Home in time for Christmas

I was lucky enough to get discharged on the afternoon of the 23rd which meant I was home in time for Christmas. It was a bit touch and go for a few days as my bowels really didn’t want to start working again and I was in soooo much pain but a festive enema kickstarted things and I made it home! It meant that Christmas Eve was a bit more hectic than I would have liked but I was bloody grateful not to be spending Christmas in hospital.

I had presents to deliver to family that was isolating with Covid, I had to wrap Hubby’s gifts and finish wrapping the kids stuff and was on the hunt for a reindeer antler for the dog as my usual pet shop had sold out. (Reindeer antlers may sound very Christmassy but they’re a natural dog chew and he has them all year round but he was in need of a new one for Christmas.)

It was about 6pm by the time I sat down and was ready to relax and by then I could not be bothered to cook so a Dominoes order was made. Trust me- the kids weren’t complaining! The four of us sat down together for the first time in weeks and we watched Home Alone (the original one, we were having none of this new British one!), they ate pizza and I was finally able to breathe. After Home Alone we watched The Snowman and then The Snowman & the Snowdog. This is something we started doing when the kids were tiny and even though they are much bigger now, it’s a tradition we still continue with. Hopefully one day they will do the same with their kids. 

Christmas Day always seems such a busy day. When they were little the kids would be up at the crack of dawn but this year we had to drag them out of bed at 9am. In our house we all go downstairs together to see if Father Christmas has been and Buddy (the dog) gets his presents first. He then spends the next hour destroying them while the kids open theirs! 

After the kids opened their presents we all got dressed and took Buddy for a walk. It’s not very often that the 4 of us do this so it was nice to do it as a family. 

I would love to show the lovely photo I took of the 4 of us but I want to keep the kids anonymous. 

After getting back my sister and her husband popped in for 20 minutes after they had visited our parents and then I had to cook the pigs in blankets. We went to my parents for Christmas dinner but Hubby and Big Fella are animals when it comes to pigs in blankets- I think Big Fella had 15 on his plate this year! So to help free up space in Mum’s oven I cooked them at mine and took them up just before dinner. 

It was a bit strange sitting at the table watching everyone have their big christmas dinner but I did manage a few roast potatoes and carrots. A few years back I could only tolerate rice pudding and fudge for a period of time and so that year I ate a bowl of rice pudding for christmas dinner! One thing I will say for my parents is that they always try to cater for my health condition no matter how bizarre the food stuff is that I’m able to manage at any given time. I’ve been vegetarian since I was 13 but I’ve also been gluten free, dairy free, vegan, only able to eat one or two food items at a time or sometimes not able to eat at all and they always make sure that if I go to their house for dinner I’m not left out. After dinner we exchanged gifts and then played some card games. 

Because we weren’t seeing Hubby’s family on Christmas Day we had a zoom call early evening. There were 4 families on it-  a total of 10 adults, 3 teenagers and another 3 kids so it was complete chaos! But it meant that despite the distance and the covid germs we all got to talk to each other and the kids could show off their new stuff and say thank you to those who had bought them it. 

We got home about 6.30pm and by 7pm I was in bed. I was completely exhausted and in pain- probably from the potatoes and carrots! On Boxing Day morning I struggled to get out of bed and I think it was past 12 before I actually managed. Hubby and I hadn’t opened any of our presents yet so we did that before going round to his parents for the afternoon. I was very lucky and got some tickets to the theatre to see Six the musical and an evening with Sandi Toksvig. My favourite present from Hubby was a knitted ear warmer  that will be perfect for walking the dog from a small independent seller that I found on the Not on Amazon Facebook group. You really must check out this group- loads of really talented creators using the power of social media (and often Etsy) to sell their wares. But I was reduced to tears when the kids handed me an envelope and inside was £40 and a note that read ‘use this to get your eyelashes done’. Both of the kids had put £20 each of their own money in because they wanted to treat me. I think they thought I was losing it when I sat there crying but it meant so much that they used their own money and thought of something I could get done to make me feel better. 

But I really wasn’t feeling good and I sent Hubby this text: 

Excuse the rubbish punctuation in the text- it was typed hastily so I wouldn’t have to say it out loud as I didn’t want the kids to over hear and worry. As it turned out it was another 48 hours before things got moving and on more than one occasion I thought I might have to go into hospital. But luckily I’ve managed to stay out so far! 

When I was in last week the ward sister told me she thinks it’s highly unlikely that I will have the surgery in February as the NHS is under so much pressure and it’s only likely to get worse as winter progresses. So goodness only knows when it will happen. It means that I live with a ticking time bomb feeling of knowing that I’m going to be ill again, that I’m going to have another bowel obstruction again and that I will end up in hospital again. But never knowing when it will be. It could be today. Or tomorrow. Or next week. It means it’s very difficult to plan things as I never know when I will be having a good day but it also means that when the good days do come I treasure them and squeeze out every drop of life from them. I don’t know what 2022 is going to hold for me but I know I’ve got an amazing husband, fantastic kids, a brilliant family and lots of lovely friends so in many ways I’m blessed. A working bowel would be the cherry on the cake, but hey, nothing’s perfect!