I don't usually put my current health worries in the worldwide domain, but these affect my plans for the CB
I have a condition called tethered cord syndrome (see my TCS website). I live with chronic pain (meaning it has lasted for more than 3 months) and have occasional flare-ups in pain and symptoms. These I can cope with as the pain is the same - the spinal and leg and feet nerves jangling, elastic-band feeling of tension on the sciatic nerve in R leg, excessive tiredness etc
But now I have a different type of pain and my mobility is affected.
The new type is affecting the way I walk - it is a tightness of the sciatic nerve, twanging on evry step. My R knee is turning inwards (which it never did) and all my muscles hurt like hell, my legs go from under me, my back and ankle joints get stiff as a board. Now, I have walked 6 miles along Hadrian's Wall a couple of months ago and for me that is like doing the London Marathon. Why on earth do I now have this new pain when I haven't done anything different to what I usually do?!?!?
I don't usually go off on one about the TCS, but this is an exception. I hate this thing, I hate the fact it stops me doing things, I hate the constant pain and disability, when my brain and heart say I want to be the active one and walk, walk, walk. I hate my deformed feet which make me different from everyone else - enduring the stares and "ooh, look at that, she is weird" label that I get from everyone who doesn't know me well. I hate the fact that the pain comes along without warning and makes me AB-SO-LUTE-LY exhausted, but I have to keep going as I don't want to take time out from work (both of them). I detest the fact that "this is it - no more improvement in your condition" and there is not a blind thing I can do about the TCS and its results - no more can I fly to the moon, can I escape this thing. I know it will lead to full, wheel-chair disability in fewer years than I would like, and I hate that too - why the hell do I have to stop doing things just because my feet are going to give up before the rest of me (which is what happens now).
OK, rant over.
However, one of my worries about the CB is that I will have a flare-up and it will stop me doing/seeing/experiencing once-in-a-lifetime things. I just pray that being as fit as I am, I can overcome the flare-ups and they won't be too bad. However when I walk a lot, my feet get exhausted quicker than I do, and that will also stop me doing things
Why did I have to be the mug who ended up with this TCS? OK, mine isn't as bad as some people I know on the TCS grapevine, but it still makes me different and I oh so wish it didn't affect me.
Next blog: back to CB subjects properly.
Thursday, 24 May 2007
Wednesday, 9 May 2007
Why I chose the projects for this CB
Well, the original plan was to go to Thailand with GYFGU and do their Thailand Adventure (Bangkok, teaching English for 1 week, stay in a Buddhist monastery, learn Thai cooking and the final week would be on a beach on Koh Samet). Then around Easter this year .... I had a flare up of the EM, which gets worse when the weather or my environment is warm and **humid**. This reminded me how painful and debilitating this condition can be, and the weather conditions in Thailand would be, yep, you've guessed it, warm/hot and humid.
One of the reasons for this CB is to escape the period of the UK weather which exacerbates the EM - the central heating in buildings in the winter and the warm, dampish type of weather we have at that time of year. I could not contemplate a whole month in an environment in which I could not keep me and my lower limbs cool enough, enduring the very conditions I am aiming to escape from, so regrettably I had to withdraw from the Thailand project.
So, I had a whole month to play with. Plans changed to going to Western Australia, and seeing their coastline and country. I also had 2 more full months allocated to being away - well, what to do?!? The GYFGU project at the Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary just outside Adelaide looked just the thing - a completely new place of work, away from offices, phones, people needing my attention and actions. I also have it in mind to use this volunteering placement to "test out" a potential new career/employment after the CB. So, I will be working with kangaroos, wallabies, potoroos, platypuses etc, and living and working alongside the staff at the Sanctuary and being there after the public has gone home. Can't wait :)
I visited the Adventure Show in London at the beginning of February and went to a seminar on "meaningful career breaks". Now being an eternal tourist is all very good, as long as you can be a responsible one, but I wanted to do more for my 4 months than just travel and lie on a beach. I have a great facility for using the English language and can spot a typo 100 yards away; I have done TEFL courses both at my current place of work and with i-to-i.com. Therefore when I saw the month-long GYFGU project teaching English in Rajasthan, the desert state of India, I knew that was what I wanted to do. The climate will suit me, I will do something I hope/know I am good at, and will also get work experience, again with a view to a complete career change when I return to the UK. So India, here I come!
