Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a good winter holiday season, and that this year will be good to you. I had a lovely time just before Christmas and on Christmas Day, but overdid it a bit and so it’s taken me a couple of weeks to recover. Annoying but nothing I’m not used to.
It’s been a busy time the last month or so. I managed to go out again a few days after my last post, going to Nando’s and then Tesco (couldn’t really go into Newcastle as the Metro was off), and lots of WoW for a bit. I did most of my Christmas shopping on Black Friday and then got payback from that so rested lots.
Tuesday 6th December I managed to go to Enchanted Parks with Sammie (and Johan and Sammie’s grandparents). The event itself wasn’t very good this year (based on Shakespeare, but there was less to do and see than last year and it was hard enough for the adults to understand) but being able to go out with Sammie made it worth it, even though it was chucking it down with rain. It was the first time I’d been able to do that in years, but next time maybe I’ll find somewhere a bit better (and less wet).
The next morning was attempt number 1 at going to the hospital for the dental surgery pre-assessment. We got there, and they couldn’t see me because I was on a stretcher (the previous week Johan spent a long time on the phone trying to tell them I was going to be coming on a stretcher, but kept getting passed around until finally arriving at a dead end). Attempt number 2 was meant to be the day after, but just before I was due to be picked up the lift on the ambulance broke (it’s kinda needed to get the stretcher in and out.
Friday morning was my PIP assessment. I was having payback from going out that week, and was non-verbal. The assessor tried to say she couldn’t assess someone who can’t speak (it’s a benefit for those who are long term disabled. And I have an appointee.) but she spoke to her supervisor and I dunno what they said but it was able to happen. Johan answered the majority of the questions for me, and I typed when I had something to add. By the end of it it was obvious to Johan I was struggling (kept hitting the wrong buttons on my text to speech app so it was saying things randomly) but I’m not sure if the assessor picked up on it. At least she seemed to understand that trying to get me to sit up was a bad idea, and I think she might have got an idea of how much help I needed by the end of it? The decision hasn’t been made yet so I just need to wait.
A week later the council came and cut down my tree 🙁 I am still sad about that, as the last few years I’ve been watching the birds out my window and seeing how the leaves change, and now I won’t be able to do that. On the 15th we had attempt number 3 at pre-assessment appointment, and though it was meant to be around 11.30am and ended up being nearer 2pm (they were in surgery longer than expected) it ended up being successful. I’m getting my teeth sorted under a general anaesthetic on the 10th of January, and I warned them about the things that I needed them to know (don’t sit me up, don’t give me paracetamol, being non-verbal isn’t anything to worry about).
Sammie came over to get her Christmas and birthday presents on the 22nd, which made me very happy. I love speaking to her. It feels weird being the mother of a 13 year old now. I also spoke to her on Christmas Day for a few hours via video chat and she showed me some of her presents. I am slightly jealous of her VR headset 😛 Our neighbour insisted on making us Christmas dinner (even though Johan tried to tell her he was cooking for us) so we ended up having one from her on Christmas day. It was nommy, even after reheating (I was asleep when it was made). Johan made ours on Boxing day (Sammie’s birthday) and that was also nommy reheated. Johan wins on potatoes though 😛 I wasn’t well enough to talk to Sammie that day but I did email her and she liked the email 🙂
For Christmas I got several penguins and penguin items (yay penguins!), a couple of new looms for loom knitting, chocolates, a handmade photo frame (from Sammie, with a photo of us two from when she was a toddler) and some smaller items. I also got so many cards that my 20 card holder wasn’t big enough so we had to find other places to put them. With that and two Christmas dinners I was very spoilt. I managed to watch the CBeebies version of the Nutcracker (which I really enjoyed even though I’m not the target audience), then the Christmas church service on telly. It was a good day even if I did end up sleeping a lot of it.
After Christmas I crashed a bit. I spent a lot of time sleeping, and when I was awake I was feeling rather rotten and out of it. New Year’s Eve Johan gave me a wash, and we had a cuddle while watching the fireworks as 2017 came in. I paid for that afterwards but it was worth it. Today is the first day I’ve been feeling well enough to do anything productive, though even this morning I was non-verbal. On Sunday our dryer will finally be made safe to use again after about a year (it was one of the ones affected by the fault that can cause lint to end up inside it and go on fire. We don’t want a fire). With having a general anaesthetic on Tuesday we’re expecting that I’ll need a lot of rest so are planning to keep things quiet for a bit afterwards. I’m hoping the payback won’t be too bad and that I don’t end up relapsing. We’ll see though.
TL/DR: I saw Sammie (twice!), there was Christmas and I spent most the time asleep or poorly 😛