Also sorry for being so quiet, especially with ME Awareness Day yesterday. Still got a fair bit going on here & despite good news yesterday it might be even more hectic in the coming weeks/months but hoping to be back catching up with everyone soon. Miss my friends in my phone 🩷
20 years since my ME diagnosis today. And in typical brain fog fashion I forgot to put cake on the shopping list! 🤦🏼♀️ So it’ll be the remaining Easter Egg instead… 😂
www.smilingclare.co.uk/2025/05/13/2...
A selfie of a white woman wearing red framed glasses, a green tartan mask, blue jumper and gold scarf
The masked face of someone beginning to think they were spending the weekend in an empty hospital waiting room because transport took 2 hrs to arrive & the therapies department was beginning to close up for the night/weekend 🙈
But I am home. Utterly exhausted but home.
Happy New Year Everyone! I hope 2025 is a gentle one for you.
Dolly & I spent New Year’s Eve on the sofa and my bed with a book. And today we’ve been to family for the afternoon ❤️
Merry Christmas from my little house to yours. I’ve had a lovely but exhausting day at my parents ❤️ Still got a few gifts left to open but don’t mind spreading the magic over a few days 😊
So fed up with Amazon UK supposedly handing my parcels to the resident when I am in and have not received said parcels. It’s not outside my door or around the building. And now I have to wait 24hrs before I can report them as missing!
Any recommendations for gloves as a manual wheelchair user? My push rims are freezing & so are my hands but so far all the gloves I’ve tried don’t provide enough grip or are too loose on my hands they slide down making it difficult to self-propel.
Happy Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve! #NeverTooEarly
Picked my new glasses up last week. Having a few issues with them so will need to make yet another trip back to see what can be done. But otherwise pleased. (Got transition lenses this time so they’re sunglasses too!) Won’t be going back this week as have 2 appointments already 🙈
Question for fellow wheelchair users: how do you get a mug of hot drink from 1 room to another? I currently rely on my only travel mug which fits in my quokka cup holder but needing my wheelchair a bit more lately so do I need to buy more travel mugs? Or is there a solution for moving standard mugs?
A white card with multicoloured text on which reads From Your Fur Baby! Happy Mother’s Day
When your lovely sister gets you a Mother’s Day card from your Fur Baby 🥹
She couldn’t get Dolly to deliver it herself though 😂
A little round up of 2023 on my blog today. Hoping to get back to blogging more regularly this year!
www.smilingclare.co.uk/2024/01/01/g...
Happy New Year! I hope 2024 is kind to you all.
2023 certainly had its challenges for me, still can’t believe how quickly it went. Hoping for a quieter, kinder 2024.
A white duvet cover with the black outlines of Winnie the Pooh characters on, sitting on top of it is a pile of paper letters.
(What should be the) Final medical appointment of the year complete 😊
Just one more bag of meds to pick up from the pharmacy this week and medically I think I’m sorted for the festive period & ready for a little break from appointments until the new year!
Thank you, so far so good 🤞🏼even if it is just a little! I’m starting to settle in now, managing to keep warm even though the windows need replacing 🙈 Hope you’re keeping warm xx
Blood test this afternoon went well (i.e. I didn’t faint 😉) Doubt it will show anything but glad the docs are being thorough. Managed a little shopping trip afterwards too which was lovely after being cooped up only going to hospital appointments for so long 😊
Left home at 11am, for a 1pm appointment, spent just over an hour with the physio (all went well) then 90 minute wait for transport home. Got home at 6:10pm because the traffic was horrendous. Utterly exhausted & sore now.
Alarm set for another early start tomorrow, for yet another hospital appointment - this time physio & a hour or so journey each way, which will be the longest/furthest I’ve travelled since surgery. Really nervous about that but hoping it will all be okay 🤞🏼
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope you can get some relief soon. My hospital visit went well thank you - pain clinic have prescribed something to hopefully help manage my pain better & nuclear scan shows kidney is working well after surgery! 😊xx
In slightly less happy news the drugs they use for the scan have aggravated my POTS and left me feeling quite rough, dizzy & unsteady so it’s definitely time to rest. Especially as I’ve got another hospital appointment on Friday 🙈
Oh and I’m radioactive or something for the next 24hrs ☢️😂
Another day, another hospital appointment. This time a nuclear scan to check my kidney drains properly now it’s had time to settle after surgery. And I’m happy to report it all looks good - it drained in the expected timescale unlike last time! I’ll find out more when I see my surgeon.
Thank you. How’re you doing? 🤗
Thank you. All went well 😊
Which means yet another medication to try 😆 and it took two visits to the pharmacy as we had to take the prescription back to the clinic to get it corrected 🙈
Early start today for a long awaited appt with the pain clinic. Pleasantly surprised at how well it went - I’m doing all the right things in terms of working with physio & OT, so the goal is to try minimise how frequently my pain flares & how it affects my sleep.
Alarm set for 06:15am tomorrow for an early hospital appointment 🥱 Ever so nervous about this one but hopefully it will go better than I anticipate 🤞🏼
(It’s not kidney/surgery related - part one of that is next week 🙈)
It was third time lucky! Managed to get my flu jab today. Exhausted now - 3 trips out in 4 days (however short) have taken their toll. Now to rest up for the start of a busy month next week.
Take two of getting my flu jab today, this time with an appointment. Pharmacy was quite empty so thought it would be nice & quick. Well it was quick…they hadn’t received their delivery of flu jabs so couldn’t offer any. 🙄 Shall we hope it’ll be third time lucky when I next try?
A white slip of paper from a fortune cookie with red text which reads “You will enjoy good health, you will be surrounded by luxury”
Had a lovely Chinese with my parents & sister tonight. And my fortune cookie was a laugh and a half. “You will enjoy good health, you will be surrounded by luxury” 😂😂😂
If that’s what this is, I want a refund 😆