Yup, back in February. And now that University is over and my dissertation is in, I can start planning it properly - my first wedding dress appointment is in June. *EXCITEMENT*
Monday, 7 May 2012
The Waiting Game
Sometimes you have to take things into your own hands and make things happen. Finding the waiting times for the Baclofen pump surgery ridiculous, I rung up my surgeon's secretary and tried to get an ETA on waiting times - they were not good. I could be married by that point and still not have it (oh yeah, by the way, I got engaged, woo!). So I asked if I changed hospitals, would the waiting time be shorter, and BINGO! They gave a rough waiting time of 8 to 12 weeks - GOOD GOD. If I had known that I would have changed waaaay sooner.
So I am now on the waiting list at the new hospital, and in two days time I meet with my new surgeon so I can get to know who he is. This is awesome news, but I am going to remain cautiously optimistic as with hospitals things can change very quickly. But still, YAY!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Part II
The Ugly (cont.): I can only assume the pain blinded me to all sensible decisions, as even after that I STILL decided to travel back on the train. Instead of, you know, the sensible choice of going to the nearest A&E. One bumpy taxi ride later, we are nearing home (my street at the time was full of speed bumps), when I finally decide we better head to A&E. The taxi driver was awesome, and did his best to drive has carefully as possible.
Once at A&E, it was a loooong wait (without pain killers) before I got seen, with Ben having to explain the procedure I had had earlier. Over and over again. Finally I was admitted, and by this point the spinal headaches had kicked in, which as anyone who has had needles in the spinal area will know, are the WORST. HEADACHES. EVER.
And so, sweet, sweet pain relief in the form of morphine arrived.
The Good: I finally got out of hospital just over a week later, all scans and blood tests fine, to come home to a brand SHINY NEW WHEELCHAIR! Yup, my Quickie Helium had arrived - good timing, right? The move into the new bungalow happened a few weeks later, so even more great stuff!
Also, my re-trial was set for a later date, and this procedure went without incident and was 100% successful! The best way of describe the feeling over Baclofen is of a warm, floaty feeling and most chilled out I have ever been ever. If they could have put the pump in then there I would have been all "HELL YEAH!" I also slept like a log that night, which never happens unless I am absolutely knackered.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Part I
Has it really been September since I updated this? Damn. Apologies, but what with work, my dissertation, moving, hospital appointments, this just slipped off my radar. So I will try and keep this as to the point as possible, but there is a lot to cover!
The Good: Last I posted, I was about to have Phenol Injections - and the procedure went exactly as planned, it was a little painful, but having needles injected into your thighs would never be a pleasant experience! After doing some bendy tests, my consultant was happy with the results.
The Bad: The Phenol injections have now worn off, boooo. They didn't last as long as I thought they would, which is a shame.
The Good: Following this I also had my Baclofen trial shortly after, which involved injecting baclofen into the spinal fluid. I have taken a video of the procedure, which I might upload some time in the future, but I know some people find medical prodecures and big needles iffy.
The Bad: The trial had to be stopped halfway through as they couldn't get any spinal dluid out, so were not able to procede, again, booooo. This was after the needle had been inserted, wiggled about, taken out, re-inserted, wiggled about, etc, in about 4 or 5 different places in my lower spine. At one point the nedle brushed a nerve ending, and pain shot down my left leg. FUN. So after all this fun having needles repeatedly inserted into my spine, the procedure couldn't be completed! No fault with my consultant, she was lovely and doing the best she could for it to be as painless as possible.
The Ugly: Having gone home in some mild discomfort, and napped at my parents for a bit, we decided to head back home. This involved catching a train at The Dreaded New Street Station, which, in hindsight, was a terrible idea. The mild discomfort had now gone up a level, but all hell broke loose when I decided to use the loo before catching the train. Now the disabled loo there, is basically, scary in most cases, as the light is on a timer and will switch off by itself - very annoying if you are not ready to leave, not to mention the scary noise of the air freshner coming on! So what is the worst thing that could happen? Getting on the loo was fine - then the pain kicked in. I will refer you to this:
Hyperbole and a Half's Scale of Pain
The pain was probably a 8-9 Yes, on the loo, in the dark, and unable to transfer back to my chair because the slightest movement was searing agony. My screams could probably be heard throughout New Street station. If I wasn't in so much pain I probably would have been mortified when I was finally rescued.
