Fucked up wrist = not all bad, but mostly not good either.

Physio on Friday went pretty well. My task for the next week was to submerge my wrist in different textures and to pick up small objects. I decided to extend this task (because I am both gifted and tallented) to using my wrist for support when climbing down from a tower in Prague. After proving my body weight does not constitute a 'small object' the 'texture' I decided to bodily rub myself against was a flight of stairs. At least I can whinge about how much my leg hurts now for a bit of variety.

As I am currently signed off work, Today I worked from home (I know, I'm not supposed to work at all but I'm already pretty bored).
As we only got back from Prague at 3am and we're not exactly great at forward planning, I got up and went to have breakfast then realised we don't have any milk.
I went to budgens for some but they were sold out, on my way to the next closest shop I passed Fancy so I decided too treat myself to a not-very-healthy breakfast.

I know this isn't doing me any favours- as at the moment my biggest hate is people saying "oh, it must be nice to have an extra 2 weeks holiday!". I know they're well meaning and I do prefer it to the hand stroking sympathy followed by the immediate suggestion that I should sue the NHS, however, If I was truly "on holiday" I would be paddle boarding, and roller skating and crocheting and playing the violin. I cannot do any of these recreational activities.
My arm hurts (more now I've fallen on it but I suppose that is my own fault) so I don't sleep very well. It doesn't really work, so I can't use cutlery very well so eating isn't really a pleasure more of a chore and some foods just aren't worth the effort.

Some days- if I've caught my wrist on something- it's too swollen and sore for me to even be able to dress myself even with the wrist support. Even washing my hair is a bit of a challenge.
It's infuriating.
I know I just need to be patient. Do the exercises, take some painkillers and see what happens. Recovery will be a long road- not helped by the cast being on twice as long as recommended and the edges of the half plaster digging into the tendons that were damaged. Improvement is very slow.

Please excuse my lack of typing and messages as theta's still pretty difficult. especially on my phone. I've certainly had a few snotty messages off people berating my text length or my lack of explanation. trust me, if I could type more I would be.

So, for now, I will console myself with a fancy breakfast. But please remember that if I was "on holiday" this would have been a post paddle bacon sarnie from the club house.

Style for when your arm is in a cast

So, When I fell on my wrist on Tuesday it turns out that i fractured it. I was adamant that it was a sprain, so I carried on as normal all week- including the spa, swimming, paddle boarding and carrying stuff about.

On saturday Traff decided enough was enough and took me to A&E. he went off to his wrestling show and i spent 5 hours being told off. My arm is now in a temporary cast, I have to go back to the fracture clinic on monday and either get a solid cast or a blue velcro support. Fingers crossed for the latter, but i am mentally prepared for the former. 6 weeks is a very long time to be unable to brush your own hair.

Fashion:

The cast on my are is 30cm around at the widest part. Go measure your "office appropriate" workwear. Not 30cm? no, neither were mine.

I have been wearing stretchy stroppy tops under the blue lacy M&S number in the photo above. I measured the arm holes in the shop and bought it a size too big. Still cute though, and hides my unprofessional under tops.

I also can't do zips, laces or buttons, so i had to go and buy a stretchy pencil skirt and some pull on daps. It's not my finest look, but it's (fingers crossed) only until Monday.

The hardest part has been that Traff has to help me to get dressed. He's really quite oblivious to how i usually dress. He tried to put my skirt on over my head.

Hair:

We established very early on that my hair is Traff's nemesis. I ended up wearing my brush as a fascinator on Saturday night. On sunday night Tina's daughter french braided my hair for work, which was a godsend. On Monday night Kelly french braided my hair again for me. Tomorrow I have a late start so Traff will have to do his best. I'm hoping one of the roller derby girls will braid it for me on Wednesday night at training.

Food:

I currently cannot use cutlery in a way that would be acceptable in any polite society. It's all slim fast and potato waffles right now.

I did eat an awful lot of samosas and cupcakes at the weekend too.

I'll get back on my higher protein cleaner eating once my arm is back in action. For now, I'm just eating whatever I can access and eat within a set timeframe (like work breaks... ) On the flip side I figure all that calcium can only be handy right now.

Travel:

Shoelace express.

The bottom line; If you must break your wrist, do it in an epic way- people laugh when i tell them I was roller skating! You'll need a super supportive friendship group and at least one friend who can french plait. You'll also need to be prepared for everything to take you 5 times longer than normal.

I will be late.

For everything.

Injury

When we were out skating I fell over, and at the time I laughed it off, The following morning however was a different matter.

One wrist was twice the size of the other.

I went to see the nurse at work and she strapped it up for me professing it to be either a bad sprain or a hairline fracture.

She did say to get it x-rayed but I was at work until 8pm last night and 5 today, and at the spa on friday so I don't really want to end up with a cast if they do decide it's a fracture. I also can't be bothered to wait about for 4 hours. So it's not that much of an emergency.

