Tuesday 1 November 2016

Life is slowly getting back to normal

It’s been a while since my last post.  Eight days in hospital with hardly any sleep due to pain and being on a noisy ward plus not being able to eat much took its toll on me.  It’s taken a few weeks for me to feel half human again and to have the strength to do daily things that normally I wouldn’t even have to think about.

My operation went to plan, but it was hard not seeing my family very much over the 8 days I was in hospital.  I didn’t see my youngest son for the whole time, as he was traumatised after my hospital stay in March and didn’t want to see me hooked up to cannulas, drips etc.  I totally understand as I’m not great with hospitals and so know how scary things like that can be to an eight year old.  Fortunately, I could facetime him without him seeing the drips etc.  Although he did remark I didn’t look too good!!!  I do love my ASD kids honesty, even though it may not have been what I wanted to hear at that moment in time!  My eldest two kids did come in and visit me on a couple of occasions and texted me several times a day. 

Timing for my operation was not great, as our daughter had only been at her new school for three weeks and she was still settling in.  However, like in March when I was in hospital, she has grown in strength as a result of me not being around 24/7.  The cycle of ringing me each day, sometimes multiple times to tell me she wanted to come home stopped, as she knew I couldn’t drive from the hospital.  The biggest change was that she confided in her form tutor, something that normally takes months for her to do with a new member of staff and so although I had already told her teacher that I would be in hospital, our daughter told her as well and so had someone she could talk to at school if needed.  That is a huge breakthrough and now she seems more settled at school. 

I had expected my recovery to take 2-3 months, but the consultant broke the news to me when I was discharged that it is more likely to take 3-6 months for me to fully heal.  This was not what I wanted to hear as I’m an active person, who rarely sits down, unless Strictly Come Dancing is on tv!!  I’m always on the go whether I’m out in the garden, walking our dog, decorating, making something or studying.  For the first couple of weeks at home, I didn’t want to do much other than sleep or sit down, so I could adjust to not doing a lot.  After that boredom set in and I’ve used the time to order all our Christmas presents online.  I’ve never been so organised as everything is bought and wrapped.  Last week I decided I needed to start walking again, so that I could walk our youngest son to and from school each day, once the kids returned from half term this week. 

Normally I walk anywhere from 12,000 – 15,000 steps a day, but for the first 3-4 weeks after my operation, I barely went above 1,000 steps in a day.  Last week I managed to walk 5,000 steps on two days and paid the price for it at the weekend as I was totally wiped out and suffering with pain.  However, with our GP’s advice I have managed to do the school run two days this week.  I’m not allowed to do more walking than this for the time being, as a couple of my scars are unfortunately in the same place as my core muscles and so walking is aggravating the scars and scar tissue that is developing.  I will continue to do the school run each day though as I feel better in myself for going back into the outside world.  I don’t like being confined to the four walls of home and unfortunately can’t drive for another month, so I am restricted by what I can do each day.

There is a positive in all of this though, as I’ve lost nearly 10lbs in weight due to the low residue diet I have to be on for the next couple of months.  My husband keeps tempting me with his thai/chinese cooking, but unfortunately I've got to resist it for the time being.

I will have to listen to advice and take my recovery slowly. Spending 17 days in hospital this year is more than enough for me and I don’t want to be going back there anytime soon.  My goal now is to build myself up and fully recover so that I can enjoy the things we have planned for next year, as well as a trip to Harry Potter Studios on Christmas Eve in 8 weeks time.  Both of our ASD children have a Harry Potter obsession and during half term, Sky had a Harry Potter channel on tv, so that’s all I’ve heard for the past week!!  They can’t wait to go wand, broomstick and anything Dobby related shopping in the gift shop!

It’s our eldest son’s birthday in 3 weeks time and although I’m not up to hosting the party he would like this year, I know he will be happy when he comes home later and sees the treat I’ve booked for him today - a rugby training camp with his heroes at Saracens a week before his birthday. 

Going to Harry Potter Studios/rugby camp is all about making memories for our kids and although I haven’t been 100% for the majority of the year, we have still tried to ensure we have created a lot of memories with our holidays, our youngest son being an animal keeper for the day, day trips to London etc.  Our kids may look back and think 2016 was the year when Mummy was ill and had to go into hospital, but they will also remember the good things we have done as a family.