Last Monday seen us up at the hospital for a follow up to Aisha's bladder scan. The specialist advised she has an over active bladder and has prescribed medicine to be taken 3 times a day. He advised there may be side effects, which there has been, she has got diarrhea. But there are alternatives which we will get. We already have noticed a difference so fingers crossed this will be the cure to this problem.
Friday was the last day of our logistics department at work. I have in effect been demoted and am no longer a supervisor. Two of the girls have moved to a new department in our new head office. The change made me surprisingly sad. I have worked closely with Denise for years and she is by far the best colleague i have had. I'm really going to miss her. The new dept that is left is going to push us to the limit, I can only see heartache to follow.
Yesterday was the first anniversary of dad's passing. Me, Dave and Mum went to the garden of remembrance. It was nice to reflect on happy memories. Mum is coping well with it.

I had a good weekend this weekend. I was in work on Saturday morning, then watched UP with Aisha on Saturday afternoon. This has to be the best animated film released for years. Then at night i watched The Firm, a remake of the 80's football casual film. As someone who was involved in this culture i always take great notice of these films. This one is one of the better ones, though the plot and characters aren't great, this one stands out because the fight scenes are the most realistic I have come across. Coming off the train and meeting an opposing mob, you would always be cagey, sussing each other out. Some films show fighting like a hollywood blockbuster, which never happened. The original of this film, which starred Gary Oldeman, wasn't believable to me, but this one is, with the right blend of fashion, which to many was the most important aspect of the whole scene, the fighting, for which to others was the only important thing.
Sunday was a great day. In the morning i went down to the beach for a run. It was a glorious morning, with no wind and the sun shining. The sand was mostly covered in snow so i went to the raised dunes for a run, feeling it today!!
In the afternoon we went for a family run, ending up in Gardenstown, a small coastal fishing village. It was great to walk around, imaging how harsh life would have been living here years ago. The road from there to Fraserbourgh is nice and Windy, fun to drive, not so fun for my co-pilot Kim!!
I have been looking at the bathroom and it is needing decorated. we put a new suite in a couple years back but scrimped on the decorating, so need to address that. Not so easy with no money. So i am going to start a project where i am going to attempt to raise £1000. This will be done by selling off old books, CD's, etc on Ebay. Decluttering they call it!!
Today i have a half day as we have another appointment with the children's hospital. After Aisha's scan of her bladder we now have to sit down with the specialist to decide what can be done!!

its been a while

Its been over two weeks since my last post, due to the fact i have been off work. I have had holidays to use up and needed to get away from the place. the rest done me the world of good. I got to spend some quality time with the family. Aisha had a few hospital appointments. One was a test for Autism. This was really tough to watch. Me and Kim sat in the room and watched as aisha sat with a psychologist and done a series of tests. She was given toys and asked to make a story with them, or to build something. As the test went on she clammed up and communication stopped. It was so hard to watch her without being able to help her. After an hour she was given a pen and paper and this seemed to change her as she found a new way to communicate. After the test both the psychologist and doctor said she had done well. We are still waiting for the results. another appointment she had was to get her bladder X-Rayed. She still continues to wet herself. The test was a simple scan the same as a pregnant mother would have, but with a full then empty bladder. Her full bladder had 95ml of urine but when she went to empty it she still had 15ml left, so she isn't emptying her bladder properly. This may mean she feels she wants to pee most of the time and holds off until she is bursting, and inevitably ends up wetting herself. We have another meeting next week to discuss what can be done to help her.

She also had her eyes tested again. This went really well. She has astigmatism in her right eye, and it is slightly weaker than her left eye. As the eye sight still improves until the age of 7, we are putting a patch on her for two hours a day to try and help it. She has to be watching TV or playing her Nintendo DS, something that requires the eyes to focus. We will be back in three months to see if there is any improvement.

I also spent some time with mum. Her carers are really struggling with her just now. The main issue is her lack of ability to control her diabetes. She is going hypo three times a week sometimes more. On Monday i phoned her at 5pm and she told me she was hypo coming home on the bus, and her carer had to help her home as she couldn't walk. A neighbour ran out and help as well. Then at 9pm that night i got a phone call from her carer to say she couldn't get in to mums house and she had went hypo again. I went out on the Tuesday and had a talk with her, telling her what she had to do, what to eat etc. the carer told me that night the conversation had a big impact on her. then the next day i phoned her to see how she was and within 24 hours of our talk she had slipped back into her old ways. I don't know if she is ever going to be able to sort it out. The carer, the nurse and myself are meeting in a month or so to decide a way forward.

The diet/fitness regime has been going okay, but the weight wont shift. I feel better for it, definitely. But the weight is still a major issue. I know the reason why. I eat a fairly decent diet, plenty of vegetables, fruit, and good honest Scottish cooking. I also enjoy a beer or two. For me to lose the weight I need to stop all that and really cut my calorie intake down. I need to get into boiled chicken instead of fried chicken. i thought by eating sensibly without making too much issue of it, along with exercise the weight would fall off. It hasn't. i have enquired about a weight loss programme through the Rowan Institute who are running a four week programme, aimed at losing about 5% of overall weight. It would mean daily visits for blood tests, and a very controlled diet. I'll see what info they send me to see if i am suitable.
The exercise is okay, last week i went down to the beach for a run. Christ, that was hard work, running in the sand. I am also still swinging the kettlebell when i can. the days are stretching and once the weather improves the bike will get dusted down!!

last week was good, and bad, and ok. Depends on which area of my life i look at. Good, the diet, still going, along with the fitness. Only lost a 1lb last week, but as long as i keep going in the right direction i am happy. Bad, work situation. I have been demoted due to restructuring, and my overtime will be completely shot down, to a bare minimum. This could be £500 plus a month off my pay slip. I could handle that, more time at home etc, but then Kim went and got paid off. So another £500 plus a month gone. In one week we have lost a grand a month. A bit shell shocked with it all but at this moment nothing we can do. Ok, Mum is doing fine, has her moments but ticking along nicely. will go into more depth this week when i have time. My time management has been poor this week, i don't know if it is a winter thing but motivation has been tough. But, gotta keep on going!!