Sunday, 23 October 2016

Sunday Snippets - 23rd October 2016

This week has been crazy busy and I feel like my feet haven’t touched the floor. It was so good to get to Friday evening, knowing I had two days of no plans in front of me (even if I do have a list of work longer than my arm to do!) It’s only another week until half term from Uni, and I seriously cannot wait! I will have to spend most of it catching up with work, blogging and various other things from my to-do list, but hopefully I’ll be able to have the odd lie-in too.
  


I decided to try and not have too much of a lie-in last Sunday morning, as I had so much to do. And I actually didn’t do too badly with getting up! I spent my morning watching episodes of The Simpsons and writing a blog post. I lit one of my Yankee Candles - I know it’s only October, but I do love a Christmas candle! I then sorted out a load of filing for my Uni work, which I’d been meaning to do for ages. David and Emma popped round, so I chatted to them for a while as they were off to New York towards the end of the week (and I’m not jealous at all!) The Rescuers was on TV in the afternoon, so I popped that on and spent most of the afternoon doing Uni work. I keep feeling really headachy, so I thought I should get a bit of fresh air considering I hadn’t been out of the house for two days. So my Dad and I went for a tiny walk out of our back gate with the dogs. I don’t think the dogs are very impressed if I ever go out for a walk with them, as they don’t get to walk very far! Going out for long walks (or any walks a lot of the time) is something I really miss as my health has got worse. I’m looking for an electric wheelchair to give me more independence but it’s probably not going to be suitable for country walks. I’m guessing if I want something like that though I’m going to need to buy two different chairs, which I can’t really afford to do.



I had to be up super early on Monday morning so my Dad could take me over to the hospital. I had a phone call on Sunday evening asking me to go in for an MRI at 7.15am! We got about half way through the scan of my hips and the radiographer came through and said the pictures were looking very strange. After a bit of investigation we worked out I had a tiny mental button on my trousers. So we started the scan again, minus the trousers! I was in the scanner for an hour in total. My Dad and I then went to the hospital cafĂ© for a bit of breakfast before heading over to Uni. Our morning at Uni consisted of talking about interview techniques, and I also went through my narrative article ideas with my tutor, so I now know which topics I’m covering. After lunch, a guest speaker came in to talk to us about writing longer articles and doing interviews. He was really interesting and shared a lot of advice and knowledge with us. I was exhausted by the time I got home and pretty much crashed out on the sofa for the evening. This unicorn picture that my friend, Becca, sent me for my birthday made me smile.



Getting up on Tuesday morning was even more of a struggle than normal. My Dad drove me to Uni for another news day. Myself and my friend Amber took on a story about a piece of research that shows Southerners are the most likely to avoid the 5p bag charge by bringing their own bags. We headed over to Waitrose to get some interviews with customers about their opinions on the matter, and then went back to Uni to start editing. We also had to write a piece for online, so Amber focussed on the radio piece while I wrote an article to go online. I also had to record our narrative to go with the interviews for the radio piece. At the end of the day we listened to the final broadcast before my Dad brought me home. I felt absolutely drained and had been feeling really unwell all day. I seem to be finding this a lot harder on my health so far this year, and I’m worried how I’m going to cope. I’ve also been feeling pretty upset about being such a burden on people. I have to rely on people for so much, like my Dad to drive me to and from Uni, but I can’t see another option. My health is getting worse and I don’t feel safe to drive myself to and from Uni, never mind not being able to lift my wheelchair in and out of the car. It’s just getting me down at the moment.



My Dad and I were up pretty early on Wednesday morning so we could drive to the station. Traffic was awful and we ended up having to park in a side road so we didn’t miss our train. We went to Guildford and made our way to the Crown Court. It was a long and pretty intense morning sitting in on a case. Afterwards, my Dad and I went to Costa for a bit of lunch before catching the train back. We popped into Waitrose on our way home so my Dad could pick something up. I spent the rest of the afternoon making phone calls to sort out medical things and doing some Uni work. I was so glad to finally get into bed in the evening!




On Thursday morning I managed to oversleep a bit, so it was a bit of a rush with my Dad driving me over to Aldershot. I had another session of this Recovery College group I’m doing, but really struggled to focus because my pain levels were really bad. When we got home I just tried to rest on the sofa for a little while. It was my Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary, so they went out just after lunch to go up to London to see a show. These are some of the roses in the bunch of flowers my Dad bought my Mum. I spent a while watching Family Guy and doing Uni work. I then drove myself down to the hairdressers and had my hair cut. After some rest at home, in the evening my sister, Rosiie, and I met my brother, David, for a drink before he went off on holiday to New York.



I actually got to have a bit of a lie-in on Friday morning, which was definitely needed. I had to miss my first lecture at Uni because I had to wait in for my Neurogastroenterology Professor to ring. I was getting quite anxious as he hadn’t rung, but an hour after our appointment time the phone rang thankfully. He thinks I still have problems with small bowel bacterial overgrowth, so I have to continue with courses of strong antibiotics and increase my probiotics. He has also said that he believes I have mast cell problems (Mast Cell Activation Disorder), which is likely to be making a lot of my symptoms worse. He’s going to talk to my Neurologist about prescribing something to try and help it, but unfortunately there’s no cure. I’ve got mixed feelings about it all and am still trying to get my head around it. It’s good to have a diagnosis, but upsetting and worrying to have another serious incurable illness. After my phone call my Dad drove me over to Uni. I was meant to be seeing my mentor, but because I was so late all we got to do was say a quick hello. In the afternoon we had our Law lecture, which was pretty intense but very interesting. I was really glad to get home though, put the kettle on and rest.




I had a really long lie-in on Saturday morning, but really didn’t feel well when I woke up. This always seems to happen at the weekends. I push myself so much during the week then end up crashing on my days off. It took me ages to get myself started with anything, but I finally managed to edit and upload a new video to my YouTube channel, which is good as I’m not uploading as much as I’d like to now I’m back at Uni. In the afternoon I caught up on a couple of episodes of a new series called The Level, which I’m really enjoying. I also spent most of the afternoon filling in my PIP forms. They’re so difficult to fill in and my brain really ached afterwards, but I made a good dent in them. Hopefully my Dad can help me finish them, as they have to be sent back within about three weeks. This little sleepy chap kept me company all afternoon.

You can check out my YouTube channel here, where I have recently uploaded a few new videos (and hope to continue doing!)

I’m also trying to post on Snapchat a bit more, so if you fancy following me, my username is Jennycole44.

If you don’t already, please give me a follow on Bloglovin here - I would love to reach 800 followers, and do have a little giveaway planned for when I get there!

What have you been up to this week? I always enjoy hearing about your news and adventures!

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