Drained

Well the clock has run down and I still have no clue what to write this blog post about. Last week I was full of energy but this week I feel like the batteries have been removed and I have been left discarded in the middle of the playroom. I have had two very restless nights on the bounce, a physio session yesterday and I am drained. It isn't very often I feel this fatigued but I am even struggling to ignore the siren call of my bed presently.

I am wondering if it is a combination of being back on antibiotics again, courtesy of a HS flare up. A mild virus, I have a bit of a cough / sore throat but it really isn't anything major, more of a mildly irritating tickle but feels like it did in the bad old days when it would go into Bronchitis. Of course being two years smoke free ( I gave up smoking on 6th August 2017 and haven't touched them since) I had hoped I might avoid a chest infection, especially as I am now taking zinc daily. With the change of the season, the air is getting fresher so my joints have thrown a hissy fit. Every day this week I have spent sat on my heated throw attempting to combat my joint pain with heat rather pain medication. My fingers are really bloody painful (including my thumbs), costochondritis has flared up, my right hip is painful, piriformis syndrome is rearing its ugly head and I keep getting a spasm in the right-hand-side of my back. I feel like I should really just dip myself in a vat of Ultrasound gel and have done with it. Every night I am spending around an hour giving myself an ultrasound treatment on various parts of my body. That in itself is draining but lowering the pain levels. This probably sounds like a huge moan. It isn't I am just stating the facts. I put on a good show but I am exhausted by it all.

It is deeply frustrating when my only desire is to be creative and I can't motivate myself to do it or the pain won't let me sit at my machines for longer than a few moments. I did manage to get a couple of bits done last week. For the first time I made patches out of my embroidery work and attached them to make up bags. I found the pattern on line but adapted it due to increasing the size by 10% and adding zip tabs to give it a better finish. 

I made these two for friends who are both going through an awful time. It is also part of me paying forward after receiving a massive parcel of fabric from a lovely lady called Beverley on Instagram. She has been supportive of my sewing and embroidery from day one - she sells stuff online and her work is amazing. She always is full of praise for my work, which makes me blush as I am so hyper critical. Both bags were made from the fabric she sent me, as will a couple more, that will be Christmas and birthday presents. 

I am itching to get started on working on these items but everything feels like lead. Maybe later on I will start to feel a bit better and I will be able to do some embroidery. I make the patches first, deciding on a design for each person, before then deciding on the fabric within my expanding stash that goes with it best. For the Lurcher bag I chose the blue leaf fabric because it went so nicely with the scarf on the dog. With the fox bag I chose the white and green as I felt it looked like sunlight through leaves and you were peering through the undergrowth and came across the fox. Sounds a bit whimsical but that is exactly how I work and I make no apologies for that. That's why I get so fed up when I feel so drained that I just can't work on a project. I know there is plenty of time but there are just so many things I want to do.

When I can't sew or embroider I spend a lot of my time looking at projects for the future. My whole life revolves around sewing / quilting / embroidery and I love it. I have never felt so creatively fulfilled.  Which is why it is so frustrating when I can't actively do stuff. I am lucky that I can do it, so I really don't want this to sound like I am moaning. Although thinking about it I am fully entitled to. I can't see many of my "well" friends coping with the amount of shit I have had thrown at me over the last 12 years. I have had several of them tell me they couldn't live like I do and that they would rather top themselves. I think, they believe that is a compliment but all I hear is that they believe the quality of life I have is shit and nothing could be further from the truth. As others have said long before me, "life is what you make it". You carve out tiny pieces that fulfil you whenever and wherever you can.

I have noticed after the last two Physiotherapy sessions that it is taking me longer to recoup the energy expended by attending. So that on top of everything else is probably what has caused me to be knocked on my arse. I know this state if fatigue is more than likely temporary and I just have to ride it out. I am currently just drained.