Well...

...that was number 4.

A few of you might remember this post about history repeating. (If you don't, follow the link and read it).

Well it did.

The day after we got back from our lovely Lanzarote holiday I peed on a stick. And it told me that I'd probably be avoiding chocolate for 8 months or so.

Unfortunately last Tuesday there was another little bit of history that repeated itself.

Namely, this bit.

Once again we went for the first scan, and once again there was no heartbeat.
The plan then was to go back in the following Tuesday (tomorrow) for another scan, and then to be "surgically managed" on Wednesday. My body had other ideas and tomorrow's scan is now to check that it's done it all itself with no help from any doctors.

I have spent the last week in a bit of a fog, well to be honest a lot of a fog. Anthony is pretty much the same, he just doesn't know what to do with himself or how to help me. Therefore when he hasn't been at work he has been getting himself hooked on The Walking Dead or having mad organising sprees in the garden.

I have been lucky enough not to have to go into work (fat lot of use I'd have been there anyway) and have instead been blasting through some achievements on WoW.

This had its own side effect, the PC had a fatal error on Saturday morning and we had to go and buy a new one. But that's another post

However every terrible thing brings good things in its wake. In this instance it has brought postmen bearing chocolate gifts from fabulous people, it has had me giggling at links on Twitter posted by people trying to get me to smile, it also had me in tears with surprise when the person knocking at the front door turned out not to be a salesperson, but instead a Kayels bearing flowers and cupcakes.

These people are my real true blessings from this. The people who may not live just round the corner (and those that do and offered to post me bread through the letter box one slice at a time so as not to disturb me) but who are no less my friends because of their geographical distance.

You have all been real heroes this week, thank you so SO much.

I'm a little bit...

...fed up with the fact I've caught the flurgy twice in the last four weeks.

Partly cos it nearly killed me yesterday morning.

I was nicely asleep and having a surreal dream about Grandma Mazur (reading too much Stephanie Plum methinks) when I was woken up by a sneeze.
I reached down to the box of tissues...empty.
I woke up Anthony to check his side for tissues...nada.
So I hauled myself out of bed to go downstairs to the bathroom and grab some toilet roll.

Except the fact I was still rather sleepy meant that I didn't put my left foot where I should have done at the top of the stairs.

This resulted in me sliding down the stairs on my right side and landing in a heap at the bottom. (Anthony was out of bed and nearly at the top of the stairs before I hit the bottom).

Ow.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!

These are the stairs that I went sliding down (note the white marks on the edges of the bottom seven stairs).

Below you can see what my right calf and right thigh looked like just afterwards (those white marks on the stairs...the skin from my calf). The swelling on my thigh just kept growing, it was a B cup size before any bruising started to come though.





I trotted off to the doctor (ie Anthony gave me a lift there and then I took 20 mins to do the 5 min walk home) since I'd also banged my head (no bruising there, sorry) and he was quite amazed that I hadn't broken anything (as was I). I just had to wait for the swelling to subside before I tried to spend a large amount of time on my feet. He also said "You'll probably have a little bit of colour change around that swelling in the next few days".

He wasn't wrong.

So for your viewing hilarity I present to you.

Kate's Rainbow Leg (over the course of yesterday afternoon)




The bit above the crescent shape is where it is still swollen (although probably only an A cup now) from a haematoma that is "probably going to take a few weeks to come out properly" - as in the swelling to go and that bit of bruise to come out. Since this is me...the folks in the Center Parcs Spa will probably be wondering how I got that bruise when I go there in March!

Fifteen...

...happy things for the 15th of December.

