This entire post is dedicated to mouth ulcers. They are the devil's work.
It doesn't matter how much pain I am in or how sick I am, there is nothing more depressing than a mouth ulcer. In the last 3 weeks I have had around 5, usually waiting for one to clear up before another appears. I have lost 2kg in weight (I did not want to lose weight), I have barely managed to eat and keep myself hydrated without horrible pain, I have been miserable and unable to talk, I have been probably not very nice to ALS and I am fed up.
In between mouth ulcers I had a cold for 5 days, it was a nasty cold but still more bearable than a singular ulcer!
I have tried every remedy going and just about managed to force meals down myself but they seriously get me down. I love food, it is a very rare occasion that I turn down anything edible but I have been turning down all sorts of goodies.
I get a lot of pain in my hypermobile joints and although the pain in the joints is far worse than the ulcer pain, it's just far less likely to make me want to bury my head under a pillow and sleep until it goes away.
Do you have any simple ailment that you find more depressing than anything else and people think you're making way too much fuss over? Feel free to share - leave a comment or send an email to ivfjourney2000@gmail.com.
Monday, 7 September 2015
Sunday, 6 September 2015
I DO understand!
It makes me laugh on a daily basis how when I speak about looking forward to having children people (some with children, some without children) look at me like I'm insane and tell me that I don't get how hard it's going to be and I can't possibly understand because I don't have children. It makes me kind of sad that nobody seems to advocate motherhood. People are very quick to tell you the bad side and why you shouldn't have children, it's very rare to come across someone who actually says that they love being a mother and tell you it's the most rewarding thing ever. But as we all know, it's easier to complain than to share something good!
Firstly, I am in no way expecting having children to be "easy", I'd love to be a stay at home mum but I do appreciate that it's probably a LOT harder than the job I do on a daily basis. I don't want children because I think it'll be easy. I want children because I want to bring life into the world, raise it alongside ALS and have someone to pass on my knowledge to and love unconditionally. I know that I will probably be the hardest (and definitely longest) journey of my life but I am still excited for it.
Secondly, the process of having children will, for ALS and myself, be arduous in itself. There is a lot of time, effort and unpleasant procedures that is going to go into ensuring that any child we have can be healthy. The sheer amount of work that will go into creating any pregnancy we achieve is going to be massively difficult in itself and that's before a child is even created, but I'm fully prepared for that because I so desperately want to be a mother and want us to complete our family. Obviously this is not something that people know so I can't hold it against them when they say that I'm looking at motherhood through rose tinted glasses.
Thirdly, I spent my first year or so after I left school childminding alongside my mother. At our maximum we would have 5 children under the agae of 3 (2 of whom were under the age of 1). People love to tell me how I won't just be able to "nip out of the house" and a day trip to the zoo won't be just a fun day out, it will be a nightmare. Now obviously childminding wasn't a 24/7 thing, I didn't have sleep deprivation and I did have my evenings and weekends to just pop out without any preparation. However there were numerous occasions when we had day trips out to the zoo. At any given time 2 or 3 children were under my watch and I was solely responsible for fulfilling their needs and ensuring their safety. Yes, getting out of the house was a bit of a mission (anyone who has tried to get 5 children all wearing shoes and coats at the same time before anyone has managed to remove anything will know that) but it was worth it. There were embarrassing tantrums in places like zoos, play centres and all sorts but once again I loved it. There was never a moment where it made me doubt having children and that was caring for other people's children, some of whom were not at all well behaved. So I think, taking a day trip to the zoo with 1 or 2 children of my own is possible. It won't be easy but it would be entirely worth it to give my kids a nice day out, spend some quality time together and share my love of animals with them. Furthermore we have a very supportive family network so the odds of me going anywhere alone with kids is slim, there'll always be someone wanting to join the party (probably a grandparent wanting to soak up the grandkids as much as possible and spoil them rotten)!
