The first frost

Yesterday we woke to a frost, our first ever!

And I mean ever. Despite living only 10 minutes from here for the past 15 or so years, we never experienced a frost at our old place. No doubt because it was an area of predominantly brick homes with lots of asphalt road, all adding up to create it's own little microclimate.

But out here, this is real weather!

Sadly the spot we are starting to work over for the vege patch was also affected. We had originally decided to put the vege patch down the bottom of the property but changed our minds as we knew the bottom section would be affected by frost and so moved it to the highest point. Grrr.

We are now battening down the hatches as we are experiencing some very high winds. We haven't had many big winds since being out here so fingers crossed everything will be ok.

The three little pigs

Yesterday Mama Guinea Pig gave birth to three little pigs!

One of the pigs from the last litter next to two of the new babies. They are so tiny.

Aren't they cute?

Meniere's Disease

At last a diagnosis... Meniere's Disease.

Someone asked me around 10 years ago if I had Meniere's Disease, to which I promptly answered 'no' (and then when straight home and googled it) so the idea that this is what it may've been has been floating around in my head for a long time. And I always thought I would be shattered if it turned out to be Meniere's, until the specialist told me in a very relieved voice (after checking my MRI results) that he thought he was going to have to tell me I had a brain tumour. He thought I was in 'serious trouble'. After that, Meniere's seemed like a relief!

The specialist also told me it and Otosclerosis are often found together, some of the symptoms overlapping, which is why I haven't had an earlier diagnosis. There is no definitive test for Meniere's, just eliminating the other possibilities until it's all you have left.

So after almost 5 months of being almost constantly dizzy we are on track to managing it, because that appears to be all I can do, manage it. There is no cure and other treatments to eliminate it appear to be quite drastic.

So after a couple of weeks on the medication I was (overly) optimistic on how I was going so I went back to work last week.

Bad move.

The first day was ok, I was in training so the slight dizziness I felt didn't really affect my day, but by day 2, when they put me back in front of the computers, well, to put it nicely I was stuffed. The constant head turning (they have dual monitors) and writing stuff down and then head up and down from the page to the screen was all too much. Can't say I wasn't warned though, the specialist stated there probably wasn't a worse environment for me at this stage.

So now I am back home, contemplating what to do about work as I will most likely have to resign. Not that that is such a hardship, I'm certainly not going to miss that work. But with the downturn in Mr Homespun's industry and the possibility that soon both of us could be out of a job it is a bit of a worry. And the stress of that is not doing the Meniere's any favours either.

But it could be worse.

Cheers