Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Lula! Hello! Welcome back lovely lady! Do pull up a chair under the fairy lights and tell us how you've been getting on. Utterly spiffing to see you

We finally put the Christmas tree up yesterday, and all our woodland trees have now been planted too! 1000 in total, including hefty stakes and tree guards, by one man, in a single week that also included quite a lot of WEATHER (including a couple of days of snow). Hats off to that man!

Baileys_Babe

Pleased to hear the trees are planted. One man, one week, 1000 trees is impressive and that is without the weather conspiring against him. 

greenbee

Impressive tree planting! Do you know what kinds you've got?

BTW - re. the thrush, have you looked at candida elimination diets? 

Cheery_Daff

Not yet greenbee. Spoke to doc this morning, looks like my iron stores are a bit low (although I'm not anaemic, and the levels currently circulating in my blood are fine). This is more likely for vegetarians (I've not eaten meat for 24 years), doesn't usually cause trouble, but may be linked to thrush (although why now, and why linked to cycles, I don't know). Anyway, going to pay more attention to iron in diet for now, and take the existing tablets I've got, have another blood test in 6 weeks, and see where we are when these tablets end in 3 months. 

rtandon27

Hooray for the new woodland!  1000 trees in a week is pretty impressive. 

greenbee

If your serum ferritin is low but circulating iron is fine, then you may have the same problem I did. Vegetarianism is a red herring in most cases - often it’s poor absorption. I had mega doses of iron (calculated based on body weight as iron is toxic) but several years in to treatment they moved me from iron supplementation to Vit C supplementation and it is much more effective. I’ve been fine ever since. I get enough iron from my broccoli and chocolate (not veggie, but don’t eat much meat), I just wasn’t absorbing it. It’s also less risky supplementing Vit C as excess is excreted. 

dawnybabes

Have they checked you for coeliac, this can cause iron issues x

Cheery_Daff

Thanks greenbee, yes, I think that's what they said it was, and they did mention vitamin c as well. They've not given me any tablets (aside from the thrush ones) so I might get on the case with a multi vitamin. Not been checked for coeliac Dawn - my only symptom is thrush, and that's only once a month, and it's only a possibility that iron is involved, might have had low stores for years and just not known. 

Still, getting back on the case with eating a bit healthier won't do me any harm!

Nothing financial to report. I've ordered most of my Christmas presents now - just two relatives to go plus some bits for Mr Cheery. Got cards, and finally wrote one (and an accompanying letter) yesterday. Going to have to reign in the letters a bit else it's going to take me til about February to get them all in the post

Have a good day MSE chums I'm up pretty early so might make a cuppa in the travel mug and go for a bit of a walk before starting work.

greenbee

My serum ferritin was 4 when they found the problem. I nearly passed out when they put a needle in for an MRI - as soon as they worked it out all the other symptoms made sense (tinnitus, sore lips, breathlessness, lightheadedness etc) and they've all been fixed. It took YEARS to get it back up, although fixing the underlying problem was part of it. I no longer take iron supplements at all, but do take at least 1000mg of Vit C a day, sometimes more. 

I've just done another covid PCR for the zoe project, and managed to post a parcel and buy stamps. The only problem is that I don't appear to have any Christmas cards. Guess I need to find a charity selling online that can get them here quickly!

Cheery_Daff

Gosh, that sounds scary greenbee! Glad they all got fixed eventually.

I confess I have no idea what a covid PCR is, or the zoe project Glad you got your parcel done though! You've reminded me I have a card for a friend's birthday that I've not posted and that now won't get there in time...

Two blokes turned up in a white van at 8.30 this morning I went out, and they asked if I had any car batteries or scrap metal, then said they'd been to a (named) neighbour, and asked if the old bloke who lives near our house was dead, because his house looked abandoned. I told them he wasn't, probably just still asleep, and thought no more of it, but Mr Cheery reckons they may have been scouting for stuff to nick, or see if we were away I do hope not!! I've always felt safe here at the end of our drive at the end of a lane in the middle of nowhere, and don't want to have to start worrying now! I suppose we'll see I didn't think to take a registration number sadly.

Still feeling rather gloomy here. Work is too damn hard and too damn much, Mr Cheery is struggling, I'm more depressed than I should be about the impending chicken lockdown, and generally feeling like everything is on top of me Trying to at least get out each morning for a walk so I've had a bit of daylight. Also trying to finish work at a reasonable hour so I have some evening (easier said than done). Very much looking forward to a Christmas break - only 6.5 working days to go!