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Life goes on, but we struggle to catch it up....except when Downton Abbey gets in the way

I did warn you posts might be a little erratic, didn't I?

Thank you for bearing with me.

Mr D is attempting his first day back at work today. He's not taken his mega-strength pain killers this morning so he could drive.....but he does have them with him at work and if he starts feeling the twinges he's either going to take them and hope that in 4 hours when they've worn off he can drive home, or possibly I can do the 2 hour round trip to collect him. I'd cross my fingers that everything is going to be ok but it makes it hard to type.

After a puzzling news from seeing a specialist doctor yesterday, we have to go back to find out results from more tests next week.....but, again crosses fingers sadhuyvbnnjlasHJKLa (sorry, couldn't resist), it looks like the worrying news we were given after his operation isn't what it seemed. It looks as if everything is going to be ok in time. I say a massive "phew".

Meanwhile, we try and get back to normal after a very troubling month. None of us have been sleeping well and add to that the trip to A&E/ER when he got back from Chicago keeping us up well into the night/morning..........we're sooooooooo tired.........

Melchett is very wobbly poor thing and like her Mum keeps crying at the silliest things.

But it will all be ok. We just need to find our stride again. And we will.

Although the tiredness has just made me cut out my fabric pieces for this week's Sew Weekly Challenge completely wrong..........poo pants. I'm very long in the torso, so I routinely add an extra 2 and 3/8" onto my bodice pieces. I've just forgotten to do that. I'm going to have to re-jig and re-cut, which is going to be difficult as I'm using some limited (but fabulous) material I bought from Goodwill a few weeks ago. And I've never seen anything like it in shops here.

Do you want a sneak peek?

 

 

Yes, I know it looks fine on Betty (my dressform) but I know from experience it will be too short on me and will make the waistline and skirt ride up making me look pregnant. Hopefully I'll be able to salvage something. At the worst I might have to sew a horizontal waistband between the bodice and skirt and pretend I meant to do that......my secret's safe with you isn't it?

And as for watching the Oscars....I'm behind with that too, though very glad I started early in January or it could have been worse. I've a few reviews to post - Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, both up for special effects, and I've a few more lined up to watch on the ipad.

But I have to confess I've been waylaid......by Downton Abbey of all things. I'd been ignoring it for ages despite seeing everyone's tweets and blog posts singing its praises. I think a certain someone and his super injunction (am I allowed to even type that?) put me off it. I find it rather amusing in a show full of secrets, intrigue and keeping up appearances that for some these things happen in real life too.

But I did exactly the same thing with Upstairs Downstairs. Held off watching it for ages thinking it wouldn't be for me (I am the most terrible inverted snob) before finally succumbing to its charms. I don't know why I do this because it should be obvious I'll like this stuff.....it's EastEnders but with fabulous costuming, fascinating history and some posh accents. It should've been obvious I'd like it, I should always remember how much I loved House of Elliot (or House of Idiot as Mr D liked to call it) or Monarch of the Glen (yes, I spotted the Julian Fellows connection) before I write off any of these Sunday night dramas.

Plus I'm a sucker for all the placenames they keep mentioning - I went to university in Ripon (where Matthew started work, the location of Sybil's dressmaker who made her those pantaloons and where Sybil got caught in a brawl at the elections), and the other campus of my university was in York....where Sybil went to train as a nurse (and I got very excited to see a quadrangle that looked just like that at York St. John's until I remembered though set in Yorkshire, most of it's filmed down south). And when I heard mention of a military hospital in Middlesbrough (I'm a mad Middlesbrough FC fan, it being just down the road from my hometown Stockton-on-Tees) it made my day.

And yes, being a big soap fan I do love the downstairs dastardly doings but there're also lots of pretty frocks to stare at and wonder at the constructions.......tell me, does anyone know if corsets were abandoned altogether during the First World War period? I feel like a complete voyeur staring at the flatness of the young ladies' fronts trying to work out if they're still corseted. I think I might have to do some research as I have an inkling that there might be a Downton Abbey Sew Weekly Challenge later in the year....

Aaaaaanyway.....

Better get on working out how I can re-cut my bodice pieces.

(And here's last week's Sew Weekly Challenge creation: the "Is there Life on Mars?" Outfit)

 

 

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Emergency Services

Do you remember when I said that one of my goals for 2012 was to get over my fear of American healthcare? Well Mr. D's kidneys obviously decided I needed help with this on Friday night.

After a terrible week, which started with Mr. D being taken off a plane in Chicago by paramedics after a flight of incredible kidney stone pain, rushing to A&E (or as they call it here Emergency Services), and a week in a hotel hoping that the pain would get better..........on Friday night he flew home, things got bad again and the whole family ended up in our local A&E department, despite him having taken the painkillers prescribed to him in Chicago, but that were just not touching the pain.

We didn't get home until nearly 3am. We're all a little tired now. But, for the time being the new, more powerful painkillers they've given him seem to be working.....plus he doesn't have to move anywhere significant now (as movement sets the pain off) like going to have to get food when he was in the hotel in Chicago.....we can look after him at home.