The rest of the time I intend to stay in Sydney, walk my little socks off (always being careful to take care of my deformed feet (see my website for details), and go into the Blue Mountains and surrounding area. I hope to meet up with a contact I have made through my TCS website, who also has a version of TCS - meeting other people with this condition is always interesting and educational, and makes me realise how lucky I am to be able to do this CB.
For the month before India I am in New Zealand. It is a country I have always wanted to see, for its natural beauty, for its adventurous activities, and for its unique culture. More about this in the planning blogs in the future (that's saying I haven't really got an agenda about it yet :))!!
Kalispera for now.
One of the reasons for this CB is to escape the period of the UK weather which exacerbates the EM - the central heating in buildings in the winter and the warm, dampish type of weather we have at that time of year. I could not contemplate a whole month in an environment in which I could not keep me and my lower limbs cool enough, enduring the very conditions I am aiming to escape from, so regrettably I had to withdraw from the Thailand project.
So, I had a whole month to play with. Plans changed to going to Western Australia, and seeing their coastline and country. I also had 2 more full months allocated to being away - well, what to do?!? The GYFGU project at the Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary just outside Adelaide looked just the thing - a completely new place of work, away from offices, phones, people needing my attention and actions. I also have it in mind to use this volunteering placement to "test out" a potential new career/employment after the CB. So, I will be working with kangaroos, wallabies, potoroos, platypuses etc, and living and working alongside the staff at the Sanctuary and being there after the public has gone home. Can't wait :)
I visited the Adventure Show in London at the beginning of February and went to a seminar on "meaningful career breaks". Now being an eternal tourist is all very good, as long as you can be a responsible one, but I wanted to do more for my 4 months than just travel and lie on a beach. I have a great facility for using the English language and can spot a typo 100 yards away; I have done TEFL courses both at my current place of work and with i-to-i.com. Therefore when I saw the month-long GYFGU project teaching English in Rajasthan, the desert state of India, I knew that was what I wanted to do. The climate will suit me, I will do something I hope/know I am good at, and will also get work experience, again with a view to a complete career change when I return to the UK. So India, here I come!
The rest of the time I intend to stay in Sydney, walk my little socks off (always being careful to take care of my deformed feet (see my website for details), and go into the Blue Mountains and surrounding area. I hope to meet up with a contact I have made through my TCS website, who also has a version of TCS - meeting other people with this condition is always interesting and educational, and makes me realise how lucky I am to be able to do this CB.
For the month before India I am in New Zealand. It is a country I have always wanted to see, for its natural beauty, for its adventurous activities, and for its unique culture. More about this in the planning blogs in the future (that's saying I haven't really got an agenda about it yet :))!!
Kalispera for now.
Monday, 7 May 2007
Thanks are in order
Before I go on, I must say thanks to a few people, who have encouraged, cajoled, and supported me into this CB
To M and JBB - what would I do without you both. Without assigning particular roles to either, you have supported me through the past 7-8 years in all my trials with the TCS, supported with your words, actions and knowledge with troubles at work, always there when I need you, and in various ways are helping me with this CB. What can I say - you are totally amazing, both of you.
We must all 3 of us remember absent friends, of course.
To Geraldine Taylor - you are a friend indeed. This time last year we had only just met, but I feel I have known you for the whole of my life. Your support and knowledgeable advice on all sorts of subjects over the past year has got me through some bad times, and yes, you are partly responsible for me going on this "big adventure"!!
