TFCC Repair

In hospital yesterday having a wrist arthroscopy to repair the tear that happened 3 years ago. Lisfranc injuries and hand injuries often go hand in hand (groan!) because of the saving reflex. Steriod injections and physio hadn't worked, so an operation is where I ended up.

In a nutshell because I currently have no use of my dominant right hand, so typing one handed and it's a slow process!..........

• Nil by mouth from midnight. Arrive on the Day Surgery Unit at 7am
• Seen by Registrar, confirm it is the right wrist as some of the notes say left! Tells me can take 6-18 months to get full function back! Sick note for an initial 6 weeks!
• Then the anesthetist. Offers to do it with a nerve block and sedation rather than full GA. Yay, I hate the woozy feeling after a GA
• Arrive in theatre. BP 199/99! No-one's worried so I try not too.
• Guided nerve block delivered. After 40 mins I can still use my hand LOL! So he puts another dose in which does the trick :) BP down to .... 189/96!
• Awake throughout operation. Refused sedation as it defeated the purpose!
• Lovely to be able to get feedback from the surgeon before I left the operating theatre
• Back to the Day Surgery Unit, BP 143/63 :) Discharged 12.30. Five and a half hours from arrival to departure :)

And now the rehabilitation starts .......

A to Z Road Trip

For the past 4 years I have taken part in the A-Z April Challenge. I have loved it, although something always gets in the way of me being prepared and ends up with a last minute dash to the finishing line!
Today I thought I would start on the A to Z annual road trip. I hadn't signed up. What with having my gallbladder out on the 4th May, 3 fosterlings, Ella and 2 more operations in the pipeline I really didn't want to sign up for something that I didn't think I would be able to complete. But today I visited and was really surprised to see only 87 sign-ups. I cannot remember for sure, but certainly feels like a lot less than previous years.

In my wash-up post this year I commented on a general feeling of apathy and that seems to have carried on through to the Road Trip.
April 2013 - page views 2128
April 2014 - page views 3567
April 2015 - page views 3303
April 2016 - page views 1857
This year I covered a complex injury in detail, so was really surprised to find it the worst year for me - almost half of 2014! I don't know if it was just me but if it affected a lot of blogs, hopefully whatever interest has gone can be stoked up again :)

A Hair Raising Experience

I've just seen a blogging assignment for Tamar asking for a blog post on a hair raising experience. There was a few hints, like sky jumping, aqua zorbing or ghost hunts. Now I could write about some real life ghost experiences, but then I thought just about everyone is going to cover thrills and spills, so I decided not to go that way. Here's my post ............

I have had some pretty hair raising moments but in recent history it has to be fostering. "Really?" I hear you ask. "Seriously" I reply. The process was as rigorous as when we adopted Ella and turns out it needs to be. The whole experience to date has been hair raising!

• We have had the lad who tried to grow cannabis in his bedroom - twice!

• The police in the house arresting a lad at 1 in the morning, him fighting; Liana trying to calm him; Ella with her special needs hysterical and being calmed by Jeff; and me hugging the other foster child who was in tears because she woke up to the sounds of chaos and thought everyone was being murdered in our sleep;

• Stopping new arrivals climbing out of bedroom windows to escape;

• A request for an emergency placement for a sibling group of three - at 3pm on Christmas Eve;

• Getting a phone call from a fosterling at midnight because she's walking the streets after arguing with her boyfriend and trying to work out where on earth she is;

• Been followed on Facebook by a fosterling's parent (sorted that one by completely locking down all the privacy settings);

• Our beautiful, complex, autistic, delightful Ella being insulted by a fosterling's parent;

• Have been sworn at, insulted, lied to, had money stolen, and had their rooms treated like a refuse tip;

Then this happens ..........

Blogger

Another step closer to organising the blog.  Following on from the post on the 19.08.16 I still couldn't get my head around the domain name. I found lots of useful info on Google. This is a good example, but even though the instruction were clear and straightforward it just wouldn't work. Then I found an alternative using Google verification and TXT. No luck with that either. Did I give up? Nope, but I took the easy way out :) Contacted the company I bought the domain name through. They replied straight away and it was fixed in minutes! So shout out to daily.co.uk ...........bring on the next job!

Caesar's Camp

Haven't had many opportunities to get out this summer, but we always make sure that we find time to take out our God-daughter Orla, so this summer was no different.