Finally, I KNOW CHILDREN ARE FOR LIFE. I know that I'm young but I have had a damn good life so far. I have done many of the things I want to do and with all the complications regarding getting pregnant we want to start trying as soon as possible. I'm not going to mess my life up by choosing to have children now (I'm not even that young - I'm 23!). Not to mention the fact that I'm not planning on falling off the earth when middle aged; for example, if I have 2 children in the next 7 years I will be 30. When they are 20 years old and relatively self sufficient I will only be 50 with a hell of a lot of life left ahead of me. I want to be young enough to run around with my kids. I'm not saying that choosing to have kids when you're older is in any way bad or wrong, it's just not for me. Plans may not work out, it may take me 10 years to get pregnant which would make me 33 anyway. With fertility treatments it is always better to start young as there is a high rate of success so I intend to.
So when people say to me that I don't know how hard it's going to be, I have a relatively good idea. I'm sure there are things I've not thought about but parenthood is a learning curve and I am prepared for that, no matter how hard it gets.
Needless to say, I don't actually respond to people with any of these points. I usually just smile and say I'm sure I'll be fine. Anybody who is of any importance knows about my hopes for my future and also about the journey I'm taking to get there. Anybody who doesn't, they have their opinion and that's fine but I know my own mind and I'm not rushing into anything. Before you judge someone or try to talk them out of something, take a minute to consider they might be going through something very different to what you imagine.
Firstly, I am in no way expecting having children to be "easy", I'd love to be a stay at home mum but I do appreciate that it's probably a LOT harder than the job I do on a daily basis. I don't want children because I think it'll be easy. I want children because I want to bring life into the world, raise it alongside ALS and have someone to pass on my knowledge to and love unconditionally. I know that I will probably be the hardest (and definitely longest) journey of my life but I am still excited for it.
Secondly, the process of having children will, for ALS and myself, be arduous in itself. There is a lot of time, effort and unpleasant procedures that is going to go into ensuring that any child we have can be healthy. The sheer amount of work that will go into creating any pregnancy we achieve is going to be massively difficult in itself and that's before a child is even created, but I'm fully prepared for that because I so desperately want to be a mother and want us to complete our family. Obviously this is not something that people know so I can't hold it against them when they say that I'm looking at motherhood through rose tinted glasses.
Thirdly, I spent my first year or so after I left school childminding alongside my mother. At our maximum we would have 5 children under the agae of 3 (2 of whom were under the age of 1). People love to tell me how I won't just be able to "nip out of the house" and a day trip to the zoo won't be just a fun day out, it will be a nightmare. Now obviously childminding wasn't a 24/7 thing, I didn't have sleep deprivation and I did have my evenings and weekends to just pop out without any preparation. However there were numerous occasions when we had day trips out to the zoo. At any given time 2 or 3 children were under my watch and I was solely responsible for fulfilling their needs and ensuring their safety. Yes, getting out of the house was a bit of a mission (anyone who has tried to get 5 children all wearing shoes and coats at the same time before anyone has managed to remove anything will know that) but it was worth it. There were embarrassing tantrums in places like zoos, play centres and all sorts but once again I loved it. There was never a moment where it made me doubt having children and that was caring for other people's children, some of whom were not at all well behaved. So I think, taking a day trip to the zoo with 1 or 2 children of my own is possible. It won't be easy but it would be entirely worth it to give my kids a nice day out, spend some quality time together and share my love of animals with them. Furthermore we have a very supportive family network so the odds of me going anywhere alone with kids is slim, there'll always be someone wanting to join the party (probably a grandparent wanting to soak up the grandkids as much as possible and spoil them rotten)!
Finally, I KNOW CHILDREN ARE FOR LIFE. I know that I'm young but I have had a damn good life so far. I have done many of the things I want to do and with all the complications regarding getting pregnant we want to start trying as soon as possible. I'm not going to mess my life up by choosing to have children now (I'm not even that young - I'm 23!). Not to mention the fact that I'm not planning on falling off the earth when middle aged; for example, if I have 2 children in the next 7 years I will be 30. When they are 20 years old and relatively self sufficient I will only be 50 with a hell of a lot of life left ahead of me. I want to be young enough to run around with my kids. I'm not saying that choosing to have kids when you're older is in any way bad or wrong, it's just not for me. Plans may not work out, it may take me 10 years to get pregnant which would make me 33 anyway. With fertility treatments it is always better to start young as there is a high rate of success so I intend to.
