This post was dictated by Katie and then written by Paul.
This is how I look on bad days like this
The last few days have been rather tough. I’ve had several days where I haven’t really been able to function. All I’ve really been doing is watching YouTube videos, sleeping and the odd bit of scrapbooking. I’m not really eating, not getting dressed and am only getting out of bed for the essentials. I’m aware that I’m not painting a very cheerful picture, but since I’m supposed to be raising awareness about my illness, I have to be honest about my experiences.
On a positive note, however, I’ve had some encouraging messages about my blog through social media. On days like I’ve just described, when I feel so frustrated, it’s even more amazing to get messages like that. I love hearing about how much my writing is helping people in a similar position to me. Who wouldn’t?
While I can feel lonely, stuck in bed day after day, these kinds of messages can make me feel connected to the world and remind me that what I go through isn’t for nothing. I am thankful that people take the time to send me messages.
Don’t forget that you’ve only got just over a week to enter into my GIVEAWAYwith Bulls On The Case. For all the information you need please click here to view the giveaway page. Remember, that you’ll have to subscribe to the blog and leave a comment to be entered. If you have any problems, just leave a comment or e-mail me at chronicallykatieblog@gmail.com
This blog was written by Paul but dictated by Katie. For the foreseeable future, because of Katie’s illness, this will be a common format here at Chronically Katie.
Firstly, let me apologise for the lack of content on here over the last few weeks. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I’ve been very ill for some time now. The ‘brain fog’ which is associated with my illness has been worse than ever. It’s got so bad that I’m struggling to read, or even listen to audio books. These are the kinds of activities which is usually fill my life with when I’m stuck in bed 24/7. The most worrying development associated with this has been that I’m seriously struggling to hold conversations. It’s not because I can’t concentrate, it’s because I literally haven’t been able to understand what people are saying. When my husband speaks to me, it’s like he’s speaking another language.
As you can imagine, these recent developments have made it impossible for me to write my own blog posts. That’s why Paul is writing this one for me. I’m relaying to him everything I want said, so this is still me, but he’s helping by putting my mumblings into sentences. This is going to be a common format for this blog over the next few weeks. I’ll let you know at the beginning of each post whether I’m writing it myself or whether Paul is acting as my scribe.
Chronically Katie YouTube channel
I’m not going to to let my illness beat me. I’m especially not content to let my illness stop me from doing what I enjoy. To get around this new wave of ‘brain fog’, I’m going to be making more videos on my YouTube channel. I’m really looking forward to exploring this alternative media format. I’ve already got a few videos on my channel. Please don’t forget to check them out and let me know your thoughts on them. I’m very new to vlogging, so it would be great to get some constructive feedback.
At the moment, I’m working a lot on creative outlets so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything.
Giveaway coming soon!
Another exciting development here at Chronically Katie is that soon I will be announcing a competition giveaway. I will be revealing the prize in a later post, but what I can tell you is that it will be well worth your attention. The deal will be that only my subscribers can enter. Make sure you do subscribe to the blog now so that you don’t miss out later. You can subscribe by entering your email address into the sidebar tool. If you’re not sure whether you’re already a subscriber- do you get an email each time I post a new article? If not, then you’re not currently a subscriber.
Keep your eyes out, over the next few weeks, for more details regarding the giveaway.
As ever, thanks for reading, watching, and/or subscribing.
Love Katie x
P.s. Are you on Tumblr or Instagram? I post there regularly throughout the day, follow me by clicking the links below.
A quick message from Paul: Knowing how much Katie loves to get mail, many of you have been asking for Katie’s address so that you can send her stuff. We haven’t been able to establish a P.O. Box yet, so we can’t publish her address online, but you can email Katie at chronickatieblog@gmail.com to request her home address. Getting mail from her readers always gives Katie a massive boost, so I can’t encourage you enough to get in touch.
Our dates aren’t always exciting & adventurous but what matters is that we spend quality time together.
So today is Friday which in the Davies household means date day! Every week Paul and I set aside at least one hour to do something fun together. We don’t have to spend the whole day together, but since it also our day of rest we can’t do *anything* work related. That’s not really relevant at the moment because we’re both to sick to do any university work anyway. Knowing that this is the one day we don’t have to feel guilty about not working though is a big bonus,it’s really brought back that Friday feeling we used to feel as a kids.
Today I woke up feeling awful, and I mean really awful. My arms were aching a lot and I felt completely exhausted. This isn’t really different from how I’ve been feeling for the last fortnight or so, but it just felt a bit worse this morning. As usual, I have no idea why since all I have done for the last week is rest. Anyway, my health having dictated that going out was off the cards, Paul and I agreed to revert to our secondary plan, a mug decorating date in our lounge. The plan is to get all of our duvets and pillows and make a big comfy fort to get me out of bed and then use Sharpies to decorate a mug to give to each other.
