It's Been A While

Boy it's been a while hasn't it?

It's already well into October and once again my family has relocated to France for a couple of weeks during the school holidays. 

I am once again kitty sitting for my brother's family while they enjoy the French countryside or wherever there home is situated. They return on Friday, a day earlier than I first thought. So one less day of going in circles to look after the moggies.

Ultrasound

Well I'm due at the infirmary, one town over not one of our own hospitals which are close by oh no!!, I'm being sent to another town completely to get the x-ray my specialist wants me to have. So on Tuesday at 2 pm - my usual lunchtime - I have to be at this hospital at the x-ray dept. to have an ultrasound x-ray on both of my hands to presumably check for swelling because the specialist wants to decrease my intake of Sulphasalazine as I've been on the top rate that my body can handle for over a decade now.

Yep, I complain about pain increases which my pain relievers are absolutely no help with and instead he's wanting to curb another medication with no help for the increase of pain.

Also my Sulphasalazine is a disease suppressant which represses my immune system which in turn means my RA isn't attacking my body as much. In turn this is supposed to help slow down swelling and my immune system attacking my joints and organs. Only cutting down on the suppressant could mean my RA once again going into high gear and my immune system attacking my joints/organs more aggressively. It's a catch-22 whichever way you look at it.

Early Start

Well I had to get up super early today, again tomorrow but I'll get to that, as I had to take my youngest nephew to his Primary School early AM for the pre-school Christmas party. I was also mean't to take the middle boy to his Primary School beforehand but he seems to have come down with the stomach bug the youngest had at the weekend/earlier this week.

So with one boy home ill, another going into hospital for an operation, we had to take my youngest nephew super early before school to get him in in time for the pre-school Christmas party. Esp. after he missed the other Christmas Party his brothers attended that he couldn't because of the aforementioned stomach bug.

Now as my brother and his wife are returning to work tomorrow I need to get up super early again and get to their house prior to them leaving for work because the district nurse is coming sometime tomorrow to change the bandages on my eldest nephew's feet. No idea when tomorrow but given his incapacitation we can't move him afterwards or leave him alone while attending our own planned trips.So they have been delayed a day.

Also we might have my middle nephew to look after as well if his stomach bug hasn't settled down. So we might have 2 ill/injured/incapacitated little boys to look after. Also my brother's broadband is almost out of bandwidth for this month so I can't go online at all so there goes the plan to take the laptop or iPad to pass the time. A long day looking after a possibly cranky boy. Not that I would blame him given the pain he is in, if there is anything I know about is being in pain.

So my brother has packages for Christmas being delivered to our house so my Father would have to stay in at our house in case they arrive tomorrow.

So our plan to go finish our Christmas shopping and then do our grocery shopping is out and we will have to get up early Saturday to fulfil them. As Sunday we have our large Christmas shop to do at the supermarket, and Christmas Eve is spend cleaning and preparing our Christmas meal.

Day Late or Early?

Well I got my Citylink deliveries this afternoon. Both arrived together. One original due Monday and the other yesterday (Tuesday). So they are both officially late but the one I had to reschedule although it was due Monday it came out a day earlier than the earliest rescheduled delivery date they gave me yesterday.

I think that they were putting the second order out today to be delivered and someone realised there was an order rescheduled for Thursday for the same address and sent them out together rather than come to the same address two days running.

I suppose I should consider myself lucky that they didn't hold back the second package another day to fit the rescheduled date given.

Other news, tomorrow is a super early morning for me, my two youngest nephews will be dropped off well before 8 AM as the eldest is due into the hospital at 8 AM and we are a distance away from said hospital esp. during morning rush hour.

We have to give them both breakfast and drop each off at the relevant primary school. My youngest nephew isn't normally due in the AM class but tomorrow morning is the Christmas Party at the pre-school/nursery so we have to drop my youngest off by five to 9 AM in the morning. So the middle one will be dropped off around quarter to/ten to 9 AM and get to the second primary school by the five to nine for the start of the party.

My eldest nephew is due into hospital at 8 AM and is undergoing an operation of his big toe and both his parents are attending with him. Not that I blame them, I would do exactly the same in their shoes. So we have to go back for the youngest around 11.30 AM (just the same as last year when we did the same routine for his Christmas Party then) and there is a chance we have to go back in the afternoon to pick up the middle one after the end of school at 3.15 PM.

