It feels strange that I’ll only be 26 for two more days. On Tuesday I turn 27. This is the first year I’ve felt like I’ve not really done anything of note- I got more ill and have spent more than half of it completely bed bound, but I’ve not been anywhere interesting, or done much.
Not sure what I’ll be doing on Tuesday. Have decided to get a nice takeaway that evening- either Lebanese or Sushi. I also want a birthday cake. Having a birthday cake is very important to me, especially since on my 16th birthday I didn’t get any (and I’d had two GCSE exams that day so my birthday being pretty much ignored didn’t make me feel better). Birthday cake is one of my favourite foods, especially with lots of nice icing.
I was torn between buying a new television or a new monitor (I’d saved a bit of money and got a refund from a cheap telly I tried and ended up not being as described- don’t say there’s a DVD drive if there isn’t!). I’ve ended up buying a 24″ Dell monitor, with a resolution of 1920×1200. I don’t like 16:9 resolution for my monitor (I need the extra height) and trying to find a 16:10 monitor these days is really difficult. This one has excellent reviews and I’ve bought a very good used version from Amazon to save about £40 on the new price, as it working is the most important thing to me. I’ll get the television in the future, probably around the time I get a Virgin box in my room (I’m well enough to watch stuff now and the streamed stuff isn’t quite as good as what I can get through the box). The new monitor will help me play World of Warcraft better and will make things a bit easier to see, so I’m looking forward to it. I could use the old monitor as a television temporarily (it has speakers and a HDMI connection) though I’m not sure I’ll be able to see it properly at a distance with my eyesight as screwy as it is.
My health has been variable. Had a good few days when it was really warm, then started going downhill a bit with lots of pain and mood swings and stuff. Was worried it was a relapse but it turns out I was about to start my period. First one that Johan has had to help me with (I have a Mirena coil which means I only rarely get periods- can go months or years without one) and he didn’t know what it was at first 😛 Luckily as I’m wearing pads anyway it wasn’t really any extra work for him. Seems to be nearly over so hopefully my body will settle down again, as I was enjoying not needing as many painkillers and hate being all moody.
The incontinence pads the NHS provided me aren’t absorbent enough. I think my urinary retention over the past year has stretched my bladder, as when it completely empties there is a lot of liquid- over a litre at a time. It’s rare I can get it to empty completely (have loads of issues with it) but when it does it was too much for those pads to deal with. Luckily I still have plenty of the ones I bought myself which can handle my bladder emptying, so am using them again until it’s sorted. Unfortunately my carer wasn’t able to explain to the district nurses the situation properly (I said we needed to change for more absorbent ones- she said I wanted to order more), so the district nurse said we’d contacted the wrong people and that I need another assessment as I think she didn’t know I’d just had one) so I’m going to ask the GP to sort it, if I ever see her.
It’s frustrating when I word things very carefully to make sure what I need is really clear and then people reword it to something that doesn’t mean the same thing at all. Happens all the time and means things end up harder than they should be. I’m not blaming the carer for this- she didn’t know that her wording wouldn’t work or that it was an issue for me, but it’s still frustrating anyway.
I have finished playing Katawa Shoujo (a romance visual novel set in a school for the disabled in Japan). My favourite route was probably Hanako’s, though I enjoyed all of them except maybe Shizune’s. Shizune is too manipulative and it brought up some bad memories. I sometimes got really frustrated with Hisao, the main character, as he often acted in ways that were too different from how I’d act. It was really enjoyable and I liked it a lot. It does contain sex scenes but they can be turned off (I still wouldn’t recommend it for kids though). I thought the portrayal of disability was pretty realistic, and I related a lot to Hanako, Rin and Emi (I have aspects of all of them, though Rin thinks closest to how I do).
I’ve also caught up with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I enjoyed season 3, but felt the ending was too rushed and confusing. It should have been split into two episodes. I don’t mind the outcome too much, but would have preferred more explanation. I’m interested in Equestria Girls which is coming out today in the US, so might have to see that when I can.
Still nothing from the OT or a social worker yet. I’m frustrated that I’m doing so well in some ways, but I’m stuck in bed because I’m waiting for an assessment. It’s not safe for me to transfer without a hoist and I’ve fallen too many times now to risk it again. I also want to rearrange my powerchair assessment but I can’t do that until I know when I’ll be able to get out of bed again.
My hair is annoying me. It’s a few inches long now and sticks out everywhere. I can’t get it to behave. I think I want to shave it all off as I much preferred it shorter and I’m still not able to look after it properly (touch makes me really ill). My noise sensitivity isn’t as bad now and I can be more upright than before so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get it done soon if I wear earplugs and things.
We watched the Sony presentation at E3 online, and have decided to get a Playstation 4. Johan has put in a preorder and I’ll be buying it for his Christmas/birthday present. It looks really good, and the price is lower than we were expecting. It’s the first console we’ve been so impressed by we want it as soon as it comes out. Will mean a bit of saving but not too much and it’ll be easily doable. Being bed bound has its uses. (The main reason I don’t just buy a hoist and things is I don’t know what ones to get without an assessment first- I’d be quite happy to buy what I need if I knew what it was I was meant to be getting. There’s also the problem of sorting out maintenance and stuff like that, where if I stick with NHS or Social Services they are responsible for it all.)
Hopefully I’ll hear something from someone soon. I’m starting to get bored in bed- I have been here nearly constantly since November so I think that’s understandable. If it does look like it’ll be loads longer then getting a television and things will at least make it more bearable. I’m happy that I’m nowhere near as ill as I have been- severe ME beats very severe ME any day 😛
