Smile Sermon - 2014 Sign off!

So I haven't done a post in a few weeks, I've been very up and down with various things going on. The inflation of my pouches always leaves me feeling a bit loamy for a couple of days. It bloody hurts man! 

It's not a walk in the park at all. It's not like I expected it to be, but I guess I just didn't expect it to be so irritating and painful! It's a bloody annoying pain though. It's not like an 'ouch'  pain it's a continuous dull ache. That just annoys me so much!

I wish I could just hibernate while this stuff went on with me just floating around in my dreams and then waking up a few months later with all the surgery done and sorted! It will be amazing when it's all finished with! I'm sure it will all be well worth the dull ache in a couple of months. I just feel so impatient with it all going on. 

I've been through a lot of crap in my life, more so in the last year and a half following my car accident. But this patch, this situation with the tissue expanders and the ongoing inflations and surgeries. This patch is by far the worst part!!!

At least while I was in the QE I was dosed up and forgetful! I had friends and family around me all the time and lots of relaxation. THIS, this is just horrible!  I'm seriously going through the hardest few months of my life! I know this is a blog of smiles, a place where I come on each week or whatsoever and share with you readers the things that have made me smile each week. This week, I'm seeking lots of comfort and sympathy! haha 

No, seriously. I've had an amazing Christmas. With SO many amazing presents! Lovely cards and lots of lovely food and drinks. I am very lucky! I do feel very lucky, very lucky to have everything I need and want at the minute in my life. There isn't much more I do want right now other than to fast forward this sore patch. This uncomfortable and sore patch of my life! I would love to just hibernate for the next couple of months!!! 
 
2015 will be a great year for me though! I will be feeling much more back to normal once the surgery is finished with. I'll be looking better, walking better, feeling better and driving better!  It will definitely be a good year for me. Things can only get better really, so when you hit that point, you can only be filled with hope, excitement, impatience and frustration! A mix of emotions! This is definitely the toughest part of things I've dealt with, but I'm a tough little solider and can get through anything. 
I've proven that to myself already! I can and I will get through this and be so happy and relieved once it's finally complete!
 It can't be rushed though. Slow and steady wins the race, as always!  You all know the tortoise and the hare story, I've always, ALWAYS been the hare! I liked being the hare, it was way more fun! But look what happened! The hare lost a bloody leg! haha 


Well, you've all probably seen the various posts on Facebook, the flip of events, statuses etc. I've got a really cool present from my Dad and Anna. I recieved a gorgeous Alleles cover from Canada! A company in Canada that produce beautiful covers to clip onto a prosthetic. Here are a few pics of the cool cover that is now attached to me!  They even sent me a cool pair of earrings to accompany this cool prosthetic cover! Unfortunatley I can only wear one of the earing at the moment, but I will soon have a reconstructed ear lope and I'll be wearing them both proudly! :) Very kind and sweet of them.

So, I've attached the cover to my leg, after ripping off the previous yellow foam that covered it! The foam was good for mimicking the shape of my leg, it made it look like a normal leg when I wore leggings or tights. Now I've got the cover on, you can really see that I'm wearing a prosthetic. Which is fine, I'm not shamed of it at all, it's a survival mark! I'm proud of my leg. But I do want my leggings to look neat and tidy!

I've currently got one normal knee and one spiky metal one, which is very apparent when wearing leggings. I think once I get my new suction socket leg, I'll keep one with foam on and one with this cool cover on. Then I can have it looking smooth in the winter with tights on and then looking cool in the summer when I've got a skirt on and showing off my cool prosthetic cover! Best of both worlds!



I think the boring white socket could do with a bit of art work! I might as well get it painted or something! If I'm going to be wearing this out on show in a mini skirt in the summer, I might as well go all the way! 

I think my next leg will have to be a amazing spike leg like Viktoria Modesta's one here. Now this is a very cool leg!!! It obviously would be a bloody nightmare to walk in, especially with a couple of vodkas down you, but my God it looks cool! Imagine wearing this on a night out! 

I'm actually excited about all the various leg out there now! There are so many cool ones! I will have a wardrobe full of legs in no time! Some of them are very expensive though! Like a running blade, that can be very pricey! But I want one of them too! I have spoken to the lovely Helen, a friend I made from the LimbPower event last year, you can get sponsorships and things. So I think next year I will definitely get myself a running blade and then pay everyone back with sponsors from my runs! :)  

That's my plan! 

Right, I wont be posting now until 2015! :) 

So I want to say big HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!!! 

Thank you to all my readers for your support and friendship throughout my first year as a blogger. 2014 started off good, it's ending off great, and 2015 will start AMAZING!! 

 

Sunday Smile Sermon #SSS

It's Christmas time in the Durkin's household! My aunty Tee, little cousins Urban and Xavier are over from Gibraltar. Unfortunately Uncle David couldn't make it over! The Quach's are heading to Australia for Christmas this year, to spend it with Uncle David's mom and dad and to see the rest of the Quach family over there. It will be lovely for them all to meet up and see the new little Quach boy Xavier! I'm sure Urban will love catching up with all of her cousins over there too. They must miss each other massively! I'll be spending Christmas with my sister Alex this year! YAY :)

So, I'm all over the place at the minute, emotionally. It's mental. I think I'm just so happy to have my aunty Tee over and that's stirred up a few feelings. I'm a little tender anyway with my shoulder pouches in! I had the two of them injected with 60ml of water this week. She did 40ml the first time, this time I was like, go for it, put some more in, it's fine and it doesn't hurt. So they did. Stupid me! It isn't really painful at all, it's just a very irritating dull ache. It's hard to keep your eyes on the prize when you are all tender and sensitive.

2015 is going to be amazing for me though! I will be having the final surgery to sort my burn scars out, I will have a new leg. A good one with a cool Alleles cover. I will be driving again! Which I really can not wait for!!! Things will be almost back to normal. I am very much looking forward to all of this, I just feel rather impatient from time to time. It's normally around the same time each month, so I'm probably just hormonal and emotional. I got all teary yesterday! Tee was getting dolled up for a night out with her mates, which was lovely for her to catch up with everyone while she was here. I just really wanted to go out with her, I wouldn't/couldn't with my pouches in, I'm very nervous about hurting them. I know I'll be back to the stage where I can whip a bit of lippy on and go out for a dance. I just can't at the minute and I was overwhelmed by the disappointment. I CAN'T WAIT TO BE BETTER!!!! I wish I could just fast forward this part of my life, the impatience is killing me! I've never been a patient person. I don't think I ever will be. I HATE waiting! It's amplified even more so now with everything else going on. Like waiting for Christmas, that is made more manageable with an amazing advent calendar that my darling Lauren Cullen bought for me. Ciate - Mini mni manor nail polish advent calendar.  It'a given me some lovely little pieces so far, I'm excited to see them all! Thank you so much for that Lauren, you absolute darling!

