Month: June 2015

Falling …..

/ RachelMorrisMcGeethemyastheniakid / Leave a comment

I had a blog post partly completed and was hoping to complete it today (Wednesday) whilst hubby was out at work, the universe it seems had other plans. I should add that the universe usually does. I can’t think straight to complete the post and as it is on a complex topic, I want to get it right and not publish something that is below my own standards.

The reason behind my inability to use the partly completed post is that last night I had a bad fall, a very bad fall. I faint quite a bit I am used to waking up on the floor. I suffered a faint a few weeks ago. I was arising from the toilet (after urinating), I was standing one minute and then I wasn’t, I was falling to the floor. Everything went black but I was still aware of my surroundings as I was still conscious and knew I had to avoid hard surfaces such as the sink. I managed to get my arms out to break my fall and lay on the bathroom floor groaning for a few moments. My husband raced in and found me with my jeans around my ankles and my naked arse sticking up in the air. Not the most dignified way to be discovered and I am grateful a) that we didn’t have guests and b) that this had not happened in a public toilet.

Last nights fall was completely different, I didn’t faint it was just a simple accident. It happened so quickly or simply I was only semi conscious as I made my way to the bathroom that I just didn’t have time to react. One minute I was standing, the next my right foot was crashing into the bathroom cupboard and my left leg was twisting behind me whilst bouncing off the bathroom door. The sound of me crashing to the ground was so loud not only did it wake my husband but also my next door neighbour. It was pitch black as I hadn’t bothered to turn the light on as I normally feel my way along the banister the occupational therapist had recommended we had fitted. There is also the night-light in the hall which means I don’t wake hubby up when I make my frequent trips to the bathroom overnight.

I think I almost gave hubby a heart attack, being woken from deep sleep by a loud crash is never pleasant. I could hear him shouting to me and asking if I was alright but I couldn’t reply. I was hurting all over so badly that all I could do was groan. In his panic to reach me he ended up falling over his treadmill, so now two of us were injured. On arriving at the scene of my latest disaster he asked ” where does it hurt”, “all over” I hissed back at him. I couldn’t move because my left leg was twisted behind me pinning me in the door frame. There have only been a few times in life I have thanked my lucky stars that I have Ehlers Danlos syndrome and last night was one of them. I was thankful that I am so flexible I knew my leg that was in a silly position like a circus contortionist would be fine just sore. I was more concerned about my right foot as although it was only moments after I had slipped and fallen, it was swelling, with a deep blue bruise forming from the base of my little toe, down the outside of my foot.

Gingerly hubby helped me extricate myself from the door frame, I had to crawl forwards to reach my shower stool, so that I could haul myself up. I hurt but was surprised it didn’t hurt as much as I thought I would. I think the adrenaline must have kicked in because I decided I would go downstairs and have a cigarette before returning to bed. Hubby accompanied me to ensure I was safe, once disaster strikes once in our house we tend to have a run of it. I made it back to bed, laid down and then the pain started. My foot was throbbing with every beat of my heart and my left knee was stinging. I checked my knee and I had taken some skin off, despite wearing pyjama bottoms, no biggy. My foot pain increased and I ended up wedging a pillow under it, to raise it up to try to attempt to stop the swelling in its tracks. I then after about half an hour managed to drop off.

I woke up at 4am with every area of my body screaming at me. I could barely put weight on my foot and my left knee was disagreeable to be bent. I knew it was going to hurt I just wasn’t prepared for how much. I took my breakthrough painkillers and went back to sleep about an hour later.

When I woke up at 8am today the pain wasn’t too bad, stupidly I thought that was all that was going to hurt. I can safely say now 5 hours later that the only part of me that isn’t hurting is my ribcage on the right side. As the day had progressed the bruises have started to come out. I am so sore that I can not do anything without squeaking. Although now I can bend my knee and put weight on my foot it is extremely uncomfortable. I am also exhausted with it all. It couldn’t have come at a worse time as we are having friends over for our annual BBQ. I have a list of jobs for both hubby and I to do that is a mile long and now today I can’t do anything.

It’s so silly that a simple slip can land you in so much hot water. Just when you think things have turned the corner something else happens to throw a spanner in the works! Today I will mainly be having a “I am feeling sorry for myself day”.

The bruise on my right foot which is still developing and hurting like hell!

A do over

/ RachelMorrisMcGeethemyastheniakid / 3 Comments

Things go wrong, they always seem to go wrong given half the chance but the amount of stuff that went wrong yesterday (Tuesday) would have tried the patience of a saint. It seemed as if disaster was lurking around every corner. Ok so it was technically nothing serious, other than a potential fire and things could have been much worse. It was just a very, very trying day which thankfully now I am able to laugh about.

Tuesday started off very much like any other day, it is my husbands day off in the week, three out of four weeks, so there were jobs planned for him. Whilst I waited for him to wake up, I settled down on the sofa watching the TV and mentally planning out all the tasks that needed to be achieved whilst he was home.
I have started a new medication for my inner ear woes, which as yet I can’t order on-line as it isn’t on my repeat medication list as yet. I have to take it three times a day and so far it seems to be working. My ears have been popping like crazy which I can only assume is the fluid draining from them and although I have still had attacks of dizziness they aren’t as severe as when I wasn’t on it. So with medication getting low I sent hubby to the doctor’s surgery to get a repeat prescription request done. This was where I made my first mistake, to make life easier I decided to give him the box of medication – with the last few tablets inside. Looking back I know that this was inviting disaster but I just thought, well actually I couldn’t be bothered to write out all the information when it was all there on the box.
An hour later hubby returned home and told me the errands he completed for me. As we sat at the back door having a cigarette, he cheerfully announced “oh and I threw the empty box away.” He was so proud of himself for completing all the jobs but all I could do was stare at him in horror.

