February 2026 Life Updates
- Ash
- 5 hours ago
- 8 min read
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Welcome back to another monthly life update! What have Ashy, Benji, and Luke been up to this month? February has gone SO fast. It's crazy. I kinda feel like when you have so many appointments and lots of health issues, sometimes you just dissociate from real life.
Previous 2026 Life Updates:
January 2026 Life Updates (8 min read)
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February 2026 Life Updates
I have had a few more health appointments this month, and I am VERY overwhelmed with them. There is just so much going on. I've had a few regular appointments with the POTS physio (who I still think is a bit odd, but I'm sure I'll get some good resources out of it). I also had an ultrasound of my bowel to help completely rule out IBD/Crohn's. The ultrasound was clear, BUT it was an actual doctor doing it rather than a nurse, and she was pretty unhappy that my haematologist hadn't investigated my blood markers or high CRP further. LOL. So that's fun. So yeah, we still don't have anything concrete or a formal diagnosis (just suspected blood disorder and POTS).
I need to do a blood test again soon for my GP to check my iron and B12 levels (and see what my platelets are doing). I feel like I get a blood test every other month LOL. I'm still struggling with weird chronic health symptoms (ugh). It's getting exhausting.
I stepped on a piece of glass that was on the floor and thought I'd stepped on an actual nail - glad it was not Benji but me, and then I also stepped on a toenail that had somehow come out of the bin (so gross), so my foot hurt for a while. It wasn't much of a new pain because I get burning nerve pains in my hands and feet all the time. It's still not pleasant.
I had my first two therapy appointments for the year, and the location has changed, and the rooms are SO much bigger than the old clinic. I'm very happy with my psychologist; I feel like I got really lucky with who I was paired up with. In the past, I've had some shockers. Like, once a counsellor told me I should date my students (ew).
We deep-cleaned our house for our rental inspection, and that was over pretty quickly. I think everything is all good. I took Benji down to the park that day, and he had so much fun that day. He even met a Kelpie pupper called Jack. Oh, and we had a gas safety check, so no more leaks!!
It was Luke's mum's birthday, and unfortunately, I missed it due to having a really bad migraine. I also completely lost my voice from a really awful cold. It sounds like they all had really yummy food out. I definitely feel very guilty when I can't make things, and like a failure. I'm trying. It's hard when you have to put yourself first.
Because I was sick on Valentine's Day, we didn't do much. Luke made breakfast before he went to cricket, and then he spent the day playing cricket and had a Sri Lankan night at his cricket club. The following day, we made a really basic dessert board. Hopefully, next year will be better and we can celebrate V Day. We did do a Valentine's Day photoshoot with Benji the week before; that was cute.
I finally made Apple and Cinnamon Muffins. Check out the recipe "here".
Benji had his second Gotcha Day! We didn't do much because I had my ultrasound that day and a cold. Last year, I made a vlog, but I'm honestly so behind on YT stuff. I only got out two vlogs this month (but hey, at least February is a short month).
We spent one evening down at Williamstown Beach and Botanic Gardens and took lots of photos - it's my favourite place right now. I wish I lived closer. Something about that place recharges me.
Some cafes that we went to this month were Lune (for croissants) and Fairfield Park Boathouse. Oh, and we tried Zambrero (the Mexican takeaway place). The Boathouse one is REALLY nice, but the stairs to get back up to the car park are really steep - my HR surpassed 170 (ugh). We're not going out for brunch as much as we're saving for our upcoming trip in August. We do have a few vouchers we need to use this year, so maybe we can use those and turn them into date nights.
WOO WE FINALLY BOOKED OUR TRIP TO VANCOUVER, CANADA IN AUGUST. I AM SO EXCITED!! Flights were cheap, so we grabbed them. We're also doing the 10c cans thing to help save for our trip, so if anyone in Melbourne has cans they were gonna recycle, we'd love it if you sent them our way. I am very excited to meet my pen pal, Tayler, but also scared of a long flight and the jet lag. I know it'll be worth it. We're going through Sydney so we can avoid fascist USA. So an easy 1-hour flight, then 14 hours - crazy! Fingers crossed, we just sleep for most of it.
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The YouTube videos I have put out are as follows: Daily Life + My 2026 Goals // Wednesday Diaries: A Cosy Day In My Life. Not heaps of vlogs this month. I don't know whether I should go back to my "talking heads" sociology videos or keep making "aesthetic cosy" vlogs.
The Freaky Friday Files I have put out are as follows: Things I'm Afraid Of // Troxler's Fading // The Denmark Tremors.
TV Shows that Luke and I have been watching are: The X-Files, Dog Park (really great), The Weekly, I'm a Celebrity - so happy with the winner, Last Week Tonight, 30 Rock, and we finally finished The Office, woo!! Every time I watch it, I get grumpy about what happens with Ed Helm's character Andy, stupid. I am looking forward to Luke getting to watch The Paper now. I love Domhnall Gleeson LOL (and how good is his American accent?!) Sorry, but I think he's a better actor than his dad.
