One for Wednesday

My mum allowed me to take the day off School today because i'm not feeling too well. I haven't been sleeping at all for the past few nights - last night I was sat on the computer at 2am talking to one of my RSD friends from the forum, Lauren (thank you so much Lauren for keeping me company!!). I have tried everything to try and make me get to sleep but nothing seems to be working at the moment. My nurse in London was supposed to be speaking to my PM Doctor and getting back to us but she never got back in touch and she said she would be in touch last week!

I emailed the School Psychologist last night to keep her up to date with how I have been getting on at School and also to share some of our concerns. I love my School Psychologist as she is really nice and helpful - she was the person that made me want to become a Psychologist, I just wish I got to see her more - I only see her about every 3 months but I can email her whenever I need to! She got back to me almost straight away and said that she is going to our School tomorrow so she is going to speak to some of my teachers about some of the issues that we are having to see if they could get anything changed to make things a bit easier for me. I told her most of the problems that I am having at School such as teachers not understanding, my friends never coming when they are supposed to, homework, noise affecting my pain levels, walking from lessons to lessons and the chairs in Science hurting my leg too much. Hopefully we will be able to get things sorted a bit better soon. My Psychologist is really good so I am hoping she will be able to get my teachers to make some changes that may help!! I will keep you all updated when she gets back in touch with me.

My mum spoke to her boss at work today about a Club that the Youth Club works for called 'Anxious and Phobic' or something like that. She spoke to someone at her work about it yesterday and they said that I wouldn't fit in however her boss said that it is quite a good club and that most of the children there are really nice and friendly. The Club runs 4-5 days a week for 3 hours per day and most of the kids that go there have some issues about school such as, they have been out for a long period of time and having trouble getting back into the swing of things (like myself), are being bullied, dislike school etc. I emailed my Psychologist about it to see what her opinion is. I really want to go to school but I just don't think it is going anywhere near as well as we expected it to...

My mum has the workmen in today. They are building an extension for us so that I don't have to keep going up and down the stairs whenever I need to use the toilet. The Builders have accidentially cut into the main water pipe for the whole of our street so no one on our street has any water now!! When the Architect drew the plans, he didn't put where the main water pipe was! The Builders are now 2 days behind schedual as a result!! I hope we can get things sorted soon!! The Workmen will be working on our house for about 10 weeks, my mum is also having a new Kitchen so they are fitting that for us.

I am pretty stressed today. I have so much going through my mind that I am fit to burst!!! I went to see my grandparents yesterday to give them the letter that Felicia had so kindly wrote for me (thanks so much Felicia!). My granparents NEVER asked how I was or anything, when I told them how I was doing, they would change the subject straight away. It really annoyed me. I didn't say anything to them face-to-face, I just gave them the letter, explained a little about Felicia and then left. The minute I got into my mums car I burst into tears, my grandparents just don't understand anything! I was crying for a good few hours. I really hope the letter will make my grandparents understand and make them open their eyes but if it doesn't, Felicia and myself tried our very bests so there is nothing else we can do. They haven't gotten back in touch with me yet, I figured that i'd give it a few days to let it sink in as it may come as a bit of a shock. If they don't get in touch then I will go and see them and tell them exactly how I feel and try my best to move on.

It wont be easy but sometimes it's better to try and move on...

I have to go to the dreaded Dentist tomorrow - yuck!! I have to have a filling and then I have to go back 2 weeks later to have yet another filling and a tooth pulled out. I have absolutely dreaded going to the dentist ever since developing RSD - it just scared me!!

Wish me luck!!

Physiotherapy (PT) Appointment

So yesterday I wasn't feeling too good but I had to drag myself out of bed to go to my regular Physiotherapy Appointment.

It was an absolute nightmare trying to find a parking space! The hospital that I go to is really big but it only has about 25 car parking spaces so you always end up having to park a long way away!! Thankfully we have the Blue (Handicapped) badge so it means we can park on the road! The appointment itself went OK, although it was REALLY painful! The Physio's mainly did a lot of talking with me about how I have been getting on at School, what sort of exercises I have been doing etc. I exlained to them that I have been struggling a bit with School and that when my pain gets really high I have difficulty concentrating and find myself staring into space.

One of my good RSD friends, Felicia (the girl who sent the lovely fridge magnets for me) said to try a TENS Unit has they can help take the edge off the pain and that maybe it would reduce my pain to a more "toleratable" level. Myself and my mum spoke to the Physio's about the TENS Unit and they explained that they don't use it that often in RSD patients but they have read some research articles that states that it can sometimes reduce the pain. The Physio's said that it was a really good idea and that my PM Doctor had just purchased some TENS Machines so hopefully we would be able to borrow one of those. The Physio's said to experiment with the TENS at first to find out where it works the best but NEVER to put it directly onto an RSD limb. I think that I am going to give the TENS another shot, it can't do any harm and it says that it is really safe to use!!

The Physio's are hoping that on the 22nd October I will be able to go into hospital to have a splint moulded and my leg manipulated under general anaesthetic. My mum asked the Physio's if I was definitiely going into hospital on that day but the Physio's explained that they weren't sure has they wont know until next week if the Operating Room is available. Because I am not having an operation has such (I am just having a manipulation) it may be that someone else has to take my place if there's is an emergency. We will probably know next Friday if I am able to go into hospital on that date.

The Physio's did a lot of different exercises on me, I had to do some Bridging which is where you have to bend your knees and lift your bottom up, that is really painful!! The Physio's wanted me to try and do some Bridging just putting weight through my RSD limb but that was waaay too painful and I kept falling all over the place!! My Physio's got me onto the cross trainer (it's a bike where you sit and peddle - similar to a normal bike) has they wanted to see if I could apply any weight through my RSD foot. The only place where I was putting weight was through the ball of my foot - the straps on the bike were really hurting my legs and now I have a load of blisters (my skin breaks easily because of the RSD).

I don't have any Physio next week as we can't make the appointment that was available but I have been given a load of exercises to do!!

I'm still not feeling too good today so my mum allowed me to take the day off school - I hate missing school but I would rather stay off and take it easy than push myself too hard and end up in a massive flare!! I haven't been sleeping very much so I don't think that has been helping either has I am just physically exhausted!