Pentankh Eternal’s Blog

Well. I finally got a fantastic night’s sleep.

People who have no sleeping issues don’t know how good they have it. I have sleep apnoea which means I often don’t breathe properly during the night and I actually stop breathing. My brain wakes me enough to start breathing again, after a bit, but not enough to actually wake me (well.. most times). So I wake most days feeling exhausted as if I’ve never slept at all.

Sunday night I didn’t seem to sleep until about 3am. Monday night I was lying in bed and saw it was 2am. Awake again.. still.

No!.. Wait! I did fall asleep. Now I’m awake and I think it’s because I haven’t been breathing at all. You see, what was happening is I did actually fall asleep, but then I’d stop breathing as my sinuses closed and my brain would wake me again. Not being aware of falling asleep, it seemed as if I’d been awake the whole time.

I hooked up my CPAP breathing machine, put the mask on and finally drifted to sleep after 3am.

Yesterday I went to the chemist and talked to him. He suggested I try a nasal wash and a spray. Last night, I tried them out and also had a Demezin with antihistamine. I put my mask on again and had the best night’s sleep in the last 10 years.

Today I felt so alive and energetic. I can’t remember the last time I felt like that!

 Last weekend I took Sienna to the racetrack. They had a Family Day.

We got there about 10:15am but found out they don’t start until midday so we went to find a train into the city.  It turns out there are no trains to Ascot on weekends and you need to find a bus.  The train station is unmanned and they don’t have a map to the nearest bus stop, just a timetable saying to get a rail bus at whatever street.  We walked around for a bit until we found a bus stop, but it wasn’t the right one. Then we found a major road with bus stops. Just after we got there a bus came and we got on and headed for the big city.

I took Sienna to the Krispy Kreme shop and we picked up a donut each. They also gave us free donuts to eat while they served us so we had two donuts each. I also had a coffee and Sienna had some of a boysenberry icecream in a cup.

When we finished we checked out Harvey Norman and the Rocking Horse record shop. I showed vinyls and a record player to Sienna and we headed back to the bus stop as it was nearing time for our ride back.  We caught the bus within about 10 minutes and got to the racetrack just after they opened.

They had fairy floss so we got some of that and found a big wind tunnel for kids to run through so she did that a few times then she went on a swinging boat and saw Shrek walking around.

We bought some lunch and sat down to listen to the races and watch one race.  I wanted Sienna to get her face painted so we lined up and she sat next to some kids sitting opposite the face painter. After some time it became apparent the kids were not in line so we found the line and lined up behind some kids. Unfortunately, some women in their 20s said the line was further down behind them because they were there to get their faces painted like fairy kids too. What the hell? I said "You are getting your faces painted too? What??" They said yes and that we needed to line up behind them as well. Since there was about 10 women lined up revisiting their childhood I said there was no point waiting. At 6-7 minutes per person and about 20 people (including kids) lined up before us there was no way we were waiting over an hour in line. I could not believe that grown women would make 5yo kids wait an hour behind them so they could look immature.

We left and headed home for some rest.

Sunday we got up and went to the local Bowling Alley.  Sienna had never bowled before so it was a treat for her.  We played a couple of games and had lunch there.  We also played on the arcade games in the alley and won some tickets which SIenna cashed in on a candy bracelet. She’d never had one before so I had to show her it’s okay to eat the candy on the bracelet.  As she ate it, we drove home.  On the way I passed a paddock with a windmill and saw a big sign out the front FREE FAMILY SHOW!  I turned around and came back.  We drove in and walked around to see what was there. They had a guy demonstrating sand sculpting.  I helped Sienna make a big castle. The sand had clay in it so it was easy to sculpt.  After we did that we lined up with the face painter there.  We were lucky to be the second last people to be served as they were near closing.  We lined up for about 45 mins and Sienna started races with the girl behind us, running back and forth.  She got a flower painted on her face which she was very proud of and we headed home again.

A week or so ago Mil suggested I try out a Facebook application called "Human Pets". She said you meet people there and make friends and it’s a lot of fun.  You can also go to HumanPets.com and sign up and link it to your Facebook HumanPets account.  I paid the USD$15 and it came to about AUD$15.71  Gotta love it when the American dollar tanks!  I’m on HumanPets quite often now. I am on every morning and every afternoon until about 11pm or so depending on if my friend in Western Australia is on or not. She usually is

It’s about time I got ready for work so now I’m off!

I’ve discovered I’m either allergic to GLUTEN or WHEAT (or, possibly, both).  The other day I had some Coles band Oats which has a label "THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS GLUTEN" on it. My face went bright red and all the skin on my forehead went dry and flakey.  This has happened often over about the last ten years (the symptoms) but this is the first time I’ve actually linked it to something. I went to see a skin specialist many years ago and they just gave me expensive cream which did help, but required me to go back often for visits to buy more of the same. 

I recently went on a Detox Diet and found that my forehead went back to it’s natural oily state for the first time in 10 years. I was surprised by this, so figured it must have something to do with whatever I eat which causes it.  The above suggests wheat or gluten. The reason is, with Oats purchased from shops, they are produced on the same equipment which makes Wheat and other products. They cannot guarentee no wheat whatsoever in the oats.  This was confirmed when I wrote a letter to Carman’s foods (an Australian company which exports to other countries as well) and they said due to Australian manufacturing practises even they cannot guarentee no gluten. Their Oats do, however, say "NO WHEAT". I ate their oats the next day with no noticable big problem.  They did say, however, that they have a new meusli breakfast cereal out now which contains no wheat and no gluten. They offered to send me a free pack to try out if I gave them my address.. which I did.  This company is fantastic! Who would think you’d be given an offer like this? I already eat their meusli bars for morning tea daily.

So, I’ve given up things with wheat and gluten in them for a few days to test the theory.  One thing I have also noticed is both brands of shampoo I have at home contain WHEAT! Even an Organic Shampoo, so I have stopped using them for now as well. You can imagine if I *am* allergic to wheat and it makes my forehead react then I have shampoo which mainly goes on the head area .. what would happen!  Stay tuned for more updates.

I’ve had a lot of thought and I now believe I will stay in Brisbane.   I just can’t stand nor justify moving away from my daughter back to a more expensive location with the overcrowded trains I hated while there.  I will just have to make it my priority to move out to a better location in Brisbane North and make more friends and socialise more.

I found out today I have at least three friends in the North Brisbane area all of whom would visit if I were closer to them, so that’s a great start.

As for catching up with my Sydney friends. I will make more of an effort to fly down every 2-3 months for long weekends and catch up with them.  I will also drive home to visit my parents at least twice a year, fly to visit my sister at least once a year and from time to time drive back up to Gladstone and visit my friend Tharyn up there.

All in all, I think this will be a very good solution to my problems.