TV Shows that I have been enjoying are: Tracker S3 - no idea when Part 2 of S3 gets to Australia, but that was a MASSIVE cliffhanger, omfg, Sugar - amazing show on AppleTV, and Harlan Coben's Lazarus.
The books I have read are as follows: 1. 701 Life Lessons - Honerod 2. Think Straight - Darius Foroux 3. Hey Idiot!: Chronicles of Humanity - Leland Gregory You can read my February 2026 Book Reviews "here".
We've been doing a few walks down at the Westbreen Creek, and Benji loves it because he sees so many doggos - especially on Saturday mornings. It's also a good walk for me because it does have an incline change, but it's amongst a lot of trees so it's not super hot. I also really like being there because of how the sun reflects at different times of the day.
Step counter updates: I made my 2026 Goals for the year, and one of those was to get to 5K steps per day, so here's my little table for the month of February. I'll come back and add in the last steps once the month is over (being sick and implementing my new energy expenditure has changed this a little).
STEPS | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY |
WEEK 1 | 3261 | ||||||
WEEK 2 | 5137 | 1402 | 5114 | 3497 | 7667 | 5077 | 2734 |
WEEK 3 | 5896 | 5155 | 2624 | 5190 | 2714 | 5089 | 3547 |
WEEK 4 | 5130 | 5073 | 3809 | 2691 | 8384 | 5064 | 3777 |
WEEK 5 | 6438 | 5056 | 4121 | ** | |||
I have been trialling my new electrolytes (Ancient Lakes), they're much nicer, but the whole dose still has a laxative effect on me, so I'm only taking a tiny bit in the morning and evening, alongside a gentle movement wake-up exercise programme & learning how to use my energy expenditure in a more sustainable way. I was told no HIIT workouts (just my gentle stretches and walks for now). And adding in a little bit more salt here and there - again, not as much as was recommended because I get the laxative effect (I'm sure all the IBD/IBS girlies out there know what I'm talking about). I managed to do a yoga for back pain 15 min workout, so I think that could help me.
We went down to the Doggy Day Out at Brew Dog Pentridge and met some people! Benji had a pup cup and got lots of treats. We didn't realise we needed to reserve a table, so we know that for next time (I felt a bit deflated because I had to keep walking around because the covered tables were all reserved, as it was raining). I like going out for dinner or drinks at Brew Dog because it's a low-energy activity for me, and Benji is allowed to come, and people always talk to us, so extra socialisation is great for a chronic illness girly. When we were walking out of Pentridge, we also met this little girl who saw Benji and was so excited, but very scared to pet him. All her sisters did, then she worked up the courage to pet him, and he was so great with all the children - it made my heart happy that Benji can bring that much joy into someone's life.
I feel like I may have had my very first "Glitch in the Matrix" experience. I was sorting out tea towels and then realised we had two of the exact same tea towel and was like "HUH?! I don't remember getting two of these". The most likely explanation is that I just don't remember, haha. I thought that was interesting.
Another "weird" thing that happened was one day when we were getting home, both Luke and I saw a person walking on the footpath near our house that we hadn't seen before, and we thought they were about to walk past our driveway, so we waited before turning, but then they just vanished! It looked like they disappeared out of nowhere. Luke thinks that they walked into one of the houses without us noticing, but it was just so weird.
One day, when Luke and I were in the car driving somewhere, we saw a bus that looked EXACTLY like the bus from the Magic School Bus with Miss Frizzle. It unlocked a core childhood memory for me: going into the kids' area at the CHCH museum and watching the show there. Funny how the CHCH Museum has been closed every time we've gone to CHCH, so Luke has never seen how cool it is.
Benji had a trip to the vet on Tuesday because over the weekend, he had a bit of greenish eye goop, so we wanted to get that checked out. He also started limping more than normal (he already has a bad hip), one day after the park, so we wanted to get that checked out, too. The vet said she thinks it's just a pulled muscle in Benji's knee, so he's been given pain meds for that, and she thinks he got conjunctivitis, so he's got ointment for that. Benji does seem to be healing,,, and he's on rest for this week then small little walks. He came to the coffee shop with us today just to get him out of the house and we're trying to do more enrichment with him while he recovers. If he doesn't get better after the meds, we will have to get an X-ray, but at this stage, we don't think it's connected to his dodgy hip.
Tomorrow, Luke has an office day, and then on Saturday, it's his last official game of cricket, and he's got a reverse raffle dinner in the evening. Such a busy bee!!
Things I am looking forward to in March are:
The weather cooling down more
Another haircut for me
A photoshoot with a client
Hopefully going to some zoos & taking more photos (I really want to go to Healesville and see the baby snow leopards at Melbourne Zoo)
Watching more sunsets
Luke having more time now that cricket is finished (although idk how true that will be if he still needs to go to events, etc).
Thank you for reading!
Ash xx
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