Toe saga continued

It's Monday morning and I've done almost nothing for over 2 weeks now. Yes, it's been two weeks already since I broke my toes and it has proven to be quite a disability! I have been practically useless in every way. Poor Dan has had to do absolutely everything and is looking more than a little worn out. I still have a swelling the size of a golf ball on my bottom, and my foot is looking nastier every day! I have had to take the toe straps off because all of my toes went bright red, inflamed and extremely itchy at the weekend. This itch continued up across the front of my foot. Since it was the weekend the doctors weren't open, so Dan went to the chemist and they have given me some E45 cream, but I'm pretty sure that it's not treating the problem, just reducing the itch. Tomorrow I have a follow up appointment at A&E to see if the bone is healing correctly, so I will no doubt get some advice on the itching and the golf ball swelling while I am there. But the middle toe which was completely snapped is still bent to the left and has a large hard lump on it, which I presume is the bone. I do have some minor movement back in my toes. I can just about twitch them, just a millimetre or two, but it's promising. The biggest problem to me at the moment is standing. I can now get about on just one crutch (unless stairs or steps are involved) but I can't stand for longer than a few minutes as I start getting pins and needles, and shooting pains up my leg. Two weeks of doing nothing has played its tole on my body. I feel like I need to go on a huge detox and health mission, to be honest. I have done absolutely no exercise and as a result have water retention, lack of energy, bad sleep and I've probably put on a ton of weight. Ho hum.

On a good note... erm, oh hold on, I actually can't think of a good note to share with you all. Today I am trying to get back into the swing of things, very slowly, to make life a bit easier for Dan. Wish me luck!

Tinkhani Update - and a little general health update about me too!

I was delighted to receive a letter from Tinkhani this week saying that for the first time since he's been in prison he has put on weight. One month after received the money donated by some of my generous blog readers, he has put on 3kg in weight. He is completely delighted, needless to say, and so am I. He has asked me tell you all this good news.

He has also informed me that the Zambian government are re-writing their rules regarding prison sentences. A lot of prisoner have been freed or had their sentences reduced. Tinkhani is hoping that he will no longer face the death penalty and has asked that we all keep this in our prayers and thoughts for him and the other handful of prisoners who are facing death for robbery. Hopefully he will have great news for me in his next letter.

He has sent me some handmade wooden pens, each with a name inscribed into it. There is one for each person that donated money for him. I will have to forward these on to you all individually. There is also one for Tammy who sent him a lovely Christmas card. Tammy if you email me your address I can post it on to you. I will be gathering some more money to send sometime soon, so if anyone wants to donate you can contact me at cleopatrani@hotmail.co.uk

I'm still on crutches at the moment but can just about get by on one crutch now. Although I can't over do it. I went to the doctors today and she seems to think that my middle toe is permanently damaged and will probably be paralyzed. I guess I should be bothered, but I just laughed. It all seems so silly to me. All this fuss over some toes. She also told me that she had received a letter about my jugular artery scan. It seems that they did find something after all, despite waiting almost 3 months for my result appointment. They found a curve in my jugular artery. My appointment to discuss this isnt until the end of August. However the curve is on the left side of my neck, and the noise is in my right ear, so the doctor seems think that this may not explain the problem, although from the letter the consultant seems to think it does. So I guess I have to wait and see. It's a good job I'm so patient eh? :)

A present to me

He he, here it is. Finally, after years of thinking about it, I got a tattoo. Now don't freak out everyone. Its very pretty, and its on my lower back, so I will still make a fab bridesmaid.

I've been thinking about getting it for some time. It took me a while to find exactly what I wanted. This is a tribal eagle. The eagle represents freedom and liberty. This tattoo is extremely important to me and is a way to celebrate my freedom of choice and liberty. Anyone who really knows me will know what I'm talking about.