“You threw it away?”

“Yeah why?”

“Because it wasn’t empty…..”

“How was I supposed to know?”

“Because when you chuck something away, you check to see that it is empty”

I tried really hard not to fly off the handle, I knew that part of this was my fault for giving him the box with medication still in it. It was hard but I thought ok this can easily be remedied and I will just ring the surgery and explain what had happened.

Well what a silly assumption to make, that the doctor’s surgery would want to help. It seemed like they were deliberately trying to be obstructive. I wouldn’t have minded but Betahistine is not a controlled drug like Morphine. As a receptionist or a member of the prescribing team, I would be far more suspicious of someone who claimed their husband had thrown away their morphine than Betahistine. It took 4 phone calls and repeatedly explaining what the drug was used for to get the people at the end of the phone to see sense. Then after telling them hubby would go and pick the prescription up they faxed it through to a local pharmacy! Thankfully it was the usual one and hubby hadn’t set off for the doctor’s surgery.

As hubby was home yesterday it was our big washing day, so his sheets needed doing along with his pj’s. How they hadn’t marched downstairs under their own steam I have no idea. I love clean bedding and if I win the lottery I shall employ a housekeeper to ensure I have fresh bed linen every night. Hubby doesn’t seem to enjoy fresh sheets as much as I do.
Moments after he came home from running errands and announcing he had so helpfully thrown the “empty box away”, I opened the washing machine door to find a scene which can only really be described as carnage! I should have turned around and gone to bed there and then, looking back I wish I had. I said “oh no!” really loudly to which hubby replied “what am I being blamed for now?”. I explained to him it appeared a whole box of tissues had been put in the washing machine to which he tried to tell me it couldn’t possibly be his fault. It really wasn’t his day, firstly he was the one who had loaded the machine and secondly his was the only stuff in there. As I trawled through the damp washing trying to remove as much of the tissue as possible our kitchen floor started to resemble a snowy Christmas scene. I then found his pyjama bottoms with the offending tissue shredded to pieces in the pocket.
Having been met with his “what am I being blamed for now?” statement, I showed him the pocket of his PJ bottoms. Hubby is suffering from dreadful hayfever at the moment and although he normally uses handkerchiefs, he does on occasion use tissues. He went very quiet on seeing the evidence, I didn’t do a victory lap as I knew he already felt bad about mistakenly throwing away my medication and I knew that had been a combination of errors on both our parts. I did however make him stop hoovering the lounge so he could hoover out the pocket of his PJ’s – yes it was that bad only a hoover would get it clean.
I know you are probably reading this and thinking, it isn’t that bad, sounds like a normal day in my house. We are used to things going awry, it seems to be a family curse, it’s  just not good when it happens all in one day. On the scale of things they aren’t bad things to happen, just deeply frustrating and if it had just stopped there I could have coped. Things had just gone wrong from the minute I got out of bed. It was only 11:30am and on top of these events I had already hyper-extended my knee backwards (so was limping) and had my hand rolled cigarette unravel dropping a burning piece of ash on my forearm causing a blister. The day had not been kind to me and I would have to wait until 7pm until I could run and hide under my duvet!
Hubby was now in a very grouchy mood, he doesn’t respond well to events like this and blames himself for them. Ok the tissue in the pocket was his fault but the medication being thrown away was both our faults. To keep the peace I agreed to watch some TV with him as there are a number of programmes that we watch together. Hannibal season 3 had started and we had still yet to watch it. We managed to get through that hour uneventfully and we had a break from the tv for a bit.

After I had showered and dressed we decided we would catch up with Wayward Pines which are both really enjoying. About halfway through the first episode we were watching my Next delivery arrived (Next is a shop in the UK). I took the delivery into the kitchen and unpacked it on top of the ceramic hob (stove top). We have limited space in the kitchen and this was the only place that was clear and clean. I checked over my order and decided I would try the bras on later, so I kept the packaging etc on the stove top. I know huge mistake, we do put stuff on the hob but tend to move it very quickly. We will be going back to that practice after what happened next.

An hour or so later I was sat at the back door when I smelt burning. I immediately turned to the cooker to see the orange light on telling me that a ring on the hob was on. As I looked I saw a glimmer of a flame and a spiral of black grey smoke. I raced across the room grabbed the burning bra and scissors that had partly melted onto the hobs surface and threw them in the sink. Hubby came racing in from the lounge to find out what all the shrieking about only to find me using a kitchen utensil to scrape the hob clean from melted bra and scissors.

All I can really say is thank goodness I was in the kitchen when the small fire started. I dread to think how bad it could have become if no one had noticed it. I was obviously gutted that I had been so stupid and that I had thrown away money by setting the brand new bra on fire. Luckily that was the only thing that was damaged beyond repair. I have to say how remarkably fire retardant Next bras are, if that is any comfort to anyone.

As soon as I could I went to bed as I realised no harm could come to me there. I seriously needed a do over! I have never ever had a day like it.