So when people say to me that I don't know how hard it's going to be, I have a relatively good idea. I'm sure there are things I've not thought about but parenthood is a learning curve and I am prepared for that, no matter how hard it gets.
Needless to say, I don't actually respond to people with any of these points. I usually just smile and say I'm sure I'll be fine. Anybody who is of any importance knows about my hopes for my future and also about the journey I'm taking to get there. Anybody who doesn't, they have their opinion and that's fine but I know my own mind and I'm not rushing into anything. Before you judge someone or try to talk them out of something, take a minute to consider they might be going through something very different to what you imagine.
Tuesday, 1 September 2015
Always look on the bright side...
I've been feeling pretty rubbish for the last week or so. Last week I developed a load of mouth ulcers which pretty much prevented me eating anything that required chewing, needless to say I had a lot of soup. I felt generally drained all week and couldn't do my usual exercise. A few days later (on the first day of my 4 day weekend) I came out with a stinking cold. I dosed myself up as we were going away for the weekend and managed to feel okay for our trip to the zoo on Saturday and ALS' first strongman competition on Sunday (he did excellent by the way!!).
Bank holiday Monday was not pretty. I'd kept the cold at bay for a few days but the amount of paracetamol and such I'd taken caused havoc with my stomach so I spent my day absolutely full of cold and dashing backwards and forwards to the toilet.
The reason I'm explaining all of this is because this is what my life was constantly like a few years ago. I'd get a nasty virus like this that would knock me off my feet for a couple of weeks probably once a month. I was sick a LOT and it meant that I just had to carry on. I couldn't take time off work every time I got a bad cold or something because I'd never be there so unless I was being physically sick I always dragged myself into work.
Cue this morning (Tuesday) when I get to work feeling very sorry for myself. Having not had a nasty cold or bug for nearly 2 years now thanks to getting myself a lot fitter and healthier I suddenly don't know how to cope any more and have been a lot more self pitying than I should. It was only when someone asked me this morning why I was at work when I realised that I could easily handle a cold. I was at work because I hadn't even considered taking the day off - this wasn't "being sick", it was just a bad few days and a part of life for me. Plus people seriously abuse the word "sick day". Such as coworkers who would take a day off for a hangover... here's an idea, don't get drunk on a work night?
Long story short I've been cranky and grumpy but tonight I instantly feel better and it's for such a simple reason. I just had a little walk to the local shop to stock up on essentials and on the way I noticed a plant pot in a public area where someone had obviously just ripped the flowers out and scattered them on the floor around it along with copious amounts of soil. It reminded me just how selfish and unnecessarily hurtful people can be (I'm guessing the flowers never did anything to them). On the way home, however, I walked past the same plant pot, looked up and saw the most beautiful sunset. The sky was all different shades of blue, red, purple and orange. It made me think that even in the most ugly situations there can be beauty and there's almost always a positive somewhere if you look hard enough. I'm still annoyed that people vandalised public property but if I'd not stopped I wouldn't have seen that sunset.
So next time you're feeling crap about something, stop and take a full 360 view of it (whether physically or metaphorically) and hopefully you'll find something positive somewhere along the way.
Bank holiday Monday was not pretty. I'd kept the cold at bay for a few days but the amount of paracetamol and such I'd taken caused havoc with my stomach so I spent my day absolutely full of cold and dashing backwards and forwards to the toilet.
The reason I'm explaining all of this is because this is what my life was constantly like a few years ago. I'd get a nasty virus like this that would knock me off my feet for a couple of weeks probably once a month. I was sick a LOT and it meant that I just had to carry on. I couldn't take time off work every time I got a bad cold or something because I'd never be there so unless I was being physically sick I always dragged myself into work.
Cue this morning (Tuesday) when I get to work feeling very sorry for myself. Having not had a nasty cold or bug for nearly 2 years now thanks to getting myself a lot fitter and healthier I suddenly don't know how to cope any more and have been a lot more self pitying than I should. It was only when someone asked me this morning why I was at work when I realised that I could easily handle a cold. I was at work because I hadn't even considered taking the day off - this wasn't "being sick", it was just a bad few days and a part of life for me. Plus people seriously abuse the word "sick day". Such as coworkers who would take a day off for a hangover... here's an idea, don't get drunk on a work night?
