IBS – Irritable Bowel Syndrome – Barretts Oesophagus – Heartburn – Acid Reflux – Constant Indigestion.

I had to give this a title that covers all of these problems as I firmly believe they are all linked – especially from my own personal medical experiences.

For years having suffered with most of the problems above, (together with fighting Thyroid Problems) and then 3 years ago being diagnosed with Barrett’s – the final straw really – it is not very pleasant living with these medical conditions as many of you know, as I understand it is a very common in many thousands of people. I sincerely believe it is not down to “bad diet” it is purely down to the way your body reacts to certain foods.

Firstly I must comment on Barretts.... and trying not to be negative...
The standard medication (from experience at the local G.P.) is P.P.I’s (Proton Pump Inhibitors) to stop the mutated cells from spreading into Cancerous Cells – however, and I only speak from my experience gained over the past few years of having every type thrown down my throat and suffering continual extreme diarrhoea and stomach cramps every single morning – having been through the range and finding none that suits and even when I taking them – heartburn would return well before the next dose was due. So I gave them up for the above two reasons.

Secondly onto Heartburn, Indigestion and Acid Reflux....controlling this...
I haven’t found any medication that relieves this completely, and believe me I have tried everything, its like a lottery from day to day. Some days are better than others which led me into the research of food eaten by me to find out what affects me, and I finally found some very interesting answers which I hope someone, somewhere might agree with me as I am sure I am right. It hasn’t cured me, but it certainly has helped to relieve the symptoms, and I do know now when I have eaten this...it is very difficult with any diet to make sure that one completely avoids.......

Pepper – I always had white pepper or black pepper on my meals and used for seasoning when cooking and this is the only thing I have found which affects my digestive and bowel system extremely badly – It gives me the IBS, it gives me heartburn and indigestion – it plays my stomach up. I know that may sound strange but I have tested it on a number of occasions. When I eat out at a restaurant I make sure that what I choose has no or little pepper – otherwise I know I will suffer for a good few days. I avoid shop bought meat pies, cartoned soup, etc because these affect me.

Perhaps those with the above condition could try and avoid this and see if it makes any improvement. It certainly has helped me.

I am not a Doctor, nor do I pretend to know or understand these medical conditions completely, but I do now understand what causes my body to react to certain foods – more than any doctor that has advised me. However, if there is a qualified medical practitioner out there somewhere who can give me advice, I am more than happy to listen and try.

So there you have it..... if you have been suffering like me.... you have nothing to lose in trying to avoid Pepper.

Roll On Summer

Today has been a very good day, I have been very busy at work and time has flown.

I really do not want to do any heavy writing today after yesterdays blog. Some idle chatter suits me fine as I am tired.

It has been pouring with rain all day, and I wondered if we were due for a good summer this year, as last year we took a week off and flew to Turkey. We had an absolute wonderful time; the holiday was just not long enough. The only thing that was not good was that when we arrived home we were told England had had a mini heatwave. No sooner were we home then the weather changed for the worse. Trust us to choose that week – we could have had the best of both worlds had we chose a week earlier or a week later !!

This year we are reluctant to book any holiday until we know whether we are due for a good summer, I believe people say that if the winter is cold, then the summer will be hot. I do wish for a good long hot summer and a week away to relax. Although we do prefer to go site seeing than lazing around thats our idea of chilling out.

There are so many places we would like to visit, Egypt, Peru, Mexico, but its difficult to leave the business and unfair on our pets to leave them for more than a week. Our time will come.

Travelling is educational and I do believe that life is for experiences, for that gains knowledge and understanding which passes on from life to life. I do believe Lobsang Tuesday Rampa had the right idea. (I have written about this marvellous writer on a previous blog). History is one of my favourite subjects – and I do believe I have had many a past life. It would be great if at some stage I could be “regressed” back just to confirm my beliefs.

Its been a long cold dark Winter...............Roll On Summer !!

They Break Ones Heart

You will remember from some time ago, I mentioned we had four cats and one dog. We had them all vaccinated ready to return to England, but had to wait six months for the quarantine period, seemed stupid to us as we had obviously had them vaccinated in England before going to France. So they were covered, but DEFRA rules apply and one had to wait six months again after their injections before we could return them to UK.

Poppy our eldest Persian Cat, Mother of the other three, did not make it to England, several months before returning home she became very sick – due to old age and her organs were not working properly, so the French Vet advised us to put her to sleep, there was no cure and we could not see her suffer anymore, so we had to let her go.

We returned home with our three other Cats; Muffin, our eldest, Sammy, next eldest, and our youngest Panther. Of course Sasha our Dog was with us as well and still is, although slowing up now and getting on in years.

Muffin arrived home and within a few weeks, became ill, blood pouring out of his mouth, and he looked so ill, we obviously rushed him to the Vets to be told that he was not going to make it, he was not a young cat, he was 18 years, so not wanting him to suffer anymore, asked the Vet to put him to sleep.

