Category: Collected Wisdom

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2020 Collected Wisdom Grief iPad Knowledge Kitchen Tapes Mourning Snippets and Vignettes Writing

Trenna’s iPad

An iPad sitting on a kitchen bench with a pen and water glass nearby
Trenna's iPad at the Kitchen Bench where she recorded "The Kitchen Tapes".

Life in 500 Words –
4 Minutes of Fame for Trenna & Greg

Note: The recordings I refer to in this piece formed The Kitchen Tapes series. It starts HERE.

Introduction

The ABC is Australia’s national media and broadcasting service. And on the ABC Radio National station on weekday mornings the Life Matters show has been running an interesting segment entitled Life in 500 Words.

I have listened to quite a few and there are some fascinating stories … Read the rest ... “Trenna’s iPad”

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2000s 2010s 2020 Carer Collected Wisdom Coping End of Life Gardening Health and Medicine Heart and Lung Failure Medical Snippets and Vignettes Visually Impaired

Marfan and Other Chronic Conditions – Things That Worked for Trenna – Part 4

A can of Annalisa brand Roma Tomatoes
A can of tomatoes can have more than one use.

Coping with Marfan Syndrome, Heart & Lung Failure, AF, Visual Impairment, Chronic Pain and a Few Other Problems

By Greg

Introduction

If this post interests you there have been three others on this topic. All with things that Trenna tried to help her or my life as we coped with her multiple medical conditions.

I don’t think for a moment that every tip or anecdote will be useful, but I certainly am hoping that people living with chronic illness or … Read the rest ... “Marfan and Other Chronic Conditions – Things That Worked for Trenna – Part 4”

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2010s 2020 Collected Wisdom Coping Featured Health and Medicine Marfan Medical

Marfan Weight Gain

A 850g can of Ensure chocolate flavoured powder
Ensure powder comes in a big can. If you add milk instead of water it becomes even more calorific. We were buying it in boxes of six cans and Trenna was drinking it 2 or 3 time a day.

Advice Trenna Got on How to Put Weight ON

Regular readers will know this, but…. although I mention several specific brands in this post I do NOT get any financial or other benefit from them. I name them just to help you understand what I’m talking about.

If you find this post useful or interesting you might want to check out three other posts: Marfan and Other Chronic Conditions – Things That Worked for Trenna; Things That Worked for … Read the rest ... “Marfan Weight Gain”

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1990s 2000s 2010s Carer Collected Wisdom Coping Health and Medicine Heart and Lung Failure Medical Snippets and Vignettes Visually Impaired

Marfan and Other Chronic Conditions – Things That Worked for Trenna – Part 3

A smiling Trenna with a girl friend and a lot of salads on a kitchen bench.
"Tren in Natural Habitat". Trenna and our friend Janine in our kitchen during our annual ANZAC Day barbeque. 25 April 2018.

Coping with Marfan Syndrome, Heart & Lung Failure, Visual Impairment, Chronic Pain and a Few Other Problems

By Greg

If you find this post useful or interesting you might want to check out two other posts: Marfan and Other Chronic Conditions – Things That Worked for Trenna; and Things That Worked for Trenna -Part 2.

As the name suggests yet another instalment in a series of posts that tell the things Trenna tried in an effort to make … Read the rest ... “Marfan and Other Chronic Conditions – Things That Worked for Trenna – Part 3”

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2010s Collected Wisdom Coping Heart and Lung Failure iPad Knowledge Marfan Medical Snippets and Vignettes

Trenna’s Marfan Exercises

Trenna standing looking out at forest
Trenna at the top of the Gloucester Tree on 1 February 1988. The tree at 58 metres tall (190 feet) is the world's second tallest fire lookout tree. According to Wikipedia "Only 20 percent of visitors climb to the top of the tree; most make it only part of the way before turning back". Trenna and I made it to the top - we thought we were legends. Then we noticed, from the empty cans, someone had done the climb carrying half a carton of beer!

The iPad Documents – Collected and Created Knowledge From Trenna

Intro by Greg, iPad Wisdom From Tren

Pain relief and the hope of maintaining some sort of body condition were the two main motives for Trenna doing exercises.

When she was able she would walk and exercise daily, and she was very disciplined at it. In the last two years of her life it was very hard to do much physical exercise at all, and I think she quietly grieved … Read the rest ... “Trenna’s Marfan Exercises”

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2010s Collected Wisdom iPad Knowledge Snippets and Vignettes

The Art of Conversation

multiple conference name tags
Hmmm! I did seem to go to a lot of conferences and networking events.

Wisdom From Trenna’s iPad

This is an item I noticed on Trenna’s iPad and thought I’d share. I knew it was there, and Trenna would remind me of it from time to time.

She was extremely supportive of my career and encouraged me in it. As a result I was involved in a number of professional organisations, and held some senior positions.

She was also supportive of me going to conferences and professional development sessions. Even when it meant I … Read the rest ... “The Art of Conversation”

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2010s Collected Wisdom Coping Featured iPad Knowledge Snippets and Vignettes

The Key to Happiness and Fulfilment

Trenna and Greg outdoors
"Happy & Relaxed @ Crowded House Gig." 14 November 2010, Sandleford Winery.

Intro by Greg, Wisdom by Trenna

Here is another pearl from Trenna’s iPad. It looks like she started it on 27 April 2016 (at 10:31 am) but then didn’t edit it again until 31 May 2017. (How nerdy is that detail I’ve given you?!)

PLEASE NOTE: It is a 3 page document from the iPad, if your browser is only showing one page you may need to click on the link or the Download button.

As I write this I … Read the rest ... “The Key to Happiness and Fulfilment”

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Carer Collected Wisdom Coping Featured Marfan Medical Travel

Marfan and Other Chronic Conditions – Things That Worked for Trenna

Trenna in Japan
"I had that one, Yum!" - Tokyo 1 April 2015

by Greg

A Need to Cope with Life

This is a list of some of the strategies Trenna adopted to try to cope with life and her many medical issues. She didn’t have a specific list of these items. This is just the things I remember us trying.

I’m expecting (hoping?) that this post might be helpful to people living with chronic disease, and their carers. But of course everyone’s situation is different.

For most of her life she was … Read the rest ... “Marfan and Other Chronic Conditions – Things That Worked for Trenna”

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2010s Carer Collected Wisdom Coping Featured iPad Knowledge Love and Marriage Marfan

Living With Your Spouse

Greg and Trenna in front of masses of love padlocks
Prague 28 May 2012. There must be a lot of keys in that river.

The iPad Documents – Collected and Created Knowledge From Trenna

This post is a simple one, but to Trenna and I the following was important.

In May 2017 Trenna wrote the PDF document that appears below. The formatting was as she wrote it on her iPad. The font size she used was large to help her read it.

The distinctive colour was to help her find it on her iPad when the document was minimised.

As far as I can … Read the rest ... “Living With Your Spouse”