What is it about 28th December?!

So another long gap of long time no see (speak or even write!! )

My last blog titled about ebay taking over my life. This ended up being somewhat incorrect!

What mostly took over my life from the end of July was health issues of alsorts! Closely followed by money making.

At the end of July when the kids broke up for school I went and got a ruddy chest infection. We happened to be going on holiday at this time and thankfully (or not as the case was ...) I started antibiotics 2 days before we left. Once we got there I felt worse so rather than give me an out of hours GP appointment the NHS decided I needed to visit a round of local hospitals. Where eventually I got my antibiotics changed for stronger ones and thankfully no concrete sign of Pneumonia which I had had the previous - practically to the same date!!! So I missed Sophie's first birthday because I was in bed with Pneumonia and I missed her second with another chest infection! Awful! August and September saw a never ending round of hospital appointments for me and Jess. I was finally confirmed in September as definately having severe acid reflux and a very loose spincter muscle between the stomach and the esophagus. Also was the added suprise but relief to be diagnosed with esophageal motility disorder (diffuse esophageal spasm.) This in short means that my esophagus muscles do not work in rhythm all round and up and down but that they can contract violently (yes this IS as painful as it sounds!) and even stop altogether in places as a muscle spasm. This basically means that food gets stuck in my esophagus during this. It also confirms why I have been getting suck pain and why this is worse after eating. I assumed PPI's were not working and thus the pain was reflux. However the pain is from things that cause the reflux (on a flare up) thus making this worse and causing the spasms to get worse. The only option to improve it from here is (please no!!) surgery :( . She was somewhat unhelpful in telling me what surgery though and what the options were. So left to Dr google I found out that I would be in hospital for some time and unable to eat properly - starting with just fluids/pureed food for a total of around 6 weeks!! Also the surgery can leave you with worse symptoms than you start out with such as being unable to burp or vomit! Yea I don't need that with 2 tiny kids so i'll keep on suffering for now thanks ...

My other appointment was for my bum! Since having Sophie and the 4th degree tear I have had issues with the repair down there. I basically had a big skin tag/flap over the anal entrance. This was causing issues so in an attempt to relieve this I had it surgically removed at the end of October. They weren't wrong when they said recovery would be long and painful. It was around 4 weeks before I stopped having any kind of bleeding/weeping from the area and thus pain going around the same time. I would say 6 weeks before it started to feel "normal" again. Unfortunately it seems this didn't solve the problem. It "may" have helped marginally at best. So I think the issue is either pelvic floor based or also to do with the anal ring muscle where it was cut through, Just not being as strong as it should be after. Either way PF exercises I think do help a bit. But never relieve it completely. So it may just be something else I have to live with or something else that would need a further surgical fix. Not willing to even think about that route right now though so will continue with pelvic floors!! I have other issues down that so hopefully they will continue to help that too but flip it's hard to remember to do them! Especially as I am so damaged that I really need to do them 3 X a day+. I think the extent of just how damaged I am has only just hit home since this surgery failed tbh. 

Jessica's appointment was for her eye.Since last March she has had a chazilion type cyst on her eyelid. I very much ignored it due to knowing these last at least 6 months.In the end school + family pressure had me making her a DR's appointment. Finally got to see them in December where they said try some new drops come back in March if not surgery on it. So I suspect we shall be back for surgery. But we shall see ...

In unrelated stuff I've have a nosey at my blog and there was a massive spike in people viewing this on the 28th December?! LOL! What is it about that date??! I'm suprised so many people have been coming in daily still as I haven't posted in 6 months. Obviously the trend month by month has been downwards but goodness knows what the 28th is about lol! Can anyone that came in then tell me?? ...

I shall update again soon about other stuff we have been up to + money making ventures!