1. My gran was diagnosed with a tumour on her bladders, which she had to have removed. Thankfully the docs think that it wasn’t related to the breast cancer she had removed in June 2011, but it was a shock and is still a worry.
2. I was made redundant on the 2nd December from a job and a workplace that I REALLY loved and I found it tough going there for a while. I haven’t found anything else yet, but I’m hopeful.
3. The third and most exciting thing is that I got engaged on the 13th November and EVEN better than that, we are wasting no time and are getting married on the 25th February 2012, which (by my count) is a little over 7 weeks away.

So there you go, you are all catched up, so to speak. I will do my very best to be a bit more active on here, but it’s nice to blog again.

xx

Today it is officially 16 weeks since I had my total abdominal hysterectomy and I think this will be my last blog on this specific subject. Here is a blow-by-blow of my timeline:

So as you can see, it has been somewhat of a rollercoaster, but now I am at the other end, I think it was WELL worth it. It’s worth mentioning that whilst I did have my operation in a private hospital, this wasn’t my choice. I went to my GP as normal and she recommend a specialist clinic that dealt with dysmenorrhea and this clinic just happened to be within Spire Cheshire hospital. All visits and procedures, including the Hysteroscopy, DNC and the Total Abdominal hysterectomy that I had were done at Spire CH, but paid for by the NHS.

I love the NHS and it’s where Moochy works, but I have to say that the pace of a private hospital is much slower. The care is no different, but the ratio of staff to patients is much smaller and the attention to detail is greater.

Finally, I am 37 and had struggled with painful periods for most of my adult life. I had tried several alternative treatments and undergone 2 procedures under general anaesthetic before eventually deciding on the full TAH. My own GP was very reluctant to refer me to the hospital as I was so young and their feeling was always that I might want children at some stage, but eventually they realised that I never have and I never will.

The relief at never having to have another painful period is immense and I feel like Mr Griffiths and this whole experience has freed me. I can plan events and days out, look forward to Christmas and not worry about whether or not I will be in excruciating pain. I have my life back.  xxx

Anyway, here are some pictures of some of the competition cakes that we saw. AKA Cake Porn!

• I really love my new car and all its wonderful gadgets.
• We have been away to Anglesey for the weekend and it was sumptuous.
• I am loving cake decorating classes and made an amazing Peppa Pig Cake for my beautiful niece over the weekend (see pic).
• I have had to take Moochy to hospital twice with his heart, but he has seen the cardiologist and apparently he isn’t in any danger and he has been given some medication and been totally cleared to exercise. Woo Hoo. ~
• I went to my niece’s 2nd birthday party and had a fab time.
• I am being made redundant from the job that I love.
• I have had two interviews (but haven’t heard anything yet).

So these are the headlines.

The most recent thing is the redundancy and I am very sad about this for a variety of reasons. There are the obvious things like being worried about not having any money and being out of work, but then there are more subtle issues that just creep up on you when you least expect it.

Firstly, I love my job and I know that this can be quite unusual unless you are a TV presenter or Video Game tester, but yes, I love my job and I love where I work. I work for Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisations (GMCVO) which is a charity which supports the Voluntary Sector in Greater Manchester. It is one of the nicest, most friendly, supportive and collaborative places I  have ever worked and I have always felt at home there. The people are a joy and whilst I have never worked as hard in my life,  the atmosphere remains relaxed and happy.

I remember in my induction with the director Alex, he said to me “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, it just means that you are trying new things and new things don’t always work. But at least you are trying”. This mantra has stuck with me and I have always felt listened to and valued.

Having to look for a job whilst being made redundant is rubbish and a very different experience when you initiate the search. It’s hard to get enthusiastic about the job you are going for, because (in my case) I DON’T want to go for it. I don’t want to leave and I don’t want to have to got to interview and pretend to be excited about joining a new organisation. I am putting on a brave (ish) face at working and again, pretending that I am fine about things, when the truth is I am beyond gutted. Moochy is having to listen to me most evenings telling him how fed up I am, but I don’t know another way to sort out my feelings.

The truth is, the train is coming and it’s going to hit me. I AM being made redundant and in the none-too-distant future, I AM going to have to leave GMCVO and probably be unemployed or to go to another job that I don’t really care for. It’s my reality and there is nothing I can do about it. I am desperately trying to see the whole thing as an opportunity, but I’m struggling. Maybe I will feel better in a few days, these things can change very quickly.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. Chin up as they say.

We are also on a little countdown now as we are going back to Anglesey next week for a few days and I am really looking forward to it. I have been back at work now for almost 5 weeks but it’s been hard. Moochy pointed out last week that each week I have been back I have had to have a major sleep at least once each week. So I am healing but not completely healed…

Anyway, the picture on this post is of the wood burning fire in our cottage in Anglesey and this is one of things I am looking forward to the most. Bring it on x

It’s always very exciting getting a new car and this one is particularly lovely. Apart from being very comfortable inside, with lots of leg room etc etc, it’s got a lovely thing called Nissan Connect. This means that I can plug my iPhone in and make calls hands free – like with my phone in my bag and using the car’s microphone system instead. I can also listen to the songs on my iPod and it has an in-built sat-nav. It’s VERY cool and I love it.

