What are you up to today if you have a Chronic Illness. Thread 11 🧵Last of the Summer

[MewithME]

Link to last one https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5556429-what-are-you-up-to-today-if-you-have-a-chronic-illness-10-summer-edition

Thank you for being here, friends old and new and sharing our gentle chat, trials and tribulations.

You know the rules though...let's be good and fill up the last one 😊

I don't know I think I'm heading towards a ginger surf tousled chic look. Although saying that yesterday as I was putting some wax in I managed to style it into mohican so I'm debating going shorter on the sides at the barbers tomorrow. I mean it's not like I'm going to be here to look back on it in 20 years and cringe about it haha!

I love the sound of a ginger tousled mohican @Oioiqueen!

My hair really needs a trim - the last bits of old hair dye have very nearly grown out, and I'm quite impressed by how grey it is, especially at the front (it's a not very exciting mousey-brown at the back). Might get the clippers out tomorrow.

Slept OK in the new bed, although I was very achy from the building of said bed. Feel a bit better now I'm up and moving a bit, and have had a bath. Packed away all the vacuum-packed clothes etc under the bed so I've got a bit more room to move around. Still lots of cardboard boxes to get rid of - both empty ones and a load of stuff that's waiting until I get a bookcase/ unit sorted for the living room. But getting there...

Got some washing on, have hoovered (joint effort between the robot, and me doing the bits it can't reach) and am about to settle on the bed for an online breathwork class. Might pop out for a short walk later to stop all the achy bits seizing up.

I suppose that does give you a good excuse and consider if a miracle drug appears you will have had twenty years of crazy hairdos to your credit which you will not regret for a second!

@martha79 I took a picture and showed DH, he told me to go for it haha! How short will you go if you get the clippers on yours?

@TeaAndStrumpets or the kids look back at the photos and laugh about mum not giving a toss for x number of years haha! That'll be my legacy!

Not bad either way😉

Internet off/on this morning so phone keeps dropping. I'll be so glad to leave BT/EE.

@TodayIsabetterone good that you've had a tiny improvement, that is promising. It's so hard to be good about resting! Stuff that needs doing everywhere here. DH has hurt his back shifting boxes so trying to let things heal before he does any more.

@martha79 lovely to have a bed again! Camping is no fun.

Morning all.
I've got a hair appointment at the end of the month. Haven't been for a year. Going a bit shorter - hoping for a choppy bob.

That sounds nice. Anything that looks after itself is good in my book!

Thanks Tea, it’s definitely been easier and more manageable so she worked some magic for sure!
Sorry DH has hurt his back 😕 hope he soon recovers. Hard when our helpers are out of action!
Ive managed to sort and tidy another corner of the bedroom! DH cleared a cupboard completely so that’s freed up a bit more storage which is great. Slowly, slowly, a corner at a time and I might have a more organised bedroom eventually 😀

Gently does it! Glad the shoulder is getting some extra help.

Excellent news and a choppy bob sounds good and easy to look after.
I have a similar idea in mind for when I can finally make it into the salon.

Thank you ladies. I've always gone for a wash it, brush it & leave it type thing. Never been bothered with faffing. Didn't like "gunk" back when backcombing, teasing & gelling were the rage in the 80s & 90s.
Oh I sound so boring 🤣

Well my last few haircuts have been courtesy of Mr Vidal Strumpets and he always gets carried away and cuts too much off 😦However I can wash it, brush it and push the ends under and it usually looks OK when it's dry! My hair is dead straight but it justs curves under enough without needing layering.

When I was little my Mum despaired of my hair. I remember having my long hair put into rags on a Sunday night so I could have long ringlets down my back for school in the morning.

I'd have loved ringlets!
My hair kinks rather than curls. So with layers it has movement & can look nice at times. Depends whether my pillow decides to give me a new style overnight!

Mine is normally wavy. It's always been ridiculously thick so always had it layered when I'd actually gone to the hairdressers. I'd always wanted very short hair but was always concerned about being misgendered or look a bit masculine. I do look a little masculine nowadays especially as I didn't have reconstruction after my first cancer so a bit flat. However actually I feel quite empowered to not give a flying wotsit these days.

I love that you don't give a flying wotsit @Oioiqueen!

My hair is very straight, although in a bob it has one side that likes to curl under at the ends and one side that likes to curl outwards. I think I might go quite short tomorrow while the weather's still warm enough to do that.

It's been a very sleepy day here, but I did perk up a bit this evening and do a bit of my embroidery kit that arrived (Japanese style stitching squares to make into coasters). It was quite nice to do although sewing it together with blue thread on blue fabric in this light was tricky.. 🤓

@martha79 life would be boring if our hair did exactly what we wanted it to do. I love that you have one side that goes under and one outwards. On shaving my hair initially I discovered a cowlick right at the front that I didn't even know I had. It meant I had to do what my dad called 'a bobby charlton comb over' to cover the patchiness of where it was thin from chemo at my parting and to go in the same direction as the cowlick.

