Yorkshire, Trains and Planes….

[Anne-NRAS]

I spent last Friday and Saturday in Ilkley in North Yorkshire working and despite Northern England having a modest reputation for good weather the sun shone down on us for the whole two days. Equally as enjoyable was the northern hospitality; the restaurant we decided to dine at Friday night was extremely generous with its drinks measures and the vodka and wine did flow very easily. I was well behaved though and did remind myself throughout the evening that I am taking about 17 million pills a day, and that I must remember that my body is a temple albeit full of steroids!

On Saturday evening after a long day at our Annual family fun day for children with arthritis and their families we headed for Leeds station to get our train home. At that point though I wasn’t able to carry my bag. My shoulders and arms were feeling very weak and the pain was increasingly more noticeable; my lovely colleagues came to my rescue and assisted. I got home about 11pm to a very excited dog and two teenage boys who were happy to see me home in one piece. I collapsed into bed and slept well till about 4pm.

Sunday morning was better, still tired I pottered about during the day and then I went out in the evening for some “me” time. I can’t stress how important it is to have time to yourself, where you don’t think about pets, children, parents work etc. It’s a chance for me anyway to free my mind of all the daily grind and I don’t think about my PMR either.

So after a pretty crazy weekend I looked forward to 3 whole days at home, no work, just me and the boys and the dog. I walked and cooked and friends popped over for coffee. I loved every minute. And then on Wednesday evening I had to take my youngest who’s just 14 to Heathrow airport as he was off to the USA to visit family. This was the first time he has flown on his own. OMG the anxiety and the hot flashes and they flashed big time all afternoon on Wednesday. Anyway of course all my worries were unfounded, looking like a tomato with pink pigments, I checked him in and then cried like a baby as he went through security. About an hour later the first call from him came – he had tried to get on a plane to Brussels! but was now at the right gate; once on the right plane he called again, he had been upgraded to business class and had a bed and millions of films and everything! That phone call calmed me down at last when I went to bed I was able to sleep until about 4.30am when I checked in with him and he had negotiated the immigration minefield and was now in the care on his way to our family’s home in Connecticut. The next two weeks are going to be awfully quiet! WONDERFUL.

So what with a manic weekend and a bit of anxiety thrown in on the side I did spend Wednesday and Thursday feeling under the weather, my tummy was very upset and I was feeling hotter than usual, but amazingly after not much sleep again I am in work and feeling OK today. However, I totally forgot I was supposed to start tapering my prednisolone on Wednesday down to 17.5mg from 20mg. Anyway I started today, Friday. I hope that I don’t notice any changes in my well-being or aches and pains. I will keep you posted.

So its Friday, the weekend is upon us again; mine won’t be as frantic as last weekend but I have some nice things planned and I hope you all do too, if not get on it and do something nice for you!

[Ida-June128]

I regularly put a 14 year old on a flight from Heathrow to JFK New York but he always travels 'unaccompanied child'. BA have discontinued the service but Virgin and Delta still offer it. Virgin is pretty good but last week I put him on a Delta flight and they not only filled in all the paperwork for me and sealed it in an envelope but put a tagged band on his wrist to track him until he was collected by his named adult (passport for identification needed) at JFK. You need to wait in the airport until the flight has actually left but it is a secure service and for the cost ($113) is well worth it. You need your passport with you when you collect for identification. He has traveled this way many times and the staff look after him wonderfully.