Long story short I've been cranky and grumpy but tonight I instantly feel better and it's for such a simple reason. I just had a little walk to the local shop to stock up on essentials and on the way I noticed a plant pot in a public area where someone had obviously just ripped the flowers out and scattered them on the floor around it along with copious amounts of soil. It reminded me just how selfish and unnecessarily hurtful people can be (I'm guessing the flowers never did anything to them). On the way home, however, I walked past the same plant pot, looked up and saw the most beautiful sunset. The sky was all different shades of blue, red, purple and orange. It made me think that even in the most ugly situations there can be beauty and there's almost always a positive somewhere if you look hard enough. I'm still annoyed that people vandalised public property but if I'd not stopped I wouldn't have seen that sunset.
So next time you're feeling crap about something, stop and take a full 360 view of it (whether physically or metaphorically) and hopefully you'll find something positive somewhere along the way.
Thursday, 20 August 2015
Exciting!
I promised an update after today's appointment and honestly, I couldn't wait to get to my laptop and write it all down - mostly so I don't forget anything. Documenting this journey for us to look back on is so important to me, not to mention there's a LOT of information to take in.
We headed to Sheffield for our appointment in plenty of time because as anyone who lives in the UK knows, parking at hospitals is horrendous! Surprisingly traffic was kind to us and we managed to get parked and find our way straight away so we ended up half an hour early for our appointment. As the appointment was in the children's department (genetics appointments always seem to be for some reason) we were watching families interacting and little ones running around. The most striking thing for me was seeing a woman breastfeeding, I'm not sure why but it really made it hit home how much I want a baby. I know that this won't be a quick process and that's okay. We were told that from this point forwards it'll probably be around a year until the actual treatment starts which works out nicely as we get married in February and have our honeymoon in late July/early August. If we were trying to get pregnant naturally that would be when we were wanting to start (after all, I want to be able to enjoy a cocktail or two on my honeymoon) so the timing is perfect. I'm expecting it'll probably be longer than that because nothing ever seems to go to plan but that's okay, we're working towards starting our family and I couldn't be happier.
I won't bore you with all the information that we were given about the process as the blog will cover it as it goes on but basically today's appointment was about us being provided will all the information we need for the whole process. We were told what it entails, how long it takes, any risks, the chances of success and various other bits and bobs. The geneticist also took a bit of a history from us but as we'd given a very detailed history at the appointment with our local genetics team it was mostly just covering the basics. They took blood samples from us both and gave us a form to get a blood sample from ALS' dad (they need this to create the test for the embryos). We've already spoke to his dad about it and he's more than happy to help us along in the process any way we need.
The key things that we got from today (most of which we already knew) were:
1. We get 3 attempts on the NHS, providing I respond well to the treatment and it just fails through us being unlucky. If I don't respond well to the first cycle, they won't fund more.
2. We only get 1 healthy child out of this process. If our first cycle works, we won't get a further NHS attempt. However we can freeze any other healthy embryos so later on if we want to pay for a further lot of treatment, we only have to pay for the implantation process and not all the hormone stimulation, egg collection and fertilisation (which is the expensive bit).
3. By the end the chances are about the same as a normal couple having IVF providing our fertility is good (there's no reason it shouldn't be). We'll have less successful embryos due to the ones carrying the chromosome from ALS' mum not being suitable, but as we don't have fertility issues and are younger than most couples trying IVF it balances out the odds.
I think that's the key points but I do have a lot of information swimming around my head at the moment.
I'm not really sure how many people read this blog, if any, although I did notice my last few posts have gone unread. As I've said before it's mostly for my records but if there is anyone out there with any queries or anything you want to ask I will answer questions as honestly as possible so feel free to leave a comment.
We headed to Sheffield for our appointment in plenty of time because as anyone who lives in the UK knows, parking at hospitals is horrendous! Surprisingly traffic was kind to us and we managed to get parked and find our way straight away so we ended up half an hour early for our appointment. As the appointment was in the children's department (genetics appointments always seem to be for some reason) we were watching families interacting and little ones running around. The most striking thing for me was seeing a woman breastfeeding, I'm not sure why but it really made it hit home how much I want a baby. I know that this won't be a quick process and that's okay. We were told that from this point forwards it'll probably be around a year until the actual treatment starts which works out nicely as we get married in February and have our honeymoon in late July/early August. If we were trying to get pregnant naturally that would be when we were wanting to start (after all, I want to be able to enjoy a cocktail or two on my honeymoon) so the timing is perfect. I'm expecting it'll probably be longer than that because nothing ever seems to go to plan but that's okay, we're working towards starting our family and I couldn't be happier.