It's interesting the way our hair has little unnoticed quirks, like the cowlick. Clearing old photos from my Mums attic when the house was sold there were several of my grandma and her sisters from the early 1900s. I recognised my grandma as a young woman straight away but there was one pre-teen one which could have been either her or a sister. Then I looked carefully and they each had a different parting. In fact my grandma in Edwardian times with a long plait, a little later with a bun, parted her hair the same side throughout. By the time of WW2 it was cut in a bob and she still had exactly the same style in 1960.

I guess our hair has a mind of its own!

Edit to add, when searching through the suitcase where the photos had been, I found the original of my grandma's birth certificate. All her life she had only used two Christian names, even on her passport, but the birth certificate had three so she had dropped one for whatever reason. Maybe it was dreadfully old fashioned? Anyway this was an interesting surprise. Even more so, it was the name I used for DD1😮

Morning all, pretty tired and achy today probably payback from the osteopath but she’s booked me in weekly for the next few weeks. Regular sessions helped my neck loads last time though so I’m optimistic but also realistic that with the shoulder issue on top now, it might be a long haul.

So Im back in bed with a cuppa and a sleepy dog so will just stay here a little while and rest as long as the dog allows it today!

Oh my hair does the one side curls under and one flicks out too @martha79 When I can be bothered to dry it, it looks great for an hour or two then just flicks right back out again 😂
Well done on your embroidery project, love the colours.

That’s interesting about your grandmothers name @TeaAndStrumpets and lovely it’s your DDs name. I like connections like that.

Have a good day all

It sounds like progress on the arm, let's hope you can get some pain relief. Bodies can be a nuisance!

Yes quite spooky finding that "forgotten" name. I don't think even my Mum knew it existed or she would have remarked on it when DD was born/named. The birth certificate was in broken fragments in an envelope, so must have been undisturbed for decades. To cap it all, DD1 is the image of her great grandma!

Once you get going on family history it's quite addictive. During lockdown I subscribed to British Newspapers Online and it was fascinating to read all the local papers. They fill in a lot of background detail.

Morning all

That's really fascinating about the names @TeaAndStrumpets. I've had a couple of stretches of time on Ancestry and found out all sorts. Also did the DNA testing which confirmed that our family is quite the jumble! I'm a little bit Norwegian on both sides apparently but can't find out where that is in the family tree.

😄at your combover @Oioiqueen. And my hair twin @TodayIsabetterone! I wonder if it's the same sides.

Realised I don't have a mirror I can see in with the clippers plugged in - I've got one on my list of things to get from Ikea (a full length mirror with handy storage hooks on the back) but not got round to that yet. So have just used the scissors this morning but at least it's shorter and less irritating.

Popped out for a quick walk where it was raining when I left the house and warm and sunny by the time I'd reached the end of the street. Just doing bits and pieces today, reading, tidying, might head out again briefly later as my legs didn't feel too bad today.

Wow that is quite spooky @TeaAndStrumpets Family history is fascinating!

How frustrating re the mirror @martha79 but it does take a while in a new place to get everything just so. Glad you managed a walk.

I've overdone it pottering already this morning and arm is throbbing now so forced me on the sofa with it propped on cushions…. Was conscious of not reaching up etc and tried to unload dishwasher with other hand but body is complaining loudly! 🙄

@martha79 you go down so many rabbit holes! Maybe there's a bit of Viking in your bloodline😃I like solving little mysteries. For example my great grandad had an unusual middle name which he gave to his sons. On going back in time it had been his grandmother's maiden name but badly misspelled. So few people were literate.

@TodayIsabetterone better order a straitjacket for you! You need to rest that arm 😔

I have a half sister from my Dad's second (or maybe third?) marriage, she is well into family history. I did the DNA test to help her try to find my Dad's birth father, he was a war baby, and born in a mother and baby home, and later adopted. Any way, she got quite a long way, and managed to narrow it down to one of two brothers. She also identified a cousin of both of ours, so definitely Dad's side, that was not connected to any other bits of the family she had tracked down.

Long story short, the cousin asked her to please stop digging as his gran was still alive, and it turned out it wasn't just us that didn't know exactly who our grandad was, but the cousin's certainly wasn't the man his gran had married!

It didn't bother my sister or I at all, in fact we were a bit surprised not to have found some more half siblings or cousins. Our Dad had a bit of a reputation himself, and a lot of babies happened in the war from people grabbing at happiness while they still could. But the cousin was quite horrified, so she stopped.