Again, as for every other post this year, I am starting with an apology. Life has been a veritable whirlwind these last few weeks – and I hardly know where to start! It’s not like anything in particular has happened – just lots of things that have prevented me having access to a PC!
I can’t for the life of me remember where I left off… so can’t fill in all the gaps, but hey – I will have a bit of a go!
Denmark to Visit Sofie
Mid-April I went to visit Sofie and Jean in Copenhagen. We had a lovely, quiet weekend (just what I needed) – a far cry from my usual hedonistic weekends in Sofie’s company! On the Friday when I arrived, Sofie had cooked her delicious meatballs in curry (honestly – I could live on them!), and as Jean had gone out for the evening playing with his band, Sofie and I spent several hours catching up with other and putting the world to rights over a few cups of hot water on my part, and red wine on hers :-) On the Saturday we went to the out of town shopping centre in Copenhagen called Fields, met Sanne and her gorgeous little boy Sebastian for lunch, and did a spot of shopping for maternity clothes (since I am the size of a house end these days!). I had come down with a pretty miserable virus, so I lacked energy for shopping and we headed home laden mostly with Danish pastries and cough remedies. In the evening we went to a party, which in normal circumstances I would have loved… but on that particular night I couldn’t breathe through my nose, and for some reason Danish banter is not so funny when you are sober and having a little viral pity party of your own… anyway – the people and food were great, but I was sufficiently pouty to prompt Sofie to take me home nice and early so that we could watch American Pop Idol whilst propped up in her electric bed!
On the Sunday we had a fab day at Copenhagen Zoo – just wandering around and eating ice-creams. The Zoo was pretty well kept, although as with any Zoo, some of the animals looked pretty bored and some were displaying that sort of rocking behaviour – reminiscent of me on a Friday afternoon at work ;-) It was nice though – loved the polar bears (one of which was having a whale of a time with a severed sheep skull), and the otters – who were just gorgeous.
Scanorrific!
The rest of the day didn’t go so well – and seems to have set a bit of a precedent for the past two or three weeks. Because I was feeling so crappy with the virus, I didn’t return to work in the afternoon after the scan and decided to loaf on the sofa. However – when I tried to get up to answer a call of nature, I found that I couldn’t walk because of a terrible pain in my pelvis or lower back and bum cheek. It turns out that I somehow sprained my sacroiliac ligament in my pelvis, and ended up on crutches for a few days (and off work for almost a week)… :-(
From Bad to Worse…
The few days of reprieve after my sacroiliac sprain are a bit of a blur (can’t remember that much exciting happening that week), but on bank holiday Monday things turned a little worse for me health wise! For the previous couple of weeks or so we had been looking forward to watching Histon play Torquay at home in the playoffs for promotion to League Two of the football league. The first leg of the match had been played in Torquay a few days previous (we had lost that one), so we knew that we had it all to do in order to reach the final at Wembley. Anyway… I was due to work on the turnstiles and sell programmes, and I felt fine for that – although I had had a nagging rib pain for a couple of days beforehand, and I had just put it down to pregnancy aches and pains… I had only spent about five minutes in the turnstile, when feeling the urge to sneeze (just as a guy came to the gate), I twisted and tried to suppress the sneeze a little so as not to give the guy an unwelcome shower… OUCH! Blinding, excruciating pain and a sort of ‘twang’ or clicking noise. I managed to carry on for a little bit, but could hardly focus, let alone be pleasant to queuing fans…
Jo (a colleague there) offered to cover for me, and I managed to make my way to the media suite at the football ground… thinking all along that a well positioned stretch would sort it out, and I could resume my position on the turnstile, and better still, make my way to my seat to watch the match. This was not to be… the football club doctor (my saviour) was called, whose calmness and gentle but terribly sensible manner and straightforward manner, made me see that the excruciating pain I was feeling (and by now, ripping muscle spasms) were not going to be helped by attending a football match – and more worryingly, the pains were very likely to be muscle or ligament related, but could also be consistent with other more serious conditions which needed to be ruled out. A rather hysterical paramedic turned up, who (if I had had the strength) would have been punched for his insistent and seemingly ridiculous questions regarding the number I would attribute to the level of pain I was feeling (I was literally screaming in pain while he persistently asked this!) – although I know on reflection that he was trying to speed my progress to the correct department at the hospital. And so, an ambulance was called. To my pleasant surprise, Mark dropped everything and came with me to the hospital without even a hint of a pout – is it shameful to admit that I thought football would come first? hehehe…
The entire evening was spent at the hospital – mostly waiting… and everything was checked over thoroughly. I had an x-ray to check I hadn’t broken anything or punctured my lung, an ECG on my heart, and several blood tests to check for blood clotting and other more sinister conditions… pleurisy and the like. They offered me morphine for the pain (I refused on Piglet’s behalf), and gas and air – which is ironic since I am hopefully opting for a drug free birth! In the end I relented, and ended up taking a strong dose of codeine and some paracetamol – the only real options available for preggos! In the end they concluded that I had torn a muscle or ligament in my rib cage, and the only solution was to try and rest and treat the pain as best I could.
The next four days were spent in bed propped up on pillows and sucking on pain killers… poor Mark had to haul me out of bed every time I needed the toilet, and lower me onto it… feed me, wash me… and generally entertain me. It was a pretty miserable week – but at least I managed to finish knitting Piglet a jumper during this time!
Oscar’s Christening
On the following Sunday, I was up and about and even managed to drive myself over to Lowestoft for Oscar’s christening party (despite much soreness, and having to dose myself up with drugs). The christening went off smoothly – aside from Mark not turning up (he was one of the God Parents!) – but this was pre-known. Mark was heavily involved in the planning of a testimonial match for two well regarded and long serving players for Histon FC – and made it clear in advance that that was the one weekend in May he couldn’t do. As is the way, it turns out that this was the weekend Tracy booked the christening for – which seemed to go down like a lead balloon with some members of the clan. Nevermind… Tracy didn’t seem to mind, and Oscar was more affronted that the vicar called him “Oscar George” rather than “Oscar” during the service – he certainly didn’t seem to dwell on Mark’s absence! Aside from anything, Mark had already missed one match on my behalf, so two was going to be pushing my luck! I have promised not to go into labour at 3pm on any Saturday in September! ;-) Tracy did a lovely spread for the Christening – all sourced from The Black Olive, and a small ‘immediate family’ crowd attended… all very civilised, although totally exhausting for me!
I will start the rest of the catch-up on another post! Blimey….
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