I just got off the phone with my sister and we are going to stay with her for Christmas and we are now both like a couple of kids, so excited and really looking forward to spending some really special time together as a family.  Her youngest daughter wishes we could go back to the way it all used to be when we all got together at "Grandma's" and there were all the cousins and aunties and friends, usually about 25 for dinner ( always served at lunch time) but you know what I hated it because it was so noisy all the kids yelling and screaming, mess and general mayhem.  BaaHumbug!!!! 

Anyway it isn't going to happen because none of us has a big enough house, well ours is not too bad but it just wouldn't be the same.

I am glad to report that my hip is much better (in case anyone was interested) and I am managing to walk about 20 metres which is great and I no longer feel faint when I stand up.  Still getting some pain by evening but it is bearable and my upset gut has completely settled.   Every cloud has a silver lining though and when I got on the scales I had lost 9.5lbs.  I am delighted as this now means I have lost 42 lbs and am the lightest  I have been since 2000 when I cycled across Cuba (happy days).

Anyone else got interesting plans for Christmas (or other festivals they may be celebrating at this time)

I really do feel like I am making progress.  Yesterday I took myself off to Peterborough to meet a friend and for shopping.  Totally girly time, spent loads of money just on me!!  I did manage to get one thing on my list that was for the home but otherwise it was me me me!!! 

Only minor hiccup after booking a electric wheelchair with shopmobility, I followed the directions to  go to level 11, which in a multistorey car park with a C5 estate is a feat in itself only to find myself on the roof, absolutely no disabled bays and no Shopmobility.  Anyway I phoned them and they asked me all sorts of questions about if I was in Claire or Royce carpark and that it would be on my ticket, well all I could see was "Cave 11".  Well the bloke said "Where? never heard of it" So I explained "Cave like a stoneage man would live in and it was number 11"  well he was really puzzled asking which route I had followed into Peterborough, well I just did what my Tom-Tom told me so I didn't pay much heed to landmarks but then I saw a sign for a radio station and he knew where I was and within a very few moments he came trolling along with said electric wheelchair.

This would have been good but I am afraid that it was about a 14" seat, which my hip immediately objected to so I said "Thanks but no thanks" and stuck to my lightwieght manual chair.  Good job too because we discovered that the shops in Peterborough close at 5.30!!  And I had to scoot really quickly from one end of the centre to the other which I wouldn't have been able to do in said electric machine.

As to my hip.  Looks like it dislocated and resolved which caused the injury in the first place and that it is going to take a while to get better.  Having seen one physio who took the notion that because of a newly discover central bulge at L3/4 she would not touch me and has referred me on to the neuro-physios in the local hospital.  So progress is in hand on that front, but now that the bulge has been found a decision has to be made as to its future.  Will I be nuturing it or will it be for the chop.  Personally I think that it wants seeing to but I will have to wait to see what the powers that be think.

Hope you are all well out there in the ether

Well folkes after what seems like a lifetime but is in fact only a few weeks I feel like I have come out from under a black cloud into the sunshine.  Hip pain has reduced and the flux has stopped.  I put myself back onto the old medical regime and hey presto after about 48 hours of feeling a bit wierd I woke up yesterday feeling like me again.  In fact so much like me that I decided that as the sun was shining it was time I explored my environment and declared that a shopping trip to Kings Lynn was a good idea.  I even rang Shopmobility to see if they had an electric wheelchair I could use as I thought this would make life a bit easier for both me and Mark.  And it did.  A big Sorry to M & S for their china display.  I am sure they are insured and after all most of that stuff will be reduced in the sales after Christmas.  And to the lady in the doorway of Costas, I am certain that your foot will heal eventually, after all the ambulance man didn't think it was broken but took you to A & E just to be sure.

Mark has decided that in future although he will accompany on trips of this type he will walk at least ten paces behind me and insists that I should have 'ell plates.  He also said that although he will carry my shoping he will not be paying for it or for any damage that I do.

Well I had a good time, infact such a good time the I am going to repeat this next Friday in Peterborough.  This is added as a warning to any of you who might be thinking of a trip in that direction, and just in case any shops might be browsing the site for potential customers.  I am a good customer but beware if your aisles are narrow or you have low level displays or anything not on a shelf!!

So if I say it myself, welcome back Princess and look out world!!!!

Well life has been a barrel of laughs in the last few days.  the continuing saga of unending hip pain goes on, I would just like it to end now please.  So to add to the injustices of life with paraplegia, I have had a bug which has lead to a loss of control and a very leaky bottom.  I have felt better.  But hot and sweaty generally grotty and worrying whether I dare risk a fart.  I guess I must have eaten something or is the combination of drugs which seem to all have the possibility of causing both constipation and diarrhoea. 

We all know this is a passing phase but while it is passing I would like to go on holiday perhaps on a cruise to a far off place where everyone is whole, without pain, beautiful and well.  But then I wake up and discover that I have made a local deposit in the bed!  Yep Life really is a barrel of laughs

At last three weeks after a visit to casualty I have seen my specialist at Stoke and the terrible pain in my left hip which arrived after turning over in bed illicited a resounding clunk, has been diagnosed as a soft tissue injury.  So back on to the wonderful diclofenac plus something else to stop my insides from being burnt into holes and on the waiting list for physio.  Now physio appointments are all done by snail mail, no phone calls, no emails, no emergency appointments just wait and see and perhaps in about 2-3 weeks an appointment will arrive in the post.  I also need an MRI scan but Gp cannot order one of these it has to be done by the specialist so I am hoping that it can be tied up with my next appointment for a calliper fitting in ten days time, but the chances are...well if I was a betting person I would be looking at some pretty high odds around the 100/1 mark!! 

So today my GP prescribed the diclofenac which has a list of side effects as long as your arm.  My husband said "Will it make your boobs bigger?"  I said of course not, but low and behold way down the list there it was in black on white "Breast enlargement"!!!!!  Anyway as I had taken the table about half an hour before, we had a look and so far it doesn't apear to be happening.  But along with the constipation, diarrhoea, drowsiness and sleeplessness, breathlessness, agitation, confusions, and something else that I can't remember...oh yes..loss of memory  I think I should be doing quite well.  I just hope that the other tablets don't cause one of their noted side effects..i.e. painful joints which is after all what we are trying to cure!!

The best part of the visit to the GP today is that i actually met my real GP.  It is a huge practice and you cannot make an appointment in advance, i.e. ring on Monday for an appointment on Tuesday or WEdnesday, you have to ring at 8.30 am on the day you wish to be seen and this means you could see any one of the 8 doctors employed there or get shunted off to see the nurse.  It does mean you get seen but continuity of care is difficult as they all have to read up on who you are and what your problems are.  Such is life at least I am getting care.

My next battle will be to try to get a new wheelchair as I am losing wieght I have noticed that my bum is not looking quite so big!!  And there is a gap on each side as I am sitting in my chair so very soon the time will come when a new chair of small seat will be not just a wish but a need.  And that woman at Milton Keynes Wheelchair disService can eat her words.  I will not need and extra large chair nor will I need one that has to be reinforced to take my enormous bulk.  And I thought that I was the only fat person in a wheelchair the way she made me feel.  Thank you to all you other WC users who have larger bodies than Twiggy and Victoria Beckham.  Bless you for making me feel normal.

Take care you guys and how about a few more blogs to let us all know what you are doing and what you are planning, or just how you are feeling.  Tell us how you days are going,  help us to know that we are a NETWORK of FRIENDS

Fifi