Today I went to visit baby Mikey, Mikey Joseph Hogan! He's such a handsome little man! Katie and Michael don't half make good looking children! Both Florence and Mikey are going to break some hearts when they're older. It was lovely seeing the 3 O'riordan sisters! Katie, Alice and Fiona. I love you three so much, having a little catch up with you was great. I'm hoping for them to be even more frequent once I'm driving again.

I don't have an awful lot to talk to you about really. I'm still waiting for my new leg, I'm hoping to get it before Christmas, so I can get it covered by my Alleles cover! As soon as I do I'll be whipping it out and showing it off on here and everywhere else! I think I'll be cutting all of my legging on the right side, so that they can show the cover off all the time! All year round. Oooooo I can't wait for it! As you can probably guess from my continuous enthusiasm in my blog posts!

I'm off now anyway, XFactor is on, I can't miss that!

Peace x

The Alleles - McCauley

I saw a lovely post on Facebook, on the page for the Alleles. The company that makes the cool leg covers. I thought I would share it with my blog followers. 

"Hey friends! This is McCauley here...designer and co-founder of the Alleles. I just wanted to share a bit of my soul with you all about how strongly I feel about the importance of fashion and the impact it has on people's self image....It may be obvious, but I am obsessed with fashion!

This company came about because I was so peeved and sick and tired of hearing people talk negatively about fashion and how it is so 'frivilous', 'meaningless', 'consumerist', 'impractical', and blah blah blah... If you are one of those people, look around the room you are sitting in and look at what everyone is wearing...are you wearing the same thing? no? why?... my point is exactly that. Whether or not you think you don't care about fashion, you wear clothes that you like for some reason. These 'clothes' then become an expression of who you are and how you see yourself as an individual. You hear people say things like, 'I could never pull that off!'... if it is 'just' an article of clothing that is meaningless then who cares?? But it's not, it is much much more than that.

Our entire point of existence is to give choice to people so they can express themselves...to show the world that despite of missing a limb, there is a still person who has more to talk about then 'just what happened to them'....there is a person who has interests, who has flare, who likes music, who loves motorcycling, running, art, their family, etc. We hear stories from our clients all the time of how their cover has transformed the way they see themselves and how complete strangers interact with them differently now that they are wearing a funky cover. This is quite humbling for us little designers that a chunk of plastic that we made to fit on ones prosthesis has that much power and can shed a bit of positivity and remove stigma that is more often than not 'hush hush' and 'pitiful'... no one wants to feel like that.

I attached this photo of myself and Nadine at the last photoshoot we did. It may be a bit 'too much' for people to wear this look out on the streets...but it does show the potential, the fun, the beauty and energy that can exist in a complete head-to-toe look! These dresses were designed by moi and Nadine's covers were influenced by the floral of the fabric. Thinking about the socks, the stockings, the shoes, the hem length, and the color combinations really does take weeks to figure out and to bring together so when people get excited about the images we share our hearts flutter a bit. Makes us think we are doing something right!! Details matter, style matters, beauty matters and being timely matters.

Thanks for being such a force of life during this photoshoot Nadine xo

And thank-you everyone else for listening to my little fashion rant 
-McCauley

 — with McCauley Wanner, Nadine Richards and Alison Andersen.

#SSSSS - Someone Special's Sunday Smile Sermon ;)

A little carried away with the S's there! 

So I haven't posted since I turned 26! The age thing was hard to deal with! This is a girl who woke up from a coma thinking she was 16 speaking, so the turning another year older was a bit sore! I'm dealing with it though, nothing to moan about. It was well celebrated with friends and family before going under the knife again. (If you're a new reader, It's not plastic surgery! Although it was some sort of surgery for cosmetic reasons. I'll go into it later.) 

Thank you so so much to my amazing family for all getting together and going for a lovely Sunday meal at the Crown at Wergs, in my neck of the woods, Tettenhall. It was a lovely pre birthday meal, and very nice to see you all together! For the ones that didn't make it, you missed out on an amazing Sunday roast! Unlucky! I wore my lovely dress from Oasis that my Aunty Tee bought for me! I love it! Thank you Tee, David, Urbie & Xiggy! 

The day after this meal, it was my gorgeous, super cool cousin, Jack's 1st Birthday!

I'm sure he had a lovely day over in Paris with Aunty Eve and Uncle Gerome

  

I hope this little rascal comes over to the UK soon, so I get to cuddle him before Christmas!!! 

Eve and Gérôme would obviously get one too, but Jack is just waiting for a cuddle from his crazy cousin. I really really would LOVE to see you all soon, if you can't get over here, I'll be hopping on a plane in the new year to see you three! That's a promise! 

So, I've been eyeing up the gym classes for the past couple of weeks, when I've been going swimming. I'm looking to get back into the gym gear and getting fit and healthy again, I say again as if I was before my accident, but seriously, I wasn't that fit and healthy before hand. I think it's more of a desire to improve myself now, because I've been all delicate and sore. I need to get stronger and of course slim down a bit too. I have such a sweet tooth and for someone who can't walk things off as much, I should eliminate all forms of sugary goodness, but no, I just can't! My aunty Eve posted me some amazing brownies for my birthday! Seriously heavenly! They were demolished in just a few hours! I have a very deep love for chocolate, so deep a love that I will never be able to eliminate it from my life. Never! So I need to start getting more active and fit in the gym to even things out a bit. Plus, I am aiming on doing a marathon as soon as I get a running blade! I won't go into that again, I get too carried away with the next cool leg I want and I might as well wait until all of my further surgeries are done with before going off on a tangent looking for the next cool prosthetic to go after. Trying to fly before I can crawl, as Anna referred to me last week, when I said "I'm always trying to run before I can walk". It made me laugh, but it's so true! 

Anyway on Tuesday 11/11, I wore my poppy with pride and held a moment of silence in the car with Anna, as we drove down to the QE for my pre op.  After my pre op, I went to the Durkin's to stay with Alex for the night, to wake up to tea and toast in bed with presents to open! And so I did! I had some lovely gifts from them all! I'm a very lucky girl. I went out for a meal with all my friends in the evening, Byzantium, a lovely tapas restaurant in Kings Heath. I bloody love that place! So tasty  It was lovely to see all the girls too, lots of lovely cards and presents from them too. Now, with my operation the next day, I had to be very diligent with my intake of alcohol! I didn't have any in Byzantium with the meal, after the meal, most of the girls had to head home, being a school night and all, Mary, Catherine and Elaine were all willing to pop over to the Hare for one cheeky nightcap, so we walked over and I had a lovely pint of Guinness! I thought I'd keep it safe with a Guinness, rather that an eye shot of Brandy! I didn't want to do anything to jeopardise my operation that was going on the following day. A pregnant lady can drink 1 pint of Guinness so little old me could have that before my 12pm cut off! 

