Day 77

Day 77...

Today Simon and I celebrate 31 years of marriage; not that we can do much to celebrate! Instead we have spent the day in our respective work modes which for me mainly involved responding to emails and collating some paperwork together ready for a meeting I have scheduled for tomorrow with my deputy manager.

Just after lunchtime we headed out and drove the furthest we have been in the past 10 weeks as I had an appointment at hospital. This time last year I was just starting my radiotherapy treatment after having had a lumpectomy for breast cancer and now I was back to have my first mammogram following the end of my treatment. See this post about my journey last year.

I should have had this mammogram back in early April but it understandably got postponed and then just last week I received my letter with my appointment date of today. I have to admit that although I knew exactly what was going to happen today, and the actual act of having a mammogram doesn't bother me at all, I was filled with anxiety. I think all the memories and feelings from last year resurfaced and I fear that having to wait for 2 weeks for the results is not going to be easy.

I will admit to also being a little apprehensive about attending a hospital during the current circumstances so I went with mask on and hand sanitiser in my bag. The appointment was actually at one of the main hospital satellite centres which was very quiet. I was told to only arrive within 5 minutes of my appointment time so when I got to the right department there were no other patients in sight so no sooner than I had checked in with reception I was being taken through for my mammogram. All the administration staff I saw were either wearing masks or were behind screens and the medical staff all wore masks and visors.

The nurse that carried out my mammogram actually remembered me from last year as she recognised  all my Disney tattoos (and clothes) and commented that she was one of the nurses that carried out my biopsy...she remembered that even my shoes were Disney! We had a lovely chat and spoke about the effect of COVID-19 on her job and how she had been deployed to different departments within radiology as the hospital stopped more routine work and concentrated its resources for treating COVID patients. 

Interestingly in response to my general chat about how I knew lots of people who had suffered with bad coughs and colds prior to Christmas and that 'makes you wonder' she responded by commenting that there was a thinking that something had been going around since October...so who knows?!

After a lot of my previous treatments we had indulged in a coffee and cake on the way home but today it was straight home to a home-made coffee instead...and back to some more work! A few more emails, some more printing out and chatting with the landlord of the building that we use for our pre-school while Molly had another karate class via Zoom!

And that was today!

Take care,

xx

It's been a month...

Well I can't believe it's been over a month since I last wrote a post for my blog!  So I thought I'd better rectify the situation and fill you all in on what I've been up to!

Well where do we start...if we go back to the end of May I had my fourth tattoo completed...and yes it is Disney themed.  The design took inspiration from a drawing that Simon did for his 365 Mickeys project which in turn took inspiration from my foot tattoo.  So here is my foot tattoo;

Photo taken August 2011 - guess where?!!

Then Simon drew this...

From Simon's 365 Mickey Project from July 2011

And I got a new tattoo which looks like this;

Photo taken just as it had been finished!

We then had a weekend of much celebration as we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversay - see my previous post for details and photos!

And since then it has been a combination of work, podcasting and life that has stopped me putting finger to keyboard.

Pre-School is very busy at the moment; it's our final term of the school year so we have been busy producing end of year reports, staff appraisals, renewing of contracts, scheduling in new starters for September as well as getting ready for our Leavers Concert!  We have an 'under the sea' theme this year so have spent the last couple of weeks learning new songs all with a watery theme!!

I have been busy with my co-host Michelle recording and planning for the Disney Dream Girls Podcast and this week sees us release Episode 18...Star Wars & Ratatouille!!  Give us a listen I'm sure you'll have a great laugh listening to us waffle on :)

Now something I haven't mentioned is my running...and this is because I haven't done any!!  But let me explain and all will become clear.  

Back on the 21st April I wrote about getting back into running again and about my desire to 'get fit, eat better, make healthy choices and enjoy life doing it'...well this has now taken on a new direction.  I decided to take part in a 90 day challenge called 'Get Real Fat Loss', this is a system that has been developed by the owner of where my daughter attends her mixed martial arts classes and is designed to get rid of fat and tone up at the same time.

This has led to quite a change in my diet...well a re-thinking of how and what I eat would be a better description and this new way of eating, coupled with twice daily exercises (hence why the no running!), has seen me lose about 10lbs whilst at the same time making quite a difference (for the better) to the shape and tone of my body.  I am only about 34 days into the challenge but the results so far have been amazing.

The challenge is designed for each person specifically - this is not a 'one-diet-fits-all' approach - with the aim to educate about nutrition and physical activity and how these can be incorporated into your lifestyle and hopefully make changes for the better, for good!  Is it easy? Probably easier than you may be thinking...but it has it's challenges as you re-train your brain and its approach to eating and food, as well as the motivation needed to find the time to do the exercises.  I'm currently up at 6am on a work day to get my exercises done before starting the day!  But it is very achievable if you want to make that change and be the healthier, fitter person that you can be....if I can do it believe me anyone can...you just need to want to change.

Well I think that brings us up-to-date...hopefully my next post will see me back on track with my diary from last years WDW vacation!