Monday, 5 September 2011
Hospital Updates et al
Quickly adding this onto the blog, as Something Important is happening tomorrow which I haven't got round to posting about.
As briefly mentioned, I have been going to a rehabilitation unit for Physio and Occupational Therapy, which has been interesting, fun, tiring, but all the people there are lovely and has been going well (albeit a couple of dramas, but anywhoo). I have attempted pottery, with one successful piece (if slightly childish looking), a complete disaster of a teapot (very structurally unsound), and I am now attempting another pot.
The Big News is that I will get my Phenol Nerve Block injections tomorrow, and then on the 19th I will have my Baclofen day trial - woah! I have just realised that a few posts ago I never said what the last minute Dr appointment was about. Well it was to get the above sorted out, as my consultant could see my patience was wearing thin.
To put it succinctly as possible, the Phenol nerve block will reduce the tightness in two of the worst offending muscles groups in my legs, and also act as a stop gap whilst waiting to get the Baclofen Pump. Try and imagine a bass beat being pumped under your skin and into your nerves and that is kind of how it feels. Freaky but cool. The anesthetic nerve trial proved successful (giggling is apparently an unusual reaction to this), so the go ahead was given for the full on nerve block.
The nerve block should last up to 12 months, and will take away some of the supporting tone in my legs, so this will be interesting to see how it turns out.
As briefly mentioned, I have been going to a rehabilitation unit for Physio and Occupational Therapy, which has been interesting, fun, tiring, but all the people there are lovely and has been going well (albeit a couple of dramas, but anywhoo). I have attempted pottery, with one successful piece (if slightly childish looking), a complete disaster of a teapot (very structurally unsound), and I am now attempting another pot.
The Big News is that I will get my Phenol Nerve Block injections tomorrow, and then on the 19th I will have my Baclofen day trial - woah! I have just realised that a few posts ago I never said what the last minute Dr appointment was about. Well it was to get the above sorted out, as my consultant could see my patience was wearing thin.
To put it succinctly as possible, the Phenol nerve block will reduce the tightness in two of the worst offending muscles groups in my legs, and also act as a stop gap whilst waiting to get the Baclofen Pump. Try and imagine a bass beat being pumped under your skin and into your nerves and that is kind of how it feels. Freaky but cool. The anesthetic nerve trial proved successful (giggling is apparently an unusual reaction to this), so the go ahead was given for the full on nerve block.
The nerve block should last up to 12 months, and will take away some of the supporting tone in my legs, so this will be interesting to see how it turns out.
Calvert Trust
This was going to be a long rambling post, but my diary is so packed right now I don't really have time or energy for posts, so doing this in between phone calls at work!
So, where to begin...The weekend at the Calvert Trust in the Lake District was brilliant, even better than I expected, and I did things I thought I would not be able to do!
We arrived on the friday, and after a mild panic that the bus had gone without us, picked up by one of the Trust's vans. Arriving at the centre, the bedroom was amzing, with a view looking over the lake and fields (which had sheep running all over them, so cute!)
I could go on forever about the weekend, so I will try to be as succinct as possible. The Friday evening was spent on a ramble up the hill behind the centre, looking over the lake, followed by a quick dip in the Hydrotherapy pool, which had a sauna as well, complete with floaty equipment. True to their word, dinner was a 3 course meal of proper, hearty food.
The Saturday morning was spent doing all things climbing, from abseiling backwards down a steep slope in a wheelchair, the Leap Of Faith - jumping/staggering onto a trapeze bar and swinging from a great height across the climbing hall, so my piece de resistance - the climbing wall itself. A few years ago I had attempted one had failed miserably, but with the wall at a slight incline, and with a starting boost and encouragement, I got all the way to the top! The abseil down was actually more terrifying, but yay, I did it!
As a result of this success I have gone a bit adrenaline crazy and started challenging myself in other areas (but more on that in other posts).
The rest of the day was spent Horse Riding and Archery, where a) I did not fall of the horse, and b) actually managed to hit the target!
The day ended with another huge dinner, a nice dip in the hydro pool, and spending time confusing the sheep opposite the centre.
Sunday morning I faced my enemy...water. For today was the canoeing activity. Having had some not encouraging experience with water based activities, I was cynical I would enjoy the session. However, with not one, but TWO life jackets on (one to keep me afloat, the other to stop me tipping over onto my face and causing panicked flailing of limbs), and placed on what was promised the most untippable canoe, I was ready.
