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March 2018 Prompts: Sorting, Rising, Rejoicing, Reading & Priding

March 2018 Prompts: Sorting, Rising, Searching, Reading & Priding | www.achronicvoice.com

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Sorting

out all my meds. I’ve got heaps of medications piled up, expensive treats accumulated from my weekly visits to various doctors. It’s time to stop procrastinating, and to start organising them into their own neat caches. Here’s my usual routine: throw out expired meds, label the current ones with expiry dates by year, and arrange them into their ‘regular’ spots. Spare meds are further arranged in the drawers below. Yes, I have an entire cabinet just for storing all my medications. If you’re a spoonie, I’m sure this tedious and boring process is familiar to you 😉

Sorting out all my meds. | www.achronicvoice.com
Sorting out all my meds.

Rising

earlier in the mornings. I do notice that I accomplish my best work and am more productive in the early mornings. It’s a little strange because I’ve always been a night owl, so you’d think I’d operate best at night! I guess age is catching up, and illness has a way of affecting your daily energy meter as well. For March, I’m going to try my best to wake early, and hopefully that’ll solidify into a habit thereafter! The tricky part is when I get a bad day, which means I can’t help but to stay in bed the whole time. This messes up the cycle but hey, this is something I’d like to work on.

Rejoicing

in Piper’s first egg laid! We got back from a week in Sri Lanka, only to find her crouched on the floor of her cage. So we made her a makeshift nest with one of my KefenTech anti-inflammatory plaster boxes, and found a tiny egg in there the next morning!! It was all very exciting even though I had been trying to prolong this event, as it’s not really healthy for them to start so young.

She’s the baby of the family in terms of age and size, so it’s rather endearing. I went to buy her an actual wooden nest box from the pet shop, but she doesn’t seem to like it as much as the flimsy KefenTech one 😉 She laid another egg yesterday but unfortunately, it cracked. Let’s see how many she’ll lay in total, and perhaps I’ll get to be a bird granny soon!

Happy parrotlets with their egg. | www.achronicvoice.com
Archer and Piper with their egg.
Piper the parrotlet's first two eggs! | www.achronicvoice.com
Piper’s first two eggs!

Reading

“The Sound of SCH: A Mental Breakdown, A Life Journey” I actually bought this book for a friend’s Christmas gift, but he had already read it! (I’ll attribute it to knowing my friends’ tastes too well ;)) So I took it back as my own present instead :p

I also brought three books while on vacation in Sri Lanka last week: “The Woman Who Fooled The World”, “The Royal Road to Fotheringhay”, and “Tears of Salt : A Doctor’s Story”. Slightly ambitious perhaps, but I did manage to finish reading two of them! I’ll compile a list of great reads for spoonies soon, as some of these are really gripping stories that you might be interested in!

I spend too much time on the internet when I’m back home, to the point of unhealthy I’d readily admit. It just seems so normal, because everyone’s doing the same. But I also have zero issues being cut off from it while overseas, and don’t go into withdrawal or anything of the sort. I think it’s always a good idea to get away from our regular routines every now and then, for a change in rhythm and perspective. Sometimes by breaking routines, I realise that I didn’t actually like what I ‘needed’ to have in my daily life previously. It’s like running a clean up of mental junk!

Reading while having a cup of tea in the lush hills of Ella, Sri Lanka. | www.achronicvoice.com
Having tea with a good book in the hills of Ella.
The lush tea hills of Pedro Estate in Ella, Sri Lanka. | www.achronicvoice.com
The lush tea hills of Pedro Estate.

Priding

my hike up Little Adam’s Peak! It’s rated an ‘easy’ hike but having chronic illnesses complicate things, especially when it comes to physical activity. I fretted about it the night before: “what if the sun triggers a Lupus flare?”, “what if I’m having Sjögren aches and can’t come down?”, “what if my ovaries burst again, because I’m supposed to keep activity low during ovulation?”, “what if…what if…what if?”. Yet I knew that it was something I had to do, or regret.

I l looked ridiculous wrapped up from head to toe in order to protect myself from the sun (many others were in shorts and flip-flops), but I didn’t really care. Compared to many years ago, I’ve become more comfortable in my own porcelain skin (porcelain in the bad way ;)), and am okay with that. All I wanted to do was get to the top, and enjoy the view. It wasn’t so bad after all, and I managed to hike up in 40 minutes. I rewarded myself with a delicious cup of coffee (surprise, there’s really good coffee in Ella!), a nap, and relaxed for the rest of the day 🙂

Hiking up Little Adam's Peak in Ella, Sri Lanka. | www.achronicvoice.com
Hiking up Little Adam’s Peak in Ella, Sri Lanka.
Cute dog that came to hang out with me at the top! | www.achronicvoice.com
Cute dog that came to hang out with me at the top!

Here are a few more photos of our trip, I hope you enjoy them!

Beautiful Ella tea hills. | www.achronicvoice.com
Beautiful Ella tea hills.

Delicious home made breakfast of string hoppers, coconut pancake rolls, coconut sambal, omelettes and juice! In Ella, Sri Lanka. | www.achronicvoice.com
Delicious home made breakfast at our home stay!
Lunch by Gregory Lake, Ella, Sri Lanka. | www.achronicvoice.com
Lunch by Gregory Lake, Ella.
Railway tracks at Ella, Sri Lanka. | www.achronicvoice.com
Railway tracks at Ella.
The beautiful Nine Arches Bridge, Ella, Sri Lanka. | www.achronicvoice.com
The beautiful Nine Arches Bridge in Ella.
Beautiful flowers adorning the path to our Bnb in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka. | www.achronicvoice.com
Beautiful flowers adorning the path to our Bnb in Nuwara Eliya.
A cup of weak coffee in the garden, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka. | www.achronicvoice.com
A cup of weak coffee in the garden.

Thank you for reading, and I hope to read your responses for March’s prompts too! Click here to submit your own entry, and to read about what others are up to as well!

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March prompts are out! It's time to stop procrastinating and start sorting out all my meds. Aiming to rise earlier every morning! Rejoicing in the first egg laid by Piper our parrotlet! Reading books of a few different genres. Priding my hike up Little Adam's Peak in Ella, Sri Lanka! | www.achronicvoice.com | #spoonielife #spoonieshare #achronicvoice #chronicillness #spoonietravels #srilanka

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Emma England (Not Just Tired)
March 24, 2018 19:01

Great to read these Sheryl and oh my goodness I just love your photos! Looks like a fantastic trip xx

Sheryl Chan
March 24, 2018 21:19

Thanks Emma, it was a good break! ? Hope you’re doing well x

Miss H E Smith
March 14, 2018 16:55

Hey Sheryl! I loved thisN and all your pictures are amazing ? I’m going to do mine today! How are you? Xx

Sheryl Chan
March 14, 2018 17:22
Reply to  Miss H E Smith

Hi Hannah! Thank you so much! <3 I'm doing good. Can you believe it that I'm elated because I spent 'only' 40 mins waiting for the doc today? Usually it takes 2 - 4h. Us spoonies must be weirdos 😉 Sending hugs and can't wait to read yours!!