And I now understand a bit more how emergency healthcare works....which I would tell you about but I'm dire need of a cup of tea and some toast, so I'll have to tell you about it all another time.

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Goals and Resolutions for 2012 - just one more thing, no two, ok three....

Do you know when you're lying in bed, feeling satisfied that you've got something done......and the little nagging voices start:

"You forgot to do this...."

"You forgot to do that...."

This was me last last night.

I'd written the obligatory start of the year plan/goals/resolutions. I'd published it online. It had been a hectic as yesterday was the last day of Mr. D's vacation (ok Brits: 'holidays') and we were all shattered from staying up past midnight to welcome in the New Year. I'd written it in bits from scrappy notes I'd been making for a while, whilst Melchett kept trying to get me to come and play Monopoly with her on our ipad (only 99 cents on iTunes at the moment - a serious bargain and worthwhile purchase....Scrabble for the ipad is only 99 cents too).

Aaaaayway, I forgot to add one important goal and 2 resolutions to yesterday's list. And they're ones that I meant to add. So here's are the last few additions. (Yes, I said this is it now brain, no more....anything else we'll tackle next year!).

The extra highly important goal for 2012:

• Conquer my fear of American healthcare: I've never been a fan of all things medical. On my GP (family doctor) notes in the UK there's a large banner heading that indicates I suffer from white coat syndrome and that this should be taken into account when my blood pressure is taken. Indeed, during both pregnancies my community midwives only used to rely on the blood pressure readings taken on home visits as opposed to ones at the GP surgery. When we came to the USA on a 2 year contract I persuaded myself that all would be ok, we'd only be here for a certain amount of time so I'd be able to get back to the NHS and the medical/optical/dentistry ways I'd grown up to know and love, erm appreciate. When we popped back in the first summer for my parents-in-laws wedding anniversary, we even went for a check-up at our old British dentist. But now we've moved to the USA...

 

(the reality has just hit me....that and I'm such a hammy actress)

...it's time I put aside my fears about the incredibly disjointed, confusing and frankly, darn right scary American healthcare system.....because I'm stuck with it.

My fear and confusion is based on limited experiences with it already in the first 2 years (including being sent for a full internal ultrasound test when I went to doctor about a existing sciatica problem....yes, they stuck a big ultrasound wand up me because I went to the doctor about my back....and that was only one test of a whole series I was sent for that took nearly 2 days....that's had me freaked out for a while now. Whether its true or not, I'm convinced that there's a culture of sending you for every test imaginable to protect doctors from accusations about undiagnosed problems).

But there are things I NEED to get sorted. I haven't had a smear test in over 2 years now, so I'm well due. I've had one mammogram, but there doesn't seem to be a system of reminding you when you need your next over here....so I need to get this sorted, and possibly book another one. I can't remember for the life of me how regularly you're meant to have them over 40.

I need to find a decent dentist for me and my family (we've been trying with this one, and have already found a bad one) especially as Goth Child has grown a fang above her existing row of teeth. Basically I need to try and understand everything over here. I need to accept that everything over here is massively clinical, bright white. Healthcare in the UK is so straightforward. But it's time I start doing my research to understand who I need to go see for what, what they're called, how everything works.....no longer do you just go to your GP, them dealing with 80% of your issues and anything else, they make appointments for you to go to see a specialist at the local hospital......here there are THOUSANDS of specialists, all with their own businesses and buildings, and all the leg work is up to you.

Confused, frightened, befuddled.....yep, that's me (and look, wouldn't you know it, my daughters are hammy actresses too):

 

This isn't going to be easy, but it needs to be done. If you have a blood test or smear here, you have to go to specialists too - they're not things you pop down to the GP surgery for the practice nurse to do.

Aaaaanyway. As you can tell from my overlong ramblings. This is going to be a big thing. But unfortunately, it has to be done. (I don't want to end up like Pat Evans and any medical interventions being too little, too late. Yes, I know, I take EastEnders waaaay too seriously). I suspect I will be asking a lot of 'dumb' questions to American friends to help point me in the right direction. And I thought asking for things in DIY superstores when they're called different things over here was difficult!

My two (and only) New Year's Resolutions:

• Laundry. To be done on the same day. When I do the washing, I will wash, dry, fold, press (if necessary) and PUT AWAY all on the same day. I will not have piles of clothes to be folded and put away hanging around the house for days on end. It gets me stressed....so no more! I may be clever with this and perhaps do smaller loads more regularly. That might help....

• To try and stay more focused and not get waylaid by distractions. A woman's ability to megamultitask is a myth. I am an Olympic gold medal flitter and faffer abouter. Amazingly I DO manage to get things done, but I will flit from one thing to the next and get distracted (and manage to justify) by tons of things that don't move me forward. I need to be organised and more focused, do one thing at a time and not get distrac................oooh looook it's a tiny little tired kitty....

 

 

Erm, anyway.....those are the things, yesterday and today that I want to do in 2012. It's sort of a plan, though a rather rambling one. I might have to make myself a manifesto for 2012 like this glorious one Aileen and Creating Clever has done:

 

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