2020 Goals

Happy New Year to you all!  2020 certainly has a ring about it, if for no other reason than its description of normal vision!  For the last few years I have made myself some goals for the new year. Keeping on the vision theme, I suppose you could describe these as vision for the year ahead. I've found it's helpful to do that and to see how many I've achieved at the year's end.  So here we go for this year!

    Writing

   1)  I really hope to finish the follow up to Down The Tubes this year.

    2) It would be nice to get on with another Little Guide seeing as it's nearly a decade since I had Little Guide To Unhip published. I have been doing another one but maybe will do them as a blog for now. And talking of blogs, I do hope to do more blog posts than last year!

   3) I also think it would be great to bring out a collection of poems from Don’t Go Breaking Our Arts, our creative group for people with disabilities. I have thought this for years but I'm not very organised and so would to collaborate with other members and and also decide where to send any royalties - I wouldn’t expect many as these are soon offset by promotion costs etc

    4) I hope to get another book out in paperback - this would now be one of the older ones now that have gone out of print, since all the ones previously unpublished are in paperback now.

    5)  Begin the autobiography that's been brewing for a few years now and also to crack on with some more short stories/do something with my poems

   I think this is way too ambitious seeing as my energy is very compromised but anything unachieved can be carried over to the next year (see below).

    Health

   I want to continue trying to confirm or eliminate conditions that may be contributing to causing my many symptoms eg autoimmune illnesses like Sjrogrens Syndrome and Lupus. I recently had a positive result for ANA antibodies which can be a sign of an autoimmune illness such as the above or rheumatoid arthritis. These can often go hand in hand with Fibromyalgia and ME which I’m already diagnosed with. But the one thing I really want to get on top of is the debilitating hyperhidrosis. That on top of  fatigue means I am semi housebound as the effort and the organisation to get out anywhere uses up too many spoons!

   I have several appointments lined up - one for physio next week. I also have a GP appointment to discuss the antibodies and I’m trying to get a referral to see a dermatologist or a rheumatologist since it is the experts who can look at specific trends and groups of symptoms rather than dealing with the general as GPs do. But the state of the NHS doesn’t bode well and my ME therapist did also say she could recommend some private specialists - I think this was to do with the menopause. That will have exacerbated a lot of pre-existing conditions. I don’t like the idea of private at all but I am quite desperate.

   House

    These tend to be related to the above and are about greater comfort. Better seating in the sitting room, is one such thing - indoor things and comfort becoming increasingly important the more I need to stay at home!  Plus more storage for bedroom eg better drawers.

   A little pod or something for the garden. The one below I saw last summer and like to dream about it ever so often!

  Family

  I hope to try and continue to support family members as best I can, as some of their needs are great or greater than mine.  It is all a juggling act!

   Anything else will be a bonus.

   Please do share your own new your goals or wish lists if you do them.  Maybe you don't, or have given up on them by January the 2nd. I never used to bother myself, although I have had a to-do list for decades!