Lantern Love

My man is wonderful to have around, one minute we will be sitting chatting or watching a movie and the next he is up doing something around my apartment!

Such was the case with my lantern lights that I had tried unsuccessfully to string around the railings of my bedroom balcony. In the blink of an eyelid one night he had re-strung them from post to pillar and they now cast a festive glow outside my bedroom at night,

making it the perfect place to sit and sip red wine!

And, it looks so pretty during the day!

Today I am thankful for....my man and his ability to sort me out and to make me laugh out loud, so loud in fact he swears he sees flocks of birds leaving their nests in fright!

Take Care
Rachaelxo

Bloggers and my Broken Body!

Just before Christmas I had a CT scan to follow up on my broken ribs as I was still in considerable pain. The CT scan revealed that rather than having 2 broken ribs as I was initially told, I actually have 13 on my right hand side. 7 ribs are involved altogether, 4,5,6,7,8,9 have two breaks each and rib 10 has one break. None of the 13 breaks have showed any sign of healing.

In March I am to have major surgery which involves a bone graft from my hip and plates and screws to rebuild the breaks.  I am going to be cut in at least three places, my shoulder blade needs to be lifted to get to the ribs under there and also my right breast.  As you can imagine I am completely devastated.

I did a post on Facebook about it and lovely Jen who has been a blogging friend since I first started blogging back in 2007 sent me a beautiful care package of tea light candles, bath wash and a scrubby all wrapped in fabric that I'm now using as a scarf! The most perfect package as I have a deep bath and its wonderful for floating my pain away in!

Such is the beauty of blogging, the genuine caring friends you make from all walks of life and from all over the world!

Unfortunately there a few who try to taint it, those few I feel terribly sorry for as they must have a sad and miserable existance if they are moved to leave mean comments on peoples blogs, such as this cowardly one that I had the other day!

Anonymous said...

Enough about your broken body already, you have such a nice blog and to keep harping on your fall, seems like you just want sympathy.

16 January 2012 4:42 PM

Much thanks to you Jen for your thoughtfulness in sending me a gift and also to all my blogging friends who do leave sympathetic comments, they are much appreciated and lift my day!

take care
Rachaelxo

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!

2011 came and went with many good things:
*the Princess and I settled into our castle,
*we hosted visitors from overseas and made new friends,
*I went on 2 overseas trips,
*I bought a new car and lots of new things for our castle,
*I survived a major accident,
*I met a wonderful man,
*I passed all my university papers,
*the Princess had a great school year,
*and my family and friends are all safe and healthy.


2012 is going to be a good year too, great things are to happen:
*surgery to repair my broken body,
*final year of my university degree
*a new purpose built school campus for the Princess,
*enrollment in the gifted child programme for the Princess,
*good times with family and friends,
*purging of all my excess belongings and clutter,
*resurrecting my little vintage and craft business,
*continuing with a business idea I have,
*starting a business with my man,
*continued good times with my man.

Bring it on!

Happy New Year my friends, wishing you all the wonderful things you deserve for 2012.

Take Care
Rachael xo

Update to Me and My Broken Body!

Well crap I say!

sourced from www.CartoonStock.com

Yesterday I went to a see a Cardiothoracic Surgeon about my broken body! I had to Google what a Cardiothoracic Surgeon does! haha

He was a very nice man who had the most divine antique Partners Desk!  Anyway I got kind of good news and kind of bad news from him!

The GOOD NEWS is:
I can do anything I like with this broken body cos I can't damage the ribs anymore than they are;
and I have to have regular massages for the severed nerve endings :-)

The BAD NEWS is:
the severed nerve endings will never completely heal so I will have some level of pain for the rest of my life;
and I'm probably going to have some quite nasty surgery in February to rebuild the broken ribs by using bone grafts from my hip :-(

But the real GOOD NEWS is:

I'm still able to walk and I'm alive!

Right? Yep as my man would say "DAMN STRAIGHT" !

Take Care
Rachaelxo

Me and My Broken Body

I'm only a day late with this post! Hopeless! lol

Back in July I blogged here that I fell off a ladder painting the edge of the 12ft ceiling in the Princess's new bedroom and apparently broke two ribs. Because the ribs were broken in my back and lots of nerve endings severed I had to spend 6 weeks doing practically nothing, no bending, no stretching, no lifting and no driving. Frankly it was a very painful time, a lot of which was spent in a drug induced haze!

The Princess's new room hasn't progressed much, my brother finished painting it and Mum moved some furniture into it, but it still looks like this mess, I have yet to finish the curtains and she is yet to sleep in it!

And my ribs, after 4 months and constant pain, I found out a week ago that I actually broke 5 of them, NOT 2, and 3 have not healed at all. Tomorrow I am off to a surgeon which frankly is scaring the crap out of me.

Cos one way or another I am going to have another long healing period of inaction!

Despite this, which is a pain in the ...... back ..... strangely life has been very, very good for me, in fact the best it has been for a good few years! lol

Anyway gotta go, stuff to do, back tomorrow with my next update!

Take Care
Rachaelxo

Crikey!

French Maid at 85th Birthday Party! lol

It's been months since I did a post, way too long for me!

I can't fill you in on what's been going on over the last few months in just one blog post cos that would be one long crazy ramble!!!

So I thought I would break my goings on into lots of crazy rambling posts with the following headings! lol

Me and my Broken Body
Me and my Broken Body and University
The Princess and her Mummy with the Broken Body
The Castle and the lady who lives in it with the Broken Body
Food I've been cooking while having a Broken Body
Family and Friends occasions with a Broken Body
My Secret Project planned while having a Broken Body
The New Man in my Life found while having a Broken Body

and whatever other random shizzle I can come up with!

So with that in mind, my mind anyway....

I'll be back - tomorrow!

Promise!

Take Care
Rachaelxo

Painful times

Almost a month since I last posted, a month that has been a blur due to the pain relief I have been on and still am on due to the broken ribs and traumatised state of my spine...

Six weeks on and I can now drive, so have got my Princess back part time, have started going to back to uni part time, and regaining independence like being able to make my bed, do my laundry, cook,  go for walks, clean my teeth, wash my hair, brush my hair, get dressed and be less consumed and overwhelmed by how much it hurts.

Pain ravaged face - first time out on my own!

And yesterday I had the most wonderful sneezing fit without being knocked to the ground by the pain. It was just fabulous! Who would have thought it would be so fabulous to be able to sneeze!

Sleeping still hurts badly, I don't sleep well, there is no comfortable position, and I can't read in bed anymore as I can't lie on my back, the pain makes me want to throw up.  Same with sitting, have to have padding behind me, and can't wear a bra, tried on Friday, it was like an iron bar around my back!

5 more months and I should be completely healed....

I just read this back, sounds a bit self indulgent! Sorry... I normally like to be upbeat on my blog... oh well...

Princess's flower arrangement on the mantle

and it's not all doom and gloom, I have had some really funny moments, great moments, bizarrely hilarious moments and yummy romantic moments over this time......

Princess wearing her new outfit

which I might just tell you about in my next post! ;-)

so in the meantime I'll leave you here at the end of this doomy gloomy one

until next time!

take care

Rachaelxo