulcer - Tummy Troubles (4)

So I have this bulbous stomach issue - more on that later. Anyway, they went in looking for coeliac disease, and came out finding an ulcer. Consequently I was left high and dry, given Omeprazole to heal the stomach lining and told to lay right off the booze. I have. It has been an impressive ten weeks now - give or take the one night I fell off the wagon (in a most dramatic way).

Tomorrow they go back in again (down not up) to see if  said ulcer has healed. And how do I feel about that? Hopeful. Fingers crossed that the hard work has paid off.



FOOTNOTE < ADDED 5 MAY 2016

IT HAS PAID OFF! ULCER HAS HEALED. PROUD OF MYSELF! 

LIFE AS IT IS This week in... Feb 2016 - Tummy Troubles (3)

Don't assume a woman is pregnant - even if she looks six months gone...

Looking down at my abdomen and again in profile - the bloating has become more severe of late. I wake in the morning and my tummy is normal. I drink a glass of water, and oh yeah up she rises. I'm wondering if an ulcer alone could possibly be responsible for this reaction? To help combat it - together with the wonder drug Omeprazole which heals the stomach lining - I started a probiotic, but rather wonderfully, all that brought me was a commonal garden bird. FFS. Oh, and I had to dig the nit comb out - although that itch was more than likely due to a new hair product: Some mousse I bought in a bid to inflate my lack lustre locks. Perhaps I'm allergic to that? While I'm on the subject of hair, last week I took the scissors to mine and I'm feeling quite lopsided now, wearing a rather unsteady base line chop which I'm viewing positively by calling it texture. Funny thing is, I go to the hairdresser, no one says a word, I do it myself and I've had a plethora of praise. Are people being kind do you think? So as my LIFE AS IT IS bumbles along, I do have one positive to mention about the fact that I'm looking very pregnant these days... I'm getting offered a seat on the underground every time. Chivalry appears to be very much alive and kicking - unlike the baby within.

Coeliac V Stomach ulcer - Tummy Troubles (1)

So they go in looking for coeliac disease, and they come out finding a stomach ulcer.

Good job that I gave up coffee. Not so good that I left it so long.

I'm convinced it's the sheer amount of coffee I consumed year after year that led to an ulcer.

Oh and stress of course. For motherhood and my Life As It Is has certainly been stressful at times. Goodness, you only have to read this or this to see how manic it has been. And what did I nearly always turn to on these occasions? A good glass bottle of wine. Mmm. Like a lot of us do. Alas, no more for me I'm afraid. Doctor's orders.

Tonight will be my last hurrah for a while. Out to a joint 40th to enjoy letting my hair down before I stop drinking booze for 6 weeks. The thought itself is enough to finish me off. I've never been up for a dry January - let alone a dry part Feb, March, and part April. Feck!

A parting thought... and a sobering one at that... endoscopes are not pleasant.