If it still hurts next week maybe I'll get it looked at.

Retro photos

When mum and I were looking for inspiration for the glass workshop we fired up her old external hard drive which goes waaaayyy back to 2004.
These aren't all the best photos we found but this a selection of golden oldies. ..

Car disaster

!But it's ok because it's only flat at the bottom"
Points if you can name the book.
I'm furious as i only got new tyres on Friday!
They're supposed to do more than 2 days!
Alice slept through it. Sah was super calm and directed us to pull in and Dan came and saved the day and changed the tyre.
Then put the spare on.
Which was also rather flat.
This is my own fault for tempting fate. Yesterday i said i'd never had a flat.
Well, as if today that experience has been enjoyed fully. o_O

Creme Eggs

Creme Egg controversy in the news this week- and all over an outraged buzzfeed- First they reduce the number in a box from 6 to 5 but charge the same and then they change the chocolate!
(Actually, perhaps the first controversy was selling them in January when Easter is in April, but who am I to judge?)

I've seen articles on the internet about this for the last week, and every time my interest has been piqued- Surely changing the chocolate cannot make so much difference?
(In the words of a Kraft foods representative "We never said it was Cadburys dairy milk chocolate, they're just Cadbury's Creme eggs- and we taste tested the chocolate and this is what people liked the best!")

 I had to go to budgens earlier for dinner provisions and they had Creme eggs by the counter.. I ummed and arred over buying one but in the end I did.
They have, until today been one of my favourite guilty pleasures.

This is my analysis of the situation:

• The chocolate is very thin, and weirdly greasy- It reminds me of hershleys chocolate but not in a good way- A colleague once brought back hershleys kisses from a trip to New York and they had a weird, greasy texture. 
• It doesn't really taste like chocolate. Or anything. It's just a hard, chewy shell for the fondant stuff.
• I won't be buying them any more.

So, here are some alternative activities you can do with a Creme Egg (As frankly, I wouldn't bother with eating them):

March (The place, not the Month) For Rugby

Today was not the best start ever. On Thursday I went to the osteopath for my back and neck- I've seen chiropractors and physiotherapists in the past so I had a reasonable idea what to expect as an aftermath- The Osteopath asked me what my plans were for the following day and suggested "Taking it easy" and told me to ice my neck if it needed it.
I inwardly laughed at that- Who needs Ice after a medical appointment?!
As you can see from my blog, I did not take it easy yesterday- which resulted in the worst neck, back and head ache I have ever experienced all of last night and most of today. I know it's just toxins and tension but it's still awful!
Urgh, I'm learning the hard way to follow instructions.

I dosed myself up on ibprufen and braved the rugby match in March- Although we got hideously lost in the Fenns for almost 2 hours. It turns out that the rugby pitch is by the high security prison, for future reference.
We arrived in time to have a burger van cheese burger before the start of the match- March Bears Vs Scottie's little soldiers- Who are a forces charity, they raise money for children who have lost their parents.
Traff's Brother Simon plays for both teams casually- and played a half for each team today. Gary and Sharon came to watch too, so did Mel and Chris- Traff's step sister and her husband.

The match was a bit of a flattening for Scottie's Little solders- but it raised awareness, and plenty of pennies from the bake sale, their merchandise, the huge charity raffle and rugby shirt auction- The raffle was amazing!
They had loads of prizes donated from local buisnesses including a massive chocolates hamper, kids toys, Alcohol, Potatoes from the local factories, nights in hotels, fishing passes etc
We bought 4 lines but didn't win anything- we never do have much luck with raffles! Traff's Brother won a few items and his other brother called the raffle, so we avoided amplified abuse by not winning!

Traff also got to go on the bouncy castle with Sharon's son Thomas.
Thomas won the boxing and the gladiators.

On the wat back we stopped off in peterborough. We had planned to eat dinner in the Brewery Tap- they do amazing Thai Fusion food.
We forgot that it was Saturday night- it was rammed and really loud. People were eating but people were also drunk and dancing round the tables so we gave that a miss.
We went ti Chimi Changas in the end, and the poor waitor poured a whole drink on Traff- It turned out to be his first night on the job!

One of "those" days- It starts with a wrinkle in time and ends in A&E

This morning actually started by Traff and I both being worken up by a parrot making a noise like a video recorder at about 5:30am.
We were both greateful the other had heard it as it was almost too weird to be true.
We went back to sleep, and when we woke up it was sunny and bright and we cwtched up for a bit- had a chat- Traff harvested the chillis off his chilli plant whist we waited for the alarm to go off- Only when I photographed our chilli yield on my mobile phone did I see that it was 8am.
I start work at 7:30
Traff starts work at 8am
We both set 6:40 alarms- and neither of them went off! I suspect it's something to do with 3 as we're both on the same network- 2 of my colleagues were also late because their alarms didn't go off, and they're with 3 too.

