Not long after I first started attending hospital (arthritis) I remember sitting in my Gran’s living room, crying my eyes out and holding my wrist, which was all swollen and painful. Gran, bless her, got up and went into the kitchen and ran a tea towel under the cold tap, then wrung the water out, brought it through and wrapped it round my wrist, it really helped. She said the cold would help take some of the inflamation out and by relieving the swelling, it’ll hurt less. Off she went into the kitchen again, and came back through with two mugs of tea, which she placed onto the coffee table. “now Listen” she said. “You won’t find this in any of your books. When something hurts like this does, you can either do what you’re doing right now, or you can get off your butt and put a duster in the other hand and take your mind off it.” “If you lie down to it, (let it beat you) you’ll never get up again” It was one of the best bits of advice I’ve ever been given. So now, on bad days, I do as much as I can manage and “don’t let it beat me”. I have so many gems of advice my Gran gave me over the years and they’ve never failed me when needed.
Of course, there was also that chilly november day in 1983 when hubby slipped an engagement ring on my finger, that was pretty life changing too :-)