So Much To Say

Hello readers I have so much to tell you all. There have been a lot of changes here at Tilly Towers some for the best some out of necessity. Two major things have changed and effected all our lives here at Tilly Towers these are what have kept me away from my blogging for quite some time. Things are finally settling down here for us and we are getting used to the changes slowly so I am hoping I will be able to get back to my writing although the genre of this blog may be taking a little detour from frugal living and incorporating a few more subjects.

Let me start with my health. As my regular readers will know I suffer from 2 medical conditions one is Meniere's Disease the other is Gastritis. I have been suffering quite badly with the Gastritis of late and think the liver pain is somehow connected. Gastritis is when your stomach produces to much acid and when you have a flare up the pain is unimaginable [think labour pain but without the breaks in between]. About a week ago I had a major flare up and Ben had to call an ambulance for me. I usually fight my way through the pain until it subsides but this was pain on a whole new scale and there was no way I was going to be able to manage that sort of pain at home on paracetomol alone. When the ambulance crew arrived they put me straight on entonox [laughing gas] and it killed the pain immediately but every time I stopped taking the gas the pain would return after a few minutes so they decided it was best to take me in and get something stronger inside me and do some investigation. Once at the hospital I had an array of tests done and paracetomol was given directly through the vein. I am extremely sensitive to opiates and become very sick on them so I refused any of the very strong painkillers. Thankfully the paracetomol directly in to the vein worked and after 20 minutes the pain had subsided and I was able to stop the gas. The results of this hospital trip are as follows I have low potassium, high liver enzymes, and they think the gastritis may have developed into a stomach ulcer [not good]. I am being referred for a camera down the throat to confirm this diagnosis and have been given a higher dosage of omeprazole [a drug to protect the stomach lining] and antacids. I had a long chat with my doctor who asked about my eating habits and I explained to her truthfully that I don't eat breakfast or lunch will usually have a calorific evening meal and then pick on rubbish such as chocolate, cakes, biscuits, and crisps throughout the evening I was also completely honest and told her I drink a lot of fizzy cola. She informed me that this is what is causing the stomach acid and if I do not change my lifestyle then I am going to die.

This was a major wake up call for me and I am proud and pleased to say that for the last week I have drunk nothing but water and I have completely changed my eating habits and am now sticking to a healthy diet and avoiding all my trigger foods such as spices, seasonings, dairy, fat, chocolate, caffeine, tomato based products etc. etc. It has not been easy that's for sure but I am managing to maintain the healthy eating plan recommended to me. I am hoping that its not to late and I am able to reverse some of the damage I have done to myself but completely accept that this is something I have done to myself and I am the one who has to put it right.

My Meniere's Disease is being well managed and monitored at the moment. I had an appointment with my specialist on Thursday and he is happy that the new medications are keeping the severe vertigo attacks at bay and that the hearing aids have helped with the deafness. The 2 areas that do need addressing are my tinnitus and balance. He has referred me twice already to a specialist balance clinic that will help with these 2 issues but they are still to send me out an appointment so he has said he will contact them again and he will see me himself again in 3 months time.

The second big thing to happen here are Tilly Towers is I have deregistered Brandon from school and have started home schooling him. It has only been a few weeks but we are really starting to find our groove and I am amazed at just how clever he is. Brandon is Autistic and I have been promised since before he started school 2 years ago that he would be statemented and some one on one support would be put in place for him which still had not happened. There have been several occasions I have had to go into the school about something be it his behaviour or lack of support. Anyway after the summer holidays Brandon returned to school saying he hated it and he didn't want to go. He started lashing out at K my friend who did the school run for me and I was called into the school. Lee and myself sat with the head teacher to be spoon fed a load of drivel about how Brandon loves school and no such incidents had occurred despite K coming to my house in floods of tears asking me to go and get him out of school immediately. I asked the head why all the promises of support and statementing had not been honoured and she basically told me that in their opinion Brandon does not need to be statemented and does not need additional support so will not be getting it. I left that meeting that day furious and confident in my decision to remove him from school and educate him at home myself. I am able to offer him one on one support, I am able to tailor his learning in a way that suits him, I am able to discipline him when he does something wrong so he learns right from wrong [she also told me they do not tell him off when he does something wrong because he cant help it because of his autism]. I have never let Brad my eldest son use his autism as an excuse for anything and I am not about to let Brandon go down that road either. It has taken a while but we have a good routine going now. We do structured age appropriate book work for around 3 hours and we spend another hour learning Spanish, reading, and doing handwriting and spellings. On top of this we go to the library once a week, swimming lessons once a week, and a home education group once a week and there will also be the occasional day trips thrown in for good educational measure. On Friday I received a letter from the head teacher basically retracting all her previous comments stating she had arranged for an educational psychologist to come in and assess Brandon and they were going to start giving him one to one support in the mornings. I nearly fell off my chair and had to double check with Lee that I had actually been in that same meeting as she has done a complete 360 on her comments in the meeting. In spite of them now offering what I have been asking for for the last 2 years I have now lost all confidence in the school and feel I am able to do a better job of it at home. In the last few weeks there has been a marked improvement in Brandon both academically and behaviour wise so I am happy that we are on the right path and should remain on our home school journey and not return to state school.

So there you have it lots of changes going on here and as a result don't be surprised to find posts on home education and healthy living alongside the usual frugal living posts. Hope you will all bare with me whilst I get my head around all these changes and find my feet.

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx