Celebrating the wins 🎉

This week I did something for the first time in 2 years... I drove my car to the local dealership to get it's service and MOT. Yes this doesn't sound like much, but it's a huuuuuge step for me, here's why:

Since I've been unwell, car journeys are, to put it bluntly, awful. I get car sickness that's on steroids and all the potholes and bumps exacerbate my pain, so being a passenger is something I just sort of put up with, and have a rest when we arrive wherever we're going. So add that to the mental energy and physicality actually driving the car takes, along with a fuzzy not quite fully with it brain, and you have a recipe for being a perfectly worn out and overwhelmed driver. Now, before anyone jumps in saying 'that's dangerous driving, what are you doing that for!?', I am fully aware of this and have been slowly building up my tolerance and 'driving fitness' by doing little drives to the gym and little bits around the local area so 'shhh'. 

The actual drive to my local garage is a short one, approximately 10-15 minutes depending on traffic (aka tractors); to any functioning adult this may seem like nothing, but for me it was a big hurdle to overcome. My husband and I even did a dry run a few days before to make sure I could do it, I'm honestly so glad we did because it gave me the confidence for the actual day. Yes, the drive made me feel absolutely rubbish, but I did it. The beauty of it being for a car service and MOT is also that I had 3+ hours to sit in the dealership, making the most of the free drinks, and recuperating for the drive home. So despite the fact I'm still feeling the effects of the exertion 2 days later, I'm so glad I did it because it means that some doors may be starting to open, and I'm another step closer to having my freedom back! I'm sure my husband is also glad of it because it means there may be an end to his side hustle as my personal chauffeur! 

With that I leave you with this, yes something may make you feel rubbish whilst you're doing it, but the overall reward of completing that task or doing that scary thing can open up so many more options and horizons! So take the win and concentrate on the positive to come out of it!

Ta ta for now! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Whatcha gonna do about it?

I've blabbered on a lot about what my experience of gut brain disconnect is, however this week I wanted to touch on how/what has helped me to start improving.  Initially I want to give more of an idea of just how far everything changed when I got poorly. I went from being a regular gym goer, runner and walking my dog 3x a day to being unable to walk further than the end of our drive and having to be pushed in a wheelchair and struggling to even dress myself in the morning. Now even though i managed to make some improvements from this point, my progress to December was very slow. From getting my rough diagnosis, I was given a pathway forward, this consists of: - Continuing aiding the symptoms with medication to enable some functionality - Trauma Therapy (EMDR in my case) - Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy  - Working with dietitians/nutritionist to control weight loss - Yoga and other nervous system calming treatments - Gut lead Hypnotherapy In summary, my consultant concluded that, a...
Read more

365 days later

 1 Year on seems like a good place to start, so here we are! 1 year since my world, quite literally, turned belly up. A day that's set me on a journey leading to creating this blog. Who knows, perhaps no one will read it, but if 1 person does and finds some support then I've achieved my aim. So, what happened to prompt this? Well... In December 2024, I was loosely diagnosed with 'Gut-Brain Disconnect'. I say loosely as it was through a process of elimination and there is not a singular diagnostic test that can be done, I am also still looking at alternative avenues, however this seems to be the most likely culprit of my current situation. Sparing the details, the theory is that my brain and my gut stopped talking the same language to one another as a result of mental trauma that has built up over the years, disrupting my vagus nerve (sadly not to be mistaken for 'Las Vagas which is far more fun and exciting...!). It turns out that this nerve connects practically all...
Read more

How did we get here?

As I mentioned in my first post, my rollercoaster started a year ago on 29th April. I woke up with what was a rather uncomfortable stomach, thought it would settle and tried to carry on. By 1pm that day I was in A&E with severe abdominal pain and no idea what was wrong. After a week in hospital, multiple scans and tests later we were still none the wiser. One suggestion was a burst ovarian cyst, but this was quickly ruled out.  Fast forward 1 month, I was still in a lot of pain, unable to work and we were still clueless; so seeking help privately became the only option. Queue up more tests and scans trying to identify the issue or rule things out and being sent to different consultants. This lasted until December when I finally got some answers, albeit through exclusion of everything else. I was told I likely have gut brain disconnect with visceral hypersensitivity and a pelvic floor that didn't work properly, all ultimately due to trauma.  Getting my head around this was ...
Read more