First off I really want to thank the whole wave of support that was shown to me after my last blog post – it was incredible! Despite being in a room of strangers at night my laptop was overflowing with friends and well-wishers.

I came home a few days ago. Simple things are a novelty. Belongings being around you is one. A shower with a consistent temperature is another. A duvet. Wearing clothes instead of pyjamas. Being able to bend my arm because the cannula is out. Wonderful, simple every day images such as trees and our dog leaping about in the garden. I’m still pretty sore, the surgeon commented afterwards that they were pretty rough and I’m still feeling the after effects. I’m sore but thankful.

After a few days at home, we decided it would be a nice trip if we could go to the cinema and see “Fantastic Beasts and where to find them”. I have been looking forward to this film for a very long time! On the way to the cinema our car was rear-ended! Luckily we were travelling pretty slowly and no one was injured. Everything insurance wise is being sorted out. Somehow, we made it to the cinema on time. However, once we arrived the till attendant looked rather sheepish… the lift was broken. Mum and I gave each other one of those looks that you reserve for when EVERYTHING in life appears to be going wrong.

Luckily I have a dad who is a superhero/ Fireman for his day job so he carried me up three flights of stairs! I asked him if he did this a lot at work – and he said “We’re normally getting people out of a burning building, not carrying them back in.” I think it was a bit of a workout for him but we reached the top. We watched the film, which I loved. If you go in with the attitude that this is a completely different franchise to Harry Potter you will love it. Don’t make comparisons to Harry Potter, otherwise I think you may be disappointed.

I’m hoping to get back to school soon, but I am awaiting a date for the second attempt at my surgery which could be any time. I hope it’s at the beginning of December or after Christmas. I’m really looking forward to a peaceful time with the family. I have forced my dad to bring down my Christmas decorations so that I can get my room ready just in case I’m called in. I don’t want to get home to a decorationless room!

 

 

The level of support from my last blog post was very unexpected. I was stunned. So many people read the post – and some have been in contact with similar conditions and experiences. I have joined some closed Facebook groups as well – and feel very connected to others now. You wouldn’t believe the amount of courage it took to press that little “post” button for that post. I was really worried what people’s reactions would be. I thought people would ignore it on their feed!

The reaction was one of warm kindness and I can’t thank friends or strangers enough. We are a very reserved family, and usually hate other people knowing our business so I was worried what my family would think about me telling all on such an open forum. My dad came home smiling that day, and said he was proud of me. It’s given me increased confidence, that’s for sure. I don’t worry about answering the door to the postman anymore, he’s got used to the tube I think. He did look quite shocked the first couple of times though, I have to admit. Ha!

On another topic, I recently got glasses. I haven’t stopped reading since! One in particular, that I read a few weeks ago is lingering in my head. I wouldn’t say it was my favourite collection of poetry, but I enjoyed it and it’s just stuck there. The collection is titled ‘the princess saves herself in this one’ by amanda lovelace (all lower case, as throughout the collection). It charts a young woman’s journey through heartbreak, loss and love with an overarching theme of needing to take time for self-care. Some of the poems used images used hundreds of times by other people e.g.  something along the lines of a ‘blackberry bruise’ – but there were a dozen poems in the book that I have bookmarked and keep on going back to. These selected poems removed some kind of block in my mind and made me see things differently. It’s almost been like seeing through a window I hadn’t noticed before. The poems are compressed and every word is chosen to fit just right.

I don’t really have much else to say. Thank you once again for your support, it makes things so much easier to have love and understanding around.