I won't bore you with all the information that we were given about the process as the blog will cover it as it goes on but basically today's appointment was about us being provided will all the information we need for the whole process. We were told what it entails, how long it takes, any risks, the chances of success and various other bits and bobs. The geneticist also took a bit of a history from us but as we'd given a very detailed history at the appointment with our local genetics team it was mostly just covering the basics. They took blood samples from us both and gave us a form to get a blood sample from ALS' dad (they need this to create the test for the embryos). We've already spoke to his dad about it and he's more than happy to help us along in the process any way we need.
The key things that we got from today (most of which we already knew) were:
1. We get 3 attempts on the NHS, providing I respond well to the treatment and it just fails through us being unlucky. If I don't respond well to the first cycle, they won't fund more.
2. We only get 1 healthy child out of this process. If our first cycle works, we won't get a further NHS attempt. However we can freeze any other healthy embryos so later on if we want to pay for a further lot of treatment, we only have to pay for the implantation process and not all the hormone stimulation, egg collection and fertilisation (which is the expensive bit).
3. By the end the chances are about the same as a normal couple having IVF providing our fertility is good (there's no reason it shouldn't be). We'll have less successful embryos due to the ones carrying the chromosome from ALS' mum not being suitable, but as we don't have fertility issues and are younger than most couples trying IVF it balances out the odds.
I think that's the key points but I do have a lot of information swimming around my head at the moment.
I'm not really sure how many people read this blog, if any, although I did notice my last few posts have gone unread. As I've said before it's mostly for my records but if there is anyone out there with any queries or anything you want to ask I will answer questions as honestly as possible so feel free to leave a comment.
Sunday, 16 August 2015
Disclaimer
Once again it's been 3 months since I've posted anything and a lot has happened. I'm mostly doing this for myself as a record of our journey and if I can help even just one other person along their journey then that'd be amazing, but I can't promise to post regularly.
Okay, that's my disclaimer out the way, now onto what's been happening...
We had our first appointment eventually which was tough but gave us a lot of the information we needed. The woman we saw was lovely and really helpful and gave us a few options for places to be referred to. We decided to go with Guys & St Thomas NHS in London for the process as they have better technology and results than our local options. Fortunately we can have the treatments done by them in Sheffield which is a lot closer to home - we only have to travel to London once.
This Thursday we have our first appointment in Sheffield to discuss the actual process, what we need to do, how long it takes etc. so I'll post an update after that. Needless to say we are glad we started when we did as it's now 6 months since we first spoke to the GP about getting the process started and we're only just getting our first appointment with the relevant people.
In other news, we have moved out of our house into a rented flat for the time being whilst our new house is being finished. It should be ready just before Christmas which will give us time to get in and settled before the wedding in February. The wedding itself has been put on the back burner unfortunately as we've both been trying to cram in a load of overtime to get some extra money saved up, sort the house out, sort the new flat out and all the other things.
We also had a very poorly cat in June who managed to eat some carpet and got the threads stuck around his throat and intestines requiring some pretty major surgery, a long recovery and a VERY expensive vets bill (needless to say we've purchased pet insurance since). It was nice to see how worried ALS got about our little fur baby and definitely reassured me (and him I hope) that he's going to make a great dad.
I've had a few ideas that I've been wanting to post about and not got round to so hopefully in the next couple of weeks, depending on time, I will get a good few posts in about various things.
Okay, that's my disclaimer out the way, now onto what's been happening...
We had our first appointment eventually which was tough but gave us a lot of the information we needed. The woman we saw was lovely and really helpful and gave us a few options for places to be referred to. We decided to go with Guys & St Thomas NHS in London for the process as they have better technology and results than our local options. Fortunately we can have the treatments done by them in Sheffield which is a lot closer to home - we only have to travel to London once.
