Wow! Christmas has been and gone for another year and doesn't it disappear quickly compared to all the weeks of build-up?!

We had a lovely Christmas Day (at my parents) and Boxing Day (with Brad's family). I was on IV's this Christmas and was pretty knackered out for most of it, but we managed to adapt the festivities to suit my gnat-sized energy levels and as long as you can adapt things I don't think it really affects the enjoyment of anything. I'm finding these days that even things like sitting up at the table for a long meal is too exhausting, so I had a nap on the sofa after finishing my main course and returned for Xmas pudding (or as Brad described it "that round thing that comes after the turkey"...) Actually I always used to get bored during the "polite after dinner chatting" anyway, so I reckon it works quite well this way! Then I had another rest on the sofa whilst we opened presents, followed by a rest in bed and then Christmas cake woo hoo!

The following day we went up to Brad's family for the traditional "Boxing Day lunch" of cold turkey, gammon, mashed potatoes, pickles, etc followed by trifle. I have finally accepted that I socialise best in a horizontal position ( Oi! You with the mucky mind...you know who you are...) so happily chatted away and opened more presents snuggled under a blanket on the sofa, which worked well because it meant I was able to enjoy more of the day without feeling exhausted.

I got some lovely presents and feel like a very spoilt girly. Pink particularly seemed to dominate a great deal of my presents this year....spot the infouence of a certain Miss Thackray there?! I had pink pyjamas, two pink jumpers, a pink top and some seriously groovy pink stripy socks. One of the jumpers is pink and candy stripes so with my stripy socks I now look like a very happy pink mint humbug!

Today I went to clinic for my "after week 1 of IV's" check-up (must think of a catchier name than that...) and guess what?!! My lung function has reached the dizzy heights of 1.8 litres (48%)!!!! I don't think it has been that level for many years so clearly having become chronically infected with a weird bug is doing wonders for the old lungs WOO HOO!! In fact this time last year it was static at around 39% I think, so I guess that despite the hassle, 14 weeks of IV's this year has done some good YAY!

In my typically odd style, I am actually feeling pretty pants despite this great improvement and am more breathless and generally wiped out these days than I have been in a long while. I do find it frustrating though that no one seems to be able to work out why I am steadily becoming able to do smaller and smaller amounts of anything that vaguely requires any energy, and yet my lung function is doing so well. What's the point of having all that space in my lungs when I have the stamina of a flea? Still, the main thing is that whatever is going on it doesn't appear to be damaging my lungs so thats definitely something to be pleased about and thankful for. And after all, I simply wouldn't be me if anything about me made sense hehe!

After clinic I decided to see what all the fuss was about the sales this year, and we braved Swindon town centre with me safely installed in Fraggle (the wheelchair). I must say I didn't really see that much to get excited about and we seemed to end up coming home with about 15 toilet rolls, 4 kitchen rolls and 3 boxes of tissues all from "99p Land"...how festive! (and no we don't have a paper-product obsession really.....)

I also discovered a new mathematical equation: wheelchair + people madly intent on a post-Xmas shopping bargain = madness and mayhem. Brad doesn't do patience when he is pushing me...after all, he's spent the last few years walking at a snails pace round the shops and having to stop and look interested every 5 seconds to answer questions like "does this go better with that or would you say that needs some shoes like this to work?" so when he can welly it he is going to, crowds of dawdling shoppers or not. This produces a particularly interesting spectacle in shops that insist on ignoring the needs of wheelchair users and pack the aisles full of hanging clothes and debris. Result? Brad's sweeps past leaving a trail of destruction in our path as I desperately apologise to the latest person whose ankles he has broken.

As we crashed our way round the town I considered what a mad idea Xmas shopping sales are anyway. On 24th December people are rushing around buying all sorts of stuff and getting totally stressed out before collapsing in a heap with hundreds of bags and queuing for 2 hours to get out of the car park. Then two days later they all suddenly want to do the exact same thing again, only this time they have to queue for 4 hours, fight their way through rails of mis-sized crap, sustain serious head injurys from flying elbows every 5 seconds and see everything they bought 2 days beforehand at half price.

Now I really must pop into that big Next tomorrow to see if they have those trousers reduced.....