Bain of my existence

For the forth night in a row: up for hours, itchy. I always thought my greatest troubles would be caused by my sinuses, or my habit of putting my foot in my mouth, or tendency to the chubby side of things. But it turns out that I'm not so different from a new baby: if I eat well and get enough sleep then all is pretty much dandy.


Fortunately, I'm still eating well.

2nd lunch today (after a little quiche lorraine which I gobbled up before I photographed it)

I finally found a GP - a médecin généraliste - in France. The difficulty was that I couldn't get any information about which ones spoke english. In the end I had to just phone up the doctors near our home, with my practiced french script on hand...


First one I tried has her office only thirty meters from our place but I phoned and got the answer machine. The second doctor on my list (perhaps 100 meters walk from my door to her office...) answered on the second ring.

I got part way through, all going well, when she asked if I spoke English, and then she started speaking english to me - a bit broken and stilted but not nearly so broken and stilted as my French, I'm sure!

I had my appointment yesterday evening and came home with a bag loaded with prescriptions - my usual potent locoid cream for bad eczema, a moisturizer and a disinfectant solution. Luuk had been lovely, cooked up shrimp and vegetable risotto for dinner in my absence, and fed Louis his vegetables. We had a relaxing evening: did our french lesson, watched a couple of episodes of 'Doc Martin', and I applied my creams. I was all ready for a good night's rest.

But it was awful. My skin was feeling fine when I lay down, but over the next three hours, as I utterly failed to fall asleep, my skin got more and more irritated. Around 1am I got up and had a shower, reapplied cream, changed into clean PJs. Still couldn't manage to sleep. Tried relocating to the couch, hoping not to keep Luuk awake, and maybe I'd be cooler away from another's body-heat... but no. Didn't work.

Was really getting upset. Don't know how I managed it, but returned to bed and got to sleep finally. Slept till morning too, thank God.

Went back to bed after Louis went down for his morning nap. Two hours of good sleep later, and a Pain au Chocolat... I soon felt much better.

How breakfast should be.

Louis was awake and happily covered himself in the juice of his orange (his morning tea) while I skyped with my parents. 


Went to the Market and managed a few successful conversations/transactions in French - always gives a good feeling.

Generally things in France are going very well, except for my skin and sleeplessness. But in the interest of the whole truth, there it is: my skin is driving me up the wall!

This afternoon, after Louis' sleep, we'll return to town - in search of some light, loose, cotton PJs (elastic bands and warm fabrics are just asking for trouble), some baby oil (safe alternative moisturiser), and some tart cherry pills from the homeopathic pharmacy - a natural sleep-aide, safe during pregnancy. Tried some of dad's tart cherry pills when he was staying with us. I did sleep pretty well, but it's so hard to tell if something is actually helping or if I'm just having a few good days/nights. Still... worth a try. Anything is for the sake of a good night's sleep!