This Thursday we have our first appointment in Sheffield to discuss the actual process, what we need to do, how long it takes etc. so I'll post an update after that. Needless to say we are glad we started when we did as it's now 6 months since we first spoke to the GP about getting the process started and we're only just getting our first appointment with the relevant people.
In other news, we have moved out of our house into a rented flat for the time being whilst our new house is being finished. It should be ready just before Christmas which will give us time to get in and settled before the wedding in February. The wedding itself has been put on the back burner unfortunately as we've both been trying to cram in a load of overtime to get some extra money saved up, sort the house out, sort the new flat out and all the other things.
We also had a very poorly cat in June who managed to eat some carpet and got the threads stuck around his throat and intestines requiring some pretty major surgery, a long recovery and a VERY expensive vets bill (needless to say we've purchased pet insurance since). It was nice to see how worried ALS got about our little fur baby and definitely reassured me (and him I hope) that he's going to make a great dad.
I've had a few ideas that I've been wanting to post about and not got round to so hopefully in the next couple of weeks, depending on time, I will get a good few posts in about various things.
Sunday, 17 May 2015
Disappointment Number One!
From reading many IVF/PGD blogs I have learned that there is nothing more important on this journey than patience. You're likely to end up disappointed, things may not work out how you planned, it could take a lot longer than expected and in reality, it may not happen at all.
We had our first disappointment this week when our first appointment with the genetics team was cancelled because the woman was off sick. Obviously this cannot be helped but they haven't even rearranged it, we just have to wait to hear from them. We've been waiting for this appointment since February so goodness knows how long it'll be before it actually happens now. It's only a minor hitch but I was definitely looking forward to at least getting the process in motion and just learning a bit more about it from an actual medical professional.
Time to just wait and see what happens, I guess...!
Tuesday, 21 April 2015
News!
Okay, so I have realised I'm probably not cut out for blogging. I don't get sat down to write anything often enough and then when I try, so much has happened that all my thoughts are jumbled!
Since my last post ALS and I have been really busy so I'll try to categorise to make things simpler:
Powerlifting
ALS became the British and European Junior Powerlifting for his weight category last year and broke world records in the squat and deadlift in the process. I won't go into too much detail here for those who don't know what it is but if it creates any interest I'll put more of a focus on it in the blog.
I tried my first competition on 1st March this year and amazingly managed to beat my own personal bests, qualify for the British Championships and break a British deadlift record in the process.
On 11th April both ALS and I competed in the British Championships. I won my class and broke a world deadlift record and ALS came third in his category (a far more competitive category as he has not graduated from junior to adult). Most importantly this meant we both qualified for the European Championships in Coventry, UK in June this year so lots of training will be going into this.
A lot of people, my parents especially, are very concerned about me doing this with my "condition" but I've suffered with far less pain and fatigue since training, I always warm up well, never push myself TOO hard and always lift under the advice of ALS who is well trained. So yes, as I get older I probably won't do very well compared to others of my age and weight because I have to respect the limits of my body, but for now it's good fun and I'm only doing as much as I can handle.
Leisure Time
I have been trying to find ways of helping myself relax and unwind lately and have two new favourite past times. I have taken up yoga, for now it's just once a week and due to the hypermobility I have to be very careful with my joints but I thoroughly enjoy it and feel a lot more relaxed during and afterwards.
My other new love (an old love rekindled) is reading. As a child I read constantly, I always had at least a couple of books on the go and never really watched much TV or played video games if the option of reading was there. Since I started with my medical problems I've struggled somewhat with concentration and I found it hard to read and take anything in. Towards the end of last year I started reading Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series. They are young adult novels really so quite basic language and easy to understand and I managed to use them to get myself back into reading and really enjoyed them as well. I'm currently reading Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series which an absolutely phenomenal read. I only started about a month or two ago and I've already read the first 3 books (which are not particularly short). I can't put them down and I use my bath time to read to make it extra relaxing.
Future Plans
We have booked our wedding for 7th February 2016 - we have a church and reception venue but as of yet nothing else booked. Definitely feels very real now and we'll have to start ironing out the details asap. ALS' best man is in the Navy and being posted to the other side of the world in May for 2 years so there's a high chance he won't make it which will throw a spanner in the works but we'll figure something out... maybe a Skype speech?
