Here are a few pics of my Godson Matthew, he entered the world abruptly while they were on the way to hospital in the middle of the night. Thankfully both Mother and baby were fine. Just before my exams started he was baptised and I am a very proud doting Godmother (now I have two kiddies to spoil). His Dad was in an accident the day after his baptism so things have been a bit tough in their house for a bit but it sounds like daddy is recovering well so fingers crossed he won't have much in the way of lasting impairment.I made his mother promise to take pics of him while I was away on break for 3 weeks because I was going to miss him growing (hopefully will get them from her soon) and he has grown a lot!

They came round the other afternoon when I was home from uni so I got lots of smiles and cuddles until he was fussing to be fed and Mother was required again :)I love babies, and he is a cutie. I cant believe that he is 10 weeks already!
Ok, so a little summary of my trip away. The plane ride over was ok, but I felt it more in the morning as I had to get my bags down 2 flights of stairs, silly me declined the offer of help from a young man. The 8 hour train ride to Armidale was ok too as I didnt have anyone sitting beside me so I was able to rest my legs up for most of the trip.
The first few days I spent in Armidale where my friend is studying, it was the 'restful' part of the trip, we did venture out and went on a heritage tour as well as a shopping trip and she gave me a guided tour of the university. But there was plenty of time for resting up, so much that I even read a whole book (something I haven't done for I dont know how long). She was in charge of all meals so I really didnt have to do much at all!

Then we took the train (another 8 hours and this time no chance of putting my feet up) back to Sydney to spend the rest of my holiday to get a taste of what Sydney has to offer. We were lucky enough to be able to stay in her friends appartment which was really nice.

We did rather a lot in the 4 days we had, maybe a little too much for me but I didnt want to waste the time so I braved it out. We did mammoth amounts of walking and there were a few moments where I just had to sit down and we had to find somewhere with seats. There was no chance of sitting on the pavement because there were just so many people walking everywhere. Each night as we headed back to the appartment for tea I was on my last legs so dinner was always simple and we got in our jamas and watched movies before going to sleep.
The weather was lovely most of the time, much warmer than it had been at home and a couple of days it was even just t-shirt weather.
I did have a lot of fun and we are already plotting places to go and visit (and shops too) which we didnt have time for but have decided we need to be earning and have plenty of money to spend lo (but even without much money this time I managed a fair bit of shopping)l!
Once I got home (thank you Mum for picking me up at the airport in the middle of the night), it took me a bit to get over the over activity of the week away but we pay the price of having fun and it was worth it. Waiting for the heritage tour to start in Armidale



With the Sydney harbour bridge in the background, it was warm enough for short sleeves

One of my much needed sit down breaks and refueling (I had a strawberry blended ice which was yummy!)

Another sunny day having fun on the way to Darling Harbour

Indulging, we had our nails done one morning
Holiday adventures should be the first post but I haven't got them all written up so instead I've got some dr appointment news to share.
I've been issued with a few things I MUST do (uh things I kinda knew I should be doing but have been a little slack with)
1-Try and take at least one salmon oil capsule a day despite how sick I feel (had been taking 4)
2-Make sure I take magnesium every day (should help the crappy distorting cramp things)
3-use the lignocaine cream twice a day (not the every now and then I have been doing to save it)
4-NO more falls

I got offered another peripheral nerve injection but it didnt do much good last time and I dont know what my hesitation is but I just dont feel 100% so I said no, I even said to them I didnt know why except that it didnt help much last time and they were fine with it but I still felt like I didnt have a good enough reason to say no.

I saw my physio this morning and its always good to see her because we get an hour to really discus things.
One of the first things she asked me was how much weight had I lost! I dont even know as I haven't weighed myself but its not that much I'm sure.
I had another random, extreme, double over in waves of pain, sweat bucket loads and feel like I'm going to pass out episodes a couple of days ago. Dr once again goes through the process of suspecting appendicitis (which I said it wasnt going to be), it was different from last time and several theories were suggested, bloods were done (which showed an elevated white count but later attributed to a cold I had over a week ago) but for now I'm to just monitor how things go.
Physio is pretty sure its all crps related, preceded by bad eating habits and stress. Apparently my stomach and GI tract are reacting to normal stimuli (ie food) and stretch and is so sensitive because I've basically been starving myself (not intenionally) so now I just feel very ill and nauseated all the time. So instead of the usual physio catch up session I had a nutrition lesson. A meal planner has been drawn up and step by step how to build up to eating 6 meals a day and what should be included in each one. I am not looking forward to all the work planning lists of choices but if this is what I have to do to start feeling better then I'm going to try my best. I am going to have to really plan this well so that I know what to buy at the supermarket each week or its not going to work and I need this to work.

We really didnt touch on how things have been going crps wise in other directions because she said the most important thing right now is to get me back on track or else nothing is going to change regardless of what we do. She did make me feel a bit better by saying that I'm doing really well and that because I'm in such a physically demanding course that its helping keep me going. Despite the times like I told her when I really don't want to eve stand up, I do because I have to...I realise even though I felt like I had lost my motivation-if I had, I wouldn't have carried on so I know I'm going back to physio school on Monday and I know I can do this. She also said not to let people make me feel like I have to prove anything, I can do this just as well as anybody and passing all my exams from last semester (apart from the one I have yet to sit) shows that. Another thing for me to keep in mind.

So for now I'm just going to focus on the things I can change, like my eating habits (or lack of) and following the pain specialists instructions more closely because if I dont do my part how can I expect change?