The next day was very exciting, not even nervous, I was purely excited! I felt like I'd been waiting for this operation to come around for years! It had been a long wait, with annoying cancellations. So now it was all on the go and I felt great to have this ball finally moving! I knew it would be a slow and painful journey, but I was excited for it to be moving at last! 
So Alex was with me as we walked into the QE, I stripped off and got into a gown, and gave her my clothes to bring home with her. We both sat down in the room where you wait to go into theatre, she started to cry! The smell of the room brought back lots of memories for her, of the time I was in the QE and it was all scary and sad. The time I was peacefully sleeping while my family were all worried and tearful! It brought it all back to her and she just burst out. Poor little thing. It must have been a horrible ordeal for them all. Smells can really tug at your memories and emotions. I was just excited to be getting this next step done! I gave her a hug and then went off. 
I woke up in the recovery room and was moved to the burns ward. I thought I would be in and out that day, but they thought it best for me to stay in over night to make sure everything was ok. It was fine, I must have been very drowsy and out of it for a while, I was looking forward to ordering some ice-cream and jelly while I was there that night, but I ordered a cake and custard and then I didn't' even eat it! When something interferes with my appetite you know I'm not fine! 
It was lovely to see some of the nurses there, I wasn't in my old bedroom but I still saw a lot of familiar faces. They were all kind and said how well I was doing and things. 

I went home to the Durkin's and waited there for a while until Anna came and collected me. I thought I would start taking photos of my scars and tissue expanders, so that anyone else who might need to have them done, can look them up and find them in my blog.  So I'll take a picture of them and add it to my blog weekly. This week is just the pouches under the skin, which you can hardly see really. Here is an image for you 

The 3 white plasters are cover the 3 little scars from where the skin was cut in order to slide the tissue expanders in. The ports for these are nearby. They will be injected each week and so the 3 pouches will get bigger and bigger, growing as it expands and allowing new skin to develop which will be used to cover my scars. You can't really see these pouches at the moment, only slightly. They will hopefully get bigger and bigger in a few week and in a couple of months, the extra skin will be pulled over the top of the scars. Then it will look much better. I'll show you all a picture like this each week so you can watch them grow along with me. It is interesting isn't it! It will be so good to see a before and after in a couple of months.

I missed the Great Gatsby Ball, an event held for Limbpower on Saturday 15th. I've just noticed it again in my diary! So gutted to miss that! I bet it was so fun! I'll do my best to make the next event they hold.

I also missed a Banks gig on Monday! Gutted!!

I had an early appointment at the Malting's Mobility Centre, I tested out my new leg a little bit, it still needs a few alterations before I can take it home.

It was my cousins Jake & Keira's birthday on Thursday, the two little tinkers turned 8!

I went back to the QE on Friday. They checked my 3 wounds, gave them a little wipe and redressed them. I've got a bag full of these plasters to use daily now too. Everything is looking good, no infections, I was like, "can you just inflate it a bit now!" Being eager to get it going and start the process, but they advised that I should let it heal a bit more and then next week we can start pumping them up! I hope it all goes well and I can handle it all, it is a little nerve racking, not knowing how it will feel and how it will take. I want it all done as quickly as possible though. I want this all to be done by Jan/Feb next year, I'd like to start the new year as a new, healed woman.

I treated myself a lovely red jumpsuit from Topshop, and a cool black dress. One of them is a present off my nanny D, a Christmas present, so she can wrap it up for me and I'll open it Christmas day.

It will be lovely to wear both of these in the new year with, hopefully, my scars all looking good and less apparent. 

I'm hoping my new leg, will be all sorted and I'll be confidently walking on it in the new year, maybe even with a cool cover, like the Alleles ones I mentioned in a blog post a few weeks ago. Alleles is company in Canada.

• The Alleles design Studio, designs and fabricates fashionable accessories for lower limb prostheses.

INSTAGRAM: @the_Alleles
TWITTER: @the_Alleles

Have a look at the Instagram pics to see some of the cool designs they do. 

I wish there was something similar to this in the UK!

Anyway, the new year ahead, 2015, is looking good for me!  

I'll be looking better, I'll be driving again, I'll be more mobile and hopefully able to get an apartment with my sister, Alex! I can not wait! 

Until next week when I'll give you an update on my 3 pouches, peace! xx

Remembrance Sunday Sermon of Smile

 They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

So it's remembrance Sunday today, so I hope my sermon of smiles doesn't take away the importance of the day!

I'm typing with my poppy on and I have held the lost soldiers in my mind. I probably wouldn't be typing this very sermon now if it wasn't for them! So I hope whoever is reading this now holds a few minutes of silence and gratitude for the lost lives. 

So, I had an absolutely beautiful break away to Gibraltar last week! It was so nice to see my aunty Theresa, Uncle David and my cute little cousins Urban and Xavier! So much love for that little family! <3 

Since I've been home, I have to say ITS FREEZING!!!!! It feels far more colder then when I left. I got spoilt a bit by Aunty Tee while I was there too, she bought me a gorgeous little dress from Oasis as a birthday present! I love it! I will be wearing it next week for my birthday meal with the girls.  I also got a lovely jumpsuit from Tee, it was very comfy and looked stylish, so I might wear that today for my birthday meal with the family!  

I'm going for meal after meal since I've been home! I went to Miller & Carter in Shirley with Liz Devey and Grace yesterday, for an early lunch. It was so lovely to catch up with them, it had been like a year since I saw them last! It will not be left so long this time. Thank you so much for my beautiful bracelet Liz!  I've got it on now and I always smile when I look down at it. I'm a very lucky girl. And of course the chocolate makes me smile too! Very kind of you all, Liz, Rob, Grace, Alex and Josh. 

I met up with the charity I'm working with on Friday too, it was so nice to see them all and catch up with them. We have a new chairman too. I'm looking forward to the next meeting and the roadshow in Dudley on 15th November. 

If any of you would like to come and check it out, please do!  

You can find their details on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Country-Neurological-Alliance/217276271775898 please give them a like if you haven't already, and on Twitter @BCNA2013 please follow them if you are on Twitter, to see what we get up to and how you can help out too if you want. 

I went to see the fireworks yesterday with Anna, Dan, Grace, Isabelle and James. It was lovely! Not as good at the ones we saw last year at Alton Towers but still very nice. It was at Twin Lakes, a little theme park for children, which was nice for James and Isabelle too. Of course I went on a ride with Grace. I'm a big kid after all! 

So, next week I'm going to be 26! That is scary! I swear I was 21 yesterday! Time really does fly, and my God how many things have changed since my 21st. Mental! 

