SATS and Hayfever

Week 6 - still quite red

So this was my last 'official' week of recovery.  Recovery is pretty much there.  My scar is still quite red and I still have a pain on the left hand side of my tummy, but I am energised, able to walk a long way without any trouble, my left leg isn't tugging as much as it was and mentally I'm doing much better - especially since getting the letter from Dr Morgan telling me about my diagnosis.  Somehow it is a big relief to have a name for my condition, silly really as it is just a name, but it is good to know it.  I have of course been googling it and found incidences of it around the world, but of course very little info on how it develops / behaves etc mainly because I don't think one Dr has seen the condition twice, making it hard to study and understand.  However, and here's a big however, I have had real bad bladder trouble this week.  It is a strange phenomenon, I can't quite work out what triggers it, but basically I spend all day with the urge to wee.  It gets worse after doing a wee, when my bladder is empty, especially around midday.  Then nearly every fibre in my body is screaming at me to do a wee, it is debilitating!  Rivers of urge run through my body and it becomes a fight between mind and matter!  I don't feel like I'm going to have an accident, but the sensations that run up and down from my bladder are very very strong and impossible to ignore.  It was pretty bad when we were in Leeds, I think I went to the loo about 4 times in an hour - I didn't need it for 3 of the times, but it was the only way I could get any relief!  It seems that once my bladder fills up again it the urges ease, but that is so counter-intuitive, it is difficult, especially if I am near a loo - I just want to sit on it to try to relieve the sensations.  It does mean that I have been walking quite strangely and making lots of groaning noises as the waves of sensation pass through my body.  It's not fun and is getting really annoying.  It's getting to the point where I don't want to drink so I don't have to go to the loo which obviously isn't good.  I'm hoping Dr Morgan can come up with a simple fix on Tuesday.  I have read that a lack of Oestrogen can cause this (female sex hormone made in the ovary).  Oh hum, lets see what she says...

The view from Arnside Knott

Monday saw me doing the waterfalls trail again - mainly because I didn't have anything on and needed to kill time. I did it the other way round, this time - just for variety's sake.

Tuesday to Thursday, Tom had his SATS.  The school here have managed the whole SATS thing very well - they didn't make an issue of it, they got the kids used to doing 'quizzes' in the classroom and tried to make the whole thing fun for everyone.  There was absolutely no pressure at all put on the kids and certainly none on us, unlike other schools - I heard lots of horror stories, especially coming out of Telford of parents being made to attend sessions on how to drill their children and children being given SATS homework and tests every single day.  How awful.

Still I thought it was a little sad to go into their classroom and see the tables set out apart from each other - pencils and rubbers laid out at each end.  The class next door had been told they had to be quiet.  I think it is wrong to be doing this to 6 and 7 year olds.

Tom's hay fever returned this week - of course because it was SATS week - I always had bad hay fever for exams.  We got him some medicine, dosed him up at home, took his eye drops to school and hoped for the best.  He said he enjoyed doing his quizzes - the harder the better!

Trains passing

Tuesday saw him doing multi-sports after school and Wednesday swimming.  He is the fastest in his new class for 'free-style' swimming, but the slowest when it comes to doing techniques for specific strokes.  He has certainly flown with his swimming this year - will be interesting to see if I can keep up with him next time we go swimming together.

Thursday, Matt was out of work, so we decided to have a day out.  We headed to Arnside for the day. We parked at the Knott car park and walked down to the sea, walked along the shore to the village, had a little shop and then had lunch in a new restaurant there called Gado Gado - which to our delight is a place that specialises in South East Asian food - so you can get sushi, green curry, rendang etc etc, dishes from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Japan.  They do English breakfast though, so Matt had a bacon and sausage bun whilst I had a prawn, avocado and spicy Asian dressing wrap thingy.  Very nice it was too.

Hairy coo

We then walked up through the village to the top of the Knott including a field with some hairy highlanders to enjoy the view of the estuary and the Lake District mountains in the distance.  This is a short walk, but a very rewarding one.  The views are very very good.  We got to the car just as the rain started, so we were very smug in reading the weather and timing everything so well.  We then popped to Booths in Milnthorpe for some bits before heading back in time to pick Tom up from school.

Friday, Tom had a party day at school.  (Apparently Nicky Morgan said not to celebrate the end of SATS, but Ms Middleton decided to ignore her!)  They had a vote over what flavour cake to bake, which Mrs Wilkinson did for them, they all brought in a soft toy, played party games and had a rounders match.  What a lovely way for them to end the week.

Nik and Morecambe Bay

Tom got put on free reading today - means he has finished the structured reading programme and can now pick out books to read himself.  Proper reading books, the sort you get in book shops rather than the educational ones.  He's started off with a Horrid Henry one.  Anyway he was chuffed to bits.

It was also film night at school so we were back at 6pm to try to tame the chaos of lots of excited children with lots of pocket money to spend on sweets and treats.  Not sure anyone actually watched the film, but everyone enjoyed spending their pocket money, so much so that we sold out of everything!

Saturday wasn't a particularly nice day so we decided to head to Leeds for the day.  The boys got their train fix and I got the chance to go to Bravissimo to get a new bra (my current ones are too big!).  We had lunch at The Brewery Tap which was good - a platter of meats and sweet potato chips.  Tom managed to convince us to buy him a new T-shirt from Fat Face, and I bought a new dress from SuperDry (a medium nonetheless!).  I'm liking my new figure, makes shopping far more enjoyable.

Playing at Storrs

Sunday, Tom went to cricket practise in the morning, Matt went to play cricket in the afternoon, whilst Tom and I went to Storrs Common so he could play on his bike.  He was pretty good - I told him I couldn't help him up the ramps etc, he would have to do it all himself and I wouldn't be able to lift him up if he fell down.  Lo and behold!  He suddenly was able to do ramps he has needed help with before and he didn't cry when he fell off his bike (about 3 times)!  Just goes to show what is put on!!!!!