Helping your Child Lead a Healthy life with Cerebral Palsy

Every Kid Healthy Week April 2018

- Helping your Child Lead a Healthy life with Cerebral Palsy

  

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a term that encompasses several neurological disorders that permanently affect balance, muscle coordination, and movement. Typically contracted before birth, it affects every part of a child's ability to function and interact with others. Some infants display only mild forms of CP and are able to function fairly well, attend school and make friends among their peer age group. A cerebral palsy diagnosis can have a devastating effect on parents and siblings, including feelings of guilt over potential causes, and due to sibling frustration over the attention required by a child with CP.

For April and Every Kid Healthy Week, it’s important to discuss chronic life-long conditions like cerebral palsy. Developmental Disabilities like CP present serious challenges for parents and children. Understanding the condition helps embrace and navigate through some of the challenges associated with CP, and can also help parents of newborns take preventative measures against a cerebral palsy diagnosis. Please read on to understand more about life as it is with this condition...

Simply Coconuts Oil - A review

DETAILS:

200ml Premium Organic Virgin Coconut Oil

£7.95
www.simplycoconuts.co.uk

This month, Simply Coconuts, a new sensitive skin care brand for babies, announced the launch of its coconut oil. Soothing and free of any chemicals, organically farmed in Sri Lanka, this pure natural coconut oil contains simply coconuts! Cold pressed up to 10 times to release their natural oils and seal in their goodness, it's full of skin-loving vitamins and replenishing fatty acids that can ease sore, dry and itchy skin. How did it fare?

Ayia Napa, Cyprus

It's not Greece and it's not Turkey. It's Cyprus. As large as Cornwall, with two airports bringing countless tourists from mainly the UK, Russia and Germany, to enjoy a handful of destinations mostly along the bottom two thirds of its aqua coloured coastline. We came to Ayia Napa, situated on the east coast, close to the border that splits north and south Cyprus.

I always imagined Ayia Napa to be a place for hipsters and clubbers all rolled into one; clubsters, but that must be a myth? I never saw an inch of nightlife, instead finding families with small babies, enjoying the easiness of the resort and its 'no problem' attitude.

I certainly left my worries behind. I think they may have been dropped on the floor at home somewhere around the time I was emptying the bins, bleaching the bogs, or hoovering - what is it about leaving a clean home?

If you took a holiday🎵🎵...

...took some time to celebrate, just one day out of life, it’d be, it’d be so nice.

Not one day though, we’ve got away for one entire week. How lovely. A trip that isn’t courtesy of any PR but courtesy of my husband, who works his backside off for us. A  much needed break in the Cypriot warmth together, giving a boost to all. I’ve a sneaky suspicion I might find that wellness I’m in pursuit of here too... wrapped up in the rest and relaxation which only the spring sunshine can bring. (And a charming house with a pool?) The children have swum all morning and I’ve started a new book: Jakob’s Colours by Lindsay Hawdon. Who knows? My Lyme might even allow me to concentrate long enough to read some of it?

In pursuit of wellness

After that rather self-indulgent post, I want to write about how good life is. How today, I'm in pursuit of wellness. What steps I'm taking to get better. How I came to take those steps and what they're doing to help me kick Lyme.

First of all, I should say that I am lucky enough to be getting help from a naturopath clinic. NTA in Basingstoke is already proving its worth, for I'm seeing results since starting with them end Nov 2017. But it's not all about the homeopathic remedies and the herbs they have provided me with. It is also about the detox, the diet and the positive mental attitude I've since had to adopt. Since my diagnosis. Since accepting Lyme in the first place.

The next series of Lyme posts, will look at my diet. What I'm learning about food and wellbeing. How it is that what we eat affects our health. Why I'm detoxing and how I'm detoxing. How it's been and how I'm finding it now. Plus, I'll talk about the other wellbeing good health habits I've been propelled toward in recent weeks.

Today I asked Google: 'IS LYME DISEASE PANDEMIC?'...

Today I asked Google: 'IS LYME DISEASE PANDEMIC?' This was the response...

Search Results

Today, the main bacterial threat to acquiring dementia comes from Lyme disease—a bacterium borrelia burgdorferi. ... With more than 65 countries that have the blacklegged ticks which transmit Lyme disease, this is a worldwide pandemic.The prevalence of Lyme disease reporting varies dramatically.29 May 2017

The Coming Pandemic of Lyme Dementia | Psychology Today

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/iage/.../the-coming-pandemic-lyme-dementia

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About this result

Info re Lyme Disease & Tick bites (How & where did I get bitten?)

Photo courtesy of California Dept of Public Health 

Ticks are small arachnids, part of the order Parasitiformes. Along with mites, they constitute the subclass Acari. Ticks are ectoparasites (external parasites), living by feeding on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians  ~Wikipedia

And there you have it. Turns out it wasn't post natal depression in the truest sense of the words. It was a teeny little ectoparasite messing with me. For anxiety and depression are a part of Lyme. Wish I'd known that at the time. Life wouldn't have been quite so confusing.

When I think back, I realise there is a very real possibility I was bitten by a tick 25 years ago in Connecticut - the state where Lyme disease was originally recognised in 1975, and the very place it was named after: Lyme and its neighbouring town, Old Lyme.

And if Lyme Disease manifested in CT, then perhaps mine did too, for I lived in this beautiful wooded New England state for a year, working as Nanny, with three acres of garden in which the deer would roam? I would play right there with my three young charges. And of course there's every eventuality that I may have been bitten by a deer nymph tick/s then. So small, I would never have known. They're the size of a poppy seed. Yes, that's right: A poppy seed.