Anyway, it's my birthday on Wednesday , I have a pre op on Tuesday, Birthday meal with the girls on Wednesday, and my operation on Thursday. Then, the Dudley Roadshow (in the above picture) is on Saturday. I think I may be a little too sore for that. Fingers crossed I will be fine and I'm able to go. it all depends on how I'm feeling after the skin expanders have been put in. I'm hoping I will be fit and vibrate enough to go to this Roadshow, there is no way I will be feeling up to the LimbPower Great Gatsby Ball, which is also on this same Saturday. It's a shame I'll be missing that. I will be in a much better position next year, so I will not miss a thing that LimbPower get up to! That's a promise! 

Until the next sermon, peace! x

Late Sermon of Smiles - Black Country Neurological Alliance

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH! 

I would like to say that I didn't do my blog post yesterday, so that I could do it today with a specific shout out to my dear friend Mr Devey, 26 today! Happy Birthday mate!

However that's a fib! I didn't have my laptop with me in Birmingham this weekend, I couldn't go without doing a blog post! So I'm doing it today.

My week started off great. With the charity, Black Country Neurological Alliance in mind. I love that I've got a little job to focus on and support! It's great! I love having the title of a Social Media Manager too! I need to update my LinkedIn account for this. I set up a Facebook page for the charity, as they never had one. It will be pulling through their twitter feed. I mentioned their twitter account in my last post but just as a reminder please give them a follow on Twitter with @BCNA2013 and also, please like the page I created for them on Facebook.

Their is a statement piece for the charity that sums it all up:

In the Black Country today thousands of lives are devastated by a neurological condition. This might be Multiple Sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease or one of around 600 other neurological conditions. Patients and carers generally accept the services offered without complaint. 

The Black Country Neurological Alliance is an umbrella organisation that is led by people affected directly and indirectly by a neurological condition. We want everyone affected by a neurological condition to be at the heart of the design, delivery and evaluation of services and have the chance to make their voice heard.       

Our sole purpose is to improve services available to all patients and carers in Sandwell, Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton. We are developing information service and work in constructive partnership with decision makers in the NHS and social care. 

We want to raise awareness of neurological conditions and their impact, and campaign for improved health and social care services in the Black Country region. 

Anyone sharing this aim is welcome to join us. 

You would be amazed at the various neurological conditions people are dealing with in the UK. I have no doubt in saying the majority of readers now, will know someone in their social circle or family that have/and are dealing with such conditions. It is terrifying really.

The brain is the most precious part of your body! It is so, so important to look after it and treat it well! If I had today's knowledge 5 years ago, I would have been far more careful with my social life and the intake of occasional drugs and alcohol. It's good to have fun and enjoy your life while you're young yes, but people please be more diligent with the care towards your brain! Chill out with the poppers and eat lots of fish kids!

If anyone has any cool idea to help me raise the awareness of this organisation, please do let me know. Get in touch with me on Facebook or Twitter to throw any suggestions at me. I'd love to hear your ideas!

I had a lovely weekend, out for Poppy and Sam's Birthday! I felt good too, wearing a black leather skirt with some tights, I had my hair down and straightened, a bit of make up on, no mask! It was great to have that little feeling of normality for the night. Out with my friends and having a little drink at The Victoria in town. It's just a shame that I had to leave when I did, I would have loved to have stayed out longer. I didn't even get a chance to see my best mate Lauren! I was picked up at about 10pm. It was a fun night though, I'll need to start thinking of what to do for my Birthday! Eeeek that will be coming up soon.

I'm off to Gibraltar next week, to see the Quach's! I can't wait!!! In case something really fun or interesting pops up I probably won't post again until I'm back from there.

Until then, bye!!!!  x

CONGRATULATIONS MARTINA & RAV ON YOUR ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCED TODAY!! 

#SSS Sunday Smile Sermon

Evening folks!

I've had a week full of smiles! As per usual. My weekly notifications on the things that have made me smile, must be pretty boring for some of you. But anyway, I'm not writing for an audience!
I've decided to create my own hashtag too. #SSS the title of the last two posts was a give away to this but just as a reference for any new readers. I thought I'd use something like the #FF on twitter. To try and raise the profile of my blog. Trying to get it around to more people for them to read. There are some great bloggers out there, so I thought it must be rather competitive, I might as well create a little hash tag to try and trend it on twitter and get it out to more and more people!

So, this week. It started off well with a lovely catch up with my old friend Rob, my pr2go brother! I hadn't seen Rob since my car crash last year, but I know we met up for a catch up here and there before it all happened. Also, we had been in touch, on social media, of course. But with my drowsy state of mind from all of the drugs I was taking, I wasn't my full self with him. It was almost like I was unsure who he was! I'm glad that horrible memory cloud has finally lifted from me now, since cutting back on my pain killers. It was a really nice catch up with him over a coffee in Birmingham town centre. We'll have to make it a more regular meet up too!

Tuesday was my last meeting with my OT Alex, she is off on maternity leave! I gave her a card and wished her all the best with her pregnancy and time off. I'll look forward to all of the photos when I see her again next year! I saw my OT Katie on Thursday, the little diamond has sorted my form out for the regional driving assessment! Hopefully I'll be hearing from them soon and in no time at all I will be back on the roads, I can't wait! It will be so good for me to just hop into my car and visit friends and family! Without having to rely on other people for transport. I can't wait to be driving again!!!!! [More safely of course ;)]

On Thursday, I went to an informal interview in Dudley, for a charity called Black Country Neurological Alliance, who should have a Facebook page, but they don't at the minute. They have a twitter account though, you can find them at @BCNA2013. Give them a follow if you like!
I'll hopefully be raising their profile and get them a bit more active online. It's not something I'm massively qualified in exactly, but I'm a little geek when it comes to marketing and social media, so fingers crossed I can use my skills to help this charity. At this meeting, I was given a list of what some of the people are dealing with neurologically. In that long list of various conditions, I ticked two of the boxes with my brain tumour as a child and my acquired brain injury from my car crash. If they are setting out to help people who have or are dealing with such things, I want to do my upmost to help and support them.
I am now their Social Media Manager and Newsletter Editor! Hopefully I will play these parts well and do them proud. I'm sure I will ;)

My writing course on Friday was good, although, I hadn't printed out my homework! I was suppose to have written a short piece, discussing my "light bulb moment". What inspired me to write. I thought I could just use my blog bio for this, so it won't be too difficult a task. I don't think I had a lightbulb moment really. It was more for a fact that I needed to write down what went on each week to support my short term memory loss. Then, with all of the positive feedback I had from this blog and all of the comments and chats I've had with various people on Twitter & Facebook, I thought I should keep writing! It was probably from this blog, that I decided I would write a book. A book that I'm fairly stumped with at the moment, so I could really do with some sort of lightbulb moment now!

