Home. Days 26-34. April18-26th

A very full week since since my last post, that found us speaking to countless people.

I had an extremely interesting and helpful talk with Oliver, one of the support nurses for the Sepsis trust.Oliver was able to help me understand some of the challenges of being a Sepsis survivor and the ongoing effects it can have on your day to day life.

I remember very little of the first eight weeks of my illness, as for the first three I was in a coma and from then on I was on huge doses of tranquillisers and painkillers. My first clear memories are only from after my arms were amputated. Amputations and operations took up all of my attention and focus from that point on and I never really thought about how close I had come to dying. Talking about it now and exploring that period is quite sobering and a little uncomfortable but I want to understand it more.

The more I learn about Sepsis the more I realise that there needs to be a greater awareness of the warning signs and actions that should be taken so I make no apology for constantly mentioning it in the blog nor for the inclusion of the link https://sepsistrust.org/

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to push that message even wider as a number of newspapers picked up my story this week, with two national papers and over a dozen regional publications picking it up. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9486181/Mother-given-five-cent-chance-survival-loses-four-limbs.html

Over the last year there have been some huge advances in upper limb prosthetics. The people at Open bionics https://openbionics.com/hero-arm/  are dedicated to providing hi-tech, functional bionic prosthetics for all and are hoping to eventually have their arms approved for use by the NHS. We also became aware of a US company who are following a similar path in wanting to make affordable limbs and joined a live event with them last week.  https://www.unlimitedtomorrow.com/ The True limb isn’t yet available in the UK but massive respect to these two companies who believe that a usable prosthetic arm shouldn’t cost the same as a top of the range Tesla 🙂 ( Okay, enough of the preaching!)

On massively positive note, I finally got out of the house and into the car for a short journey to the coast 🙂...It was a beautiful day and David manoeuvred me into the car. Not the seat I was wanting to be in but I think it will be a while yet before I’m driving and even then I’m not sure there will be a long queue to be my first passenger Haha..

It was lovely to get out in the sunshine and feel the sea breeze. To top it off we even managed a very short stop off at Marks and Spencer’s Food hall then back home for a cuppa and a Marksys scone 🙂... 

All of the activity over the last week, while being interesting and helpful, took a huge amount of effort and I found just left me feeling totally exhausted. It also brought home the harsh reality of having previously been someone who prided themselves on being independent and doing things for themselves, just how much I now rely on the help and assistance of others to do even the most basic of things. I also realise that while I am happy to share my story with strangers and meet with any of the care givers, I still can’t face meeting my closest friends face to face and I have to admit this left me feeling quite low for a number of days.🙁

I know that my rehabilitation is a process and this is just one of the phases I’ll encounter, maybe many times along the way,  but I also know that every day is a new day and one more to be savoured and enjoyed.🙂

https://www.gofundme.com/manage/allison-fridayrecover-rebuild-renew