Attempt at a link

As I am still not great at links, my new blog is called-

moo-moving-on.blogspot.com

Working hard again

I went to the gym on Wednesday morning and did some CV work, I used the cross trainer and followed the programme that D had created for me. My friend and Kristi joined me and we even did some weights and arm work. I did a few squats with weights too, but now my knee is paying for it. The trainer keeps blaming it on the running, however, I have ran around 4k this morning and it is fine. I did a small amount of tummy work this morning also, and I will try to squeeze some more in later as I had run out of time today.

I had to pick up prescriptions for Grace as the pharmacy shuts early on Thursdays and had to get her a new nose peg as she broke another one last night and her Ineb takes forever without it. The man that is repairing the ceiling is coming out to acess it this afternoon so I needed to get my little jobs done so that I have the afternoon free.

Grace continues to be snotty and sneezy and generally not very happy. I have sent her into school as I think mainly she justs feels like she is ready for a break and she breaks up from school tomorrow so she has plenty of time for a rest then, and I think she is fine once she gets to school, its just that initial push. She has had so much time off since christmas that I think she is getting used to it.

I have stayed away from answering posts on the forum for a while (except for the odd few that are non controversial or humerous) as I think some of them get a little out of hand. For example the pseudo subject, I find it a struggle to keep my mouth shut when people say they are not going to let their children play with toys in the bath or dig in the mud in the garden like normal children do? Our children are normal for goodness sake! let them do the things they want to do, they'll get pseudo at some stage of their lives anyway, no one can prevent it. Grace has colonised pseudo but has a great life and doesn't appear any differently than most children, so much so that not many people know that there is anything wrong. She went to school yesterday morning doing her Ineb on the way because we were running late. I had parents saying 'Oh my god is she alright?' They were shocked because they did not know about her CF. I'm sure I'll have weeks and weeks of explanations now, but I don't mind just as long as Grace doesn't get treated any differently most of all by me, and oh don't even let me get started on the other subjects that wound me up...... maybe its time for my vallium today?

Road Runner

Oh yes I was a road runner today, a bit of sunshine and off I went. Well actually I had to take my car to be mot'd, its very first one, so a lengthy visit to the gym was out of the question. I did my old training route, its slightly off road and I had to tackle some mole wholes but generally it was not too bad. Because I had a cold and have been 'a bit off' for a couple of days, my breathing technique was not what it should have been, but I did a straight 18 minutes and then intermittant 2 minutes back home which amounted to 26 minutes in total. I did some tummy exercises too when I got home so tomorrow I can concentrate on the other cv machines and a bit of a swim.

I dropped off my car at 12.00 and then walked into town, its amazing how much money one can spend when bored. I got a bargain hoody type top for £7 in the M&S sale (see Shadow I can hunt down a bargain too, I bet your impressed?) I also bought some trousers but they have to go back because they are a bit big and I tried the size down on in the shop and they gave me a bit of muffin syndrome, and got some nice vest tops for my holibobs from River Island.

Today so far I have had shredded wheat for breakfast with skimmed milk, at lunch I had a layered salad (well half of it) containing tuna, pasta, sweetcorn, mixed salad and mayo, followed by fresh pineapple. I seem to be eating more healthily but no weight is coming off. I am very puzzled, I just keep noticing a few more pounds whenever I weigh myself lately. Mark seems to think that its the extra gym sessions adding more muscle, if it is then I can't see any extra.

Yesterday my friend that lives in the Bungalow at the rear of my garden came round to borrow some little girls pants as she is a child minder and one of her children had an accident. When they came to the door, they just shouted woo hoo! and walked in, I had just done my roots and the rest of my hair was back combed up into spikes and I had just painted my nails so I had my hands splayed out waiting for them to dry. The little girl that she had with her cried!! I frightened her beyond belief. Its sad when I have to become frightening in order to maintain myself..... what we women have to do hey?

Grace has been good this week, so far no funny turns, so maybe she needed the cipro, she has been very tired but she has had a busy week digging in the garden and playing on her heelies and going swimming and then a party at a play area. I think it has really done her good to be able to get out in the garden and the fresh air.

Stinky cold

I have had a rotten cold since Thursday evening, I could feel it creeping up on me and just knew that it was going to be a stinker. I've been really lucky and not had one for ages, atleast a year or more. It wouldn't stop streaming and now my nose has gone all red and crispy, I look like Rudolph, and its sore.

I didn't really feel unwell, just the achey face syndrome from constantly waiting to sneeze. The thing is when you feel a bit crappy, you still have to muddle on through with house work and making dinner and washing up and stuff. I thought I could snuggle up in the warm and read my book on Friday after I had collected Grace from school, but remembered she was going to Brewers Fayre for a birthday party, so I had to drag myself out and sit there sneezing and shivering for two hours, and I've had to go to a swimming party today aswell, but this time I was stiffling hot and sweaty yacckk!