On Saturday, I went to Blackpool with Anna, my brother Daniel, Grace and her mom Maureen, the kids Isabelle and James, and Daniels friend James. We all drove up to Blackpool for a little weekend trip to see the lights. I've never been before so it was interesting to say the least. The main point of the trip was to take little Isabelle to see all of the lights at night. We went for a meal at Frankie & Bennies, at which the wait was ridiculous! The food was alright though, so I can't complain too much. Then we strolled along the peer, taking in all of the illuminated scenery. On the Sunday, we went back to the pier for a breakfast and a little stroll. I had noticed a place for fortune telling along the peer on Saturday, I was intrigued by it, so we went back so I could pop in to see what she had to say. I thought it would be funny to hear what she said without me giving it away that I had a prosthetic leg. I thought my walk was pretty normal in short distances and she might not even notice! I wasn't wearing my face mask either! So honestly, I thought, it's a con and I just wanted to catch her out. She was a lovely old lady though, and she didn't seem too intrusive. She ended up telling me that I would meet "the one" next year, in April. His name would consist of the letter H, he would have something wrong with his hand. I would have 1 child, a daughter. And that was it. It wasn't very convincing, although I will be looking out for someone in April with a H in their name! She did say that if I didn't meet him, it would be my own fault. Which was a bit of a cop out! But we'll see, I'll let you all now at the end of April!

#SSS - The Luck Factor

 Luck! Luck definitely exists, good luck and bad luck does not. I mean, obviously it exists as a verbal statement of recognition of your opinion on the display of luck. That is all it is though, it's an opinion. It is a way of judging a situation and labelling it in a way in which suits you or your understanding of it.

I'm currently reading the The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman, it is VERY interesting! It's quite funny how I reacted to it as well. At the beginning of the book I was like, God Rich, you shouldn't say this and that, there is no such thing as good luck and bad luck, it is how you judge a situation. Then I read on,  and wollah, I was right! He started to explain how luck is perceived and I was spot on! I love it when I'm right ;)

Let me test you readers on this one. Is what has happened to me lucky or unlucky? My situation, how it happened. what happened, the lot. Label it with good luck or bad luck….. I'll give you a few minutes….

…. I'm going to guess that the majority of you say it was bad luck. Understandably, I can see where you're coming from.

Now, my opinion on the matter is, I am a very lucky girl!

1. I died, but I was lucky for the paramedics to resuscitate me back to life. 
2. I was amputated, but I'm dealing with it with the support of my amazing family and friends, I'm lucky to have all of these people around me to help me and to make me smile! 
3. I was badly burnt on my face and chest, I am still in the process of getting these scars sorted out with further operations this year. The damage to my facial nerve prevented me from being able to move the left side of my face. Surgeons did take a nerve out from the back of my left leg and gave it  a 1% chance of it working once placed into my face. It is woking! I still have a way to go before I'm back to normal and have full ability to move my face, but it's coming. I've currently got a twitch in my left eyebrow! :) I'm working on it and it will come back eventually. 

I am very lucky! The burns could have been slightly moved to right and blinded me! The massive bang to my head, from flying through the roof of my car (luckily a soft top convertible) and then landing on the floor and having the car land on top of me, apart from making me brain dead, it could have been a lot worse!
I was in a coma for nearly a month after the crash, my family didn't know whether or not I would wake up from it. They didn't know if I was to wake up with severe brain damage. I did suffer post traumatic amnesia, but that is clearing up loads now. I'm almost back to normal mentally. My concentration is still a bit patchy, but it's just through the laziness of not using my brain for such a long time. I will be back to normal in no time.
I am very lucky to have had such a smart and intelligent brain before the crash! If it wasn't for boys & alcohol, I could have been a rocket scientist! hehe ;)

If I wasn't as smart before having the bang to the head, I would be pretty stumped now. I am lucky to have such smart & intelligent parents! So I digress, the point is, what happened to me was very shit and nasty to deal with, but the luck involved in the incident, is just down to my perception of what happened! How I look at it and how I let it effect my life moving forward.

If I didn't loose my leg, I would never have met so many amazing people on social media and at the Limbpower event this year. I am grateful to have had the chance to meet so many incredible people!
If I wasn't burnt on my face & chest, I wouldn't have met the lovely Katie Piper and the amazing people who work with her for the KPFoundation.
If I hadn't suffered an injury to my brain, I wouldn't have met my two lovely Occupational Therapist, Katie & Alex, who come to see me on a weekly basis and help me to get back to where I was before the crash. They are both lovely ladies, and I'm glad to have them as new friends  in my life.

Yes, the situation I am in on a daily basis, is one I would rather not be in, I do miss the things I would be doing on a daily basis prior to the crash I was involved in. However I'm not going to mope and dwell on it. I need to look forward and focus on my recovery and my future. Life is too short to be wasting your time looking back at bad situation you have gone through. No matter what happens to you, you should dust it off and get on with your life, if you want to live a happy one. If you dwell on things that have made you sad at the time, then you'll be stuck with that for a long time. You will have the mentality of a very unlucky person. And guess what, then you will be unlucky! You'll be in a rut of "bad luck" and it will be your own fault.

So don't do it people. You make your own luck in life!

"Is luck just fate, or can you change it?

A groundbreaking new scientific study of the phenomenon of luck and the ways we can bring good luck into our lives. What is luck? A psychic gift or a question of intelligence? And what is it that lucky people have that unlucky people lack? Psychologist Dr. Richard Wiseman put luck under a scientific microscope for the very first time, examining the different ways in which lucky and unlucky people think and behave. After three years of intensive interviews and experiments with over 400 volunteers, Wiseman arrived at an astonishing conclusion: Luck is something that can be learned. It is available to anyone willing to pay attention to the Four Essential Principles: 

. Creating Chance Opportunities
. Thinking Lucky
. Feeling Lucky
. Denying Fate 

Readers can determine their capacity for luck as well as learn to change their luck through helpful exercises that appear throughout the book. Illustrated with anecdotes from the lives of the famous such as Harry Truman and Warren Buffett, The Luck Factor also richly portrays the lives of ordinary people who have been extraordinarily lucky or unlucky. Finally Dr. Wiseman gives us a look into "The Luck School" where he instructs unlucky people and also teaches lucky people how to further enhance their luck."

If you want to give this book a read, you can find it here . http://www.amazon.co.uk/Luck-Factor-Scientific-Study-Lucky/dp/0099443244/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412527159&sr=1-1&keywords=the+luck+factor

So what else has made me smile this week, well, PEAKY BLINDERS!!! I can't wait to see Tom Hardy in it next week. I bet he'll be just wonderful.