We will have my youngest nephew in the afternoon rather than the morning tomorrow and he's still not eating much. Poor love is suffering from a bad stomach virus, he just got over the flu a few days prior to getting the virus.

So that's about all that happening tomorrow.

Today we went to the cemetery to put down the Christmas wreaths on my Godparents and Maternal Grandparents graves. Just our way of including them in our festivities although they are no longer physically with us.

Seasons Greetings

So Christmas is fast approaching once again and in a week we will be getting ready for the last ‘sleep’ before Santa as the children’s programmes keep informing us.

This coming week will undoubtedly be the busiest for myself and my family, what with getting ready for the actual day, finishing shopping for stocking fillers, finish wrapping (started doing this this afternoon!), delivering wreaths to my family graves, three different graves at two different cemeteries (which is scheduled for Wednesday), grocery shopping for the festive break (scheduled for Sunday the 23rd, the 23rd being our preferred day leaving Christmas Eve for preparing food and any emergency items we need to rush to the supermarket for before early closing time).

And those are just the tip of the iceberg for the coming week, also tomorrow (Tuesday) and Thursday are childminding days when we look after my youngest nephew then put him into his nursery class at 1pm. Also my youngest nephew has come down with a stomach bug which is a shame as he is just getting over a horrid cold.

Also my eldest nephew is going into the hospital on Thursday to have an operation on his big toe, he has a horrid ingrown toenail which is causing the toe to become continually badly infected. It’s an in-patient appointment for a short operation which means he goes in early (around 8am actually) and hopefully will get out in the late afternoon at the latest.

Also on Thursday (or Friday) depending on my schedule (with my eldest nephew going into hospital that day we might have the school run and feeding the eldest two that afternoon/night) to drive across town and hand in our (my parents and I as well as a couple of small things on behalf of my nephews) presents for our aunt into her house as well as pick up the bags she generally has. Not all ours, mostly gifts for my three nephews, my brother and sister-in-law as well as our own from her to save my Dad struggling home on the bus with multiple bags of gifts.

So all in all a busy busy week!!

So hopefully it will be worth it on the day(s) to come.

So if I don’t get back to you before then, have a great holiday season regardless of your religion or beliefs on the season, I wish you all well and hope you have a great time.

It's Here

At long frigging last people!!

Argos delivered my Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight today along with the Argos order I placed for my Mum on Sunday. Argos must of decided to deliver both orders at the same time, the second order's delivery scheduled day. Pity they didn't figure to inform me of the change of delivery date for the Nook when they did that and I wasted an entire day waiting in and looking out for a delivery van arriving. I had my blinds open till quarter past eight last night without reason, we prefer on cold dark nights to close them darn things and try to ignore the approaching winter season as much as possible. We feel the cold we don't need to see the accompanying darkness.

1942

Why the date? Well today is my Mum's 70th birthday so it means she was born in 1942, hence the post title. Also coming up with post titles gets monotonous and difficult after a while.

I gave her a new fifth generation iPod touch in red which she loves, my Dad gave her a new watch and some toffee, from my brother and his family she got a football top with the number 70 on the back ( he said it was either that or 'Old Git') as well as a digital photo-frame with a SD-card full of pictures of my three nephews.

Next up is my sister-in-law's 40th birthday on the 30th of the month. My middle nephew, also my Godson, turns 8 on the 25th of November and his Dad turns 38 a week before hand on the 18th of November. After that there is only Christmas to see to. Yikes, busy busy.

A Week to Go

I mentioned to my Mum to enjoy her last week in her sixties. Come next Saturday, just one short week away, she will turn 70 and enter her seventies.

On a great note, the iPod 5th Generation I pre-ordered away back on the 14th September in hopes it would release and be delivered in time for her 70th birthday was dispatched yesterday via TNT. So I'm thrilled, the amount of times I've heard, "One day I'll get a new iPod just for myself and not a hand me down from you!" I can't count. Not only will she get a brand new iPod but also be the first in our family to get the new iPod touch. I pre-ordered the exclusive red one which is only available from Apple themselves for her.