Happy gillibobs xxx

Sugar Teddy

I realised this week that I am now 9 weeks post-op and that I am only 3 weeks away from being able to run again. The recommendations by my doctor and physio were that no heavy exercise for at least 3 months after my total abdominal hysterectomy. I am in my 3rd week back at work and what a 3 weeks it has been.

In my first week back, I had a “phased” return, which only saw me working 4 hours a day. In that week I re-started an evening class (cake decoration),  I was sedated at the dentist and my Gran was taken into hospital, which meant that one day and I had to go straight from work (in Manchester) to the hospital (Whiston, Merseyside).

My second week back, I went back to full-time hours with a 6:30am alarm. In that week, I had a 2 day trip to London to watch Strictly Come Dancing and we had a slight family drama, which involved a late night and an early morning.

My third week back has been slightly calmer, but last night I think everything just caught up with me, as I fell asleep on the couch  at around 19:00. I woke up at around 20:00 and just took myself to bed – I was shattered. I then slept almost unbroken until 06:00 and by the time my alarm went off at 6:30, I was wide awake and ready to get up.

The thing about having the hysterectomy that is unseen, is the toll it takes on your whole body. I don’t think I had any real concept of what “Major Surgery” meant. Of course, I understand English, so I know what the words meant, but I had no idea what it would mean for me. I remember questioning why on earth I would need 6-8 weeks off work and I couldn’t even imagine why anyone would need 3 months off sick!!! But now I realise that it’s a slow process of recovery and that you don’t just snap back into normal life, it all takes time.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel ill at all and the pain for me was relatively minimal. After the first week to 10 days at home after the op, I stopped taking pain killers altogether. It was bad at first, I’m not going to lie, but after that, it was no more than an ache, and only if I did too much in one day – certainly no worse that the period pains I had been experiencing beforehand

The thing that has taken the longest to go for me (and as predicted by my consultant), is the tiredness. I guess my body is still healing itself which means that my energy levels are not back to what they were before the operation. I wonder if some of the sluggish feeling is because I am not allowed to run and things? Who knows, but what I do know is that being tired is a small price to pay for no more periods, no more period pains, no emotional roller coast and no more “feeling sad” a couple of times a month.

I think this whole thing will turn out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. xx

Last Hysterectomy Entry

It’s a Nissan Note N-Tec 1.4 and it should look something like this:

Nissan Note Library Photo

I am very excited about my new car and all the techy gadgets that come with it. It’s about time I had a nice car, I’ve worked for 21 years you know this year. omg.

We arrived in London about 12:30 and got a taxi to our hotel, The Quality Maltrise, which is the hotel we had booked for the Olympics – I was excited.  Now, I don’t want to dwell on this too much, so here are my thoughts on the hotel in bullet points:

• The reception and receptionist were lovely and helpful respectively
• Our room was small, dark and very hot
• Our bathroom was tiny and there was no bath
• There were icky stains on the floor of the bedroom
• The full length mirror was on the wall to the left of the dressing table, so I had to sit on the floor to do my hair
• When we to breakfast, it was chaotic and disorganised and we had to make our own toast – well WE didn’t, as we didn’t stay. By this time, we’d had enough and just wanted to get out of there.

But, back to Strictly….

Our ticket said that we could be on site from 15:00 and we got there at 15:40 and can you believe it we were put on Standby!!!! This meant that enough people had turned up and we might not get a seat in the studio… I could have died. So we got into TV Centre at about 16:00, but it was 18:45 before they started to call people in. Moochy and I were standby numbers 011 and 012 out of 70  and would you believe that the last call they made was “Can we have yellow (stand by) tickets numbers 001 to 012 please”. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

We were led around the whole set and eventually got seats in the upstairs rows behind the judges. The view was a bit restricted and we couldn’t actually see the judges themselves, but we could see most of the dance floor, the stage and the band and we were right next to Tess’s area. I have to say at this point to, that Tess Daley in real life is very beautiful.

As it was the launch show, it was pre-recorded, which meant that they filmed things out of sequence, which was a little hard to keep up with, but it didn’t matter – it was fantastic.  We saw 3 show dances from the professionals, one group dance from the celebrities and the professional and we also got to see which celebrities got partnered with which professionals. We spent the whole night whooping and cheering and I had sore hands a husky throat by the time we had finished. I couldn’t have asked for more.

The whole thing took 3 hours to record and it was awesome it really was. You can laugh if you want to, but it was honestly a dream come true. The glam and glitz of the occasion was just brilliant and we both loved getting dressed up. I couldn’t believe we were actually there and to top it all off, we were in the room with Brian May… legend.

Me

Yesterday saw Moochy and I wave his sister and her partner off for a trip around the world. They plan to take in many countries starting in South Africa and ending up in America and I have feeling it’s going to be epic.

It’s funny that is made me think about all the places that I have been, or NOT been as the case maybe. Due to a variety of factors, I have really NOT been the girl that does a lot of travelling and to demonstrate here are the places that I have been to that are outside the UK:

• Alabama
• New York
• Benidorm
• Puerto Rico (Spain)
• Costa Brava
• Tenerife

and that my friends, is it. Is that a waste of 37 years? It has got me thinking. In my defence, since we have had Peggy dog, we have been on many holidays, but only abroad once, as I don’t like to leave her in kennels…. but even so….it has got me thinking….