About that poem...

Fortunately that poem about suicide is no longer my now. It is but a memory. A memory of a time that was a dark and hellish place. A time I saw inside and out. A time that I learnt from, grew from, took strength from. A time that has led to so much more. A time that now means I am able to shine a light. For there was light to be found. Lots of it.

Lyme Disease, a poem about suicide: THE HERE & THE HEREAFTER

Lyme Disease - A poem about suicide

When I wrote this poem, clearly I was in a very bad place. I wanted to top myself. Don't get me wrong, I never would have gone through with it, but the idea appealed to me. A way out. No one knew how I felt, which now that I'm out of that hellish depression, strikes me as horrendous. But then, I was so busy being strong, I fooled everyone.

I'm guessing the main point people do go through with it, is down to feeling isolated, unable to share, pathetic, worried about being a social outcast? Perhaps pressured, even conditioned to believe that surely they ought to be able to cope?

I wrote this poem five years ago. But it has never been more relevant to me than it is now, just after a Lyme Disease diagnosis, and the fact that it describes many of the debilitating symptoms of Late/Chronic Lyme Disease to a tee.

For all who suffer with Lyme, the diagnosed and the undiagnosed, and indeed for all who suffer any chronic illness and dream of an alternative. This poem is for you.

Understanding Chronic Lyme Disease

For me, it makes sense to find out I have Lyme Disease. You see, there have been so many pieces of puzzle... and they finally fit together. I was diagnosed yesterday. I started on the path of connecting the dots in Nov 2015. But my body has been fighting it for years longer than that. Fighting mostly on the quiet. Feeling terrible but masking it well. 2018 now and a myriad of health issues later, I feel the need to remove the mask. To say I feel shite most days and horrendous many. I suppose being diagnosed with this silent disease of epidemic proportion, brings a form of relief as well as understanding. I'm finally able to start living the rest of my Life As It Is.

Those health issues, in the last 18 months alone, include a hysterectomy, three breast lumps - all drained (the parasite lives in cyst form), continual bloating, nausea, ocular shingles...

Chronic Lyme Disease - A diagnosis

Today I received a diagnosis of late Lyme Disease.

I'm feeling relieved.

Picturing Life As It Is

Back to it officially - feeling quite cheery about it too. Lovely office flowers courtesy of yellow sticker reductions - 70p - love a bargain! Happy New Year one and all. Let's make it a good one!

The LIFE AS IT IS Blog - six years on

Somewhat surprisingly, I began LIFE AS IT IS six years ago this year, and babies have long since grown into little girls. Over that time, the blog has documented the many ups and downs. The ups have been plenty. And the downs, well they've certainly given me much to write about, including many posts on allergies and hives, screaming, hospital visits, postnatal depression and more recently my personal battle of getting a Lyme Disease diagnosis. But whatever is happening at the time and whatever I write about, throughout it all, our little family has remained steadfast and secure. Living and loving our life as it is. And rather wonderfully, throughout it all, my stats tell me that you've continued to visit and read my ramblings. So I just wanted to thank you for continuing to do that. I really do love that six years on you still stop by to share!

The GraceFaith year long art project...

...A collection of artwork by the girls



Esme received Henna from Father Christmas, and a book on how to do designs. Here is her first attempt - which she painted on herself this week. I think she did very well.

51/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year



Going crackers! Quite literally as I've come to the end of 2017 and realised my week for this post is dated as the 51st. Scanning back I appear to have featured weeks 27 and 28 twice. Or was that 37 and 38? Don't suppose it matters now - out with the old and in with the new. Except, I'm not planning on keeping a continuous record of the children's art each week over 2018. At nine and six, they don't produce as much as they once did, preferring to spend time on other stuff they enjoy. Alas, the children are growing up. I will of course endeavour to record any other special creations here on this blog - mainly for them to look back on one day, much further down the line. In the meantime, Happy New Year!

50/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year



Was my birthday this week, the girls made these gorgeous cards

49/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art each week of the year

48/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...



And she wrote inside her Christmas card design...
... 'Harry Christmas!' What else?

The real Father Christmas? Lapland UK leaves you all in no doubt

THE REAL FATHER CHRISTMAS?
Lapland^UK will leave you all in no doubt.

It’s that time of year again - synonymous with visits to (or from) Father Christmas. He just managed a turn at our Infant School Christmas fair would you believe? A busy man, right now he can be found in department stores up and down the country, garden centre grottos here and there, and sometimes even riding through dusky town streets on his sleigh. Wherever it is that children see him though, there’s often a question that follows, “But he’s not the real one, is he?”

There is one place however where that question is never asked. Never even thought of. And right now, some very lucky families will be excitedly packing bags, boarding flights and heading on the long journey north to Roviemi, Finnish Lapland, to visit Father Christmas at his official home on the Arctic Circle; the snowy white wonderland that it is.

We went two years ago, with our two daughters, then aged four and seven, and as you’d imagine, it was a fairytale adventure from start to end. For Lapland cannot fail. Which to be honest, was part of the reason why I was totally apprehensive about visiting another Lapland with them recently - not quite as far north this one, indeed it was just up the motorway. But really, how on earth was Lapland^UK ever possibly going to compare?

47/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year



Decorating gingerbread @LaplandUK