Okay, it’s been a while, I think the last time I wrote a blog I was mid cold, well, it wasn’t just a cold as it turned out.
I don’t know what it was ~ flu? Covid, the plague? All possible contenders.
I am well now, but it took an age. I am feeling much better, but oh my god that virus took me out!
So to recap, it started off like a cold, it then went to a respiratory tract infection, then sinus infection, and then just all out war on my body. In total I was ill for 14 days, but I was in bed solid for 5 of those. It was brutal.
I started really panicking when I was coughing up phlegm and blood, that was too much for me!! And a first.
I developed 7 boils in my armpit, and I was covered in pus filled spots all over my body. So it was at that point I thought, oh well, this is how I go, it’s obvs the bubonic plague 🥴🫣😂
Plus, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a blocked nose, so much so that when I closed my mouth I felt like I was being suffocated. It was really debilitating, I couldn’t get even a hint of relief unless I used octravine, although you can only use that for 7 days, so I ended up with a steroid nasal spray from my GP.
I am now fighting fit and ready to get back to life.
(…That said, I did go for a blood test today, because even before I experienced the 14th century virus revival, I was feeling tired most of the time. I’m not feeling sad or depressed or anything. I just feel exhausted. Chris has pointed out that 16 years of insomnia will do that to a gal, and he’s probably right. But I thought I’d just better check and make sure it’s just that. If you have any health niggles it’s best to get them checked asap).
Anyway, very serendipitously I was booked to go to Spain house for a week. And I think it’s done me the world of good.
Sunshine, exercise, catching up with friends, shopping, eating good food. It was just what the doctor ordered, and I bloody loved it.
I was a bit daunted because I wasn’t feeling fully recovered when I went, and I was heading off alone to start with, Chris was following on a few days later. Which meant carrying my own case and bag. It was fine though, I was just a bit slower than usual.
I did laugh at Stansted whilst going through security. I’ve been thoroughly spooked by the previous poor service, since the incident a few weeks back.
So now when I go through security I mention I have a stoma.
This time the girl seemed annoyed I mentioned it and rudely snapped at me “Was I touching anywhere near it!!!?”
To which I laughed at her reaction, and said “Well, no, you weren’t, but I didn’t want you to harm me in any way”.
It comes to something when you accept unnecessary rudeness, over physical assault. It took three weeks for the discomfort of my stoma being squeezed to die down. I don’t really want to experience that again.
I can only assume that being a security guard at the airport is a thankless, awful job, because no one seems particularly engaged or enthusiastic about it.
Is there a type of person that they hire, you know, like the stereotype doctor’s receptionists?
At the interview do they ask “Are you miserable? Are you quick to rile? If yes, you’re hired!
I didn’t get annoyed or offended by her attitude, disappointed maybe, but I’ll take rude over harmed.
It was two minutes of my time, and then I was off to sunny Spain. Well, it wasn’t actually that sunny as it happened, it was an incredibly mixed bag.
We had the most spectacular storm, I literally jumped out of my skin, the thunder shook our house. But it was magnificent to watch, thankfully from the relative safety of indoors.
*before I forget, get stocked up on these just in case you catch the lurgy.
Life savers
So far this year I have been on 13 flights! It’s April, and I’ve flown 13 times already!
That sounds absolutely wild to me, I only just thought to count them up today.
Flying is a privilege that I do not take for granted, but it also makes me very constipated, I have no real idea why. I’m sure there is some science behind it, but it’s above my pay grade.
Anyway, knowing this information about my very easy to disturb bowels I decided to be proactive on this trip to Spain.
So I bought myself some electrolyte powders and added it to a bottle of water I bought air side.
In general, as someone with a low down colostomy, I don’t need to take in electrolytes. My output is the same as anyone with functioning bowels, mine just exits through the sunroof rather than the anus.
But I have found some slight improvement in constipation issues if I drink electrolytes during flights.
Plus I’ve been using some very gentle laxatives occasionally to just keep me running smoothly.
Which I think is working well.
Also, I eat a diet rich in good quality fibre-full foods. (Although at points, this ends up making my constipation worse. It’s a very fine line to balance).
