MARCH & APRIL '13 - Spain, Jewellery making and flying with a wheelchair...

      So I'm going to try my very best not to ramble on too much about any of the things I got up to in March and April, because looking back at my diary there seem to be quite a few and I'm sure you don't want to be reading a dissertation length blog post!
 
  On March 15th I got another exciting parcel in the post. I love getting parcels, It doesn't matter what's in them there is something exciting about receiving a parcel.. This particular parcel was from my occupational therapist and was a wheelchair tray. Something I never thought I would be excited to get but hey that's what my life has become! And I can now go to the kitchen make something to eat or drink and transport it back to my room myself. Something I haven't been able to do for 7 months now!...

My snazzy new wheelchair tray and celebratory hot liquid transportation (soup)

       On March 23rd I decided to start a blog! This blog to be precise, I kept getting annoyed at myself 1. for forgetting to write in my diary to keep up to date and 2. For never being able to tell people how I really am. So finally 7 months on it clicked that maybe I could have a blog? Maybe no-one would read it but if they did want to know really what happened, and how it has affected me they could. I decided to start from the beginning which is why you are currently reading 'March/April '13' written in August. I am desperately trying to get up to date so I can really use it as a place to express what's going on as it happens!

A little snap of me test running wig/hat combinations in March

     On the 29th March I went to Spain! Joss's parents needed to go to look at houses and after the crash decided to take me as well which I was very grateful for. If nothing else Spain gave me a week of using a real toilet and using a shower inside my own 'house' for the first time in over 7 months. The actual getting there and back was a bit of a hassle, we had to go to the plane way earlier than everyone else and use this weird lift which was in a truck to get onto the plane. Then I had to use an aisle chair and literally be dragged to my seat and then reverse that to get off the plane. Sadly we didn't get on first and the plane was full of people as I was being dragged to my seat. I also have no idea what they would of suggested if I needed the toilet on the plane as they left the aisle seat at the airport both ways luckily it was a relatively short flight! 

  Our villa was nice, however the woman had informed Joss's parents that it was totally wheelchair friendly and had no steps...when we arrived there were 2 steps to get onto the patio/pool area and then another 3 to get into the villa! Which meant a combination of being lifted in and out and practicing using my crutches. It also meant that as back home I couldn't go in or outside without help. 
   The shower was massive and although it was frankly amazing to have a shower in my 'home' and be able to have one whenever I liked Joss had to help me. We acquired a chair to use as my shower chair and I would wheel up to the shower then Joss would stand me up and half carry me to the other chair where I would get undressed then he would go away and come back in 20 minutes and reverse the procedure so I could get dressed in my wheelchair. Now yes everyone gets undressed in front of their boyfriends/girlfriends but at 20 it's not exactly fun being carried in and out of a shower by them!
   I could get in the pool too which was brilliant and my physiotherapist was very happy about that as it's brilliant exercise when you can't walk. It was absolutely freezing in the pool but I had to make the most of being able to stand up un-aided in the water (how cool is that!).

   One thing I never really thought about before this is, if you have scars especially burns you have to be extremely careful in the sun. You have to use really high factor sun cream and keep them covered. The sun is really damaging to skin and more so to scars it can not only make them look worse but if you have skin grafts and burns you are at a higher risk of skin cancer - great! So I carried baby sun cream everywhere in spain.

This is an aisle chair used to get me to my seat on the plane.

Sort of photo of our villa/Rhianna

Tackling the stairs with Joss!

Little example of a piece I have created

         Lastly on April 24th I was put down for another operation. I'm sure I have mentioned before that my left nostril was pretty much ripped off in the collision and some amazing nurse stitched it back on whilst I was in a coma! I haven't been able to breathe through the left nostril since I woke up in ITU but as with a few other things it wasn't really looked into at the time because there were so many other things going on that could of killed or permanently disabled me. But eventually after being referred to an ENT consultant I was told the septum was deviated (if you felt inside it felt like a wiggly line) so now I'm down to have that fixed! Which I am very glad about because aside from the whole 'not being able to breathe properly thing' it has caused me to get sinusitis almost once a month which is pretty miserable! 


Oh one very last thing, I'll leave you with a Facebook status of mine from the 25th April which looking back I can find funny! -
 ''Having to wait in the same area as the sexual health people getting stared at and hearing ''whys she here she's in a wheelchair..'' ONE - what a narrow minded uneducated thing to say, TWO - actually NO I wasn't there for my weekly STI test like you love!''

DRIVE SAFE, George xxx