2013: A review

As I logged on to write my annual review of the last year of my life I actually let out a little gasp as I realised my last post was written back in August 2013. I knew I'd been away for a while, I just hadn't realised quite how long that while was. As well as taking maternity leave from my job I also decided to take maternity leave from my blog. It's just a shame that I can't take maternity leave from arthritis, too, but I'll save that whinge for another time. 

Before I remind you (and myself) about the highlights of my twelfth year of living with arthritis, I thought I'd share my New Year's resolutions with you all:

1. Lose baby weight. 

2. Stop eating so many doughnuts in order to stand a chance at achieving point 1. 

3. Be well enough to reduce steroid dose in order to stand a chance at achieving point 1.

3. Get better at updating blog. 

And so to the main reason for this blog post. Inevitably there have been bad times as well as good, mainly due to pain but with a few weeks of serious morning sickness thrown in for good measure. However, some amazing things have happened that mean that life right now, despite the pain, couldn't be better. 

- Getting through my last year of university.

- A much needed holiday.

- A marathon with a difference. 

- A pregnancy. 

- A new home. 

- Becoming a doctor. 

- Agreeing to marry my best friend.

- Great times with great friends. 

- Isla Rose Wade. 

- Going another year without letting this bitch of a disease defeat me. 

Happy New Year!

Six months of news

Yes, I'm still here. I know, it's been a while. For some reason, I was actually given work to do. At university. What IS that? What have six years of medicine taught me? That I should have chosen a normal degree.

Right. It's really hard to know where to start when you haven't written a blog post for SIX WHOLE MONTHS. If I had had the chance to tell you about what's been happening in my life I would have probably told you about the time I went to see Girls Aloud at the O2 in London with my friend, Sophie, and her mum, Tricia, and how my arms ached for days afterwards from all the clapping and arm waving, and how they left out one of my favourite songs, probably because Sarah Harding would have sounded a bit like this:  

I would have also probably told you about the amazing holiday my boyfriend and I recently went on, and how my hip set off the metal detectors at Gatwick Airport, and how the security officer oh so originally questioned whether I was too young to have had a hip replaced, and how it didn't set off the metal detectors at Chania Airport and I obviously therefore assumed we were going to die.

I would have also blogged around the time of year when I'm usually panicking, realizing I've got a marathon to run in a couple of months, and at least starting to consider putting on a pair of trainers. You would have heard that this year, however, was different and that I spent most of my evenings sat on the sofa, eating family-sized portions of banoffee pie out of the packet, with no intention of even getting up to find my trainers let alone putting them on. Once I even found myself watching Eastenders WEARING THE SAME CARDIGAN AS JEAN. I really need to start running again. 

When I first realized I wouldn't be able to run the London Marathon this year I was gutted. Regular readers of this blog will know how much the London Marathon means to me, and the thought that I wouldn't be a part of it this year was even more painful than the run itself. But instead I got to be part of it in a different way - as a spectator cheering the thousands of incredible people running for important causes, including two very special people running on behalf of myself and Arthritis Research UK. 

I've always found running the London Marathon to be emotional, but this year brought a whole new meaning to the word as I proudly cheered on my boyfriend, James, and one of my best friends, Alex, along the 26 mile course. Oh and by the way, they also happened to raise over £3000 between them for arthritis research in the process. 

...What else? At some point I probably would have felt the need to update you on my health. Part of the reason I haven't updated my blog in so long is because there hasn't really been a lot to talk about. This is a good thing for two reasons; one, because you haven't had to lose ten minutes of your life every couple of weeks reading about arthritis and two, because it basically means I haven't had much pain to grumble about. As a result I've even been able to stop taking medication for a while. 

And I would have at some point told you that I'm up the duff. I really hope you didn't just have to go and look that phrase up on Urban Dictionary like my friend Diviya. 

On that awful day in 2002 when I was diagnosed the freedom to have a baby whenever I so wish was taken away from me, possibly even forever. Some of the medications used to treat the disease are toxic to an unborn child, whilst the effects on a foetus of others are currently unknown. So I was told that if I ever want to get pregnant I would have to be medication free for at least six months before even trying to conceive. And then not take any medication whilst I am pregnant. And then still not take any medication whilst I am breastfeeding. Oh and somehow stay pain free so that I can actually function and, most importantly, hold my baby. For several years this simply has never been an option, because I have been too ill to stop taking medication for six days let alone six months. So when the chance arose I jumped at it...and I couldn't be happier.

Finally I would have told you about a great blog I have found written by someone else with arthritis who isn't 40 years older than me and who actually makes me laugh as opposed to making me want to eat my body weight in banoffee pie like so many other arthritis blogs do. I think you should read it.

http://arthritisactually.wordpress.com/

See?

You didn't really miss much.

And I've now finished what will hopefully turn out to be my last ever exams, so yay, we all win.