I write to you now from the stolen glories of my lovely manbeast’s computer. Shh, he is out buying me about 3 buckets of various fruits, so I am repaying him by updating my online world. It has come to this as my trusty laptop is suffering from a virus at the moment and Michael hasn’t successfully cured it yet.
MEDICAL NEWS
I am going to have the plating and pinning operation on November 28th, providing that when I telephone the hospital at 6am *gasp* there is a bed available for me (which there will be, unless a hell of a lot of emergencies happen the night before that somehow involve crushed pelvises). I shall be there for a couple of weeks, as I am a slow healer this could grow, but I really do hope that it doesn’t as it would mean the world to me to be out before Christmas so I can play a part in decorations. It may be that the part I play is largely a pointing and heckling part, but it’s a part all the same.
I am awaiting a Rheumatology consultant appointment for my randomly swelling and incredibly painful wrist and finger joints.
It’s not often that I’m thrilled to live in the day and age that I do, but it does strike me as quite lucky when I think about my medical history. Consider my chances of survival, if you will:
- My mum haemorrhaged after giving birth to my older brother, and then did so again with me
- I had a bilateral squint and had an operation to correct it when I was 4 years old
- I had my sinuses drained and quarterised at age 12
- I had viral meningitis following repeated attacks of tonsillitis and glandular fever when I was about 14
- I had my tonsils out at age 15
- My pregnancy and its health news are well documented here
- The birth of my wonderful Henry nearly killed us both. And no, that’s not me being dramatic, that’s a room of 20 odd specialists all with increasingly white faces in a room full of blood as my fully-dilated contractions went into their 14th hour and Henry’s heartbeat disappeared.
- I am allergic to: penicillin, augmentin, cephalasporins, septrin, trimethoprin, (and possibly another antibiotic that I cannot recall right now!) and COCONUT!!!
- To date I’ve had about 10 allergic reactions of varying strength (anaphalactic shock being the worst “side effect” I have experienced!)
Hurray for the National Health Service! I would be dead without you and so you have my unerring thanks and applause.
OTHER NEWS
I am taking the following classes, each of which lasts 10 weeks, at Cardiff University: Roman and Later Pottery from Cardiff and An Introduction to Medieval Europe: History at the moment; An Introduction to Medieval Europe: Archaeology from February next year and then Anglo-Saxon Poetry: An Historical Perspective from next April.
I think they are going well, and am quite sad that I shall have to miss a couple of lectures due to my operation – but I have almost finished planning out my essay for Medieval History and only need to look through my sources again to pin-point a couple more quotes before I start to tackle the actual writing of the thing! Oddly, I am quite excited by this. Hopefully the mere fact that I will have so long to devote my entire attention to the assignment while I convalesce will allow me to somehow turn out something wonderful!
Wish me luck for the operation, the healing process, and the essay writing equally as I’m not quite sure at this point which I am more daunted by!