1. The squeaky noises that Foley makes when I get home. (Sounds like Broccoli Kitten).
2. Having a beer when I get home.
3. The smell of the pink lillies sent by Anthony's workmates.
4. The super-duper graphics card I got as a surprise early Christmas present yesterday.
5. The "care package" arriving for me at work sometime this week (containing Christmas presents sent all the way from deepest darkest Essex).
6. My sister moving into her lovely flat in Colchester and therefore no longer having to drive up and down the A12 every day.
7. Kettle Chips - like crisps tasted when I was little.
8. The Christmas edition of the Radio Times.
9. Hearing a good Christmas song I'd forgotten about (few and far between).
10. Having a clean and shiny kitchen after the broadband conked out yesterday and we got bored...
11. ...and having the broadband back this morning!
12. Anthony coming up with the idea to snuggle on the sofa under a soft red blanket while eating Ben & Jerry's (Phish Food for me, Caramel Chew Chew for him).
13. Looking through the new Waitrose wine list.
14. A big bowl full of Lindor chocs.
15. Buying broccoli for Foley...and watching Esme fight her for it.

Blood...

...I still didn't have enough of it yesterday.



The doc went for my right wrist first and managed to fill four sample tubes with what he got. Then it was "a bit of blind poking about" in order to find the nice vein in my left elbow that the nurse had found before. It turned up first try and provided enough blood to fill the other nine sample tubes. Unlike the nurse before, he didn't fill each tube up straight from me. Instead he had this giant syringe and then decanted it.

Anthony was ever so sympathetic...sitting there and telling me my veins were crap while showing off the fact that his aren't.

Got my revenge when the doc decided to take some from Anthony too as part of the screening process that now kicks in as that was my third strike.

The big patch on my hand is where the catheter went for my nice general anaesthetic. That one (of course) bled like a bugger when they took it out.

------

So I'm here, and I'm ok. Not great, but ok. Thank you for all of your love and best wishes, hugs back at the lot of you.

Now I'm back to the sofa to watch more curling (love that sport) and be purred at by a possessive pussycat.

Sorry...

...that I didn't post about soup the other night, I didn't get out of the bath til about 10pm (mmmmmm, lovely three hour bath) and then I got distracted by the widget again.

There will be a soup post at some point.

In the meantime I would like to say HELLO! to all the lovely people who have been here via the widget and hoped that I get better soon.

So hello and thank you to:

Trousers, nmj, spacedlaw, ken, Susan, Lady in red, Country Girl, Ashley Ladd, Kathryn, Papercuts, Brom, hullabrouhaha, liz fenwick, Nik's Blog, DK Green, Twinville, Pamela Terry and Edward, Crystal Jigsaw and Leigh. (I now have 35 new blogs in the Widgetness folder on Google Reader - wah hoo!)

Also big hugs to Michelle who has also had the lurgy (as have her two adorable boys), and of course the fabulous Caroline who wrote the book that needed the widget (as built by Stray) in the first place!

I am feeling much better today after an unfortunate incident yesterday when I laughed so hard at Lewis Hamiltwunt qualifying in 15th that I actually made myself sick.
Nice...
Luckily the afternoon/evening spent flopped on the sofa, flicking through cross-stitch magazines to find my next project (this one at last) while watching Season Three of Buffy has restored me to nearly normal again.

As I am feeling better I have been very grown-up and written myself a To-Do List.

1. Do washing-up.
2. Watch Italian GP, hopefully laughing at Lewis throughout.
3. Do some work on either my mothers present, or this cross-stitch (that I found in a drawer, half-finished and neglected since 2003).

I hope that you all have a very nice Sunday and I will leave you with Sebastian Vettel's reaction to getting pole position in qualifying yesterday (and becoming the youngest driver ever to do so)


(I just want to give him a hug!)

Edited to add: Hooray!!! Vettel just won his first Grand Prix. Youngest driver to do so and an absolute sweetie to boot!

Sunburnt feet and legs...

...are hurting more than I'd expected.

I've never burnt my legs before and I was so careful to slather my arms, back and face in cream that having burnt legs is annoying.

My right ankle disappeared last night cos it was so swollen. I like my ankles and was not happy to see one of them go.

These are my feet today after a day at work (in my slightly too big shoes that are currently too tight)



After sleeping with my feet on three pillows last night my ankle had looked normal this morning, but now it has gone huge again - a good reason for lying on the sofa this evening I feel.

I bought this today, so I have something good to read while I flake out and recover. The cover is just as beautiful as her first book too!

I have added Oulton Park/feet/rain/badges photos to my Flickr too.