Even though this is a slouchy, not much effort, low energy kind of date purposefully, I still want to make an effort to look nice, in the same way I would have when Paul and I first started dating. Up until recently, I would have known that doing my hair and make up was off the cards and so would have just moped about my appearance. Now, however, I have begun to develop a low energy and pain make up routine that I can do even when I have bad days like this. Since writing out the routine and taking photos would not only take a long time but a large amount of energy I’m going to make a YouTube video instead. It will be uploaded to my YouTube channel soon so make sure you check back there, or even better subscribe so you definitely won’t miss it (never miss an opportunity for a plug.
I don’t think this video is only relevant to sick people though, I don’t see why a normal, healthy person can’t check out this video and use the routine when they’ve only got 10 minutes until they need to leave for work and they look a mess. Or, for someone, I’m especially thinking of young girls, who don’t need to wear much make up.
The whole routine only takes about 5 minutes but I’ve been doing a step, resting for a while, doing another step, etc, so that by the time it’s date time I’m not exhausted. What would you know I even managed to write this blog post. I wonder if it’s something they put in bronzer…
Love Katie x
If there’s anything you’d particularly like to see either here on my blog or over at my YouTube channel, then pop a comment below. I’ve already had some great suggestions but I’m always open to new ideas. Remember, it doesn’t have to be beauty related!
I’m still working on the new layout, but I’m getting there, don’t you think?
“You’d be forgiven for thinking that I’d abandoned this blog, but you wouldn’t be right, very far from the truth in fact. Although I have been working a lot on Chronically Katie in my mind, very little of it has appeared on your monitor because I’ve been too unwell. For the last two months I have suffered from one illness after another, aside from my usual chronic illness of course.”
Unfortunately this is as much as Katie has been able to write over the last few weeks. As she says above, Katie has been extremely ill for the best part of two months now. There’s been a real battle going on behind the scenes here at Chronically Katie. She’s winning the fight, but as with any war, victory is hard fought and there are have been many injuries along the way.
Katie has asked me to step in and catch you up on what’s been going on. Quite a few technical changes are taking place at the moment. I’ve been working on moving the site to a self hosted platform and there are going to be changes in blog layout and design. This is all very exciting, however, it’s taking it’s time because I have no experience in all this. I’m teaching myself what to do as I do it. We’re asking that you bare with us while these renovations are taking place.
On a positive note, Katie is hoping to do a video blog sometime soon, so keep an eye out for that. To make sure that you don’t miss anything, you can subscribe to Katie’s You Tube channel.
My final update is that if you wish to send Katie anything in the mail, you can request her address by emailing chronicallykatieblog@gmail.com. You can send products for her to review, or something little to make her feel better when she’s so sick. She’s spending most days in bed so I know she’d love to hear from her readers. Feel free to send her anything from a postcard to a little gift. She loves receiving mail so it’s sure to bring a smile to her face.
The last week or so has not been easy. Although P is doing a little better, he is far from well. On Friday, after another week off university, he went to see our doctor. We are blessed with a great doctor who has treated us both for a few years now and has a good grasp on our situation so we usually trust her. Her diagnosis this time was exhaustion. P can’t get over his virus because his life is so busy. We’ve both made a concerted effort to cut back on our activities over the last year so there’s no option there. P does an amazing job juggling caring for me, his degree and a part time job, but sometimes even my superman needs to reach out for help. That’s where my strength lies. Although I’m still also struggling with the virus, I can organise a lot from my bed. We are lucky enough to have great friends and family to call on in our time of need.
Doesn’t my boy look cute when he’s sleeping?
The next couple of weeks will be an experiment in what happens when a carer gets sick. The most important thing for the both of us though is where we draw our strength from. Although it may sound cheesy, we know that we need to rely on God to bring us through something that is too big for us. The Bible says that God is strongest in our weakness. We are believing for supernatural strength and energy to get us through to P’s graduation.
P and I would really appreciate your prayers over this period.
As you read in my last post I recently came down with a virus/sickness/migraine thingy. Anyone who knows me well (or follows me on Twitter) will know that although I’ve had lots of practice, I am a big wimp when it comes to being ill. Have you seen that episode of Big Bang Theory when Sheldon is sick? Yea that’s me. I am very prone to self pity and sadness. In order to cheer myself up last week I made a list of all of the things. I thought you might appreciate me sharing this list here so you can steal some ideas next time you’re ill.
Things that make me smile when I’m sick:
Getting sympathy.Thankfully, God has given me a husband with a lot of patience and compassion so he’s happy to dole out cwtches* and sympathetic nods of the head on request.
Getting some perspective.The antidote to the above. Being sick makes me self-centred, I need to be reminded that there are much bigger problems in the world than my migraine.
Watching movies.One night P treated me to renting a movie online so that I had something new to watch. We picked Brave, a Disney Pixar animation. Doctors should prescribe Pixar movies, they’re that good.