So the gym has been a definite no no this weekend, hopefully I can go Tuesday morning, and hopefully Grace is having a normal week at school, she is already complaining of feeling 'pooped', i've just told her its because of her busy social calender and she'll be fine in the morning, but even so she is starting to sound a bit croaky today and she is almost a week into her cipro course.

My niece is coming to England for a visit next weekend and Grace is very excited, she absolutely cannot wait,(my niece has a daughter the same age as Grace) they are both looking forward to meeting up. That takes us into the start of the Easter break and then we go away for a few days on Easter weekend, and she has already filled up her calender with school friend play dates for the last week of the holidays...... somewhere there I have to manage to fit in a gym session.

I've been to the gym this morning, I was supposed to have a personal trainer session yesterday morning but had to cancel due to Grace having the blood sugar levels test. I was luckily able to reschedule for this morning.

Grace did the test yesterday morning at 8.15 after fasting all night, the result was 4.6 and after a large amount of lucozade and 2 hours later the result was 4.9. The nurse said that she thought that Graces funny turns were due to the fact that when she is unwell or generally not 100% that is just how she reacts. She did say however that as soon as Dr S returned from his annual leave she would ask if he wanted to look into things in more detail. I did notice on the forum that a few people mentioned some blurred vision with similar episodes which remained undiagnosed and Grace has mentioned 'funny eyes' during hers. She hasn't had another one since Monday, but she is on cipro so maybe that is the reason behind it all.

At the gym I worked on the weights for upper arms and waist, I also did some squats which are killing my left knee. The trainer thinks I ought to get it checked out before continuing to run, however I feel that it only hurts when I'm forced to bend it for example whilst doing squats. It gives me no problems when I run. I did moan that I am not burning fat around my waist quick enough even if a baby elephant could probably stand on my stomach presently.

The suggestion was to move away from the treadmill and try the cross trainer, apparently she could make me a 'burn more fat' programme that is far more concentrated than running, well I could go along with that, I'm sure your body just gets used to doing the same thing and then doesn't feel the benefit, but as far as moving away from the treadmill goes..... yeah right! can I honestly see myself doing that? I am totally addicted to it, and to be honest I love running. Today's album for my run was Incubus full blast and very heavy, I don't know how I kept myself from bursting into an imaginary guitar solo whilst running, it was great fun. Mrs P you really want to add 'Rocks' by Primal Scream to your playlist for the x trainer, its perfect.

I only did 20 minutes on the treadmill today but I upped my speed and then did a further 15 minutes on the x trainer so I definitely did my CV and also because the personal trainer was still on the premises and I was pretending to stick to the routine she had told me to do today, but to be honest I really felt the benefit of it so she is absolutely right about the variation.

I have developed a bit of a cold the sort that gives you a sore nose and you scrunch your eyes up and make your face ache because of a sneeze that's always about to happen, so I will probably skip the gym this weekend. I am glad that I had such a good session today though just in case I don't get there til Tuesday.

The loss adjuster came out today to assess the ceiling, as its drying out the crack appears to be getting bigger, significantly enough apparently, for them to go ahead with financing the repair. If nothing else it means we can at long last get rid of the dreadful anyglipta on the kitchen ceiling.

Continued funny turns?

Yesterday was a busy day. I wanted to go to the gym but thought better of it as Grace has again been experience her strange episodes. I took her to school and explained what had happened the day before and said I would be at home if I was needed, and sure enough at 11.15 I got the phone call from school saying Grace had another episode.

The teacher said she had gone extremely cold and lethargic and at one stage thought that she was going to either faint or fall asleep on the spot as her eyes were rolling.

I phoned the nurse when I got her home,but she was already perking up again. The nurse came out and checked her blood sugar levels and decided to change her onto cipro. Her temperature was 37.1 so nothing to be concerned about there. The blood reading was 48 or 4.8 or something like that, I'm not 100% sure. The nurse felt that that was a normal reading anyway, but before she came home the school had given her lucozade and an apple, so she is coming out to do it again first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon, but she does feel it will be normal again and remains as baffled as we are by the funny turns.

She has returned to school today feeling fine this morning and I have given her a dose of calpol just incase (she insisted on going back as she felt fine and its parents assembly today).

I have been to the gym this morning and I had a 30 minute run (and thats not including warm up or cool down) I did over 4k today. I found that I could also have carried on as I took my Ipod with me (I've only had it since christmas and its took me this long to fathom it out)its amazing how you just take no notice of distance when you are listening to something that you really enjoy, I could have ran and ran whilst being blasted out to the sounds of Origins of Symmetry (Muse)it also drowned out the sound of the cycle fit class and their dodgy disco music, every Tuesday morning without fail some sort of chipmunk singers and really fast disco music, very annoying.