I'm excited to see how she reacts to getting it. I think I'm more excited about giving her the iPod than she will be about receiving it!! <g>

Cream Crackered

Well, it's official I am cream crackered. Today was along, sore and not to forget tiring day. I had to get up early this morning to get my Dad's sister June to the hospital for her wrist operation done. Only it wasn't our hospital but the one a city over instead. So instead of a quick ten minute trip there and back, traffic lights permitting, I had two round trips today amounting to over 100 miles. I'm totally sore and everything hurts. I had to get gel put onto my bad shoulder prior to both journeys. So I could get through them at all. Now I find that this is the first of two wrists that needs this surgery. So I might have to do the same 100 plus miles round trips sometime in the next few weeks again. Sucky to say the least. Also tomorrow is another early morning as my Mum is due at the dentist's at 9.30 to see about a filling she lost which is causing her a lot of pain and discomfort. After the dentist she wants to go into the city centre to go to her building society and hit a couple of shops. So another tiring and early day tomorrow. Not as bad as today thankfully but still an early bird special.

Walking

I've come to the conclusion that my Dabs order is obviously walking up to Scotland from Wednesbury. The parcel left the Wednesbury Hub at one minute after midnight on the second of March and it's now almost ten past five pm on the third of March. Yup ... 41 hours and 7 minutes after it left depot and no update.

Just a quick post to vent ...

My three nephews have just been picked up about half an hour ago after being here since early while their parents went through to CostCo.

Not much to say. My hands were pretty sore this morning as was my wrists so I'm not up to typing much. Sorry!

A Break

No I'm not taking a break from blogging, I am finally getting more than a couple of weeks intervals between therapy sessions. My physiotherapist on Wednesday has given me a month's break before my next check-in with him. He also said if I don't deteriorate any when I come he will probably discharge me with my regime of physiotherapy.

So good news there. My OT which I attended on Thursday wanted to see me in 3 to 4 weeks but said she was booked solid for the coming month as far as she knew so it would probably be around 5 to 6 weeks before I got a appointment to return.

As the receptionist who makes the appointments had left for the day by the time I walked back to the reception area we pushed the sheet the therapist gave me through the glass windows for her to get the next day and send out an appointment to me for my next OT check-in.

I have gotten myself a small pocket camcorder, a Kodak PlaySport ZX5, which Amazon had on sale for amount 40% off RRP. I also bought a 16GB SDHC card, a tripod (gorrilla pod), a pouch as well as a remote control (which is still to arrive, next week sometime according to seller).

So I seriously using my cam to do a video diary of my Fibro/RA/Carpal Tunnel etc., so that when I return to the OT I can accurately tell her how I got on with the hand splints she gave me as she asked me to last time. As I have extreme difficulty writing or typing I find that either audio or video records to be the easiest way to adequately keep track of my various aches, pains and difficulties.

I also got the cam to allow me to vlog my book reviews, this was my main reason for wanting one to be honest. I have fallen terribly behind in my reviewing as I couldn't handle the hand and wrist pain that typing up reviews was causing me. So I thought I could record my review, upload to a free service like YouTube and embed the review in a blog post.

I'm still learning to use the cam and trying to find the best quality, ease and resulting video at the moment. I'm using the health diary I am recording for myself as a way to get used to recording videos. I have found that I have extreme difficulty keeping my eyes trained on the camera lens and not wandering all over the place. That said I do this is real life and find it hard to look directly at people while speaking to them, so it's not just a video/cam problem, it's something I do a lot in real life.

It's actually a form of fibro-fog as I struggle to concentrate.

Well, my hands and wrists are starting to hurt again to I'll sign off here. Maybe I'll even post a vlog post here, who knows?!!!

GRRR...

My mother who is attending this stupid WFI with me first thing Monday morning is insisting on washing my hair tomorrow so I can be 'all neat and tidy' for my appointment.

I'm not so fussy to be honest. My hair is clean and non greasy and doesn't need it in my opinion and as I pointed out to her the more effort and dressy I attend as could backfire badly on my claim as I can't do this for myself, let alone on a daily basis as mentioned on my claim forms and turning up like I'm attending a job interview would be misleading on my actual circumstances.

But she's insisting that's better than showing up scruffy - which I assume she's saying my normal appearance is - will make my advisor think I'm too lazy to dress as I should when attending appointments.

Can't win, can I?

