Porridge for Breakfast, The Ordinary Life of a TTP Survivor

This may seem like an odd post, but I may have given the wrong impression and made recovery from TTP seem easy.  It isn't,  and you have to fight.   10 years ago when I was first diagnosed with TTP I was wracked with anxiety, about it happening again.   I believe this fear is exaggerated by the steroids.  I don't want to underplay this for others that are recently diagnosed and treated, or those that struggle.  It is debilitating.   Over time though I have found ways to deal with it.  Counselling was one of my first points of call.  As I gradually came off the steroids I was advised that I should be trying new things, or retrying things again.  Like driving.  I've written a post about that already.  I have to thank the Haematologists and a Beacon Centre Counsellor for all the help they gave me. The second step, for me, was rebuilding my strength.  I achieved this by exercise,  mostly just walking. ...

Autumn has most definitely arrived.  Our garden has changed from green to orange and although there is so much work to do in it, it does look pretty startling.  Acer with a Hydrangea just close by.   The Acer is glorious and still holding its leaves.  So surprising,  considering the storms we've had.   The Ornamental  Cherry tree is impressive too.  She's an old lady, we were told many years ago that these trees do not have long lives, but she's still going strong.  The Red Dogwood is very showy. The fruit trees, apple, pear and plum, have all lost their leaves. I read the other day that we should allow the leaves in our gardens to settle for the insects.   In the past we have mown them to break them up and feed the lawn, but apparently that's wrong.  Sometimes it's difficult to know what is the right thing to do 🤔.   The article I read said to blow them onto ...

Today is Rememberance Day.  Another reason to be grateful!  My own parents did their bit in WW2, to the detriment of their own health, but all those little bits from ordinary people saved us from an unknown fate.   Not forgetting those that paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives, so many that came home were seriously scarred too.    My life would almost certainly be different without them.  We would not have the freedom we have today.  When I was a child my father called it Armistice Day, apparently from Latin for Stop War.   Why do we still have wars?  Because a few twisted people have delusions?  Monsters seek power over others?  A neighbour wants to move a boundary?   Someone wants to keep everything for themselves.  After all these years we should have learnt that we are all equal.   I took this photo a couple of years ago.  Its a beautiful,  well chosen spot.  The empty...