Why Not People

#SSS Sunday Smile Sermon 2015!!!!

Happy New year everyone!!!! A bit late I know, but my first blog post of 2015! It's crazy really, so different to my first sermon of 2014! My first blog post back in February 2014 was really pushing for my nerve to work so that I could smile again! I wanted the nerve to start working more than anything!

I hated not being able to control my smile, it was more upsetting then loosing my leg. Seriously!

So, my new nerve, replacing the burnt one in my face, was taken from the back of my leg,  was given a 1% chance of working. I thought I was going to have a lop sided smile for the rest of my life!

Here is a pic of my smile back in February 2014.

It has definitley improved slightly since then. It has a far way to go though, but at least it is on its way back.  

And here is a picture of my smile from a few weeks ago, an even smile which I am very please and relieved about. I'm hoping this will improve more and more each year! I'm going to ask for them to take a nerve from somewhere else, I don't mind where they dig at me next as long as it helps get my smile back.  

So fingers crossed, this time next year, the comparison will be amazing!!! I'll have my dimples back in no time! That would be amazing, to have full control over the left side of my face again, fingers crossed!!! 

My beautiful baby cousin Urban, was 6 on the 1st January! Happy Birthday to that little beauty, Urban! 

My New Years Resolutions are; 

1. Get driving again
2. Get a job - paid 
3. Overcome ongoing surgery 
4. Get my book finished & published
5. Get a running leg 
6. Go for lots of runs - Marathon maybe? (hmmm 26 miles, good luck with that one!)

These are all fairly achievable, I have them as plans for the year and hopefully they will all be achieved!! It will be good to look back at this post next year to see how well I've done! You've all seen them, now I must do them !!!  I've got another driving assessment tomorrow actually, so hopefully number 1. will be achieved soon! I can NOT wait to be back behind a wheel again. Be able to get    from one place to another on my own.

Number 2, is also more likely to be achievable once I'm driving again. I'm currently doing voluntary work for a charity, Black Country Neurological Alliance. Which is great as it can all be done from home and isn't stressfully time consuming, as it is a voluntary role. I do miss getting a wage in though. I will need to be earning my own money to pay for all the petrol I'll need from driving around! 

Both 1 and 2 need to wait for the number 3 to be finished with too. I can't wait for the injection and surgeries and all of it to just stop! It seems never ending for me. Im not complaining, I was gagging for it all to start for so long, I am glad to be going through this as it is all for a good ending. I just can not wait for the ending to come!

Number 4, this little book of mine….it would be very cool for it to be finished and published on May 19th, my 2 year "ampuversary".

Number 5 and 6 - It would be SO COOL to get a running leg. The blade!!! I have spoken to a few people about this and I'm hoping that this resolution will be sorted. By the end of the year I will have ran around like a headless chicken on a blade. I will be running and raising money for the charities that have helped get the blade.for me.  It will be a really satisfying achievement and I'm really looking forward to it. 

I'm going to start building my fitness up now, I am a little stumped at the minute as to what I can do. Like even going for a long walk, I'm just too nervous at the moment with my pouches. Falling and hurting them might slow my progress down and I can't let that happen. I have however, bought a weighted hula hoop, that is fine to do in the meantime! In my warm room with soft things around me if I do fall! As well as a the weighted hula hoop, I purchased a pedometer, so as soon as my pouches are out I will be going out and measuring my walks & calories! I'll be a slim little thing by the summer! 

I'm hoping to get involved in a few events this year too, like LimbPower are going to be doing a some cool events this year, you can see them all on their website here http://www.limbpower.com/events/ 

I really want to do the Cycle Cuba! I would LOVE to go to South America anyway, it was definitely on my list of places to see!!!! Although, I had initially hoped to go and eat the gorgeous food and smoke their cigars, while in Cuba, it's a must really! A cuban cigar, a bottle of Cuban wine and live music! 

Wow…. but it's not going to be like that. It will be fun to cycle through Cuba with my LimbPower friends though, I think as a reward for it, we should all have a cigar waiting for us at the end of the cycle! 

This cycle in Cuba is up on the website for October this year, the date is yet to be confirmed. There is also, with LimbPower a talk of a Snowdon Walking Challenge. I saw this posted by Kiera today on Twitter. I'm up for that one too! It will be good to do this walk in the summer some time, boost up the energy for the cycle in Cuba to follow, which I think is in October? Well the Cycle Cuba one is down for October on the LimbPower website, the date needs to be confirmed anyway so that may well change .

Anyway, enough of my pipe dream plans with no solidarity, due to unconfirmed dates and unconfirmed health. I'm glad to have these things in my diary for 2015 as I do really want to do them. I want to have a great year full of achievements and accomplishments! I'm sure it will be a great year for me. 

A little poem I found & love...

I asked for wisdom & God gave me problems to solve,
I asked for courage & God gave me brawn and brains to work,
I asked for patience & God placed me in situations where I was forced to wait,
I asked for love, & God gave me troubled people to help,
I asked for favours and God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted,
I received everything I needed.

Until next week, peace x

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