I have a little job interview next week too. It's a voluntary roll for a a charity that deals with MS and I thought it would be good for me to get back into a work frame of mind and see how I get on with focusing on various tasks each week. I do miss work, as crazy as that may sound. But I do! I will try this one out, get back into the swing of things and then look into something bigger and better. As much as I'd love to use my skills in marketing and PR to help a charity spread across the UK, I would still like to be getting a pay check at the end of the month. It's not like I'm desperate for the money, but I like earning my own way through life. I'd like to get back to a career and have my own targets to reach each week/month. I'll let you all know how I got on next week anyway ;)

So I started a course in Wolverhampton for Advanced Creative Writing, it was good to meet a few lovely people and it will help me get this book of mine done. It was nice to meet them all and I'm looking forward to the next course! The courses are every Friday at 10am, for 10 weeks. I'm not sure what the end result will be, it will be good for me none the less.

I've had a lovely weekend in Birmingham. I went for a meal with my Nan, Alex, Dan & Grace yesterday evening. That was just delightful. Then I stayed at my Nanny Ds with Alex. Alex has some henna she picked up in Dubai and said she would give it a go on me if I wanted, I asked her to do a little design on my right thigh. She did a great job on it too! It will probably fade away soon, with the friction of my prosthetic leg socket, but it looks great for the meantime. Thanks Alex!

Today Nanny J came around to pick me up and we went to Erdington to see my lovely Auntie Nia and Cousin Elis. It was a lovely dinner and very nice to see them both! They are both heading out to New Zealand for Christmas this year, so we won't get an awful lot of time to see them before they go. God I can't believe Christmas is nearly here already! I feel like you could sneeze and it'll be 2052!

That's all for now folks, peace x

Sunday Smile Sermon - 28th September #SSS

Well I'm slacking in my sermons! It must be a little boring for people to read what I had for breakfast on a weekly feedback post. I think fortnightly posts will be more interesting!

All my thoughts have been with the lovely people doing their bit for the charity, LimbPower, in the London to Amsterdam bike ride! Well done guys, I've been following it on Facebook. I'm only aware of Kiera & Johnny doing it, but whoever else took part in the charity campaign, well done for your efforts! I would have loved to have been with you all on the ride, although I wouldn't be fit enough to ride a bike to London let alone from London to Amsterdam! Next year, however, I will 100% be doing it with you! It's my aim for next year now. Santa, I'll need a bike for Christmas. ;)

So, what's been going on with me over the past couple of weeks, not a lot really! I'm in a bit of a limbo spot at the moment, just waiting for my new suction socket leg and waiting for my face reconstruction operations. The operations aren't until November 13th! So I have a long way to go yet, the new leg however, god knows! I'm constantly going back to the Malting Mobility Centre to get it checked out and there is ALWAYS a few adjustments needed to be made. Fingers crossed I will get it before this year is out. I'm planing on getting some nice heels for Christmas, with the aim of dancing in them by the following Christmas. I'm not sure I will be able to go with this mission though if my reliance is constantly on my mobility centre.  

So i'm getting better mentally now. I feel as though my memory is improving and I'm a lot less drowsy after dropping my medication down from 600mg a day to 150mg. I haven't felt, so far, any negative consequences in doing so either. Fingers crossed I'll be off them all in no time! I hate having to take drugs! (For those of you reading this who knew my pre crash behaviours, that statement will sound a little  ironic!) I think it's more of a stubborn hate. Like, I hate having to rely on something to stop my pain. I should be able to do that myself! It's my body and my pain, I should be able to control it. I hate having to rely on drugs to numb such pain. That may sound a bit hippy and weird, but it's true! We all become reliant on things for help if we constantly turn to it in times of need. We should all man up and strengthen our bodies to fight off their own battles. Ok if it is unbearable pain and you need the medication then take it, but if you can handle it, you shouldn't. In my opinion. 

So it's been a month of Birthdays in my family! My aunty Tee was 40! It was my cousin Xiggy's 1st birthday on Monday! My Uncle John and my nan had their birthday's on Thursday. Cards coming out of my ears! We went for a lovely meal on Friday for Nan and John's birthday. The Greswolde Arms in Knowle. It was lovely. I can even remember what I had, which I would never have been able to do a few weeks back! So I had pate as a starter, scallops and sea bass for my main followed but lovely hazelnut profiteroles for desert. 

I've made a new friend, Joshua , who has reminded me to do this post, and therefore I have to mention him in it. There you go Joshua ;) 

I've got not a lot going on for the rest of this week, anything worth telling you all about and I'll pop back on next Sunday, if not then I think I'll stick to fortnightly posts I think. 

Until the next time, peace x

Sunday Smile Sermon - 7th September

YAY it's September! My favourite month of the year :) Kids all back to school, peace and quite! The beginning of autumn sun, weather still nice and warm, not too hot. It's a gorgeous sunny day today, I'm again sitting at the dining table at my nan and granddads. Alex is away however, she has spent the week in Dubai with her friend Becci. The pictures I've seen are lovely, I bet they've had an amazing little break, a well deserved break too. They both work so hard! I'm excited to see all the pics and hear all the gossip when they get home today! I've missed that little sprog of mine.

So what has made me smile the most this week. Well, I've now finally tuned my body into waking up a bit earlier, so in terms of reaching goals, I've conquered that one! I've thought I should really get my act together with the over sleep and lazy lie ins. I'm starting an advanced writing course in October, which will start at 10am every Friday, for around 10 weeks I think, so at least the early morning wont be such a shock and horror to me!
Oooo I'm excited to start that! It will be good to meet a few people writing and to tell them all about my book, a book I'm working on at the minute. I might even get a bit of inspiration from them and hopefully hand some out myself.

So Tuesday, I had an appointment at The Malting, my mobility centre (Where they are making me a new suction socket leg) My meeting was with Judy the councillor, she's a lovely lady and to me it's just a gathering we have really. I just tell her how things are and whats going on, nothing too intense. It's good for me memory wise, as I recall the things I have done to someone and I tell her what my plans are moving forward. I told her about the Charity my new friend Sian is setting up and how I would love to help her. So I'm going to be helping Sian with her charity (which doesn't have a name yet) and LimbPower with theirs.

I went swimming with Anna on Wednesday, after the swim, on the way home, we talked about dinner. I always get hungry after swimming! So I decided I would make something for dinner that night. On the way home we stopped off at the super market and picked some bits and bobs up, along with a salad bar as a snack/lunch . That night I made enchiladas. They were SO tasty! I've decided that I would cook more often for them all while I'm there. It's nice to mix things up a bit, and it's good for me to start being a bit more helpful around the house. I need to grow up a bit and stop being so lazy!

Thursday, I had a bit of an excitement flow of energy and ordered a load of prospectuses from the University of Birmingham. The idea of helping LimbPower and Sian really prompted me into topping up and expanding my experience and knowledge in marketing. It is a field I am used to, from 3 years of employment after Uni. It will be good to get back into it to spread the 2 charities around the UK. It will also be good for me mentally to get back into an academic mind set by upgrading my degree into a Masters. It was something I really enjoyed doing and I believe I was good at, so I'm going to get back into it and be even better!

