More than just a bag lady

I was lying in bed watching the TV Iast night when I saw an advert for a Dyson vacuum cleaner and it reminded me of a conversation that I had had during  my recent stay in St Marks.  I was sat in the day room on Fredrick Salmon ward waiting for Hubby to come and pick me up so I could go home. As I sat watching TV people would come and go, some sitting quietly, others obviously looking for some company and conversation. I wasn't too bothered about chatting like I normally would partly because I was tired and also because  Tipping Point and then The Chase were on two of my most favourite quiz shows. At home me, Hubby and the kids love to sit around and watch these two programmes; you don't need to be a genius to join in and the kids like to have a go at the multiple choice questions.  Towards the end of Tipping Point, just as it was getting tense a man walked in. Yes,  it does get tense when the jackpot counter is teetering on the edge- laugh all you like, I don't...

NBA is an organisation that supports the St Marks foundation. Today is NBA RED DAY. All you have to do is wear red and then text 'STMK14 £1' to 70070  OH NO! You don't own any red clothes?  That's ok, you could just wear red socks  and then text 'STMK14 £1' to 70070 . OH NO! You don't own any red socks? You could always wear red lipstick  and then text 'STMK14 £1' to 70070 . OH NO! You're a man. You could always wear red lipstick at the weekend? Or you could stop looking for excuses and just cough up! Instead of using that £1 to buy a chocolate bar, or a cup of coffee or anything at all from the £1 shop you could text 'STMK14 £1' and feel good knowing that you have helped the St Marks foundation continue their research into why people like me have bowels like me. Hopefully through all the hard work they do day in day out they will work out how to cure bowel disease before it affects you. Or your wife, your husba...

The Monday after half term was the day from hell. I had run out of fluids and some medication so had to get on the phone to try and sort it out. At the moment phone calls are like my worst nightmare as they seem to take up so much of my energy and having to talk to people involves my brain trying to work at the speed of a normal person to keep up the conversation. The problem is I am in a permenant morphine fog that can send me into a trance or dream state and I can't always keep up with what's going on around me. But when you're talking to someone on the phone they don't know that and I just sound a bit special! That's why I tend to text or email people as it gives me time to think what I want to say and how to say it.  Anyway I rang the company that supply my fluids to tell them I don't have any left at all after what happened in half term. (You can read about that in my 'Half term highs and lows' blog post) They told me that because my prescription ha...

It may surprise some of you who read this blog to know that up until today I had a job. Albeit I haven't worked for nearly a year and a half but technically I was employed. But that now all that has changed as of today.  Realising that I wasn't going to be able to return to work hit me quite hard.  Lots of people dream of the day they no longer have to work. Infact every birthday I used to joke that I was another year closer to retirement. But again it's one of those instances that when you don't really have a choice or someone or something tells you that you can't work you want to even more than before.  I think most of us are defined by our jobs whether we like to admit it or not. Quite often one of the first questions you will get asked by a stranger is what your job is and it's a way of describing yourself- I'm Natalie and I work in HR, or rather I used to. It gives you a reason to get up in the morning, to get dressed and leave the house. It's where...