Small world...

It has been another busy week. I really should get back to the habit of updating this blog every day, or at least more often than once a week. It was half term so no playgroup for William and no therapists either. That all kicks off again this week with physio, OT and Portage, as well as frst day back at playgroup on Thursday. William still can't cope with not being able to see me, or, at times, even touch me at playgroup. He is so happy to play with other people at home but, once out, is such a Mummy's boy. Thye physio and OT are coming to assess him for his pelvic support. His walking has become visibly more "unique" over the last few weeks and he has few more bumps and bruises than before. He can still get around though, and with much speed and vigour and continues to impress people with his sheer determination. People who haven't seen him for a couple of weeks are telling me that he is more jerky and wobbly. He is due to see a neurologist in a couple of weeks and I am really looking forward to seeing what she thinks. I say "due to see" because there is some confusion here. William saw his community paediatrician a couple of weeks ago, who referred him to the neurologist who holds joint clinics at our local hospital. The next day, we saw our local hospital paediatrician who referred him to the neurologist at Chelsea and Westminster. So, on Wednesday, we got an appointment to see the neurologist locally and Thursday, a letter from the community paediatrician to cancel the referral in light of the other one - are you still with me? Well, I called the hospital and they still want to see him at the joint clinic. Well, we'll see!

This week has been a busy and active one for Paul and I. The girls have been at their Dad's all week so we have had a bit more time to play with. I made it into the BLISS office for a day and got a lot of work done at home. I also found the time to run the Croydon 10K on Sunday, by coming home ahead of the rest of the clan from the hospice. I did it without any walking and in 56 minutes. It was a hilly course so that is not at all bad for a first attempt. I was pretty tired at the end so was glad there was no school run in the morning! One advantage of Paul being home so much at the moment is that I have had the freedom to build a good foundation with the running club and get out enough to feel part of it and make friends. This will be a lot harder when Paul starts working evenings and Sundays again. I did a cross country league race yesterday. That was really hard going and I trailed behind all the more experienced club runners. There were two laps and I found it really hard to breathe on the first one and was about to give up but managed to get it together and began to close the gap on the runners in front on the second lap. MYy performance on the first lap was not helped by my desperate need for the loo (nerves). I was holding a bottle of water and could not forget about it with that swishing about in my hand. Every bush I passed was assessed for privacy for a wee and, the more uncomfortable I got and the further behind I fell, the more I thought it wouldn't matter if I did stop for a wee. I'm glad I didn't though because what I didn't realise is that there were about 4 runners behind me! When I passed our supporters, I threw them the bottle and felt better almost immediately! Despite all this, I took 51 minutes for 5 miles cross country, which I'm told is pretty respectable as the effort is equivalent to 7 miles on road. I really like cross country because it is lovely to get off the road and into the "country", or as close as it gets in South London!

Paul has been able to walk about a bit, albeit very very slowly, on his crutches so we popped into Croydon a couple of times for a slow wonder round the shops together and a coffee. I also found time to meet up with my friend, Jo, for lunch on Friday which was really lovely. Paul joined us and it turned out Jo used to work with one of his best friends. On Friday evening we had a call from a family we were next door to in the neonatal unit to tell us they have moved just down the road from us...small world...unless you are trying to run or hobble about on crutches in it!