I am going to afternoon assembly shortly but I have been instructed by Grace to post pictures of her comic relief outfit. The theme was to dress to represent a country. She was representing China even though the outfit came from Singapore via her globe trotting Grandparents. We decided to have a holiday after yesterdays gruelling day and the dreadful weather and the fact that I had to have the bath taken out again yesterday because there was a leak and it came through the ceiling into the kitchen and we have a big crack and, and help me think of more excuses?..... Well anyway we have booked to go to Gran Canaria next month. Should be fun, returning from Devon on 9 April and going to Gran Canaria on 16. I wonder if there will be any race meetings on at Newton Abbott????

Mothers Day

Today, the plan to go for an early run just didn't happen. I was supposed to have been out for 7.30 and back before anyone had woken up, except Grace was so excited about her Mothers Day gift that she was awake at daybreak.

The gift was a card that was made to look like a cup of tea, she had coloured it in and drew some flowers on it, and inside there was a teabag taped to it. How lovely! I was overwhelmed. She had also learned Happy Mothers day and I love you in sign language and couldn't wait to show me.

I received a copy of a letter to our GP from Graces consultant requesting that she be started on tobi, yesterday. We always have a cc of any correspondance to BCH or our GP and I keep them all on file. However this letter which I will type a little of it, had a great affect on me this weekend.

The letter reads
We reviewed Grace in our paediatric CF clinic last week. We were fortunate to have Dr W from Birmingham Childrens Hospital present with us. Although only 6 years old we recognise that Grace has already developed established CF lung disease with chronic colonisation with pseudomonas aeruginosa. Although her symptoms do not affect daily living she does have established cough with sputum production. This despite regular oral and nebulised antibiotics, oral and inhaled steroids and nebulised mucolytic (DNase).

In clinic she had signs of lung disease. She does have moderate clubbing, an increased AP diameter of her chest and she did on this occasion have crackles at her left base. Despite being well her oxygen saturations (91%) were not normal.

Whilst in clinic it was mentioned that the reason for her problems of late were because it was more than likely growth of pseudo but due to problematic swabs nothing had been grown the were at a loss otherwise as to why she continued to have such low saturations. It was never mentioned at any time that she had now shown signs of lung disease at such a young age. Am I looking at this the wrong way? Should it be just obvious to me that she should be battling with lung disease already? Or should I be totally shocked (as I am) that dispite all of the preventative efforts Grace has developed lung disease anyway and now at just 6 years old. I can tell you this weekend has been a real battle to get my head round it. I am wondering is this just part and parcel to everything or is it something that should shock me right now, and if so why didn't they speak of it in clinic to prepare me or calm me or atleast tell me its as normal as developing pseudo or mrsa or anything else we now find as run of the mill stuff that we just get on and treat.

When you just read it and the words Lung disease are just staring right back at you from the paper work you just don't know what to think. I'm not normally phased by any of this stuff, but this time I am taken aback.

It really doesn't help that Grace, although her cold is drying up, has been feeling increasingly unwell. It always happens with her that way, she recovers very quickly from a cold and then the infection kicks in the following week. Today Kristie came for lunch, Alex was meant to be coming too, but he had one to many sherbets last night. Mark was working and Faye was working so it was just the three of us. Gracie lou made prawn cocktails, she mixed her sauce and added the other ingredients and put them all out in the dishes herself, she was very proud, and she even put one in the fridge for Daddy so he could have it when he came home from work.

Around 11.30 she had some maltesers and she had already had breakfast. I put dinner out for 2.00 she started to eat and about half way through she stopped eating and said she was full and didn't want a pudding and was going for a lye down. It turned out to be one of her episodes, I can't understand why it happened whilst she was eating, and it took her ages to recover. I took her temperature and it wasn't high. She tells me that she doesn't know how she feels, just a bit weird and cold and 'pooped' as she puts it. She did make a recovery, I made her a sugary drink but she only drank very small amounts over a long period of time, and then she started to feel it again just before bed time around 8.00, I've given her some calpol and she has gone to sleep. I'm wondering if she is developing an infection after the cold she's had or what else could be causeing it? Its been on going since Christmas.

Kristie brough gifts for Mothers day - a bottle of pink sparkly Cava from M&S and a new makeup bag and a gift voucher to spend in Bank. Mark made sure that I had gifts from all of the other children, they included a reebok step, new trainers, a new jewellery box and chocolates. He also bought me Pride and Prejudice dvd as he did buy it last year but I loaned it to someone and never ever got it back, so I was as thoroughly spoiled as usual.

Grace and I have decided we need a holiday to somewhere nice and hot and quiet and a big pool, and preferably within the next month!

Hope all of my Mummy friends had a great Mothers day, and I'm sure Mrs Thrackray had the best Mothers day ever! and a very Happy Birthday Emily love and kisses xxxx