I can’t give medical advice, because that’s not within my remit, but I can just pass on things I’ve bought and found to be useful.
I bought the Wild Dose products. The reviews seemed pretty solid, if you’ll pardon the pun. 🤩
I started this blog, over 10 years ago mainly to show what a normal life lies ahead for anyone who has been told they need a stoma.
My blog, my social media is chockablock with photos of me wearing nice clothes (well, I like them, but I totally understand and appreciate that dressing well is subjective. I’m most certainly not claiming to be the best dressed woman on the planet, but I love the way I get to dress).
I believe I dress pretty well, and this has been something of a surprise to me.
I assumed the worst, as most of us tend to when faced with challenging circumstances.
But I have been really happy with how I get to dress, and what I get to wear. That may seem shallow, but apart from the surviving cancer part, I really fretted I’d have to dress in baggy shapeless depressing clothes.
Of course if that’s how someone wishes to dress I’m all for it, you do you. But I wanted to know I could still dress the way I used to if I chose to.
And I think and I hope I have shown this is possible time and time again. And hopefully that has helped give some people some comfort at a difficult time.
Off for some much needed R&R.
Top from PDKF store, Faux shirt from Temu, Trousers from Ralph Lauren, Shoes from LV
This trip was very nerve racking for many and varied reasons.
But one of the things causing me some anxiety was the fact that during the virus, I lost all sense of taste and smell.
Losing taste is rotten as food then solely becomes about texture, rather than flavour. And I struggle with soft textures at the best of times, but soft with no taste is unacceptable to me.
So during that time I stocked up on crispy things.
I found salt and vinegar Pop Chips hugely helpful, and I could taste the salt. So that was at least something.
And if I did feel like eating I ate very very toasted toast. It’s all about the crunch.
But the main issue of concern was the loss of smell. Admittedly it was great benefit at bag change time for me, but a huge problem if I wanted to leave the house.
Most of my confidence with stoma owning is due to being able to check regularly (actually, make that continuously), that I haven’t had a bag leak or filter failure.
The full on leak situation has never occurred before. Very occasionally I’ve had pancaking (where the poo seeps under the adhesive pad, and tries to escape from underneath), but this is pretty rare. And in general I can feel the adhesive layer lifting as the poo pushes it up.
But a filter failure, of which I’ve had quite a few over the years is a more serious problem. Because there is no outward sign. There is only smell escaping.
And without a sense of smell I feel incredibly vulnerable in the world.
So much so I sometimes I almost actually feel like I’d rather not go out. Even though the risk is small it’s still enough to make me feel self conscious and fretful.
But I had this holiday booked, solo, and I just had to suck it up and hope for the best.
I could’ve stayed at home, sure, but I’d be the one missing out. I have to push past my fears. That’s mostly what stoma owning from day one is about!
We are all out of our comfort zones, but it’s entirely worth the effort involved to keep going, pushing onwards and living a happy full life.
So arrived in Spain, with as far as I know, no incidents, well, none that anyone mentioned.
I then collected our car from the company who store it for us, and I started the drive to our house…
Only for the car to not allow me to go over 25 miles an hour, or else it would overheat and stop.
I have never had such a terrifying drive in my life. Thankfully Spanish motorways aren’t very busy. But the drivers who did happen upon me were not terribly pleased with my speed. Understandably so.
But I just didn’t want to be stuck on the side of the road for however long it took to get assistance, alone and with very limited resources.
So I hobbled to our house. Doing a little bit of crying and breaking down - emotionally, rather than the car. 🫣😂
I managed it, but it wasn’t fun. The next problem I had to face was the fact that I was meant to be returning to the airport in 3 days time to collect Chris, which was a no go in my 20 mile an hour car.
But very very fortunately, my friend who I was having lunch with the following day very very kindly said she’d take me to the airport to get him. Absolute legend that she is! 🙏🏼
(The radiator is leaking again, it’s now we’re back home it’s in for repair).
When I’m in Spain I often go feral, I just stay stinking for days on end. I know, delightful aren’t I.
