Stop!

At church on Sunday, Simon spoke about Sabbath and asked what it's relevance is today. He said that God created a rhythm to life - that there would be work and there would be rest. He asked the 'where do you need to re-find the rhythm of life? How do you spend your day? When do you cross the line and stop working?' He spoke about the need to make time in your day when you just stop.

I have been thinking about how this applies to my life as I am currently unable to work. So am I stopped all the time? No! I have appointments to go to, physio to do, hospital appointments to sort out etc. On Monday morning, before I'd even had a cup of tea, I'd started on my to-do list for the day.

Before my operation in 2007, I was working 40 hours a week in a busy HR department, was heading up the coffee team at church and often needed to be there early to drop off supplies or stand in if one of the team didn't turn up. In addition to this, I had day to day chores to get done including washing, ironing, shopping, cooking dinner, washing up, cleaning etc. Although my flat mate and I shared the cooking, cleaning and washing up. My life was busy!

Now, that has all changed, I have time to stop! But the temptation is there to fill the gaps. I think we all like to be busy as we feel that's how we're supposed to be.

A few months back, I started a routine (see post titled 'My New Routine'). I wouldn't switch my phone on, facebook, email, answer the phone until after 11am. This gave me time to stop and read my bible and spend time with God before I began my day. This routine seems to have got lost somewhere but I will be bringing it back again (as much as possible whilst I'm still on the tablets mentioned in previous post).

I have been thinking that perhaps I should look on all this free time as a God-given blessing and spend more time reading my bible and studying it, reading books and listening to podcasts etc as well as spending time meeting up with friends for coffee or days out.

Pain Clinic Visit = More Tablets

Nearly 2 weeks ago, I went up to London to visit the Pain Clinic at the Orthopaedic Hospital. The doctor I saw was very good and advised me that he thinks the problem with my knee is definitely a more mechanical problem than a pain problem so he advised that he would write a letter to the knee team explaining this.

In addition to this, he has put me on some new tablets which are to show whether the pain is neurological or actual because it I have had it for over a year, he said there is a possibility that my brain is making the pain worse than it actually is. He said that the tablets will either make the pain disappear or that the side effects will get too much and the pain will still be the same.

I started the tablets 2 weeks ago on Saturday (with the dosage increasing every 4 days) and so far, I've had only side effects, they have made no difference to the pain. The side effects have ranged from me feeling drowsy and spending most of the day sleeping to headaches and dizziness to lack of concentration to not knowing when I'll wake up (Tuesday I woke at 2:50pm and today it was 1:40pm - the other days this week, I was woken up early because I had something planned!).

I spoke to the hospital yesterday to find out when I could come off the tablets and they have advised that if I can stay on them for another 2 weeks, then it would be a meaningful trial. I wasn't too happy about this but will give it a go! On the up side, the doctor has written to the knee team so I should be hearing about an appointment in the near future.

Please pray that I will have the strength to keep going with the tablets (and side effects!!!) as well as patience whilst waiting to hear from the hospital.

2 Weeks by the Sea

Hey All!

Yes I am still here! I am still blogging!

Mum and I had a wonderful 2 weeks in Weymouth. The aim of our holiday was to take things easy and to take each day as it came. However, we did fit in visits to lots of really nice and fun places.

The highlights of the holiday for me were:

Weymouth Family Church - they were really welcoming and we had a great morning with them on both our Sundays. During the time we were there, they spoke on expecting the miraculous and community and on the first week, the leader of the church there asked if he could pray for my knee and although it wasn't healed at the time, we have since had some progress with regard to hospital appointments (more in my next post). We attended on both the Sundays we were in Weymouth and on the second Sunday, I even bumped in to the people that were the leaders of the Sunday evening student group at one of the churches in Plymouth when I was studying there.

Monkey World - we borrowed one of their mobility scooters which made life a lot easier for me and also made the day more enjoyable. It was a shame that it seemed most of the monkeys there wanted to play indoors rather than outside! I did get a few good photos of them though and it was a really lovely day out.

Brownsea Island - this was the furthest we travelled from Weymouth. We arrived at Poole Quay at about 11am and got the ferry across to the island. We borrowed a wheelchair from the visitor centre and off we went to explore the island but found that it would have been easier for me to explore on crutches as we struggled getting the wheelchair up the hill due to the gravel nature of the paths on the island! We found a nice green area in which to picnic and were accompanied by hens, noisy roosters and geese! The geese kept their distance but the hens and one of the roosters decided to come and investigate whether there was any food for them!

Corfe Castle & Swanage Railway - Dad arrived late on the Friday evening to spend the weekend with us, so it was important that on the Saturday, we did something that dad would enjoy. The decision was made that we would go to Corfe Castle. It is a castle ruin set on a hillside in Dorset. Mum and Dad climbed the hill to the castle but I stayed on the green. After lunch, we went on the Swanage Railway and got the steam train from the park and ride near Corfe Castle to Swanage and enjoyed the scenery along the way as well as taking in views from Swanage sea front.



Don't want to bore you with every detail of my holiday so, think this will do. Hope you enjoyed the pics too!