Holidays, MRI's, Neuro and Christmas :)

Hi All 

Its been a long while since I've blogged. Have been kind of busy with a few different things and I guess it slipped my mind. I noticed someone else was blogging and posted the link on facebook so it reminded me I really should crack on with some writing. 

Loads of stuff has gone on. Most of it positive I must say - which is never a bad thing! I'm sitting here trying to wind back the memory to tell you about it all but I'm not having much luck - my memory sucks.

I went away with Sean and his family to Spain for a week in September which was fun. We had really naff weather but we had a laugh anyway. It was great to get to know everyone a bit better. Following that Sean has mostly been away with work in Belgium. So we haven't had the opportunity to do much the past few weeks.

At the harbour in Puerto Buenos, Spain

We have managed to launch a new online business which sells baking equipment and tools for cake decoration. The sales took a few days to start rolling in, but then before we knew it things were really picking up. At the moment there is a bit of a dip but we are slowly finding our way out again, it's all a bit of a price war. The business sells on Amazon so you really have to keep your head in the game to see what your competitors are doing. I am learning a lot I must say. 

As far as health is concerned, I have been relatively stable with my chest for the past 3 months. I am so grateful for the break from hospital admissions and IVs. I still have days where things are really difficult and I'm struggling to even get out of bed but thankfully at the moment that isn't every single day.

Since the drama at the neuro-physio appointment that put me in hospital, I haven't been able to do much physio. This is because the physio isn't keen to get to hands on for fear of causing too much damage since we were still awaiting the results of my MRI. Thankfully they are now back and go someway to explaining the problems I'm having. I have 5 bulging discs in my thoracic spine, a couple more in the lumbar region and my bones are osteoporotic (thin) in the thoracic area particularly. I am obviously pretty upset that there is so much wrong and its going to take a lot or physio and potentially a neurosurgical review to sort out. At the same time though it's a relief to know that there is now a clear cause for my ongoing pain and I'm not such a mystery any more. It's also nice to be able to tell anyone who doubted me that there is a true cause for this. And I'm not some sort of drama queen. A specialist pain management team are going to see me since the review of my MRI so I will be glad if they can offer me some relief. I was told the pain team can offer acupuncture which I would be keen to try as I don't want to be reliant on strong pain meds.

I've also been discharged from neurology in terms of my seizures as he and his colleagues confirmed that the reason for my seizures was associated with gas exchange in the blood (caused by my asthma and the damage it has done to my airways over the years). I am so glad to able to get rid of one specialist at least. I want the most minimal intervention, I don't want too many people getting involved in my care as it just complicates matters. In the past my teams have been keen to get new people involved  for new opinions all the time but they seem to take the same stance as me these days and just keep it to a minimum for my sake. It's a case of too many cooks spoil the broth I'm afraid. One of each speciality is quite enough! The neurologist has contacted my Brompton team so they will put plans in place to sort this gas exchange issue out if they feel its necessary.

As far as my local respiratory team are concerned, I've decided against going back to them as well. The doctor although very nice was not doing a lot. He promised many things, over the years - with the best intentions but he never came through with the goods. I have changed to a different team who I met on an admission a few months back and were very proactive. They arranged my portable oxygen (I had waited for my other respiratory doctor to fill in the paper work for 3 years) within a matter of minutes. This has been a real godsend as far as travelling any distance is concerned. It's small enough that we can just chuck it in the boot in case of an emergency and they have conservers on so a tiny bottle can last about 8 hours. So fingers crossed there wont be any more dramas where we are in the middle of nowhere and miles from any hospital with no oxygen. 

Other than all that, I am in full swing for Christmas and have done a lot of my shopping online this year which makes things a lot easier. I hate aimlessly wandering around shops for hours trying to find something someone might like. Nope! This year I came with a plan. And am pleased to say I have most of my shopping done now.

Will try and write sooner next time..  adios!

PS. Saw this and thought I'd share with my other friends who struggle with health complications.. 

Very true

Living the Olympic Dream - One crossed off the Bucket List

Hi Folks

This week I am gloriously happy. I don't think in my entire life I have ever been able to say I have been 'gloriously happy'. There is usually something niggling at me. The reason for my perky mood is that I got to attend the Olympics on Monday 6th August. And not just any Olympic event, I actually got tickets for the stadium so I was in with that huge crowd. I'm sure many of you are probably sick of hearing me bleat on about it, not least if you follow me on Twitter or are a friend on Facebook. But it has been a dream of mine to go to an The Greatest Show on Earth since I first understood what it was all about around aged 12. I never actually expected it to happen. So when I got my tickets offered to me in the ballot I was speechless. I remember just weeping like a complete nutter. I'm remembering it here as I type and its making me well up now as well. I know it must seem strange to some folk that I am such a die hard fan of the Olympics. I can't put my finger on what made me start loving it so much, all I know is 'I do!'. I will watch any event and when I originally went into the ballot, I ticked every single box for every single sport for both Olympic and Paralympic sports. I wanted to see it THAT badly that I didn't care what sport I got as long as I got to go.

The excitement on the build up to it over the last year has increased exponentially the closer it has come to my big day. My brother Ben is as nuts on the event as I am and so I was really excited when he was planning to come back from Cambodia just for the games. Unfortunately, due to the ridiculously high prices that flights cost it was unachievable. I had four tickets so I invited my uncle to take my brothers place. We are a bit sport fanatical as a family. That is to say, we love watching it haha, not actually partaking. 

The day started really early, 5:15am - this makes for a very tired Gemma. But spirits were high and my boyfriend Sean was kind enough to drive us up to Stratford for the main event. The park is absolutely huge. The TV set doesn't really do it justice. There is so much to see!! I took the wheelchair for the day, I never would have managed even to get to the Olympic entrance gate without it. Everywhere is a lonnnnnng walk. I'm really glad I made the decision to do so or I would have missed a lot of the magic.

Outside the Olympic Park

Ready to go into the Stadium :)

When we got settled in our seats there was enough time to soak up the enormity of the stadium from the inside. Everyone on the opposite side in the tiers just looked like dots. On our day (Day 9) the stadium was full to capacity - 80,000 people. Even though it was the qualifying heats, it felt like a medal event. The atmosphere was absolutely electric. Whenever anyone ran past on the track or anyone threw a shot put/discus on the field, the crowd just erupted, no matter what country the athlete was from. We were lucky enough to see the 1500m qualification round for the women, 800m qualification for the men, the Women's Shot Put, Men's Discus and 200m Hurdles for the Women. So much to see, I just didn't know where to look!!

Hannah England in the 1500M Qualification - she's wearing the knee high white socks

We all came in our Olympic T shirts, waving flags all the way  and with a lot of Olympic fever!! Was great to see so many people from so many nations doing the same. I even painted my nails with Union Jacks. A day I will remember for the rest of my life, so lucky to have shared it with my loved ones too. I have some great photos and I cant wait to get some of them printed. Now the heat is on to get some Paralympic Tickets on the official website. I would love to see some Wheelchair Basketball and Cycling, though as always, any sport will do for us :)