Posts

June - October 2023

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Well what a busy couple of months! Having returned from honeymoon, we just kept up the momentum and packed in a load of activities from concerts to comedy shows, day trips and overnighters, disability exhibitions and research groups.  All the while we kept saying to each other “ooh we must put this on the blog” or “ do you think people would be interested in this?” But before we had chance to start the next post, we were off onto something else! This all sounds really quite grand doesn’t it but it’s not quite as hectic as you might think because in between each activity is a recovery period where I’m incapable of doing anything other than sleeping. My energy levels run out very very quickly and I constantly work on a Boom and Bust cycle. Then there’s the build up and preparation for the next challenge or adventure.  After being fortunate enough to still be here after my brush with Sepsis, I felt I had a responsibility to raise awareness of being vigilant for the signs of Sepsis. I also

April - June 2023

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  And it seems that, just like that, I’m a married woman! Well, not really just like that  šŸ˜‚ …looking back on it now, there was a huge amount of planning and preparation involved but when you’re in the middle of it all you’re just ticking off things on the to do list. We did take a little trip just before as light break. We had tickets to see James Norton ( Tommy Lee Royce in the fantastic Happy Valley) in the play Little Life. I knew very little about it or the book from which it was taken but, after all, it was James Norton. I can’t praise the writing or performances highly enough. All round it was fantastic, but something that constituted part of a “light break “ it certainly was not. *Spoiler alert* It deals    with some dark themes including rape, self harm, grooming etc but I hadn’t anticipated the main character becoming an amputee. After three years I thought I had come to terms with my own experience. But having it played out in front of me,I have to admit, I found it very di

March 2023

 Hello all. Just a very brief update this time ( don’t I say that every time?šŸ˜‚) March is a very special month for me as it is the month that I was discharged from hospital, finally coming home after almost 14 months . Inevitably, that anniversary always makes me reflect on the massive changes that homecoming brought and my progress in that time. It’s 2 years since my rehabilitation in my home environment started proper and I can’t help feeling that I should be further on than I am, doing bigger and better things than I do. We took a holiday in Fuertaventura and we spent a lot of time talking about it. I say it’s 2 years since I came out of hospital but David says it’s ONLY two years since I came out of hospital. I’m obviously a little more impatient than he is. And as we realised, there we were on a foreign holiday discussing what I should and shouldn’t be doing. Somewhere I could never have seen myself being when I first came home. So what’s holding me back? What’s preventing me from

Jan - Feb 2023

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 A very busy little period since the last update which got off to a flying start when I was able to pick up my new legs from the prosthetist. After my revision surgeries I needed to be recast and had been wearing my wash legs until my replacements were ready. It’s always a very tense wait as you’re never quite sure how they’re going to fit but I’m happy to report that they are really good! So much more comfortable and only one set of socks to help with the fit. I had been up to six on my last ones! This time I’ve gone for a lovely sparkly dark blue which were very fetching when matched with my Stepdaughters Doc Marten boots šŸ˜‚. Not my usual footwear I know, but stay with me here. Jasmin had been having the usual problems with brand new Docs, cutting into her toes and taking forever to wear in, so I offered to break them in for her! It seems to have gone well as I wore them throughout a visit to Dublin that David and I took and my feet came out of it blister free. Thankfully so did my s

August - December 2022

 Well where did those 5 months go? A long time since the last update and so much has happened since then but don’t worry, this isn’t a blow by blow account. I just wanted to revisit the blog and bring you up to speed with where we have been and where we are heading šŸ™‚ You may remember in the last blog that I had hit a bit of a bump in the road. Being stuck in bed for months had knocked both my progress and confidence. My revisions were a worry. Well there was nothing else to do but to just get out and put them to the test! I spent from August to the end of the year doing just that. I fulfilled one of my aims of being able to dance one more time at a Coldplay concert in Wembley. I braved rail travel and the London Underground for the first time in a wheelchair. I carried on the dancing by attending Peter Kay’s Dance for Life in Liverpool and boogied away to ABBAs Voyage experience. My dancing was very conservative and short lived by my previous standards but I did it! I say I but of cou

June - July 2022

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  I wasn’t sure it was worth doing an update this month as on the face of it, nothing has changed. I’m still mostly stuck in bed. The wounds to my revisions are healing well but this bloody skin graft is taking forever!. So as I say, nothing to report. Nothing extraordinary has happened. But wait a second…Didn’t we say that was the aim of this blog? To show the everyday, mundane and boring experiences of an amputee. There are many people with disabilities doing amazing things to raise awareness in the wider community, and I wish I was in a position to do the same. Hiking up a mountain. Jumping from a plane. Swimming across open water. ( Okay, maybe not the open water thing because (a) I can’t swim and (b) I never liked be in water deeper than being able to put my feet on the bottom. Now I have no feet, how’s that going to work  šŸ¤” )…but you get my drift..But being stuck in bed, im not able to do much at all. Again, nothing Extraordinary has happened. Not being up and about, gives you m

March - June 2022

 Well where to start? I suppose by addressing the fact that it’s been 4 months since my last post would be a good enough place. The last 16 weeks or so have been some of the most emotionally challenging I’ve encountered since I finally came home back in March 21. The last month and a half has also been physically tough but I will explain as we go on. While none of this period has been particularly tragic, it has been difficult and trying to find a way to convey that in the blog without sounding negative or self pitying seemed just too big a task to take time out to tackle. That said, we always intended this blog to be an honest account and insight into the everyday challenges of an amputee so here we go. (Don’t worry, I promise it’s not a moan fest šŸ˜‰) March and April brought some significant dates around on my calendar, being a year since I was finally discharged from hospital ..My Home-iversary..and 2 years since my first amputations..My Ampuversary. My initial thought was that I wou