We have made so much progress in the last few days. On Monday the house looked as though a bomb had hit it. We had old stuff waiting to go and new stuff piling up waiting to replace it. The furniture that I ordered has arrived bit by bit, and bit by bit, Adam and I have either constructed it or positioned it just perfectly. It was the dining area that was the worst, it is small with one table and chairs in it, with two, it was impassable. One of the things that was in that pile, was the old NHS bed elevator. I can’t even remember how long I have had, but all the time it was on our bed, it had caused this ridge down the middle. I don’t know if you have ever slept in such a bed, but the result is that you move slowly to the outside edge then spend the rest of the night hanging onto it. Until now, we had had no other option, but Mums money has meant that I could source and buy a new one, one that wouldn’t cause that dreaded ridge. The problem was caused by the fact that the old one was made of steel tubing, reminiscent to the backrest on an old hospital bed.  The new one is made out of box tubing and it, is, totally, flat. Even the way that it extends means it still remains flat, regardless what size of bed it is on. I even watched a video on YouTube to be sure it was right before clicking the buy button. Now it only has to arrive for me to be totally sure, but whatever it is like, it can’t be worse than the one that just left through my front door.

All my life I have over and over again said just how much I hate shopping. When I first said it, there was no other option than to trawl through shops, which were over crowded for my taste, even on a week day. All those people use to drive me up the wall as I hated shopping so much, that I turned into someone who had the item I wanted in mind, headed for it like a missile in flight, not once looking at anything else that was on offer all around me, I bought whatever it was and flew straight home again. I was delighted when online shopping appeared, and I was one of the first to use it. For the first time, I discovered that shopping could be fun, that finding what I wanted was easy and best of all, they delivered it to my front door. Unfortunately, that statement is no longer totally true. There are now so many sites out there that it is actually becoming harder and harder to find what you want. Not even Google can now hone in on some things, especially not those slightly different items. It took me one whole day of searching to locate three royal blue and gold key tassels and another full day to find the cord that matched them so that I can make new pull cords for the new living room blinds.

I haven’t just been buying things for the house, I have bought myself a couple of things to make my life easier. Firstly the bed elevator and secondly, another item that should be here soon, a new blood oxygen meter. There is in some ways, nothing wrong with the one that I have, but it is so simple and all it shows me is what is happening in that second. It doesn’t save any of the readings and I can’t download them for later use. Whatever I learn from it is quickly gone as my brain just won’t hold the information and I can’t show it to a Doctor if I have any concerns and right now, I have a big concern. Those that have been reading for a while will know that I keep finding myself sitting on the side of my bed in the middle of the night with no idea why or how I got there. So far the doctors have been useless in finding out what is going on. Sometimes I find myself unable to pull myself in the conscious world long enough so that I can just lie down again. Recently though, there have been a couple of times when I have woken sitting up, with the vague feeling that I didn’t breathe until I got there. I have been left with the idea that maybe, just maybe, it is because my blood oxygen has fallen so low that my body has acted by moving me into that position.

Whenever I have checked my oxygen during the day lately, it has never been above 89%, often showing as low as 84%. My consultant has said in the past that those aren’t levels for me to worry about, but back then, those type of readings were occasional, now they are all the time. Our oxygen levels naturally drop when we are asleep but I have no idea how low that drop is, so I have bought a meter that has a 24 hour read out and I can down load to all to my PC. I have been looking on and off for one but they were all over £100, some over £1000 the sort of money I didn’t have. Just because I have some right now, I still wasn’t happy about spending that much so I went on a search. It turned into another long day. By tea time yesterday, I had found one, and it was closer to what I wanted to spend, just being £56, but it was that time of day, where I always switch this machine off and become social. This morning, I completed what I always do when spending money, I copy pasted its name into Google. Sometimes I do it mainly to see reviews from other users, but always because I believe in just checking before I buy, that I have the best deal. I was surprised to find the exact same one priced as high as £170, quite a jump but it often happens. I was though delighted to find one company selling it for just £24.50. I bought it straight away. It just shows it’s worth double checking, even if you don’t think you can afford it, check, you might just be able to. If I had found this months ago, I would have bought it there and then, but I didn’t. Maybe in future, even when I think something is well out of my range, I will make sure, before putting the whole idea out of my mind.

Right now I feel as though I am on a playground roundabout, clinging tightly to the central pivot to stop myself being thrown off. There is so much to organise and to make happen in the next month that my brain is now throwing me from one job to another, it’s not even taking a proper break at night. It all sounded so simple when I said I’m going to spruce this place up again and make it the way it should be, now part of me wishes I hadn’t even thought about it. So yesterday, I decided to try and put the brakes on, to bring the whole thing down to a pace where I can at least get my head around each step. Apart from the delivery of all the stuff I have bought, nothing major is going to happen before the 21st of this month. I desperately need time for my mind to accept everything before the big push arrives. I never used to be like this, in the past, I was one of those people who once I had an idea, I made it happen that day, or if not, the day after. Now I need the time to build myself up, to settle my brain and calm down this feeling of impending doom that has taken over my life. In fact, when the decorators asked if they could start later this week, I could feel myself starting to shake inside. That was despite the fact that Adam and I had discussed it all the night before and he had already in his head, that I would need him here when the work was being done. I was so relieved when he said that. Fortunately, his boss has been able to give him the time off.

It seems that everyone who is involved in my care, all know me too well. It wasn’t just Adam, my nurses, and carers when told them of my plans all instantly asked how I was going to cope, and all looked relieved when I gave them the answer. It’s odd how we get these ideas in our heads that we are still just like everyone else and that no one but us knows the problems we live with, especially when it concerns those things in our heads. Then something happens and it turns out we aren’t people, we are books and everyone around us has read every page of us and some, everything that is written between the lines as well.

I don’t need any of them to tell me that I have been pushing myself too hard lately. I started by making what was, in fact, a horrific list of everything in this house that needs fixing or replaced. Until I found I had the funds to do something about it, I had somehow managed to know about all of it, yet sort of ignore it as well, as what could I do about it. Now every tiny thing on that list is real and growing in my mind by the second. I can’t even sit still here at my computer as I see this or that or remember I still haven’t done that other thing. I have been web surfing like I have never surfed before, trying to get the best deal on all that we need. In some cases, it has just been a case of trying to find what I need. It is amazing how some of the simplest of things, turns out to be the most obscure. Without a doubt, it would all be a lot easier if I actually had a brain. Just sticking to one task and completing it is hard as I keep thinking of another, or panicking that I just did the wrong thing. Every day when Adam gets home from work, he stands here telling me to slow down and calm down, as he can spot it the second I speak, As a result of my perpetual muddle, my speech is now also all over the place. Even his telling me how well I have done, and that it will all work out and be OK doesn’t really have the effect he is after, my racing brain doesn’t listen.

My panicked state isn’t only down to all that I am doing. My brain has put itself on high alert, there is this feeling that any minute, the one thing that could destroy all my plans might just happen, that I could be thrown into a flare. It has been my experience that this is exactly the sort of time when my body suddenly decided to do something horrendous to me. I have become hyper aware of every spasm, twitching or pain that it picks to throw at me without warning, and the ticking time bomb that all with an illness like mine lives with, seems, to sound just that bit louder. Irrational, well yes I suppose it is, as I have nothing other than fear and sod’s law to base it on, but I can still hear that ticking.