Well, then next came Sammy, she lived for Muffin, they were always cuddled together to sleep, and were extremely close, and Sammy took Muffins disappearance extremely hard, she slowly stopped eating and became very lifeless. Now Sammy enjoyed her walks around the orchard in France, I have some photos on a previous blog, anyhow, she was nearly 18 years, so again, getting on in years. She was so lost that she even tried to get into the dogs bed and cuddle up to her. Of course, Sasha was having none of it, and just used to sit up and look at her, as if to say, you’re in my bed again. Unfortunately, we woke up one day and she was wet all over, her bed was soaking and she could not move around, she had no life in her, so another trip to the vets, and we lost another cat.

Panther, our youngest is still with us, she has always been a loner, I think due to her being the runt of the litter, mind you, she is now over 18 years also, so she is very slow, cannot jump too well, and sits and cries for us to pick her up onto our bed. (Although she doesn’t stay long now as we have to put her down on the floor before falling to sleep as we are afraid she will hurt herself trying to jump down). She can only just make it onto the settee, after psyching herself up several times. She does demand a lot of attention now. Spoilt to high heaven is our Panther.

Sasha is doing ok, she is getting on now, but doesn’t really give us any problems apart from being a really fussy eater. Provided she gets her morning walk, she seems quite happy to sleep the afternoon, then play up till dinner time and once fed, settles again. Unless of course, there is some action in the garden during the day and she has to be in and out, in and out, and be the centre of attention. People only visit to see her !! (so she thinks). One other thing about Sasha is she always knows when one has the biscuits out with a cup of tea, she has a very good nose, even if her eyesight is not 100% now.

When it seems our animals have been with us forever, its so hard to loose them, as many animal owners will know, we just will not now have any further additions to our family. They breaks ones heart.

The Wonder of Nature

Being in France one got used to all sorts of creatures running around in the garden (and the house of some occasions) from very large Toads to Lizards and Snakes plus the occasional Wild Boar and Bull (from the next field, who liked grazing in our orchard rather than their own field). I have some wonderful stories about one particular Bull which I named Daisy (I know the name doesnt suit) I'll cover this soon.

Nothing, but nothing beats looking out into our garden here and watching the birds, we have set up quite a few different feeding stations containing fat balls, seed, peanuts, etc and to watch the tiny sparrows and tits leave the hedge and flit onto the nuts, the slightest movement and they disappear back into the privet hedge again, after a few seconds, out pops all these tiny heads, glancing in every direction until they think its safe again to fly out. Its a complete joy to watch them and always brings a smile to my face. Hopefully once we have been here longer they will accept us and not be so cautious. We have noticed our Robins have been not so quick to fly away at the slightest movement.

Of course I haven’t mentioned our Cats and Dog that travelled to France with us and back again, at a total cost for the return trip only of over a thousand pounds, but I shall cover that topic soon – however, I need a very good day to mention such sad events.

As Time Goes By

OK If you read my previous Blog, then you may have guessed what we now do to keep the wolves from the door. Its that four letter word that has become a household name.

Having spent the majority of money that we came back from France with on a very modest house – we had very little money to play with, but we felt a permanent residence was better than renting, at least the money we had would not quietly diminish. We now think we made the right move and are happy in our newly acquired home.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to be self sufficient in the U.K. almost impossible in a normal house; it is not even practical to grow vegetables in our small garden. French Property Taxes are extremely cheap compared to UK. and considering we had a hectare of land in France, a huge house, an orchard with many fruit trees and a number of outbuildings, etc. it was absolute peanuts tax wise and our bills were very modest. Our expenditure was minimal. Afraid in UK everything has a high price.

So with neither of us finding employment in UK, so difficult at our age, and really hampered by the fact that we hadn’t worked in England for such a long time, we had to do something to try and replenish our funds.

Iains cousin gave us a huge amount of second hand clothing with instructions, sell it for what you can get, and give me half. So our venture began, we had both Ebayed before – but on a much smaller and infrequent scale. So our learning curve began and we Ebayed most of what was given us. Gosh, it was hard work and time consuming, everything got steam cleaned or laundered, ironed etc. and we used our experience, our gained knowledge over the many years of “living” and we also researched everything that was listed so we could give accurate and precise details. Most garments sold really well, and buyers were extremely happy with what they had bought. We had many emails and positive comments.

We also tried a couple of car boot sales, which we found even harder, the loading of the car, the getting up at 4am in the morning, and then the drive and queuing and setting up – both occasions it poured with rain, and we got soaked. We were not amused and spent the following couple of days not only badly aching but fighting of a cold. I find it amusing when people say – just do a car boot or get a market stall. Are they Mad !!!

Alas, the clothes from Iains cousin were a “one off”.

However, we thought Ebay was the way to go....... and I shall explain in my next blog how we managed to make a success of it.