An appeal-one breath (or a few quid) makes all the difference.

Becky is an amazing person, kind caring and funny and a fantastic friend to me.

Life for Becky is not easy, she has severe chronic brittle asthma which requires multiple and high doses of medication. The severe and chaotic nature of her asthma means that she often ends up in hospital suffering from life threatening asthma attacks. Despite this Becky is a very determined person with a "can do" attitude.

She is aiming (breathing ability permitting) to carry out a gym marathon on the 30th October to raise funds for Ward 29, Freeman Hospital-Newcastle. This is the ward that she is normally cared for when she has an attack after she has left HDU/ITU. The staff are a great bunch of people. I feel very proud that Becky is going to do this as I know that its going to present a challenge to her.

I would like to appeal now to you, my readers for you to please sponsor Becky.

Here's her Just Giving page.

Many Thanks

Explantion of silence

I haven't blogged for a while, that is not because I have given up blogging again but rather because I have been away. I was going to write a post about it before I went away but never got round to it.

Very briefly, I will post more about it later we went to Somerset, by "we" I referring to my amazing and wonderful friend B who I went with. B has a brilliant sense of humour and being in her company made the holiday so special, we laughed so much and together we visited some lovely places and saw some fantastic (and funny) sights.

Timewarp

Since my pain post, I have published another post however because its one I have been working on a while it appears to have been published before not after my pain post.

Every body now, in true seventies style.

And please take a look at the post if you wish (after dancing, if you so choose to the time warp)

Investigating pain

For many years, at least the past 10 I have suffered from joint pain and stiffness. Initially it was confined to my left knee over a period of time it has spread to affect other joints including my left hip, upper spine, ankles, wrists and right shoulder. In 2008 I had surgery on right shoulder during which my AC joint was removed. Over the past 3 years I have been backwards and forwards to my GP practice in an attempt to manage the pain. Currently I am taking 19 painkillers a day and 7 doses of other medication for the side effects of the painkillers. This is not good.

I went back again today because I am going through a flair up which is causing me severe pain and impacting negatively on my day to day life. I am tired and feel washed out, frequently I am not sleeping well owing to the fact that I find it hard to get comfortable once in bed this is in turn is having a further impact on my quality of life and it causing my asthma to play up as well.

I came away with more painkillers in addition my GP decided it was time to take further action and carry out further tests, he is particularly concerned that during flair ups more than one joint is affected. He taken a rack of bloods and being referred over to a specialist clinic at a local hospital.

I am nervous about this however, hope is that at long last I will know what is going on and come away with a painkiller regime that both suits me and works.

Time to say goodbye and welcome in the new

A couple of days ago, with a lump in my throat and a few tears I said goodbye to a loyal and trusted companion, Isabella. Isabella and I have been together for nearly four years and together we have journeyed far, nearly 20,000 miles.

She has enabled to do things and go places I never dreamt possible prior to her entering into my life. She has helped me in getting help when I have been unwell, given me independence where once I would of been stuck in the house for days on end when I am poorly, aided me to aid others when they were sick and enabled me to me see many places that I would never of been able to see with out her. She has kept me safe and protected on cold, dark winters nights and often provided my friends and colleagues with the same.She has been reliable, dependable and has always when in her company, she has kept me safe, dry and warm.

My decision to part company with her was difficult, something I had hoped I wouldn't have to do for more several years. But she was becoming ragged around the edges, she was getting old and it was showing. She had let me down for the first time a few weeks ago and I was beginning to feel that she was no longer reliable as she once was. One night she came close to leaving me stranded at midnight, only after much persuasion did she choose comply with assisting me in getting me home.

After a conversation in July in which I was advised that it was time that she and I should part company I was forced to face facts and make the difficult decision that it was time to move on and obtain something newer and more reliable. It was hard.

Isabella was my first car. A base model Ford Ka, she was 6 and half when I bought her and just gone 10 when I let her go, covered in rust patches, a few dints and scrapes (including one from were I reversed into a grit bin, a bright yellow grit bin!). It was obvious after talking to the mechanic at the garage and taking a number of other factors into account she was going to cost me over £1000 in the next year to keep her on the road, completely uneconomical. Added to this was the fact that she was becoming unreliable, winter is drawing in leaving me somewhat concerned that Isabella would leave me stranded one dark winters night, though I knew I wouldn't be stranded for too long thanks to the AA breakdown service I didn't relish the thought. As difficult a decision it was, I knew it was time to let her go. It wasn't the car that bothered me, it was what she stood for Isabella was my first car, the car my late much loved and greatly missed Grandma helped me purchase, its body work was her favourite colour and she shared my grans name.

But in parting with her she performed one final service for me. She helped me in buying my new car. I had seen the car I wanted. The problem it was £800 over my budget. I went to the dealership explained that I liked the car, what my budget was and that I had a vehicle to part exchange. Isabella was worth only around £300 according to my garage. The dealership offered me £800 for her, I agreed and in doing so both Isabella and my grandma helped me to purchase my new car. I view what I was given as part exchange as being given back what my grandma gave me towards my Ford Ka.

I collected my new car the other day and sadly left Isabella behind, to be sent off to be auction and most likely to be broken down for parts and scrap. In a few months time my baked beans might even come in a can made from recycled Isabella. I hate the idea of her being broken down for scrap though, knowing that someone with the right skills could keep Isabella on the road for a few more years, it feels like a waste of a car that though her body was was battered and she needed attention to a few other bits and pieces her heart (the engine) was still going strong. She had less than 57000 miles on the clock.

The following photos are of Isabella and Victoria my new car. Victoria got her name from the fact that she was collected on my sisters wedding anniversary, she got married on the island Gozo, the capital of which is Victoria-hence her name.

It does amuse me slightly the rather appropriate sign above Isabella

Victoria, the space age car (referring to the strange pod they use for speedo etc)

A last

I have at last finished my horrendous 10 day stint declaring never again. I am shattered but looking forward to 2 much needed days off.

It leaves me wondering how people coped a 100 years ago working from dawn to dusk and only having 1 day off a fortnight? As Probationer Ethel Bennet commented in Casualty 1906 "For 13 days you shall labour and then have one days rest" In a later edition I think Casualty 1909 a potential probationer is interviewed and is informed that a nurses day commences at 5.30am and does not end till 10pm. How did they do it? That one day of rest must surely of been spent in bed?