What a pain in the a***

  The day before my second operation, one of my twins came down with a stomach bug.  My husband popped to work in the morning and the twins were having breakfast whilst I lie on the sofa waiting for him to return. All of a sudden said twin stood up and projectile vomited all over the table and floor - it was everywhere - all over his pyjamas and even his hair.  During the split second that I was deciding on what to clean, remove and scrub first - whilst comforting my crying toddler and trying to stop the other one from playing with the vomit - the doorbell rang.  The doorbell?! now?  I leapt to the door and answered covered in fluids and breathing like I had run a marathon to a Vodaphone engineer.  Our WiFi hadn't been working for several weeks and we had been chasing them for an engineer to come out and help, to which they had said that so close to Christmas they couldn't ensure the assistance- but they had come though, well and truly and during chao...

  Recovery is difficult. One minute you feel as though you've turned a corner and then suddenly your body will remind you that you have been through something huge. It reminds you at the most inconvenient of times - when you're out on a walk, eating your favourite food or when your finally having your first cheeky alcoholic drink thinking that life is getting back to normal.  The truth is, life doesn't get back to normal for a really long time.  Last year I was really keen to get my life back - nurses were telling me that I wouldn't even feel normal until the spring of 2020 and I didn't want to hear it - I wanted to go back to work, I was pissed off that the SCT had taken so much away from me and the truth is I was ignorant to how much I was putting my body through.  In November 2019, we had just bought Blaze back home as a tiny kitten. We said it was a new start and the new addition to our family would mark that.  The boys absolutely adored him and he set...

I had another baking urge the other day.  The first time I ever cooked for my husband, I made him a steak pie and it is one of those memories that gets bought up at random times; whilst watching TV, when in the car or sitting in the bath ' Boo, do remember that pie?!'   My husband has called me 'Boo' since the first year we were together - I'm not sure why, but it just stuck. Anyway, as he's had to step up as nurse for the third time running, I thought I'd treat him.  I made a steak pie filled with big chunks of beef., carrots and delicious herbs. I topped it with buttered pastry and it sunk quite tragically when I took it out of the oven but still, tasted delicious so it was a success! With pastry leftover, I decided to make some jam tarts for the twins - I mixed fresh berries with jam and without a steady hand to cut out pastry shapes to top them, I found a monkey shaped cutter and used that to decorate them. They looked incredibly random but were very tas...

The weeks following the surgery were full of hospital appointments alongside wedding related emails and wedding dress fittings. Funnily enough when I first tried on wedding dresses, in the shop that I bought my dress from, the lady called me 'curvy' and said only certain dresses would suit me; well with my new surgery and bowel prep diet, I hobbled in like a pale, hairy version of skeletor and I sure showed her!  Looking back, I feel sorry for the woman I was, who should have had her hen weekend and enjoyed the run up to her wedding without cancer test results (which fortunately were negative) , wound appointments and getting her bum out on a daily basis. I couldn't enjoy the wedding preparations due to my recovery and I couldn't concentrate on my recovery due to the wedding preparations; I was locked in a vortex of both which were demanding my full attention.  A week or so after I was discharged from hospital, my stitches dissolved prematurely and I was left with a gap...

 

 

I shan't go into the first time I met my surgeon - we have met so many times, they all roll into one.  The only reason I went into each meeting with the previous consultants was to illustrate my journey throughout various specialists to find the answer I was looking for.  What I will say is from the first day I met him, I knew I was in good hands - he is a marvellous man and has been approachable, sympathetic and charming (and incredibly apologetic once we reached operation number three!) the entire time. He is also incredibly knowledgeable and the right man for the job - my operations have been complex, serious and complicated.  At the first meeting he did offer to remove the SCT after our wedding and honeymoon to relieve some of the stress we were under but gently pushed that the operation was urgent and needed to be done.  We chose to put my health first and have the operation within the seven weeks leading up to the wedding.  Fun facts: not only is my surgeo...

Before I could attend the appointment with the third consultant, I needed to have another contrast MRI scan.  My husband drove me into Harley Street to have the scan appointment; my energy levels were decreasing - I didn't feel 'well' although couldn't put my finger on exactly why.  We were in the height of summer in July 2019; driving through London and observing everyone in full summer mode: bustling pubs, restaurants and far more bicycles and scooters on roads and pavements than in the bleak winter months.  The mood in the city just lightens in the summer, everyone is happier. The population is the same but everyone is rushing around at a slower pace and even making eye contact with strangers, sometimes even smiling, sometimes on the tube - shocking!!  So I arrived for my MRI, got into my hospital gown and settled on the table ready for my scan. I had a camera on a board strapped onto my stomach, so I was weighed down and once again I had a shooting pain in my low...

In June 2016 we travelled to Las Vegas with a group of friends for a 30th birthday - it was our first time there and I didn't really know what to expect - but I knew it would be a week of drinking and partying and as they say; ' what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas' .... unless you're me that is.  We stayed at The Cosmopolitan hotel and was in awe of the size of the hotel's, the lifestyle and the gambling scene - it was an amazing experience.  We celebrated our friend's 30th in a gorgeous steak restaurant and continued the evening drinking in cocktail bars, riding in a limo and partying.  The next day, my boyfriend and I explored Las Vegas in all its glory - visited numerous hotels, sights and drank cocktails.  We had planned to visit the Grand Canyon, by helicopter, that afternoon and so travelled there and jumped on the helicopter for our trip, taking in the incredible views.  We then landed in the Grand Canyon and my boyfriend (who had been jittery throug...