Our house is now sold subject to contract and things are going well. We are in the process of looking for somewhere to rent until our new house will be finished (should have been October but now more likely to be December). The buyers are coming to visit again tomorrow and hopefully by then we should have a better idea of a timescale for moving out.
Most excitingly we finally got our geneticist appointment through today (after a lot of faffing around, letters and phonecalls to and from the hospital). The service is run from a larger hospital in the city but the person we are seeing is coming to our local hospital which is great, except it's the hospital I work in and the room we are booked into is in the clinic where all the doctors I work for see their patients... this could get a bit awkward. Hopefully I won't bump into anyone, it's not a process we're discussing with anyone at the moment as it's so far away that anything will actually happen!
Well, I think that's a reasonable update of how things have been for the last few months - I seem to be getting quite a lot of page views which surprised me to be honest but I'd love to hear from anyone who's reading this so feel free to leave a comment :)
Since my last post ALS and I have been really busy so I'll try to categorise to make things simpler:
Powerlifting
ALS became the British and European Junior Powerlifting for his weight category last year and broke world records in the squat and deadlift in the process. I won't go into too much detail here for those who don't know what it is but if it creates any interest I'll put more of a focus on it in the blog.
I tried my first competition on 1st March this year and amazingly managed to beat my own personal bests, qualify for the British Championships and break a British deadlift record in the process.
On 11th April both ALS and I competed in the British Championships. I won my class and broke a world deadlift record and ALS came third in his category (a far more competitive category as he has not graduated from junior to adult). Most importantly this meant we both qualified for the European Championships in Coventry, UK in June this year so lots of training will be going into this.
A lot of people, my parents especially, are very concerned about me doing this with my "condition" but I've suffered with far less pain and fatigue since training, I always warm up well, never push myself TOO hard and always lift under the advice of ALS who is well trained. So yes, as I get older I probably won't do very well compared to others of my age and weight because I have to respect the limits of my body, but for now it's good fun and I'm only doing as much as I can handle.
Leisure Time
I have been trying to find ways of helping myself relax and unwind lately and have two new favourite past times. I have taken up yoga, for now it's just once a week and due to the hypermobility I have to be very careful with my joints but I thoroughly enjoy it and feel a lot more relaxed during and afterwards.
My other new love (an old love rekindled) is reading. As a child I read constantly, I always had at least a couple of books on the go and never really watched much TV or played video games if the option of reading was there. Since I started with my medical problems I've struggled somewhat with concentration and I found it hard to read and take anything in. Towards the end of last year I started reading Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series. They are young adult novels really so quite basic language and easy to understand and I managed to use them to get myself back into reading and really enjoyed them as well. I'm currently reading Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series which an absolutely phenomenal read. I only started about a month or two ago and I've already read the first 3 books (which are not particularly short). I can't put them down and I use my bath time to read to make it extra relaxing.
Future Plans
We have booked our wedding for 7th February 2016 - we have a church and reception venue but as of yet nothing else booked. Definitely feels very real now and we'll have to start ironing out the details asap. ALS' best man is in the Navy and being posted to the other side of the world in May for 2 years so there's a high chance he won't make it which will throw a spanner in the works but we'll figure something out... maybe a Skype speech?
Our house is now sold subject to contract and things are going well. We are in the process of looking for somewhere to rent until our new house will be finished (should have been October but now more likely to be December). The buyers are coming to visit again tomorrow and hopefully by then we should have a better idea of a timescale for moving out.
Most excitingly we finally got our geneticist appointment through today (after a lot of faffing around, letters and phonecalls to and from the hospital). The service is run from a larger hospital in the city but the person we are seeing is coming to our local hospital which is great, except it's the hospital I work in and the room we are booked into is in the clinic where all the doctors I work for see their patients... this could get a bit awkward. Hopefully I won't bump into anyone, it's not a process we're discussing with anyone at the moment as it's so far away that anything will actually happen!
Well, I think that's a reasonable update of how things have been for the last few months - I seem to be getting quite a lot of page views which surprised me to be honest but I'd love to hear from anyone who's reading this so feel free to leave a comment :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)