Update

Hi everybody. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post on here (3 months!), i did say when i first started this blog that i would update it regularly but it kept slipping my mind and i haven't really had much to post about.

In my last post, i told you all about my dog Sparky who sadly had to be put to sleep. Well we now have a new dog called Poppy, she is a Jack Russell Terrier and she is now almost 13 months old. We got her a week after we lost Sparky. One of the neighbours heard about us and came knocking on our door, she told us that her daughter had a 10 month old Jack Russell but she is a nurse who works 12 hour shifts so she was unable to look after her very well as she was out of the house all day and she wanted the dog to go to a good home where she could have a happy life. We said we would think about it as we were still very upset about Sparky. After thinking about it for a few days, we all decided it would be a good idea to take in this dog. After having a dog live with you for 16 years, it suddenly feels very strange not to have that canine company around! Even though we loved Sparky very much, and always will, we still had room to love another. If we didn't take Poppy in, she probably would have ended up in a shelter and that is an awful thought!

Poppy has settled in really well. When she first arrived, we all thought "Oh My God, what are we taking on!" because when her owner brought her to us, she was running around the house CRAZY! Nobody could catch her and she left a blanket of white hair behind her everywhere she ran! Her owner was very upset to be letting her go, in fact she was devastated, she cried the whole time she was here! Now we all know why she was so upset, Poppy is the most loveable dog ever! She is so happy with us, we have a huge garden which she LOVES, she chases all the birds, flies, bees, bugs and she was even chasing a toad yesterday! She loves having cuddles and kisses and always sits on my knee. She knows that she has to be gentle with me and she even knows that my left arm is the weakest so she always comes to the right hand side of me so i can stroke her, what a clever girl! After 3 months with Poppy, i am so attatched to her, i absolutely adore her!

Last time i posted, i also told you all about my problems with my wheelchair. Well it got fixed for just over £300, but it's still very "dodgy". I just do not trust this wheelchair atall and have no confidence in it what so ever. It is so unstable, especially outside if i am driving on an uneven surface, the chair just slides! Hopefully, i will be getting a new, much better chair. The chair i am hopefully getting is recommended for people with SMA. It is an amazing chair called a Balder, it does EVERYTHING, stands up, lies down, tilts back and forwards, rises up and down, has elevating leg rests and many other functions. I had a trial in one a few months ago and it was AMAZING, i could actually drive outside effortlessly! The man who brought the chair for me to try could actually tell how much my wheelchair has affected my confidence just by the way i was driving the new one! I was driving it as if it was going to slide at the least uneven surface. After he reassured me that this chair could drive over almost anything effortlessly, i relaxed and was amazed by it. The only problem is the cost, it isn't cheap, £18,000! There is no way i could afford one, it would take me about 50 years to save up that much! So, i have applied to a charity who funds this kind of thing to children/young people and we are just waiting for the decision off them. Everyday when the mail comes, i can't wait to get my hands on it to see if the letter has arrived. This chair will truly change my life, so fingers crossed they say yes!

Healthwise i've been pretty good lately eventhough I had a chest infection about 4 weeks ago and was on antibiotics for 2 weeks, but no hospital - YAY! As i've got older, we've really started to manage my chest infections much better, instead of spending up to a month in hospital struggling to breathe, we can now cope quite easily at home and only end up in hospital if things get really bad and i am relying on my Bi-Pap. The cough assist has been a godsend, without it i definatly would be in hospital everytime i get a cold. I'm at the hospital next Wednesday to see my respiratory consulatand and my neuromuscular consultant for my 6 monthly check up and to check that everything is fine with my Bi-Pap, hopefully i won't have to have another sleep study but who knows, my consultants are very keen on keeping a check on EVERYTHING so i wouldn't be suprised if they want another one.

I'll try and keep this thing updated more often! I promise!