And I actually enjoyed it and we rowed over to the other end of the lake for a nice cuppa.
After this most of the others started to head off home, but a few of use used the afternoon to go on a wheel/walk into Keswick and for a drink, a nice way to round off the weekend.
So, all in all, it was a brilliant weekend, and I now have mad ideas of what else I want to do! I will definately be going back, dragging with me as many people as possible. Pictures WILL be promised eventually, but I do not have access to them on my work computer. Plus I have plans for them.
Ok, this still was quite a long post, so just imagine how long it would have been if I had gone into every tiny detail. Like sitting through your Aunt's holiday photo collection in painstaking detail.
So, where to begin...The weekend at the Calvert Trust in the Lake District was brilliant, even better than I expected, and I did things I thought I would not be able to do!
We arrived on the friday, and after a mild panic that the bus had gone without us, picked up by one of the Trust's vans. Arriving at the centre, the bedroom was amzing, with a view looking over the lake and fields (which had sheep running all over them, so cute!)
I could go on forever about the weekend, so I will try to be as succinct as possible. The Friday evening was spent on a ramble up the hill behind the centre, looking over the lake, followed by a quick dip in the Hydrotherapy pool, which had a sauna as well, complete with floaty equipment. True to their word, dinner was a 3 course meal of proper, hearty food.
The Saturday morning was spent doing all things climbing, from abseiling backwards down a steep slope in a wheelchair, the Leap Of Faith - jumping/staggering onto a trapeze bar and swinging from a great height across the climbing hall, so my piece de resistance - the climbing wall itself. A few years ago I had attempted one had failed miserably, but with the wall at a slight incline, and with a starting boost and encouragement, I got all the way to the top! The abseil down was actually more terrifying, but yay, I did it!
As a result of this success I have gone a bit adrenaline crazy and started challenging myself in other areas (but more on that in other posts).
The rest of the day was spent Horse Riding and Archery, where a) I did not fall of the horse, and b) actually managed to hit the target!
The day ended with another huge dinner, a nice dip in the hydro pool, and spending time confusing the sheep opposite the centre.
Sunday morning I faced my enemy...water. For today was the canoeing activity. Having had some not encouraging experience with water based activities, I was cynical I would enjoy the session. However, with not one, but TWO life jackets on (one to keep me afloat, the other to stop me tipping over onto my face and causing panicked flailing of limbs), and placed on what was promised the most untippable canoe, I was ready.
And I actually enjoyed it and we rowed over to the other end of the lake for a nice cuppa.
After this most of the others started to head off home, but a few of use used the afternoon to go on a wheel/walk into Keswick and for a drink, a nice way to round off the weekend.
So, all in all, it was a brilliant weekend, and I now have mad ideas of what else I want to do! I will definately be going back, dragging with me as many people as possible. Pictures WILL be promised eventually, but I do not have access to them on my work computer. Plus I have plans for them.
Ok, this still was quite a long post, so just imagine how long it would have been if I had gone into every tiny detail. Like sitting through your Aunt's holiday photo collection in painstaking detail.
Friday, 12 August 2011
Way Overdue
It has been over a month since I last posted, where I left it hanging with me off to the Lake District. The reason for this is that no sooner than I had returned everything that could happen at once, kicked off.
1) I started an online course in Python Programming.
2) The job offer I had been waiting for rung me to say I had got the job(woo!, also argh!).
3) Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy started again. A few weeks into this and I was referred to the day rehab unit two days a week.
4) I was meant to start working on a University module assignment retake.
5) A new family arrival in the form of Lulu (Guinea Pig shaped!).
So you can see, things have been a bit hectic lately! Because there is a lot to update on, I'm going to split it up into separate blog posts for readability, so apologies for mass-postings.
1) I started an online course in Python Programming.
2) The job offer I had been waiting for rung me to say I had got the job(woo!, also argh!).
3) Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy started again. A few weeks into this and I was referred to the day rehab unit two days a week.
4) I was meant to start working on a University module assignment retake.
5) A new family arrival in the form of Lulu (Guinea Pig shaped!).
So you can see, things have been a bit hectic lately! Because there is a lot to update on, I'm going to split it up into separate blog posts for readability, so apologies for mass-postings.
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