Christmas

Hi, Jimmy here, stealing Debs' blog space for this. Apologies for the abrupt change in writing style that you are therefore encountering. Apologies also for directing you to a longer message than a simple tweet or Facebook update, didn't want to be one of these people who use social media for passive aggressive feeling-sorry-for-myself messages, and flood your timelines with relentless negativity, so thought I'd make it an opt-in experience by posting this blog link.



Have been quiet recently on twitter/Facebook (both Debs and me) because we've been having an absolutely crappy week.

On Tuesday Debs spent the day in hospital receiving her first dose of a new MS treatment, which, fingers crossed, should help prevent the kind of problematic relapse we've encountered so much over the last few years. All went well, it didn't cause her heart to do anything strange or weird which was the doctors main concern, so Tuesday evening we came home, and everything was mostly ok. Debs felt a bit rough, but spending a day in hospital, taking a new drug, having your blood pressure taken every hour and a couple of ECG's can do that to someone who's not keen on hospitals!

Wednesday morning though Debs found herself feeling sick, and blacked out. We returned to the hospital pretty darn quick, and the MS nurses and consultant, while being lovely, weren't able to be that helpful. Essentially they said, 'stick it out'. They gave us some strong anti-nausea drugs and we came home. Things since then haven't improved.
Debs is still feeling sick, and being sick too. She can't rest her head back without needing to vomit, so sleeping hasn't been easy or restful, in fact she now has a bad neck from resting her head forward so much. Her eyesight has also declined, she is unable to focus on anything without her eyes wobbling, and this obviously makes the nausea worse too. Her balance is gone, and she needs help getting from bed, to sofa, to bathroom, etc particularly as we have rather steep stairs. She doesn't really feel like eating unsurprisingly, leaving her with the option of sitting still, with her head in an upright position, all day, everyday. Watching TV is out, sleeping is out, reading is out, eating is out, moving is out... Not much fun.

To top it all we've obviously had to cancel all our plans for Christmas. We were hoping to have a nice weeks holiday after a long and, at times tough, term here in Nottingham. Deb's health hasn't been great for much of the past past few months, and there is plenty of work for me to do college-wise, (let alone trying to be a nurse alongside it) - so some time relaxing and seeing family and friends back in Cardiff and Tring would have been ideal. But no, we're going to be stuck here in Nottingham, no likelihood of going anywhere for a while.

We're trying not to feel sorry for ourselves, trying not to whinge, but it's been a rough week. We are trying to be positive, trying to trust in God for healing, trying to appreciate the good things we still have (the NHS for one - let's it hear it for a wonderful organisation!) but it's tough, and we're struggling. So if you have any spare prayers we'd appreciate some. Also please accept this as an apology for a lack of participation in any Christmas good cheer that is going round, we might not feel like taking part in this.

This does sound quite whiney reading it back, and I apologise. We are blessed in many ways, but wanted to be able to share some of our current struggles too, and not pretend that we're all good, and happy happy joy joy. 'Cos Christians are allowed to have crap Christmases too right? And to use words like crap?

We hope that your Christmas is a good one, we hope ours is better than we think it might be at this stage. God is born a baby, Immanuel - God with us, this is our hope - may it be the reality of our existence too.