Skip to main content

My Coffee Group

My coffee group was formed 8 and a half years ago when big girl was just my baby girl.

I had gone to an NCT coffee morning as a bump and been put in touch with some other local new mums. 

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine how the friendship would develop or how that group might change my life. 

My coffee group has, and continues to be my lifeline. Seven ladies with whom I have shared life's ups and downs. Over the last 8 years there have been more babies, weddings, christenings, miscarriages, relationship breakups (and make ups), new homes, illness and bereavements but through it all we've had each other. 

As the kids have got older and gone to school we have had less time to meet up and that pesky thing called work often gets in the way too but we always make sure that every few months at least we get together for dinner or a takeaway. 

Some of us see each other more often as our kids might do a club together or we may live close to each other but we know that day or night we could pick up the phone and call each other. 

Saturday night was our annual Christmas night out. We had booked The Hertfordshire and at ÂŁ45 a head it wasn't cheap. I didn't know if I was going to be out of hospital, let alone well enough to go so thought that it would probably be another night out I would miss. 

But I was at home and despite feeling tired from Winter Wonderland the day before I thought 'Sod it! Life's too short' so I got my glad rags on.  

And I'm glad I did. It was fab to catch up with them all (outside of a hospital) and it felt great to get glammed up, put some make up on and not look so ill!

The them of the night was 50's rock and roll but as I only decided on Saturday morning that I was actually going I just put in a dress that fit and covered up my Hickman line and scars. 

There was a professional photographer there and we decided that as it was a rare night for all 8 of us to be out we would get some pictures taken. And here they are...





We were told to pose and do silly faces, we're not just totally mad! Ok, actually we are but that's not the point. 

But like Cinderella I had to go home before midnight as I needed to get hooked up to my 12 hours of TPN fluids so left them there dancing the night away. 

Next year I will be back on form swigging pints, dancing on the tables, making a show of myself and begging someone, anyone to go to the country club with me. 

That's a promise!

NB x

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Now I’m panicking

This morning I saw my consultant on the ward round. I was excited to find out the plan to get me home later this week but it looks like the plan is a little bit different to what I thought… The gastro consultant had spoken to the microbiology consultant who said I need two weeks of antibiotics from the first date I had them. Depending on which antibiotic we are counting from (as I’m currently on three different types) that takes me up to either the 18th or 19th December. So far this was what I was expecting and so in my head I was thinking that I would probably be home for the weekend, just in time for the annual tradition of Christmas bowling with Bestie and her kids on Saturday 21st December.  But then he told me that we need to leave it 24-48 hours with no antibiotics and then do another blood culture from my Hickman line. After taking the blood culture we then need to wait 2 days (minimum) to make sure no bugs grow on the culture and only when they are satisfied that the line i...

New car smell

After everything that’s happened over the last 5 weeks not many days have been good days but today was. I will write a blog post about everything that happened but that’s for another day!  Today I went to pick up my new motability car and got to breathe in that new car smell. I am now the proud lease holder of this lovely Volvo XC40.  To be honest, part of me wasn’t sure whether to write a blog post about getting the new car with everything that’s been going on with the disability benefit reforms. There’s been so much written about motability cars on social media but a lot of it is misinformation and hate and that made me nervous to write this post. But I figured that most people reading it are friends and family and understand my need for the car. But for those that don’t let me explain a bit about how the motability scheme works.  I am lucky enough (or unlucky enough depending on how you look at it) to claim PIP- personal independence payment. This benefit is designed t...

Trying to get vaccinated

When I was an inpatient recently I asked about getting the Covid vaccine because I’m classed as Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (ECV). Apparently other patients on the ward had gotten theirs but I was told that it wouldn’t be possible and that I would have to get in touch with my GP. Apparently staff within the hospital had been using the system to book vaccinations for friends and family by saying that they were an inpatient and as a result they were now only vaccinating staff who could show their ID badge.  I can understand that people are worried about the people that they love but to think that people abused the system in that way makes my blood boil.  So when I was discharged I rang the GP surgery and was told that they had absolutely nothing to do with the vaccination programme and that I would need to get in touch with NHS England. So I called NHS England and spoke to an adviser who told me that according to the system I wasn’t eligible for a vaccination. I explain...