The Culture Team at France24, where my aunty Eve works, sent me a picture of them all doing their Leg up for LimbPower post. It was great! Thank you all so much  :) 

Yesterday, I received one on Facebook from my good friend Alice. She did a Leg Up post with her boyfriend Paddy, and there little dog Molly jumped up for it too! Thank you all so much!!!! Love all 3 of you! :) 

It is so great seeing pictures like this with my friends and family all helping me to raise awareness to the charity LimbPower. It really filled my heart. Thank you so much!

So I've also made a few new friends this week! I noticed on Facebook a young lad called Anthony showing off his new cool prosthetic leg, made by a company called The Alleles. His prosthetic cover was so so cool! It's nice having someone at a similar age who's in the same boat as you. Really nice lad!

"I saw this #regram @anthonyjennings wearing his new custom#allelescover!! Handsome devil  @tattooed_robot can design your very own custom cover as well! 
#thealleles #amputee #prostheticstyle #prosthetics#customcover #allelesdesign #designstudio #actor#model "


After seeing this, I just had to get in touch with Terry, the guy at the company The Alleles. I really want to buy one of his covers to attach to my prosthetic. A lovely designed cover will be so much nicer than the current yellow foam I have! I got chatting away to Terry and came up with a brilliant idea as to what I would like. I love elephants so I thought, I might as well get something cool like that designed on to a cover. This is the design I found and liked.

               
 

     

 I found the design on a website http://stayathomegypsy.com/product/indian-elephant-xl/  if you want to check it out. I thought this henna type design of an elephant, with similar curves and patterns, designed onto a leg cover would be something to be proud of! I would definitely have this out on show with a nice skirt on. It will be far prettier than the yellow foamed leg cover! It will hold the same shape of my leg once attached to the cover, and it will be like a cool tattoo.
A changeable tattoo! I might get an addiction to this and be contacting Terry once a month for a new design! It's such an exciting idea! I'm very happy with it and it hasn't even been made yet! But I've seen how cool Anthony's is and I'm convinced Terry will do just as good a job on mine. :)

I'll need to speak to my dad about it when I get home, I just like to run things past him before I rush in and buy it. I know I get excited about things sometimes and go crazy and just buy it! Like the wrist band idea I had, to spread my website/blog around to people. It's a nice idea, but did I REALLY need to buy 400 of them! haha I've given some out to family and friends, but I still have bags and bags full of these bands sitting in the conservatory! I'm such a blonker! :)

So I'll speak to dad when I get home and then POW! I'll buy the option for The Custom Terry Oh Cover on the Alleles website! Ooooo It's so exciting!!!

It's my Aunty Tee's big 40th this week!!! Here is a premature massive HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her!
I have sent her two cards. The first one I forgot I had sent it, so I sent another!
My memory is still on the mend! I need to stop being lazy with it and start working this ticker out more! No more asking for help & reminders, I need to man up and get this brain of mine flexing and back to its bright self! It will get better, I know it will. I just need to think more and work out how to used it better. I have gotten into such a lazy routine of checking my diary to let you know what has gone on in my week. Next Sunday I am going to do a post where I haven't at all look into my diary to see whats gone on, I'm going to tell you everything I can remember without being prompted. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

Have a good week everyone, peace out!

MASSIVE Sunday Smile Sermon! - 31st August

So, let me just stress how happy I am today! I am so so glad that my nan talked me out of doing a post last week. A post that I had written slagging off the NHS for cancelling on me constantly. The fact that my life was on hold, due to their actions, pissed me off so much that I just wanted to get it all down and share it publicly with everyone through my blog & social media. My nan comforted me and talked me out of it. I am very grateful for her doing that. I am relieved that I didn't. As soon as I calmed down, everything started to fall into place. All my worries and concerns have now gone!
My operation has not only finally been booked, but it has be booked in with the man Colonel Jeffrys, who was looking after me from the very start of all this. This has miraculously turned out even better than I had originally anticipated.
The big man up stairs has seriously helped me out! I am so grateful for that!

So the main thing I am focusing on at the moment is the charity LimbPower.

Limb Power is an amazing charity, that I luckily stumbled across at my local mobility centre in Wolverhampton. I went to an event they held in May, which was the week I lost my leg last year. I met so many incredible people and made some really good friends for life there.

I am trying to help them spread the word so that other amputees all over the UK, are aware of the charity and what it does.

They started a Facebook page called 'Leg Up For LimbPower' - it shows people spreading the word and getting involved with the task to take a picture of them holding their leg or hand and balancing on just the one leg.

I want to help this charity so much. I would love to see my friends all getting involved! It really helped me mentally and physically and I am aiming to get the charity notified around the country, so that other amputees are aware of it and don't miss the events they have.

I woke up this morning to a lovely picture of some of my girls all holding their legs up, it made me smile a lot! Thank you so much to this wonderful bunch! 


ALS, a horrible disease. I know one family who had to deal with it and it was heart breaking to see. This disease would have remained unknown of, to so many people. It is truly AMAZING how much the support has spread around the entrire world! With the Ice Bucket challenges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUvZlZ4_RQo&feature=youtu.be

The idea is brilliant, people are seeing the funny side to it and it has helped them spread it around to people, with all of the various nominations. It is an amazing marketing technique, fair play to them!

I would love to help a the charity LimbPower to have a similar craze with the Leg Up For LimbPower. It can really be spread around if people start doing it and start nominating other to. I hope people reading this will see my request and start doing some nominations!

I have popped the request onto my Facebook and Twitter account, fingers crossed you'll all help me with this aim and spread the craze around with pictures and nominations!

My girls have already done this, so have my nan and grandad and my beautiful sis. I hope you can help me with this too.

I nominate, all of you readers to take a picture of themselves, in various, funny, positions .

And/Or donate £3 to LimbPower by texting LIMB88 to 70070

Please help me with this mission! Get your...

Leg Up For LimbPower

I also had a lovely chat with a young girl, a girl my age who had lost her leg last year too. Sian has the exact same attitude to me and is looking to start her own charity. I am going to do my absolute best to help her with this as much as I can. It is such a good idea! I'm very excited to push this out to other amputees. I'll keep you all posted with the movement of this! Watch this space people! 

Sunday Smile Sermon - 17th August

CONGRATULATIONS SHIV & MARK!!! 

Well, I had an amazing time last night, at my good friend Siobhan and her Fiancé Mark's Engagement party! It was great seeing all the girls and a lot of friendly faces, some people who I haven't seen in years too, like some of the lads from Archbishop Illsley, who I haven't seen for so long! It was a really good night. And there was a constant flow of Prosecco :) I thought I would be sensible and try and have just a couple and then just a few Guinness's, pregnant women can drink Guinness, so it must be relatively ok for me to drink with all the meds that I'm on. BAD idea!!!! Prosecco and Guinness together, is a very bad, stomach curdling, mistake! I do have a bit of a dodgy head and stomach today! It was well worth it though. Great night!

