Sunday 19 August 2018

The Waiting Game

Crikey, it's been a while, hasn't it?  I'd like to say the absence of blogs has been due to the fact we've been having so much fun, going all over the place and having all kinds of jolly adventures, but in reality the last few months have been one long string of medical appointments.  I'm surprised the local doctors haven't offered us one of their parking spaces as a freedom camp, it would save a lot of to-ing and fro-ing!  If you haven't seen the full explanation already, you can catch up here but to cut a long story short(ish), I'm not currently feeling the flashest and haven't been for quite some time.  We left our house for a life on the road in November 2016 and my symptoms first began eight weeks later so it's been hanging around for quite a while!  The worst part was not knowing what the heck was wrong with me and I lost a lot of sleep worrying about what it could possibly be.  I was tested for a lot of gnarly things too, which didn't help!  But after more than six months of tests we finally have a diagnosis.  I have a severe case of something called adenomyosis.  I'd never heard of it before, most people haven't and I won't go into details but it can be cured with a hysterectomy.  The downside is, it could be up to a year before I get the operation.  In the meantime, the condition has progressed to the stage where I can no longer stand or walk more than a few steps.  It sucks, but as the saying goes there is always someone worse off and I consider myself very lucky, at least I have something that is curable. 


When I took this silly selfie, showing off my stylish hospital gown to Gareth,
I had no idea that half an hour later I would be undergoing a biopsy!

To top it all off, next Tuesday I am booked in for breast surgery to have a load of naughty cells removed.  I'm not scared, I'm just grateful, I had no idea they were even there!  It doesn't matter what sort of home you have or where, it's still vital you keep up with things like mammograms, blood tests and the like and even though I wasn't anticipating any problems and we already had quite enough tests going on, I made a point of popping into the mobile 'boob bus' when it was in town.  Ironically, the very next day I saw a bunch of posts on Facebook, saying that mammograms weren't even effective and could actually give you cancer.  I'm really glad I didn't see those posts until I had already been, or it could have swayed my judgement.  As it was, that 'ineffective' mammogram saved my life.  So apologies for sharing so much personal information today, but if there's one thing I've learned you can't stick your head in the sand when it comes to these things.  You only get one body, one life and we should all make the most of every opportunity we are given to check that everything is as it should be.  The day I went for my mammogram a fellow friend  who lives on the road said to me 'Oh I don't bother with those, I know my own body!'  Well there you go.  I thought I did too.


I'm blessed every morning, waking up to a view like this!

But enough of the anatomy lessons already!  I've always considered myself to be quite a positive person - at least, I try, and I've learned to be grateful for so many more things during this time.  The friends we have here at the campground are all so wonderful and supportive, and the health care we have received here in Southland is truly outstanding.  I'm grateful for everything from the little fat sparrows which come right up to our door in the van to the noisy wee lambs which are starting to make an appearance in the field behind us.  Most of all I am grateful for my long suffering husband, who feeds me (seriously, he makes the bestest most comforting food ever), keeps me constantly supplied with hot water bottles and hugs, walks alongside me at a snail's pace on days I can manage it and is just all round amazing.

I'm also glad that my symptoms didn't start to show before we sold the house and set out on the road.  If I had known what the future held less than two years down the track, I would no doubt have imagined my health and limited mobility would have made travelling impossible and our lives could have gone down a very different path.  Which would have been an incredible shame!  It's only natural for people to make such an assumption, that living in a house must surely be easier, more convenient and more comfortable.  However, both Gareth and I (and indeed every other person we speak to who has dealt with health issues on the road) have found that on the contrary, managing an illness or disability in a small space is far easier.  Seriously, not having a whole flipping great house to keep on top of at a time like this is an absolute blessing.  As for getting to appointments, all the travelling and waiting around is a lot easier when you can take your whole house with you!  And ironically, this condition has led me to being otherwise in the best health of my life.  All the months of not knowing what was wrong with me, and wondering whether it was something I was inadvertently doing to myself caused me to gradually eliminate absolutely everything which was potentially harmful or unhealthy from my diet.  In many ways I've never felt better!  Even when I do eventually get my operation, there's no way I'll ever return to any of my previous habits.

I'm not the most patient person in the world (Gareth always bursts out laughing when I say that, I have no idea why!) but the great thing about living on the road is that plans can change and it really doesn't matter if they do.  We have all the time in the world to get where we're going and are looking forward to so many adventures.  The last couple of weeks I was feeling really down.  REALLY down.  Down dooby doo down down.  I miss my boys so much.  It's been six months since I last saw Liam and 19 months since I saw Ali!  All I wanted to do was see my family and I had been promising Ali for so long that we would come back to the North Island for a while to spend some time with him.  I was sick of my health woes constantly getting in the way and it felt as though I was letting everyone down.  But Ali had a way of making me see things differently, the way he always has.  'I'm alright Mum, I'll still be here.  There's so many cool things to do and see up here, I want to be able to do them with you.  There's no point you coming up if you can't do anything!'  he told me.  Point taken kiddo.  And so we wait.


The first signs of spring are everywhere

Winter is almost done and dusted for another year and we have to say, it was a breeze.  Despite being dogged with health problems the whole way through, and the weather gurus telling us we were in for a shocker of a season, after starting off with a hiss and a roar back in early June, the frosts have been few and far between and on the whole it's been so mild.  There's nothing we love more than being in our toasty van during winter.  Even though it gets down to -4 degrees some nights, we're so warm we're literally throwing the blankets off!  Two things we found made a big difference this year; first we parked up on the hard ground this winter.  Last year we parked on the grass and it was so darn messy, particularly when Minnie would come inside with her wet and muddy Ewok feet!  This year all that has been really kept to a minimum and it has made things so much easier.


Still happy as ever after surviving our second winter!

Secondly, we did it - we beat the van damp and put an end to our mattress woes!  I'm almost too scared to say it in case I jinx us but seeing as there are only 10 days left in winter hopefully it's safe to now.  The answer in the end was incredibly simple.  You may remember us drilling holes in the wooden bed base last year, to allow air to flow, particularly in our underbed storage area.  Sadly this didn't work.  Then in autumn this year we used plastic pallets to elevate our mattress, creating space between the foam squabs and the wooden base.  This worked fairly well but still wasn't perfect.  In a last ditch attempt, and on the advice of our neighbour Wayne, we got a small fan heater, which either blows cold or warm air as we choose and tucked it into the now large space under the bed.  The result has been a bone dry mattress, all winter!  We don't even need to have it running constantly, we just pop it on morning and night for a bit, or when we're out.  Such an easy solution after all that hassle!

1 comment:

  1. You have had a time of it Jackie! I am so sorry you have been so ill but time will pass and the time for the operation will come and I am sure you will be feeling so much better. In the meantime I know you will be enjoying your time with Gareth, your "wee" house, your friends and your wonderful part of the world. My husband and I are holidaying in the South Island next February (we are from Sydney). Who knows we may go through Gore!

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