But this time I was going to be meeting up with a friend, and then a short time later Chris was following me over. So sadly there was no time to go full Stig of The Dump. 😂
I eat so healthily in general in life, all I care about is getting fibre in, and of course protein and nutrients, but fibre is my biggest obsession.
Everything I choose to eat I make sure it’s packed full of it. Even down to snacks.
To the point I only eat 90% chocolate, because after a thirty year break from confectionery, I wanted to get the fibre from the good stuff.
Some people say dark chocolate is bitter, but to me it tastes sweet and fruity. I tried some 70% chocolate a while back and it tasted really too sickly sweet, so god knows what a Dairy Milk would be like.
If I have snacks, it’s almonds or walnuts. Or fruit or raw veg. Everything I eat has to have something to offer me for health purposes.
The produce in Spain, and mainland Europe as a whole, does seem to be of a better quality than we have in the UK. They do tend to eat in season food, which I think makes a huge difference to the taste and quality.
There was no time for feral living. So I was up, showered and hair washed ready for my lunch date with my friend Mel.
She lives up the road to me in Spain, and because she lives here she’s always able to find great places to go to eat. Plus tells us about adventures to be had.
Top from Me&Em, Trousers from M&S in New Delhi (I have yet to find this particular style in the UK), Belt from LV, Bag from Dior, Shoes from Jimmy Choo
Mel chose a cracking restaurant! The view was spectacular and exactly the healing power of the sea that I needed.
I felt much perkier by the next day so I went out for a walk. The area has had a very wet winter, and that really showed in the landscape.
It’s generally an arid environment. But it was glorious and lush.
Sports wear from Primark. (Great photo of it, I should be in marketing!). 😂
The following day was my favourite part of any holiday, the day Chris arrives!
Dress from Ralph Lauren, Shoes from Gucci
His arrival is always a delight, but more so this time because he managed to temporarily fix the car to make it usable…which meant that I could get to my favourite ice cream shop in the world!
…And him just being here in general just makes life better anyway.
He had been as poorly as me with the flu/plague, so I assumed he would just prefer to sit and stare at the walls to recuperate.
But he was very keen to try a suggestion Mel had made about parking on the outskirts of Murcia city and taking the tram in for a bit of an adventure.
And I am always up for an adventure.
Caveat to that, city ones, rather than countryside hiking ones, but as we are on the same page on that front I knew I was perfectly safe.
I like long romantic walks to Selfridges, and thankfully so does Chris!
Or as in this case El Cortes Ingles 🥰
Top from Ralph Lauren, Jeans from Tesco, Shoes from Jimmy Choo.
Tram ******* 🤩😂
Murcia city is very beautiful. And definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.
The weather was perfect for sightseeing. And we made the most of that. When we come back next time it will be far too hot for us to walk around, we are very feeble 😂
We walked past a pharmacy while we were waiting for the shops to reopen at 5pm. I love pharmacies in foreign countries in general anyway, but this one was so beautiful.
How gorgeous is that!
I was still off my food. So although we ordered some tapas, we didn’t actually eat it. Our taste buds were still a bit off, and this wasn’t up my alley to begin with. In the olden days maybe, before I started us on our healthy lifestyle a couple of years ago, but not now.
Sitting in the main square, people watching, was fabulous nonetheless.
We stocked up on goodies in a few stores, then headed back on the tram, and back home.
The next day we had a day of pottering around the house, it’s nice to just be.
I find Spain house so restful. There is no weight of expectation there, nothing needs doing, no grass needs cutting, no chores.
It’s incredibly low maintenance. So it’s just a case of pleasant pottering. Clearing out a drawer or two…Or in this case 7.
We had accumulated so much junk paperwork in the last 26 years of owning the house.
We found so many manuals and documents for things we no longer own. I found the paperwork for the oven that went in 26 years ago when the villa was built. That particular oven hasn’t worked in the last 15 years, and I use it for storage. So it was very cathartic to clear it all out.
Then in the evening we met our friends for dinner.
It was such a chill holiday.
Top from LA Space, Jeans from M&S, Shoes from Zara.
Then the next day was incredibly exciting!!
It was Cow Day! My favourite day out in Spain!
