Bits n bobs & Tinkhani

I thought I better write a general update post as I've been quite slack and a lot has happened. First though, I'd like to say thanks to those of you who have emailed with hints and tips for our planned trip to the Americas. I will reply as soon as I get a moment to myself.

To those of you who donated money to Tinkhani, you may like to know that I received a letter from him last week. He has finally received the money. It took me some time to get it to him as I had to arrange for a church in Southern Ireland to take the money into their bursary. Then then had to wire it to a priest in Zambia which took almost 6 weeks. The priest could not collect the money until he made his monthly trip into the city. Then he had to go back to the prison to deliver it to Tinkhani. Next time the process wont take as long as I've already done the research.

I received a letter from a very delighted Tinkhani who informed me that he was eating a banana for the first time in many years. He is now able to buy nutritional foods to help him fight his AIDs and hopefully build up his immune system and put on some weight. He couldn't thank us enough. I will type some of his letter into a blog post about it soon.

I will also write a special blog post with photos from our belly dance performance evening which was on Saturday. If you know my bebo address you can see the photos there already.

On Wednesday I have the appointment for my carotid doppler scan on my neck. The pulsatile tinnitus is really bad at the moment. I'm kind of hoping it stays bad for the scan. Last night was a particularly bad night. The whooshing sounds in my ear got very loud indeed (and still are). I was sitting on the bed and felt quite ill with it. During the night I woke to feel a pressure on my chest, as if someone was pushing down on it. My chest felt like it was full of fluid. Every time I turned onto my side I could feel a sensation of fluid draining across my body. It was not pleasant at all. This morning I spent 2 hours with a fluidy feeling across my chest, and a mild pain when breathing in, so I phoned my doctor for advice. I have had these symptoms many times when the tinnitus is at its worst. My doctor requested I went straight to the surgery for an ECG test. Well, when I got there the fluid feeling had gone, but the pain was still there. They hooked me up to all these wires and did a sort of 5 second ECG. My heart appeared fine. She couldn't hear any fluid in my chest and I appeared normal. So I don't know whats going on. Now it is 1.30pm and my chest is still sore. At least I can explain all this at my scan on Wednesday. The doctor said that if the ENT people can not find anything I will then be referred to a heart specialist. I just wish someone could actually find something that matches my symptoms, because at the moment I'm sure they think I'm making it all up!

Well I have to go and make Barney some lunch now but I will post tonight with photos from the belly dancing evening.