Our New Life - Just the Begining

We made the transition from city life to the country in a few very swift moves, found the land, brought it, brought a small camper van filled it with as much as we could and left. This was to be our new begining.

Talk about going back to basics, we did. Put up one of those double garages you buy in kit form, brought a generator. Set the shed up as our living area and used the camper van to do the cooking. The generator was our power supply for light and TV. Drinking water we got from town, for washing which I did in a bucket, and showering if you could it that we got from the small creek which ran across our land.

We spent a summer and a winter there. There were days the temperature went as high as fifty nine degrees and in the winter it was well into the minus in the shed, some days there was still ice on the ground at two o'clock in the afternoon. We had to move into town half way through the next winter because we got so much rain that we couldn't get in or out of the place.

I really miss the peace and quite and all the birds. I spent hours watching all the different birds, we had finches, honey eater, parrots, ibis, blue wrens heep's of others. There was a family of blue wrens they were my favorites I called the the bipity bopity gang.

I will tell you about the antics of my bipity bopity gang and living in our shed on the block another day.

Painful other Half

He hasn't done a thing, the places an absolute pigs sty, I no hes not feeling well at the moment but he could at-least try. I can't talk to him at the moment because I no it will all come out wrong like it did last night. I thought about letting him read this but I really don't think its agood idea either, I keep thinking hang on till the new meds kick in and things will be better, but I get so tired and hurt. I no I have to take more me time, do things for me put me first some times instead of always putting him first. Something I've discovered recently is that when your the other half of someone with a mental illness you become isolated, their world becomes yours. At the moment he's not working, so I go to work, do the shopping, the house work, the washing, pay the bill, the cooking except on the very rear occurrence when he does bake beans or eggs on toast. When you get very little in return, you wonder why sometimes.

You and Me and Schizophrenia

My other half suffers from Schizophrenia, he was taking Zyprexia which was controlling his condition. Recently we found that this wasn't working as well, doctor has now changed this first to Risperdol and now he has an injection of Risperidone Conte every two weeks. Risperdal worked really well but the injection not doing as well, we think because the dosage is not high enough. The injection is slow release so is suppose to maintain a more constant level. Its very hard on the partners of sufferer's of this, one of the things that makes it so hard is you really don't no what its like in there head no matter how hard you try, the solemn moods, withdrawal from everything and everyone and some times the anger.

On top of this he is also a long time Alcoholic, he stopped drinking and he's going back to AA which I think is helping so all up he's not a happy chappy, I do feel for him though he's really doing it tough. I don't no if he realises how proud I am of him. In a way it was a bit easier for him to coupe with the change of medications by bombing himself out with alcohol.

Country Life

It was a really beautiful day, a shame to go to work. Put the washing out, reminded Dave to get in as I left, bet he doesn’t the lady next door will she often does. Leaves it all neatly folded in the basket for me she’s so good. It was really busy tonight end up doing my job as well as the PC’s at tea time and all she said was….after every thing that happened we still finished on time, meaning the PC’s not me because we in the kitchen or the cleaners are the unseen, part of the woodwork it all just happens, we don’t really exist.

Another day another dollar

I work in an Aged Care Facility and do Home Care for the aged in the community in small town about twenty kilometers away. Ive been there nearly eighteen months now and I’m still on the bottom of the ladder; cleaning , kitchen and PCA but mostly the cleaning and kitchen. The boss said to me last week “but you are getting good at it”. The Home Care is much better I only do personal care no housework….yea. There is only thirty low care resident in the facility so there is only a small staff, but unfortunately there all female and you no what happens when you put a bunch of women together, all from the same small country town and your not the local. If the rest of the place is anything to go by it will be another twenty years or so before I make it to the next rung on the ladder.

First Post

As new to this as I am to computing. So ahead to a new adventure. A women in her fiftys now living in country NSW working in the aged care industry.