Dr and Mrs Watson

So before I checked in for a stay at Hotel Papworth, I was busily making a wedding dress for my lovely friend Fran and three bridesmaids outfits and a dress for me too! She married the lovely Dr James Watson in Cornwall on the 5th of August and I am finally putting some pictures up of what was an absolutely lovely day, and you can see just how gorgeous Fran looked if I say so myself!

I really like the group photo of a whole load of people who were involved in the production of The Mikado at the Minack theatre back in Summer 2000, we are all doing silly theatre type poses- seemed like a good idea at the time! Its so great that so many of us are still really good friends.

This photo is also really cool (huge thanks to Anne Carter who took it) as you can see the extra tartan frill on the skirt that I added for the dancing, even more fun it was the same tartan as James's kilt! I really loved the design of this dress as it could change depending on the situation, so the train was pulled up for dinner and tartan ribbon was added to the lacing for the evening etc. I am a great believer in transformable dresses, so much more interesting!







More pictures will be added as I grab them off people so watch this space....

Freedom!!!

Hurray I am free from IV's and doctors and nurses and physios and Papworth Hospital in general! I can sit in front of the telly and not have people checking my blood pressure, blood sugar levels, temperature and oxygen saturations every two minutes and no more nasty drugs and procedures for me! (or at least for the next year -fingers crossed) I can now bend my left arm again as they have removed the line from my left elbow and it is bliss! I'm utterly shattered and a little spaced out still from the sedation I had for the bronchoscopy, but its so nice to be home again.

The bronchoscopy actually was not too awful, they bunged a second line in my right hand and then filled me up with mind bending drugs. I do not remember too much other than giggling like a maniac whilst the ceiling spun, before lying down, and a very odd feeling in my throat as they sprayed anesthetic down it. Don't remember getting back to the ward but when I woke up I had THE sorest throat and an oxygen tube up my nose- no idea how that got there but pure oxygen is really good stuff! So once I'd mostly recovered from the sedation and had a few more IV's the doctors finally decided I could go home. I think I shall probably sleep for the next week or so as being woken up at 6 am every morning for lots of IV's is very, very tiring. Hopefully I'll be out and about next week, and dancing away on wednesday.

Thanks so much for all the lovely cards, chocolates, messages and visits, I feel most loved :-)

More fun and games in Papworth Everard.....

So I have been here ten days and all I can say is that I am bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored! I never realised just how many different things I do that I can't do in here and it sucks. It is just sooooooooooooooooo dull being stuck in hospital, especially the 48 hours I had to be barrier nursed, which is basically like being in a really clean prison. I've also had my fun three days being attached to a blood sugar monitor (which went a bit nuts for the last eight hours and kept telling me my blood sugar reading was unacceptable- see I can even cause tiny little computers to randomly crash!) and I had a lung CT which at least was painless. At some point between now and friday I'm going to be having a bronchoscopy whether I like it or not, unsurprisingly I am not looking forward to that experience at all... it still sounds totally unplesant.

At least when I went to the Ear, Nose and Throat consultant at Addenbrooks my nasal CT showed that the polyps I have in my sinuses have responded to treatment so I am not going to need keyhole surgery on them-Thank God for that! Can't wait to escape on Friday!

Fun and Games in Papworth Everard

So as of tomorrow I am going to be incarcerated without the option of parole at Papworth for two weeks. I am going to be having lots of lovely strong drugs, a chest CT, a three day sugar monitoring test thing and a bronchoscopy (I think thats how its spelt) although hopefully the last one won't happen as it sounds truly nasty. Having an endoscope inserted right to the bottom of my lung is not my idea of fun, especially as you are only sedated and not unconcious-urgh. The whole point of this ordeal is to try and get my lung function back up from the rather crap 60% its currently hovering around and to find out if I my pancreas has packed up to the extent that I am now diabetic as well- oh life is so much fun! But if all this stuff does work and the insulin I may have to take helps me feel more human then that is all good and will be wonderfull indeed! If they've got internet on the ward then I may post a couple of times to show how much fun I am having, although it may be more of a rant of just how bored I am giong to be..... See you on the other side.....