As I am relying on her to accompany me as a witness as well as support I have no chance of changing her mind. I will get my hair washed regardless of my physical condition tomorrow but I am intent on dressing only in my usual comfy clothes as regardless of the terminology my mum uses this isn't a interview that I see necessary to dress up for.

Especially if I can be expected to sitting in an uncomfortable chair for an extended period. Something I am unable to do in the most comfortable of chairs let alone those found in JCP offices.

Well I've moaned enough about my appointment on Monday for today, one last thing to mention before ending my posting for today. I got an appointment through for the physiotherapist today, no sign of any for the occupational therapist yet. Rather stupid to send a physio one through before I'm fully assessed which was supposed to be this month in a dual appointment with both therapists together where a therapy course would begin to take shape before I started the actual therapy courses.

But then this first physio isn't till December the 22nd so there is plenty of time for my dual assessment appointment to be sent through before my first physio date arrives.

Nippy November

Well it's November already, how this year has just flown in.

I am still experiencing a lot of shoulder pain (and elsewhere) and am finding using my keyboard/mouse very painful and slow.

Usually I touch type and don't actually look at my keys now typing on one hand only has me looking at the keys to find each one I need, nearly impossible to do as several of my keys are faded and show no letters to make sure I'm using the right one. Making me too slow in creating any posts, not to mention very painful when I do attempt.

You will also note misspelling and wrong letters ... so on not making sense in my previous posts. This is because I am struggling through and posting only to find errors later when I reread them. If it's not glaringly obvious and readers can still understand what I'm trying to say I haven't bothered editing the post ... so sorry for that everyone.

I have finally remembered that I have a budget tablet sitting next to my keyboard, in front of my hard drive tower, which would be easier to type on as the small built in keyboard in my case is best used one handed. Also using my one fairly decent arm/hand/shoulder I can type out more concise and understandable posts. I tested this theory tonight while waiting in my car for my eldest nephew to return from his guitar lesson and found while typing posts this way is slower than I am used to, I tend to create more concise well thought out posts which have little or no editing needed to 'fix' them for posting.

Also the on screen keyboard I'm using suggests words as you type and for long words that I repeat it makes the process of typing out posts a lot easier and a bit quicker.

So hopefully I will be posting more about my views on all thing I consider pertinent as a disabled woman who happens to blog. I'm currently working on a post on being a disabled blogger and how I see the internet - and blogs/forums for disabled and ill person - as a positive thing for people who can find themselves cut off from the outside world by their disability.

Functionality

Well, happy Halloween again to all of you, I have been to my rheumatology clinic today. Given the effect of my RA and Fibro on me I was given a steroid injection into my left shoulder which I can move making me left side of my upper body unusable.

I am currently typing one handed as I have been told not to use my left arm/shoulder for a few days at least. Not that I could use it anyway.

I am waiting for appointments for both an occupational therapist and the physiotherapist, both of whom I met today after my appointment. I have no functionality which means I can't wash/dry myself, take care of hygiene, cook, make myself a drink or basically do the everyday tasks people do everyday.

I am looking at a lot of therapy over the next months, it could be a couple of years before I have even enough functionality to take care of my own basic needs. Then the therapists intend to help me tackle my extreme fatigue. Just to allow me to take care of my own everyday needs independently.

I was given two new 'comfy' crutches to replace the one basic one I've been using for years. I am due back with my doctor in six months instead of the usual year I've been attending.

This therapy is just to help me live independently as much as possible so that when I am alone I can live independently in my own home.

Hopefully my letters, both therapist and the clinic, will come through before the 14th when I have my first WFI as part of the WRAG group.

It's been made clear to me by the therapists that I am completely unfit for work and am looking at months and months of intense therapy to allow me to take care of daily tasks like dressing, hygiene, cooking, eating and so on. Including any special adaptions to my home I might need and any special aids I will need to start beginning to use.

Just now I am learning to use two crutches and it's like learning to walk all over again. I had the same problems when I first starting using 1 crutch.

Hopefully the DWP (and ATOS if they get involved due to my appeal) will see sense and not add to my intense workload as I learn to live with my now officially recognised regenerative condition. I am relieved to be honest as my future was scary as I can't even wash myself or cook for myself let alone everything else and without my Mother I would be in big trouble. Now the therapists have promised to help me gain the skills to help that future not seem too impossible.