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This year started off very badly for me. Actually, I should say last year ended very badly. Around November I did a visa run to Singapore and I got very sick from some kind of virus I picked up from somewhere.
It took a long time to recover and it drained me so much but I had to keep working because my finances were getting to a level that was pretty scary.
The economic crisis forced three of my contracts to be postponed or deferred and it left me with income from only the other two contracts which were not really sufficient to run my little cat shelter as well as to do the mandatory visa runs every 60 days, and the day to day living expenses. ]
It's a long story about the visa runs...suffice to say, I have to pay for my own visa runs as I am here on a business visa which I applied for myself and not through the people I am contracted to.
I stopped going to the office and started working from home while trying to recover from the mystery illness which plagued me for a long time. I had no real visible symptoms to show I was sick except that I was exhausted every single minute of the day. Something like chronic fatigue syndrome I guess. So I stayed home and did all my work from home and isolated myself more and more as the weeks and months went by.
I kept my illness to myself, I never told my work colleagues nor my friends in Jakarta, and certainly didnt want anyone in Perth to know about it. I never even told GreatMartin who I talk to on a daily basis because I really didnt know what was wrong with me and I didnt want any lectures.....I'm a stubborn so and so when it comes to things like this. Not that Martin would "lecture" me, or would he?...lol. I did mention on a couple of my posts that I was sick but didnt elaborate.
I became very depressed at Christmas time because I could not afford to go home to Perth to share Christmas with my family and friends, and things just went from bad to worse since then. I had other nasty issues I was dealing with at the time which exacerbated everything and it was the pits!!!
In March I decided to go down to Perth as I had to burn my one year return ticket which I bought the year before, and also re-new my 12 month visa with the Indonesian Consulate in Perth.
I decided to go to the doctor for a general check-up which was so long overdue, and discovered I was suffering from hypertension. My blood pressure reading was 197/112 which was just a little bit high...lol.
This was a shock to me because I do not have a weight problem, I fluctuate between 47 to 50 kgs which is ideal for my height, I do enough exercise (I believe) and I eat pretty healthy stuff most of the time.
I explained to the doctor that it was more a result of stress rather than anything else, I had been sick and I was very stressed about my job/financial situation and I was depressed about not coming down to Perth for Christmas.
I was having trouble sleeping and was anxious and angry all the time, so he prescribed some ativan to help me sleep and reduce my anxiety. (I found out later on that ativan is valium and I didnt want to take them so I stopped after a few days)
I was prescribed medication for my high bp but it made me feel really sick, very lethargic and seemed to sap every ounce of energy which got worse and worse as each week went by.
When I came back to Jakarta, I went to see another doctor who prescribed me a different type of bp med and my blood pressure stabilized within the normal range and I didnt get the chronic side effects I suffered from with the other ones.
Things improved from then on, I started going back to the office Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and gradually I went back to going in full time five days a week. It helped with my depression as I was no longer isolating myself at home and being in an office saying hello and chatting with my colleagues every day was all I really needed so I didnt feel so lonely any more.
I enrolled in a wellness programme with the Body Clinic in Jakarta, they have a very good GP, an excellent chiropractor who does wonderful adjustments to my neck and spine.....feels so good...and they have a work-out area with a treadmill and they monitor your heart rate and bp while you do 20 minutes of brisk walking.
They have professional therapists who teach you how to eat healthy, and maintain a healthy system without the need for drugs or supplements and I'm doing really well with the programme.
I have since been given the go ahead to resume one of the contracts which was deferred and things are starting to get better every day.
I hit a rough patch, but I got through it through sheer determination and bull-headedness....and a little bit of motivational help from some on-line buddies and the rest as the say is history.
What lies ahead for me is still up in the air. This contract will see me through to the end of this year, if the other two are resurrected I can choose to continue or I also have the option of going home to Perth for good.
I havent decided yet because I still have a situation with what to do with my adopted babies....I still have to find homes for them and it is difficult....part of the difficulty is my refusal to part with them because I just love them so much.
I will just live life as it comes, take one day at a time, make the most of what I've got and what I've achieved, and God or fate or destiny will take care of the rest.
Lots of love from this lot, anyway. 
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