Wednesday, 3 December 2014

November Round Up


A collection of things that happened in the month of November

Here we are with my penultimate monthly round-up of the year, and I honestly don’t know where this last year has gone. I won’t dwell too much on what’s happened this year, as I’ll leave that for December, so I’ll just focus on what’s been happening in my life throughout November. I seem to say this in every round-up I do, but it seems to have been another crazy busy month (well, for me anyway!) I began my month by going on a little road trip to surprise one of my best friends who lives in West Sussex. I tagged along with her parents and went to see her perform in a concert. It was so lovely to catch up over some gluten-free pasta in a cute little Italian restaurant afterwards.



November seems to have been the month for medical appointments and I’ve racked up quite a few under my belt over the last few weeks. It started off with an assessment with my local eating disorder service, which unfortunately didn’t have a very positive outcome, but more on that another time. The next appointment I had was a really important one with a professor up at The Royal London. At this appointment I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type 3, which has left me with a lot of mixed feelings. On the one hand it feels great to finally have some proper answers, and a team who are happy to try and get to the bottom of my digestive illnesses, but on the other hand it’s quite a scary thought being diagnosed with a genetic condition that I know will never be cured. But there is research being done all the time and they’re developing new drugs and treatments to help people living with EDS, so I’ll be keeping up-to-date with all that.



I had a bit of light relief a couple of days after my appointment in London, when I spent the day with my friend Lilli. She took me for a little shopping trip in my wheelchair, then we crashed out in front of the TV before driving down to watch some local fireworks. I don’t get to have much of a social life due to my health not really making it very easy, so I really do appreciate the times that I’m able to get out and about with the friends I do have. I’ve always been quite wary of using a wheelchair, but I’m beginning to realise that, without it, my life would be even more limited, and to be honest it doesn’t really matter what other people will think of me because only I know how I feel with these illnesses.



This month I have also finished going to all my University Open Days, which is good as I can now start thinking about where I’d really like to go. I went to Bournemouth at the beginning of the month, and really loved it there. I then went to Southampton last week, and although it was completely different to Bournemouth, I got a really good feeling about it as well. So I’m even more confused than I already was now! I think a lot of it will depend on my grades at the end of my course, but I’ve still got to get some thoughts together about which my top choice would be if grades weren’t a factor.



I started this year with one Christmas jumper, and thought that that was probably enough. But after doing a bit of Christmas shopping, I’ve seen all of this years offering and have been rather tempted I’m afraid! Firstly I picked up a Christmas pudding jumper in Tesco when I went in with my Mum to get some food shopping – it was all sparkly – how could I resist?! I then popped into our local Marks and Spencer and saw this Percy Pig jumper. I knew immediately that I needed it in my life! Then last weekend I popped into Primark and found a really cute gingerbread man jumper, which just accidently fell into my basket as well. You’ll probably see them making an appearance on my social media feeds if you follow me!



Things I’ve learnt this month…

+   No matter how hard I try to live a normal life the demons in my head won’t go away
+   It’s amazing to finally find someone who believes I’m not well
+   Sometimes I wonder if there’s any point in asking for help
+   Having a chronic illness really makes life hard
+   Some days I wonder if life really is worth fighting for
+   Some people have no idea how hard it is to be chronically ill
+   I never seem to be good enough
+   It’s important to find something happy in every single day
+   I’m so tired of fighting
+   I need a day between Saturday and Sunday!

What to look out for in December

Considering it’s coming up to Christmas, there don’t seem to be many good DVDs being released this month. Or perhaps I’m looking in the wrong places!? The only 2 I could find that were of any interest to me were The Nut Job and The Inbetweeners 2. The Nut Job comes out on the 8th and looks like your typical kids cartoon with something for the adults type of movie. It’s got Liam Neeson and Katherine Heigl in it, so I’m hoping it will be a good one to watch with the family over the Christmas period. One which is perhaps a little less family friendly is The Inbetweeners 2, which came out on the 1st. I’m a massive fan of The Inbetweeners, so am excited to watch this film as I didn’t get the chance to catch it in the cinema.




December is by far my favourite month for TV. I just love all the shows they put on at Christmas. From old favourites like your standard Christmas films or daily life in the soaps, to new episodes of things like Doctor Who and Downton Abbey. So, what am I looking forward to this December? First up is Doctor Who (BBC1) with Nick Frost playing Father Christmas, which I can’t wait for! You’ve then got Downton Abbey on ITV and I’ve heard rumours that both Tom Branson and Daisy are set to leave in this Christmas special. I especially love Daisy, so I’ll definitely be sad if the rumours are true. On BBC1 there is also set to be an adaptation of a book by David Walliams called The Boy in the Dress. I remember Mr Stink last year, which I absolutely loved, so I’m anticipating this to be just as good. It’s also got an amazing cast with Jennifer Saunders and Kate Moss making an appearance. We’ve then got Esio Trot (BBC1) which is Richard Curtis’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s classic, starring Distin Hoffman and Dame Judi Dench. There are so many other programmes I could tell you about, but we’d be here all day, so I’ll leave you with the news that Miranda Hart has made two final episodes, which will be shown on BBC1, and I for one will be sorely disappointed if her and Gary don’t get their happy ending!



One of my favourite things about December is going to the cinema loads over the build up to Christmas and New Year’s Eve. And you’ll be pleased to hear there is plenty for you to watch this month. You’ve probably already seen all the adverts for Paddington, so I won’t talk about that too much. On the 5th the Penguins of Madagascar will be released. I love the Madagascar series, so am waiting with baited breath to see what this spin off will be like. You can’t possibly ‘do’ Christmas without going to watch a Christmas film, and this year there are two offerings to choose from. First is Get Santa (5th December), which tells the story of when Santa crashes his sleigh, ends up being mistaken for fraud and is subsequently locked up by the police! The other Christmas film out this year is Nativity 3: Dude Where’s My Donkey, which I’m excited to go and see with my little sister. There is also another Night at the Museum coming out this month, which will definitely be a good one to see in between Christmas and New Year.



And obviously the last thing we’ve got to look forward to this month is…CHRISTMAS! I’m really looking forward to putting our decorations up, seeing family and friends and having some time off from college. I’d love to hear all your plans!




Do you have any favourites or things you’ve learnt in November? What are you looking forward to in December?


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