So, I digress, the things that have made me smile the most since my last sermon, my trip to Ireland was lovely! It was great seeing all the family over there, more importantly my mom! It was a lovely trip over on the ferry with my Nan and Granddad and then back with my brother Dan, Grace, James and Isabelle. Thank you all for such a lovely little holiday for me. Thinking I had to come home a week earlier to have my pre op. As my operation was suppose to be 21st of August, with a pre Op on the 14th. But no, that was cancelled. I'm not going into that now though, it was a serious time of stress and no smiles. Grrr   It's not like I was really looking forward to it. Like I'm so excited about having an operation, I just want these things to be sorted out as soon as possible. I want to look as good as new with no more pressure garments and masks. I can not wait for this to all be sorted for me. It's a good job I've got short term memory loss, otherwise these things would be so irritating. Although, last week does feel like last year to me too, so it feels like I've been waiting for this operation for years!!! That alone is annoying.

I did have an appointment at the QE last week though, where I saw Faye, she looks after me and my scars. She gave me lots of little samples of various other scar treatments to use, I also had a little moan about the mask, the whole face covering mask that she had made for me to wear 23 hours a day! With a little moan about this mask, she gave me a little pressure garment that I could wear around my face to bed, so I could have a good sleep! And I have! My sleeps are great these days. Faye also gave me the contact details of the 2 surgeons secretaries. I'll be giving them a week to do there thing, then POW I'll be on them day and night to try and get a date down for this Op!

I have been writing a fair bit too, I'd say the first 3 or 4 chapters of this book of mine are all done and good. I've sent copies to both of my aunties, Theresa and Eve. I can get a good feedback from these two. Once I've heard both of their comments/feedback, I'll crack on with the next few chapters. In no time, it will be complete and on the shelf at Waterstones. I'm picturing a book signing day and all sorts, like I'm some sort of celeb!

I've been pretty good with my healthy eating and exercise, apart from today, where I just HAD to have Nutella on toasted crumpets. It just needed to be something yummy and stodgy today! I have been swimming with Anna a few times a week though, so that's good. I'm aiming on getting a running blade soon too. It will be so good to go for a jog with one of those! I'm far more confident on walking around without a stick now too, my balance and confidence has really improved the last few weeks. I only use a stick if I'm going to be walking a lot or if I'm walking in a crowded area, like last night for example, I had my stick with me because it was crowded and I was drinking. I was dancing around no problem though! :)

  I also booked and paid for a course of Advanced Creative Writing with WEA college. It will be good to get back into an academic flow of work. It will be good to improve my writing too, if I'm going to become an author! It's only a 10 week course. 10am every Friday for 10 weeks. Eeeek I'm excited already! I think once that one is done and dusted, I'll move onto another course, something like psychology. I've got to get this brain of mine fit and ready for a Masters! A 2:1 Theology Degree at the UofB was a piece of cake for me. But now, a Masters in something, is a bit further away from me, with all of the chaos going on with my spaghetti brain.   It will be fine though, I'm working on it all. In no time at all I will be back to myself, physically (minus the leg) and mentally.

Watch this space people!

And a BIG thank you to my lovely Sister in Law, Grace, who signed me in a slate during her adventure  on a Zip-line day out. She signed my website there and left it in a place where lots of people would see it when they are doing the Zip-line adventure day out too.

 This week, I also decided to learn a little bit of Spanish, it's a language I've always wanted to learn, and have never gotten around to it. So, after reading a book called, Brain Injury Survival Kit, it was mentioned that learning something new and fresh to the brain, is a good way of training it to get fit and back to it's normal capacity. So with my Advanced Creative Writing course at the end of the year and a few Spanish words here and there, I'll be back in game!

The sentences I have written down to remember (and which I can remember right now) is;

Mi hermana Alex es tan hermoso

Well, I couldn't remember how to spell it, but I got the pronunciation spot on!

To end it on a quote, "I am not what happened to me. I am what I chose to become." Carl Jung

Until next Sunday, BYE!!!

Don't 'Diss' My Ability!

 Dear public,

I'm a proud AMPUTEE. I absolutely do not like being classed as 'disabled'. It's a negative category. It is a negative name for a category of people. A category of people who can differ so so much in their ability! The fact that this is not considered alone, is a joke!

You all know the joke, an English man, an Irish man and a Scottish man. Well this could be, there was an amputated man, a blind man and a deaf man. They are all classed as disabled people, yet their ability is so different to one another. The English Man, the Irish man and the Scottish man, they all speak the same language. They don't need a translator to assist their conversation. Yet the Amputee man, the deaf man and the Blind man all need different aids in life. Whether that be aiding a conversation between them all, or to move from one side of the room to the next.

To 'dis' something is always negative, DISapprove DISbelief, DISagree, DISappoint,  DISaster, DISgrace, DIShonest, DISrespect, DISrupt, DISturb, DIStress, DISsatisfaction.

It could go on and on, but I won't, you get the point. Disabled, is a negative label.

Therefore, it is quite apparent as to why I so passionately DISlike being labeled with this term of a negative ability. Yes it is very negative at the minute, as I can't jump up and run to the door when someone rings the bell. I can't at this very minute. But I will be able to eventually. In fact, I will be able to run faster than ever before as soon as I get a running blade. I may be able to run and jump over the person ringing the door bell.…
I will have an enhanced ability! They'll be nothing 'DIS' about it. :)

I know, this is an area of smiles and happy thoughts and energy, but I'm raging up toward this label of 'disabled' and it's best to let things out and get rid of them, so I'm letting it all out on here so you can all see it, take it in, do what you want with it. Just do not, ever, ever call me disabled.

I know other amputees don't mind being labelled as a disabled, and I know that some have a far bigger challenge than I have. So by using the facilities like the disabled toilets is an absolute necessary, but they are just different toilets. Because the people who need them can't cram themselves into tiny cubicles with their wheelchairs. Im very lucky in the fact I can still use the 'normal' toilets and at the end of they day, they are all still toilets,

A negative view. I'm not saying people are negative towards amputees and other 'disabled people', not at all. It is all done with a considerate heart. They are putting consideration into their customers so that people with various disabilities are greeted with special adapted services. It is all done in a considerate matter. I do appreciate that. However, I don't want to let that control me or label me though.

I personally do not want to be treated any differently then I was before, I don't need special care or help in my public life. Thank you for the consideration, but I decline the kind gesture. The kind gestures that I personally, do not need, just because I have a prosthetic leg.

So, now thats all done and dusted. I appreciate your help, but I choose not to accept it.

Thank you.

Rant over, now SMILE! :)