I went to a fab tattoo parlour in Newry, called Wild Child, with an excellent reputation. I was just going to talk to them. I got the drawing of what I wanted out of my bag, and the next thing I new they had scanned it, made it into a transfer and were ready to put it onto my back! So I figured, why not, get it done while I'm on strong painkillers anyway. LOL. It took an hour and half. Having the outline drawn was nothing short of agony. Filling the ink in wasn't quite so bad, but my arms were shaking the whole way through from coping. My lower back is very sensitive anyway. It doesn't feel too bad now, just a bit like sun burn.

Silly, silly me

Yes, I'm a silly moo.

I went and fell down the stairs (again) and broke my foot! We had a friend round at the time, just to make it more embarrassing. I was walking down stairs and my foot slipped off the edge of a step and I fell about 6 steps down to the bottom. I hurt my butt and arm landing on them. Then fell down and landed on my own foot, on the wooden floor at the bottom of the stairs.

It wasn't until the next morning that Dan noticed my middle toe was pointing in the wrong direction, and I said "well, yes, it was very sore every time the duvet touched it during the night".

So Dan took me to the hospital and left me there with our friend Jack, who agreed to help me in and out of the place while Dan picked the kids up from Jennys house (another story). The nurse came in with the xray photo and kindly showed me that my toes were broken. LOL. The middle toe of my left foot had completely snapped in two, hence the funny direction it was sticking in. (I, stupidly, had thought it was dislocated and had got Dan to pull it to try and slip it back into place! Yes, it hurt immensely!)

The pain of having my toes straightened and tied together was excruciating, to say the least. And Jack turned a delightful shade of grey at the time. I am now sporting a new pair of crutches which I have to use for 6 weeks, and the biggest purple bottom bruise ever seen.

Jimmies 12th Birthday

At last, a photo from Jimmies 12th birthday. Here he is playing the new electric guitar that we bought him. He has been practicing it every day since and it seems to have spurred him on with learning the guitar. He looks so grown up with it.

The Golden Camel Award Photos

So I am finally getting around to posting some photos from the Golden Camel Awards. You can see the full set by clicking here. But here are a few for the blog.

Here is Mum and I in our beginners dance costumes. We joined in with the beginners dance to help them out because they are so few in number.



This is the beginner dance on stage. I was standing right under the main light so I look as white as a ghost. LOL. Mum is at the back left, and I am in the middle.





Mum and I in our gypsy fan dance costumes, posing on stage under the spotlight. I think we both look pretty goodin this one!





And lastly, here we are in the sagats dance. Mum in the back left and me in the front left. This time we were able to dance to music! Thank goodness. It all went very well.

Finding it hard to blog

What with working and all I have hardly been able to find time to do so many of the things I previously enjoyed doing. One of which is blogging. But as always, life has been extremely busy, never a dull moment.

Jimmie had his 12th birthday and I had intended to do a post about his life, with photos through the years, as I had done with Annabelle in November. But I just haven't had time. He had a quiet birthday this year, with money being tight. However, we did get him the red electric guitar that he had been hoping for. He has barely put the thing down since he got it, and I can see that the purchase of some headphones might well be in order.

The kids are all off on summer holidays now, which would be nice if we were having a summer. As it is, it hasn't stopped raining for weeks. Literally, day and night, almost 24 hours a day, rain, rain, rain. I hear that it is the same all across Europe. Belfast has had monsoons and flooding. Half of the UK seems to be under water. I'm getting the feeling that the melted polar ice caps are raining down on us.

Last weekend we had our big belly dance show, the Golden Camel Awards. I have some photos to put on my blog from it, but they are on the pc at home and I am currently on the lap top at work. It went really well. All the music came on this time so we got to dance our sagats dance with music this time, thank goodness. I had a great evening. It was a shame I couldn't go to the after show party though because we had to get the kids back home. I will write a separate post with photos sometime soon.

Well that's about all I have time to write at the moment. But I'm off work for a few days from tomorrow, so I will be back, and armed with photos.