Last year we listened to the Off Menu podcast with James Acastor and Ed Gamble. And the guest on this particular episode was Rhod Gilbert.
When asked about his dream dessert he said that absolutely hands down had to be one he had in Alicante, served in a cow!
And we both thought, we need to try that too.
So we booked a table and went, and he was right. It’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten in 28 years of visiting Spain.
So now it’s part of our Spain house trip tradition.
Top from Maje, Jeans from Monsoon, Shoes from Zara, Jacket also from Maje.
Alicante is really very nice. The old town is beautiful. The promenade by the port is a delight.
The shopping on a Sunday actually exists!!
While we were there we popped into the El Cortes Ingles, would be rude not to.
Only to discover that in this particular branch they sell the good stuff! Sandro, RL et al, and to my absolute delight - Maje!
Which happens to be one of my favourite brands.
And I discovered that it is 17% cheaper in Spain than in England, which comes as no real shock. But I was definitely very happy.
The only down side is I couldn’t find any way of claiming the tax back, but still, 17% cheaper is a great deal.
The whole city is alive and lively, even though it was Sunday. Which is usually a very closed for business day in Spain. The only thing we can think is, because it’s a stop for a lot of cruise ships, that’s maybe why they open up.
The food in this restaurant is superb! 10/10 would recommend.
…but the dessert is the real showstopper!
This was the best paella we’ve had in Spain. And almost equally as delicious to Arros in Mayfair, London. (Which is the best paella I’ve ever had. The owner has 6 or 7 Michelin stars on various restaurants he owns).
But this one was very very good.
Then it’s time for Cow pudding!
It’s a brioche bread and butter pudding of sorts. With a caramelised top. It’s out of this world.
Did we need a large portion each? No!
Does it contain much, if any fibre? No!
Did we order it anyway? YES!
It was heaven. And a little of what you fancy does you good.
Have you ever seen me happier? 😂
We then felt a need for an after dinner walk.
I’m a firm believer in a fart walk. Walking after eating aids digestion, and quite honestly, my body needs all the help it can get.
Then it was back home with full tummies and shopping bags.
For another day of pottering at home.
Bikini from Tesco.
I decided to give the outside walls a coat of paint. But unfortunately, even though, unusually so for me, I prepped the walls, when I was roller-ing them I was taking more of the wall off than I was putting paint on. So I made a right mess of that.
It looks okay from a distance, which by the way is much like myself 🫣🤩😂
I gave it up in the end. I think I will just need to get a professional in.
I gave myself 10 minutes in the sun for vitamin D, and flu recovery.
I can’t sit out too long as I don’t want to prematurely age my skin in general, and on top of that I have some more suspicious areas on my skin that need checking. I imagine it’s some more Basal cell cancer again. Which is a bit of a nuisance really.
Eating healthy in the sunshine is far easier than in the gloom in my opinion.
I love this little house. It’s small but perfectly formed.
Very excitingly I’m bringing my mum and dad over to here later this year.
Our Carcassone trip last year was so much fun that we thought we’d make an annual adventure of going on holiday with them.
Which aged 52 is a huge privilege, and hilarious, I wonder if they’ll give me pocket money for trinkets and ice cream! 🤩😂
I love the energy in Spain house, I’ve got the decor exactly as I want it (well, almost, I don’t like the sofa colour, but my usual cream choice would be destroyed in about half an hour with sun cream).
After a week of convalescing in the sunshine it was time to head home.
Top from Ralph Lauren (children’s wear, this one is child’s medium. Give the kids wear a go in any shop and save the VAT, follow me for more money saving tips 🥴🫣😂). Trousers from M&S, Faux Shirt from Temu.
Back home, back to reality, back to cutting the grass, and the real world (as far as my world is real. It’s all one giant dolls house for me. I think I might actually just be playing one continuous game of Wendy house-ing).
Top from Ralph Lauren, Jeans from M&S, Shoes from Dior.
Jacket from PDKF Store, Top from Intimissimi, Jeans from M&S.