Learning something new, however big or small.I wasn’t able to be very productive last week, most of the time I just sat there moaning because everything I tried seemed to hurt my head. I did, however, learn some healthy new recipes on Pinterest (follow me here) and find out about Smash books (watch out for a post about this soon).
Didi.Just anything to do with my cute ball of fluff. Well, pretty much anything anyway. While I write this she is sleeping on my lap and making sweet noises out of frustration when she is disturbed by my typing. What a cutie. There is actually research now that proves that petting and interacting with animals can help patients recover from a whole variety of illnesses. My doctor friend told me that in a hospital in Bristol they actually let a charity bring dogs on to the wards for patients. How amazing is that?
Having a bath, especially if there is a Lush bath bomb or bubble bar in it. Although baths completely sap my energy, the warm water can be exactly what I need to get me to a point where I am relaxed enough to fall asleep. Plus, waking up clean and smelling nice always has a feel good factor.
Clean pjs and bed sheets.The perfect end to a bath. You can’t beat that smell of fresh linen.
Candles.Yankee candles are my favourite, they smell so good!
Pink flannel pjs.Comfort and my favourite colour.
What makes you smile when you’re sick?
Love Katie x
*Cwtches- if you’re not Welsh you probably have no idea what this word means. Think of a hug but a million times better.
As you read in my last post I recently came down with a virus/sickness/migraine thingy. Anyone who knows me well (or follows me on Twitter) will know that although I’ve had lots of practice, I am a big wimp when it comes to being ill. Have you seen that episode of Big Bang Theory when Sheldon is sick? Yea that’s me. I am very prone to self pity and sadness. In order to cheer myself up last week I made a list of all of the things. I thought you might appreciate me sharing this list here so you can steal some ideas next time you’re ill.
Things that make me smile when I’m sick:
Getting sympathy.Thankfully, God has given me a husband with a lot of patience and compassion so he’s happy to dole out cwtches* and sympathetic nods of the head on request.
Getting some perspective.The antidote to the above. Being sick makes me self-centred, I need to be reminded that there are much bigger problems in the world than my migraine.
Watching movies.One night P treated me to renting a movie online so that I had something new to watch. We picked Brave, a Disney Pixar animation. Doctors should prescribe Pixar movies, they’re that good.
Learning something new, however big or small.I wasn’t able to be very productive last week, most of the time I just sat there moaning because everything I tried seemed to hurt my head. I did, however, learn some healthy new recipes on Pinterest (follow me here) and find out about Smash books (watch out for a post about this soon).
Didi.Just anything to do with my cute ball of fluff. Well, pretty much anything anyway. While I write this she is sleeping on my lap and making sweet noises out of frustration when she is disturbed by my typing. What a cutie. There is actually research now that proves that petting and interacting with animals can help patients recover from a whole variety of illnesses. My doctor friend told me that in a hospital in Bristol they actually let a charity bring dogs on to the wards for patients. How amazing is that?
Having a bath, especially if there is a Lush bath bomb or bubble bar in it. Although baths completely sap my energy, the warm water can be exactly what I need to get me to a point where I am relaxed enough to fall asleep. Plus, waking up clean and smelling nice always has a feel good factor.
Clean pjs and bed sheets.The perfect end to a bath. You can’t beat that smell of fresh linen.
Candles.Yankee candles are my favourite, they smell so good!
Pink flannel pjs.Comfort and my favourite colour.
What makes you smile when you’re sick?
Love Katie x
*Cwtches- if you’re not Welsh you probably have no idea what this word means. Think of a hug but a million times better.
Phew! It feels good to be back in the land of the living. By that I mean the last week or so has felt as though I am approaching death. Well perhaps that is an overstatement… P and I both caught some kind of illness, sickness, virus, flu, whatever you want to call it. I think it has been years since we were both that unwell. Of course since we were both unwell it felt as though we just hobbled along each day, both of us managing to do what we could. Today is the first day that I have managed to get dressed in over a week! Although I got the migraine far more badly than P did, he seems to not be able to bounce back at all. He is exhausted all of the time, and I feel completely useless, unable to take the burden of duties like cooking from him. As he isn’t particularly unwell he feels like he must continue working on his essays and going to work. He is such a trooper. I am so lucky that I married a man who will never give up.
I think the silver heart matchesmy pink pjs perfectly
Valentine’s Day
With me barely able to lift my head off the pillow and unable to stand the stand the sound of speaking, and P sleeping most of the day, our first Valentine’s day as a married couple was not exactly how we had imagined. The most romantic that things got was when P passed me a tissue. We did exchange gifts though. We had decided to have an ethical Valentines so our gifts had to have some kind of ethical edge, for example the gift would be fair trade or would be handmade. I was given a beautiful silver heart necklace, which I absolutely adore. Once we are both up to scratch we are hoping to have a belated V-day since it is one of my favourite holidays.
