ME

ME

Monday, April 03, 2006

Murky Depths

Yesterday, the rainfall seemed much heavier than the proverbial “April showers” whereas today, we have once again returned to spasmodic wintry hail/sleet showers. The garden pond shows little evidence of goldfish life today and, so far this season all I have observed are the triplets introduced to the pond, from the aquarium, last May. Is it too soon to say that we’ve lost Tag, Babe, Blaze and Blondie, the longer term residents or, are they too well aware of the vagaries of the English climate to have bothered to surface? On two or three occasions, I have sited a baby fish but, the elders of the pond are either defunct or still wallowing in the murky depths.

The White Cloud Minnows, in our aquarium, constantly make us aware of their presence!

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My breathing/relaxation exercise is still, at times, proving stress-provoking rather than rest-inducing. More frequently than not, a four to five slow count for the in-breath is all I can manage. The need to swallow, spurred on by my excessive saliva and mucus production, has a rather devastating effect on the counted flow of both in and out breaths. Oh, what a wimp I am. I feel sure that, after the initial counted breaths, my breathing is closer to a 6/10 pattern for much of the remainder of the set aside period!

I’m still struggling with the discipline of breathing exercises three times per day. Relaxation is such darned hard work. Perhaps the old guard of goldfish have also experienced breathing problems …

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi, i know about breathing exercises struggling with breathing difficulties and hyperventilation, ive found them difficult, and discipling. Very hard work. Do you have M.E too? i suppose its a form of pacing too. i find using some music can help, and form a habit of it more easily when not thinking about it. take care †

Malcolm said...

Hi Nikki, Sorry I'd not responded earlier to your comment. Yes, I am an M E sufferer but, hopefully on the mend, even feeling almost human!I had to give up my part-time employment in November 2003, having struggled on far longer than I should have and, the diagnosis was slow in emerging until a senior physiotherapist, herself an ME sufferer, was having a conversation with my wife last summer. A consultant endocrinologist at the District Hospital had diagnosed me with Chronic Fatigue at least 20 months ago but, I only 'discovered' this from my GP's practise a few months ago. [Perhaps it had failed to register with me alongside all the tests I was having]. Thanks for popping by.