We went to Caesars Camp in Swinley Forest as it's local. After building a wigwam Orla decided to build a bug hotel. She was totally engrossed in building it and took an eternity - I think the bugs would have been very happy that night :)

Love spending time with this young lady - enjoying it before she gets too old to want to spend boring days with us LOL!

Blogaholic Designs

Did you notice my blog has had a facelift? I am trying to streamline all my businesses so that they're more professional and I spend less time on them. I've been spending hours doing research, but finally it's becoming worth it. I started with Instagram - I have 3 accounts, 1 for kids, fostering, special needs etc; the second for my shoes; and the third for my art - and I had each account on different phones! Then I discovered a website article about how you can have several IG accounts connected. Result!

My next target was links to IG, Google+ etc. Blogger offers links, but does make the sidebar look messy. More searching and I found this You Tube video - flaming brilliant! Although it did take a bit of tweaking, the icons were far too big, but someone within the video comments had solved that. And now I have all those lovely icons in a row instead of a bit of a mess :)

I decided to get both the icons and the new blog template from the same people that provided the video - Blogaholic Designs. In the past I have used freebies from The Cutest Blog on the Block, but this time I wanted to purchase one and $15 for the template and icons seemed pretty fair, Actually I don't do HTML so it was more than fair :) Plus, I had a little problem with my blog header and the company quickly helped me!

Last for the blog is proving harder. I've bought SuzannesTribe as a domain, but struggling getting blogger to let me change the address - I will get there!

Next step is logos - I know what I want, but looks like more hours researching to create them :) And after that two website businesses and 1 facebook page needs creating. Just as well I don't go out much in the evenings LOL!

Pretties :)

One of our DIL's (to be!) is in the middle of training to be a beautician and has been begging for models. Sadly, being a wimp, I said there was no way she was practicing waxing on me - just the thought makes me shiver! However I was much more willing to be persuaded to have my nails done. And so glad I did, lovely bit of TLC on the nails along with a hand massage, and very pretty looking nails :)

The Cricketers, Bagshot

Saturday night was a good night :) Thanks to my bestie Joy who volunteered to watch over Ella and the 3 fosterlings Jeff and I actually got to go out for the evening and be grown-ups! We went to The Cricketers in Bagshot and met up with Angela and Patrick (parents of our adorable God-daughter Orla and the delightful Martha), two of my favourite people :)
I was a really good girl and had smoked salmon and a poached egg for starters. Followed by steamed bass with veggies. And sparkling water to drink. But less said about the sticky toffee apple crumble with ice-cream and custard - not quite so healthy, but very nice thank you very much! Our waiter was lovely, and although we were one of the last 2 tables to leave we didn't feel like we were being rushed out.
We don't get out much - very sad really - so it's great that when we do, it is such a lovely evening :)

Horse and Groom

Have just had a lovely meal at the Horse & Groom in Bracknell. It's a Harvester so has the salad cart that you help yourself from. It is pricier than a Weatherspoon's but the food is more interesting, well sometimes ....... For my starter I had halloumi and water melon, whereas Jeff had deep fried mushrooms! So if you're more of a conservative eater then don't panic :) Refillable soda's is always a crowd pleaser too. Top point? - we took Ella with us and the waiting staff were patient and understanding with her - always a winner in my book :)

Budding Author

Well, in all honesty, probably not. She's been working on her emergent writing for years now and I think this is probably as good as it'll ever get. She took great care writing this and then gave it to Jeff as a shopping list! Poor Jeff having to guess everything on it. He failed of course when he didn't bring home everything he wanted :)

Birthday Boy!

Fosterling celebrated his 7th birthday with us today.

He chose to go to Build a Bear. The premise is lovely, but the price ...... £32 and that doesn't include clothes, so we have a bare bear ;) You do chose your own outer material, stuffing, and extras like a heart beat, a song when you press a paw and, wait for it, a smell! He loved it so for that reason it's worth the money, and the company astutely knows that.

After that he went to Creams where they sell only pudding ....... Heaven! What else is there to say about an establishment that only sells sugar laden, tasty, chocolatey goodness :)

Too early to be awake!

What to do when the fosterlings like to get up at 5am every morning? Liquidise some strawberries, add caster sugar, balsamic vinegar and clotted cream. Let it chill. Then drag the Kenwood Gelato machine out from the back of the cupboard and make homemade ice cream :)