It’s good to be home, but I am very tempted to move to a flat just so I don’t have to do the garden work, I do the blue jobs here, and I’m not a fan. 😂
*I saw this utterly delightful dress in Next on Wednesday, and I absolutely adore it!
Did I buy it? No! Was I tempted? Yes!!
But the handy thing about living to the grand old age of 52 is I know my body shape.
And it’s not conducive for this style of dress.
This dress is for the perky petite boobs, the bra-less kind.
The glorious willowy waifs will look stunning in Greece 🇬🇷 this summer in this.
And I will just have to sit this one out, unless they bring it out in a mini belted shirt dress. Which I think would look amazing too, and lend itself to be a bra on style.
I love Greece 🇬🇷 and this would have been fabulous for it. We’re going back in the summer and I can’t wait.
*I don’t know if anyone else is doing this, but with the way the world is right now, I can very much foresee supply chain shortages.
So rather than run out of things I use, and instead of mad panic buying once it’s too late, I’m just slowly but surely building a fully stocked pantry.
I’m not clearing the shelves of the shop like a contestant on Supermarket Sweep, but I am adding a bag or can or two extra each time I go grocery shopping.
This is just for supply chain issues you understand. I’ve said many times that I have no intention of even attempting to survive a nuclear holocaust.
I read Z For Zachariah at school, and at no point did any of it seem like something I’d want do, or excel at.
I’m made for the soft life, the gentle life, floating about, spreading joy, and serving very little actual purpose…not scrabbling around fighting zombies for meagre contaminated rations (there’s a chance I’ve mixed my genres here, but you get my point).
I’ve stocked up on stoma bags from EBay, and release spray, and I’m actually keeping on top of ordering my NHS supplies on time, that sort of thing.
I’ve stocked up on Paracetamol, nurofen, thrush tablets, cystitis powders, laxatives, Imodium, the general stuff that I’d be a bit fucked if I didn’t have them readily available, even if I very rarely use them.
Plus the foods that we eat regularly. I appreciate the cost of food is already outrageous, so stocking up is going to be expensive, but I have a feeling we ain’t seen nothing yet, it’s worth getting ahead of the curve. Having at least 4 weeks worth of food and sundries in stock.
We bought a camping gas cooker, and gas bottles. So we can heat food if there’s power outages.
We bought a car battery and camping light for the same reason. We are ready and prepared.
I bought a few extra sticks of the deodorant I use, because I have sensitive skin and anything else flares my skin up. So it made sense to just get a few spare to be ahead.
And if I’m wrong, well, no harm done, it’s food we eat and things we’ll use anyway.
Remember when everyone went mad over toilet rolls in Covid. Well I don’t fancy leaving it till that point. Adding a few extra bits each time I grocery shop should keep us safe from all that chaos.
Especially as I’m usually someone who shops daily, rather than doing a big weekly shop. It makes sense for me to get a few extra things in.
I’ve stocked the freezer with frozen berries and veg for supply chain of fresh food shortages too.
Little things to make life easier in the coming months.
But still with a focus on health and fibre. Even in a crisis I want to eat well.
…Unlike the Covid times where I baked a Victoria sandwich every other day, and ate it at equal speed.
The Covid years added a stone and a half, and it’s taken me two years of eating well to get it back off.
So I won’t be doing that again.
I just thought it was worth being prepared, because our oil delivery caught us out a couple of weeks ago.
Our house only has electricity and our heating is oil fired.
Usually a tank full is £350, but about a week into the blockade our delivery, for the same amount of oil was £790. It caused that much of a jump that quickly.
And poor Sam and Milly are on oil heating too and they couldn’t get a delivery at all because they were quoted £1250, for the same amount they used to pay £350 for.
Also I’m keeping my car topped up with petrol, and using my bicycle more.
I want to stay ahead of the curve, because the heating oil price caught us out big time.
Take little steps now to try and make life easier.
Anyway, thank you for coming back. And thank you so much for the lovely people who checked in on me while I was in my sick bed. It made me quite emotional that people cared about me enough to check on me. So thank you for that. Much appreciated.
And I hope to god you don’t go down with it. It’s awful. ❤️🩹
*Ready for anything, panic free zone.