Shrove Tuesday & Lent
One of the highlights of last week though was Shrove Tuesday or Pancake day. For those of my readers who don’t know what this means, it is the day before Lent begins. Pancakes were originally made to use up all of the “luxuries” (butter, sugar, etc) one would have in the cupboard before the beginning of lent, where people restrain from such things until Easter. I won’t go into more detail here, I’m sure there are lots of places on the internet that can explain it better than I. Anyway, the lovely moment was that P made me Nutella crepes, one of my favourite things, in the shape of hearts. I didn’t even ask him, he just did it to cheer me. How sweet is that?
That brings me to Lent. This year I have decided to give up puddings for two reasons. Firstly, I think I often eat puddings, not because I’m hungry but because I just crave something sweet as a bad habit. I’d like to break the habit but since breaking a habit takes restraint, this will help me grow the discipline that Lent intends you to. Lastly, the time I would spend eating pudding can be spent praying, as I did when I fasted the internet recently.
You can just see Didi poking out from behind my laptop, watching me work
I’m back after a week offline. Although I was fasting the internet for a specific reason I learnt a few things along the way. Firstly, I actually enjoyed the week a lot more than I expected to. When I’m feeling to ill to do anything much of value, Twitter and Facebook are my go-to. With that option closed off I found that I spent a lot more thinking creatively, I now have a whole buffet of ideas for this blog in the coming weeks.
I also sent a lot more texts. I am notoriously bad for never answering my phone and taking ages to reply to texts. Without Twitter to fill those times when you’re waiting for someone to arrive or waiting for dinner, I decided not only reply to texts but actually even initiate text conversations.
I read a lot more. I spend quite a lot of time reading blogs and watching TV online, but with long blocks of time in bed without these two comforts, I turned to books. I read every night before bed, but for the last week I’ve read a lot more. I even finished one book within a couple of days.
Most importantly, I prayed more. That was one of the main reasons for my fast, and it worked. Every time I felt myself reach for my phone or iPad, I began talking to the man upstairs. This is one change I’d like to continue now that the fast is over. I am sure in years to come I’ll be much more grateful for time spent in prayer, than I am for time spent reading tweets.
I’m not the only one that feels they have benefited from their time offline. P, who did the fast with me, said that this week really opened his eyes to quite how many times he must use the internet a day. I love my husband, I really do, he has many, many great points, but if I had one gripe with him, it would be that he spends far too much time on Twitter and BBC sport. He has promised that he’ll change this now that our fast is over. That’s something I’ll be holding him to.
Although I would never go offline completely, I’m a blogger for goodness sake, I will be watching my internet habits a lot more from now on. I also think it’d be good to challenge myself to an internet fast a least four times a year, to make sure I don’t just slip back into my old ways.
Looking to the future now, it’s pancake day next Tuesday, which means lent is only a few days away- on to the next challenge!
For just over a week, I have watched weather reports and Facebook with jealousy. I love snow and since we didn’t get any last year here in the centre of Cardiff, I was desperate for some this year. For the four years I have lived in the city I haven’t had a chance to make a snowman or even play in the snow. This year, despite feeling really ill, I was able to make it outside. Not having to climb stairs is a real help. Usually any cold makes my muscles tighten and cause me a lot of pain (it’s not fair that this doesn’t result in toned muscles) so I put A LOT of layers on. I mean a lot. It was like the longest strip you’ve ever seen when I came back inside. If it’d been a strip tease, you would have had to include an intermission.
P brought me a chair to sit on outside so that I could watch him make a snowman. It wasn’t actually that cold outside so I wasn’t shivering. He didn’t have much to work with since we had just about an inch of snow and even that was melting pretty fast. He did, however, manage to make some semblance of a snowman, which we then turned into a fashionable lady, boobs and all.
The other reason I really wanted to get snow here was because I knew (or so I thought) that Didi would love playing in it. I seriously misjudged this. It turns out that all the pampering she receives has turned her into quite the wimp. She hated being outside and touching the cold stuff. When we got back into the house she curled up on my lap and quickly fell into a deep sleep, and has remained there ever since. Traumatic experiences really take it out of her.
The last reason that getting snow was so great was because it gave me the impetus to try making a video for the first time. I used my iPad and the ‘iMovie‘ app to make the video below. It’s only 38 seconds long but I don’t think it’s too shabby for a first attempt. I reckon using videos on here a lot more is a good idea. It means that when I feel too sick and dizzy to look at the computer screen I can record a vlog, or be able to show you more of my world.
If you have a YouTube account please be kind enough to subscribe to my channelhere and leave me a comment. I really value constructive feedback so share your thoughts, good or bad.
Time to head off into the snow again for a hot chocolate with my favourite guy.
