Short and sweet part two.

This is me and Heather (Hevs).

We're back. Till the morning anyway

The wedding was fab, really great. If you go to my facebook page you can see all the pics. but here are a couple.

Off the Bristol in the morning so they can drill holes in Jamie's head, gulp.

Summer....or not!

Well Saturday was summer, that was it, one day. Yesterday it suddenly became October! Today, well it's still not sure :/

As some of you know from face book I had a rather stressful day last week. Dad suddenly took a turn for the worse. We got the doc out, there were blood tests and chest x-rays. His breathing had become very shallow and we all thought he would be going right back into hospital. Turns out he was just very anemic and is now on liquid iron supplement and thriving again. So one disaster averted.
However we had just said goodbye to the doc for dad when Richard called.
'Don't panic.' He says. Ok choose the two word that are instantly going to make me have kittens!
'Why?'
'Can you come and pick me up from the hospital?'
'What!!!' Ok Claire breathe. 'Why?'
'I had a funny turn and they took me in.'
It turns out that he was feeling a bit pants so he went to make a doctors appointment. When the receptionist called up his history on screen and saw he'd had a heart attack she sent him to the cottage hospital across the road. The then did an angiogram (spelling?). But they weren't happy so they called an ambulance.
He was fine. All he'd done was pulled a muscle in his shoulder which was causing the pain!!!
But I didn't know that until I got there. So I drove like a Cullen all the way, speed limits, what speed limits? Jamie in the back thinking mummy has finally lost it. When we got there he was standing outside waiting for us, like nothing was wrong. And a slightly sheepish look it has to be said.
He drove home!

So everyone is fine. Deep breaths all round.

On a completely different note my pink feather boa has just arrived. Some of you know about this.
It's the wedding this weekend so we're off on Friday. All those that were at the hen weekend have got to bring a pink feather boa for the reception. There is talk of dancing with them!!!! Ok I don't dance, can't dance, gulp. I think a lot of alcohol will be needed!

I have my dress. It's black and lacy. Yes I know it's a wedding, but this is H's wedding. All will clear when you see the pics next week. Let's just say it will all be very Gothic, so black is fine, especially with blood red, 5 inch heels!

A rather boring post. Sorry.

Well it was summer here for three days. Yes a whole three days! But normal service had been resumed and today has been wet. And not just rain, thick fog! In June.

I have to say that not a lot has changed. Dad had another overnight stay in Exeter hospital. They finally did the tests they were supposed to do two weeks ago. So now we wait. He's eating better now though.

We had Jamie's TAC meeting at school today. It went very well. They are very happy with him. In fact they love him to bits! And he's not the baby anymore, they have a little girl started who is younger than him. He wasn't there this afternoon because Wednesday is horse riding. He loves it apparently. They have taken some photos so I hope they'll let us have copies. It seems that he won't hold on though. He sits in the saddle and flaps with joy as someone holds him on! I can just see it. Bless him.

Ok I have the telly on and they are talking about stuffing slugs, cooking them and eating them!! I think I might have just lost the will to live.

Oh yes and I'm now on facebook. I know I have always said I wouldn't go there like I need something else to stop me doing everything else I should be doing!! As soon as I can work out how to link to my page I'll put it up.

The sun is shining (for now).

First of all thank you to everyone who said nice things about my story. I know it was a bit long for a blog, so thanks for taking the time to read it.



And welcome to my new followers. denise-macandrews I can't seem to find your blog.

Things have been quiet round here for a change. Jamie had another eye test last week. He was his normal not very co-operative self. But it went ok and they were happy with him.

Dad came home from Exeter hospital. He's put weight back on and his lung seems to be healing. Did I mention that? They wanted to do a biopsy on another spot the found. In the process the damaged him lung! Still he seems a little better for the moment. He has to go back next week overnight for more tests.

And the sun is out! I've dusted off the sunglasses and changed my wardrobe over. That makes me sound very posh. But really I have a very small wardrobe, that I have to share with Richard, so when the summer clothes come out the winter ones have to be packed away, and vice versa.

So I might be able to finish attacking the garden. I promised more garden pics didn't I? Ok I'll see what state it's in over the weekend.

Happy Birthday (not!).

First of all thank you for all your birthday wishes and your best wishes for Jamie.

He was a star at the hospital. We always get more stressed than he does. I was more anxious about the night on the ward with him. Last time he woke at 2.30am and 'bimbled' until gone five. I spent the time trying desperately to stop him waking up the whole hospital! This time though he slept right through till 4.30, and then was quite quiet until morning proper.

He was first down on the list and so he went down to theatre at 8am. He was back on the ward, all done by 9.30am. All that for so short a time! Still it's where his fantastic neurosurgeon is based, and so that is where we have to go. I expect we will get called for a follow up appointment at Plymouth (he does outpatient clinics at Plymouth so we don't have to keep trekking to Bristol). Anyway it all seemed to go well, so hopefully that will be that for another 12 months.

The last three days have been about the most stressful of my life so far. The trip to Bristol and the lumber puncture were bad enough. But I think my birthday was worse.

My father has been having a few problems with his digestion, I won't go into detail. So his doctor sent him for the camera down the throat, to look for a hernia. His appointment was on my birthday so while we went out to lunch with some friends they went off to Barnstaple. Fine, we all thought, get it sorted out and we can carry on as normal.

We had a nice meal, Jamie had a great time watching the others play pool. We got home and did family stuff until my parents returned from the hospital. That was when the rug was pulled out from under us.

It's not a hernia, it's cancer. My dad, my wonderful, funny, happy, everything to me dad has cancer. We don't know how bad it is yet, but it looks like it's at a fairly early stage. With luck they might be able to do something. My grandmother (dads mum) had bowel cancer back in the '80's, she had an operation and went on for another fifteen years. And it was quite advanced. Maybe I'm clutching at straws, but the alternative is just too horrendous to think about.

Funny that just before I found out I had been blogging, and Frankie had left a comment saying that I was inspirational and always positive. I'm going to let Frankie down now because I don't feel the least bit positive. I feel crap, quite honestly. I had a good cry (out of sight) and then a bit of a rant (again in private). I refuse to accept it until they have done all the tests. It might not be cancer, and it it is then it might not be too serious. They might have caught it in time, he might have years. But he might be gone by Christmas, and I can't bear it.

As you can imagine my mental state is wobbly. I was already wound up about the lumber puncture, without this on top. Now we have got the LP out of the way I'm a bit calmer. And it's no more than a lot of other people are going through. Our own family have been here before several times. My grandmother died of another form of cancer nine years ago. And then there have been the sudden and/or tragic deaths. My mother in law died suddenly, but she was in her 80's. My cousin dropped dead (literally) from a heart attack age 38, to name but two.

One of the worst things is that there is nothing I can do. I can drive him to appointments and nurse him when the time comes, but I can't make it go away. What I can do is not waste anymore time. There are things I want to do with my life and I'm dam well going to do them.

Chapters 13 and 14 of MG is on WNR (and welcome Helen).