So, I got ready in 5 minutes flat, jumped in the car, was driving down the road and almost had a head on collision with a blike who pulled out of a side street at far more than 30 without looking. I saw him and beeped- he then did an emergency swerve-stop but my god did I almost have a heart attack.

Finally at work, my morning meetings went OK, except that I'd forgotten to put any deodorant on! and my afternoon flame testing activities were awesome- Then I had home ed. and got berated by creationists over my godless and heathen upbringing and my belief in sciences.
Finally got home at 6:30- so I more than managed to make up my time I missed in the morning!

We watched an episode of lewis.
And as I got up to go to bed I could feel that my ear was all fluidy and swollen. I lay in bed for a bit with my ear throbbing and then Traff said that I should go to A&E- This is my 5th Ear infection in 4 weeks and my 3rd course of antibiotics.
So we did.
And we waited 4 hours to be seen- which is fair as it technically was neither accident nor emergency, but due to my lack of immune system it was the right thing to do.
So, more antibiotics and paracetamol for me.

The Doctor told me in a smug way that "Middle ear infections go away on their own in time, without any antibiotics" I told her I'd had this since mid June and she told me to be more patient. Perhaps that would be easier if I didn't have a noisy, standing up job.
blergh.
So, It's 3am and I'm dosed up on antibiotics and painkillers.
Off to bed for me now- I've cancelled all my morning meetings at work- I plan to make my 11:45 meeting with the area STEM co-ordinator although I might be a bit blearry eyed.

Tendonitis

Turns out I wasn't being a real wimp whinging about how much my squashed foot hurts- After a week and no improvement I went to the doctors yesterday and I have tendonitis.
:(
Hopefully we'll see a sharp increase in my creativity this weekend as I can't go anywhere.
"rest and elevation".
I've also been told to stay home from work next week to rest it- but I'm trying to arrange to be in on Tuesday at least as I have so much work to do. O_o

Fingers crossed I'll have a less purple, more normal sized ankle soon.

Taking one for the team.

Whilst I appreciate some people will think this post is too personal or even inappropriate, but hopefully this will be positive- and maybe even helpful to someone else.

Anyone who knows me well will know that I have an "interesting" scar on my right side- to be more specific I pretty much have 1/2 a breast.
The scar was caused by an operation I had as a small child because my lung collapsed, but the shape of the scar looks like I've had a partial mastectomy.

I was referred to the hospital not because I'm bothered about how I look (I've always looked like this- and thankfully I'm amply endowed up top so attention is normally not attracted to my side- on top of which I've had almost 25 years of practice at dressing to hide it) but because where it is it forces my bra to fall funny so it's grazed the skin on my side- easily treated with some steroid cream and E45.

The consultant asked if I would consider seeing a prosthetics specialist- this has mutual benefits:

1)I get a prosthetic that fits in the gap and means all my clothes and underwear fit and stop injuring me.

2) this means I'll have something to hold up my bridesmaids dress for sarah's wedding and reduces the chances of upstaging the bride by ending up with my boob hanging out.

and most importantly:

3) This could offer a non surgical solution to other women who have had a mastectomy or lost breast tissue through operations like I have - IF we can get it to work.
This hasn't been attempted before- largely because it's a tricky area to mould, and because no-one knows what the results would be like- I've always looked like this, so if it doesn't work I won't be bothered. I imagine if you've lost that part of your body and it affects the way you see yourself, it could be quite difficult and emotional if it didn't work.
I am a guinea pig.

Who would think having a wonky boob could potentially offer so much to other people? ha ha

Anyway, today we took the final mould and one of the nurses from the breast care and cancer wing came to watch and asked all kinds of questions.
We had to explain that we're still at the experimental stage but she was really excited for the possibilities, which was encouraging.
Although, I get the impression that recently I've got my boobs out for more people than your average lap dancer. "would you mind if I just have a look..?"

I will have my prosthesis by half term- then I have to wear it and see if it works, and what could be improved, then we go back and in the summer I'll have maybe 4 or 5 close together appointments to make changes and finalise it.
Then we have to see if it can be camouflaged on the edges with make up, and which adhesives will work the best.

I am hopeful that this will work, obviously my needs aren't exactly pressing or great, but I can see why this could be awesome.
The scars on my side have too much scar tissue to be fixed surgically without it being an enormous procedure which will leave me looking more like the bride of frankenstein than a vogue cover- for me, I don't think surgery will ever be an option, I'm comfortable with myself how I am.

I can't imagine how upsetting that statement would be though to someone who has just received cancer treatment "I'm sorry, but theres nothing we can do to make your breast look like it should".

Also, on a lighter note; if my boob falls off in public, don't worry about it- we'll probably be at the "adhesive testing" stage!
:P

I got stuck in this yoga position in public...

yeah, getting into this position was pretty easy. getting out of it again wasn't.