To Jason Davies: I know you say that my part in keeping well is the most important, but you and I know I would not have been able to get through the past 3 winters without your help and skills. Through your work, you have enabled me to become stronger physically, to the point that I can actually consider this trip in the first place and the EM is not such an issue. I can almost see a time when it won't be so dominant and dreadful. Anyhow, this coming "winter" I will be in the sun :) so the EM will lie dormant for a while. I will see you lots when I get back - I must show you all my photos! I must also say thanks for your advice earlier in March - you know that helped me finally decide to do this CB
To Ian Pople: your inestimable skills got me back on my feet (literally) and I cannot thank you enough for that. I hope you enjoy reading this blog about my adventures.
Next post: accommodation, flights, useful links (perhaps .... when I have time to write)
A bientot
To M and JBB - what would I do without you both. Without assigning particular roles to either, you have supported me through the past 7-8 years in all my trials with the TCS, supported with your words, actions and knowledge with troubles at work, always there when I need you, and in various ways are helping me with this CB. What can I say - you are totally amazing, both of you.
We must all 3 of us remember absent friends, of course.
To Geraldine Taylor - you are a friend indeed. This time last year we had only just met, but I feel I have known you for the whole of my life. Your support and knowledgeable advice on all sorts of subjects over the past year has got me through some bad times, and yes, you are partly responsible for me going on this "big adventure"!!
To Jason Davies: I know you say that my part in keeping well is the most important, but you and I know I would not have been able to get through the past 3 winters without your help and skills. Through your work, you have enabled me to become stronger physically, to the point that I can actually consider this trip in the first place and the EM is not such an issue. I can almost see a time when it won't be so dominant and dreadful. Anyhow, this coming "winter" I will be in the sun :) so the EM will lie dormant for a while. I will see you lots when I get back - I must show you all my photos! I must also say thanks for your advice earlier in March - you know that helped me finally decide to do this CB
To Ian Pople: your inestimable skills got me back on my feet (literally) and I cannot thank you enough for that. I hope you enjoy reading this blog about my adventures.
Next post: accommodation, flights, useful links (perhaps .... when I have time to write)
A bientot
CB update
Sorry for the long period of no news, but plans have been hatched and arrangements are getting clearer.
The current plan is to leave the UK (with its cold, wet, rain, snow - you get the picture that I want to leave the wintertime behind!) and fly into Perth, Australia - the sunniest place in Oz. I will join family there and then go on a "Lets Trek Australia" trip up to Exmouth via the Pinnacles, Monkey Mia, Ningaloo Reef, Coral Bay, staying on a sheep station and probably camping all the way up the coast. Back to Perth and then over to Sydney for a couple of weeks. Adelaide's Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary (GYFGU project) beckons next, then back to Sydney and the Blue Mountains and meeting friends and family. Onto New Zealand being a typical tourist, then India for a teaching English project, and back to Blighty sometime next year.
I have a good feeling about this whole trip - time to spread my wings, to take time out, to try different things - sandboarding, snorkelling, swimming with dolphins, working with wildlife, and my biggest challenge - TEACHING English!! Oh well, I love the language and imparting my knowledge and experience, so I hope I will ok at it. This project is with GYFGU, so go and have a look at their Rajasthan project under the India section.
See you next time
The current plan is to leave the UK (with its cold, wet, rain, snow - you get the picture that I want to leave the wintertime behind!) and fly into Perth, Australia - the sunniest place in Oz. I will join family there and then go on a "Lets Trek Australia" trip up to Exmouth via the Pinnacles, Monkey Mia, Ningaloo Reef, Coral Bay, staying on a sheep station and probably camping all the way up the coast. Back to Perth and then over to Sydney for a couple of weeks. Adelaide's Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary (GYFGU project) beckons next, then back to Sydney and the Blue Mountains and meeting friends and family. Onto New Zealand being a typical tourist, then India for a teaching English project, and back to Blighty sometime next year.
I have a good feeling about this whole trip - time to spread my wings, to take time out, to try different things - sandboarding, snorkelling, swimming with dolphins, working with wildlife, and my biggest challenge - TEACHING English!! Oh well, I love the language and imparting my knowledge and experience, so I hope I will ok at it. This project is with GYFGU, so go and have a look at their Rajasthan project under the India section.
See you next time
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