22

The time had come for me to move up to big school as I was coming up to 11 years old.

Inevitably this was never going to be straightforward!

Mum, Dad and I had looked around our local catchment school, but it didn’t really suit. One of the main reasons being that again,they took one look at my wheelchair and saw it as a problem. Actually the chair itself had never been a problem, only the person sitting in it as the OSO frequently reminded me! Once people had decided that this was going to cause difficulties, no matter how good the school was access wise if there was a general negative attitude it was never going to work. Access was also a very big problem as well in the school as to get from one classroom to another I frequently would have had to have gone on my own in my wheelchair around the outside of the school building because there were steps inside the school which obviously were a no go area for me and my wheelchair.

So yet again we were off looking around at other schools. We went to look at the main LEA school in Bakewell which had a brilliant reputation for educational standards and discipline which mattered a lot to the parents especially at the thought of Roger progressing onto the school after me because they knew strong discipline was going to be very important for Roger my younger brother!

So we decided after looking around and talking to the staff at length that this was going to be the school for me and my brothers. Access wise it was not brilliant, but the staff were; I and my wheelchair were not viewed as a potential problem and they actually wanted me to go there (despite having fossil and the OSO as parents). In reality the school has realised what an asset I was clearly going to be to the school!

It was not that straightforward because the school was not our catchment school, which then, made it a lot more difficult to get there. However, the OSO by this time was getting very, very good at putting our case forward (practice makes perfect) and eventually I was accepted at the school. It was brilliant, I really liked it there. The staff were great and I made loads and loads of friends all of whom saw me for myself and not my wheelchair.

 Mum had to take me each day, and fetch me back because obviously I couldn’t get on the bus, but that didn’t stop locally as the school was out of catchment. This caused ever more juggling for the OSO, taking me to Bakewell, getting Roger and Alistair to their schools and then getting herself to work in Sheffield and reverse at the end of the day. It didn’t take long to realise this was going to be very difficult so luckily, the College where she worked were offering redundancy packages so Mum managed to get one and stopped working there. Then (would you believe it) she managed to get a part time job at my school, so she only had to be two places at the same time rather than three, easy peasy for the OSO and then finding that she had so much spare time on her hands she went and bought herself a pony with her redundancy money!!

21

I have just realised that things in my blog are not always accurate in terms of time scale, though I don’t suppose it matters much ‘cause things just come into my mind and I write them, often things get a bit muddled, but then I’m not my mother’s son for nothing!

Whilst I am increasingly aware that my blog keeps getting somewhat muddled up in I was still at primary school I kept getting loads and loads of really bad sore and infected throats. Something else I inherited from the OSO! She had to have her tonsil out in her teens because kept getting really ill with them It would have been nice if I had inherited some of her good genes (if she had any). I kept going to the doctor and getting ‘banana medicine’. Amoxycilin (not sure how you spell it, sorry doctors)  to the more medically minded of you, in an attempt to try and stop it, but it always kept coming back. Very boringly each time it came back I got worse.

I forgot to say, by this time Mum used to take me to a healer (more of than in another blog or two) and he said it was getting really bad in his opinion too.

In the end I got referred to an ENT specialist at the Manchester hospital who dealt with my M.D. and he said the tonsils had to come out as they would probably cause me too much bother in the future. Trouble was I couldn’t have them out at my local hospital as my M.D. apparently made me take up anaesthetics differently and I would need a specialist gas man, otherwise I might die during the op! Putting it like that the parents thought it would be a good idea to go to Manchester for the operation.

 

So the family took me over in our van one very cold December with snow threatening, there was also a shortage of diesel and petrol due to a strike or something, I can’t remember what. Anyway mum and I got dropped off (yes, I had to put up with the OSO staying with me as I was only 10years old). Dad, Roger and Al then had a very tricky journey home as it had started to snow badly and it was quite iffy driving. Mum was worried for them. The journey took ages, Rog and Al thought it was dead exciting!

I had my operation the next day, and survived it! I did all right actually. I was a lot better after the anaesthetic than mum was when she had them. I did bleed a lot, but again, seemingly that’s common with M.D. people.

 I can’t honestly remember how long I was in hospital, I know it was longer than Al who had to have his tonsils out a few years later (the OSO’s duff genes got passed onto him as well!). I do remember though that I was out in time for Christmas and managed to eat my dinner so it can’t have been all bad!

So all in all having my tonsils out wasn’t that bad. More complicated than it was for people without M.D. but I was used to that being the case, and the positive side was that I got loads of extra Christmas presents. The down side was I didn’t get much time off school because the operation was done just before the Christmas holidays, so my recovery time was in the school holidays!

Hi, sorry I’ve not posted a blog in a while, but the OSO and Fossil have been away on a long holiday to Australia and New Zealand, which, for those of you who know them well was a remarkable achievement for Fossil going away at all, let alone for three weeks and such a long way away from home and an achievement for the OSO kidding him along for so long that they were just going away ‘for a long weekend!’

A big lever for Mum was that Al, my little brother, was over there, and in fact still is, on walkabout with three of his old Uni. mates. For those of you that have been following him on Facebook, you will see what an awesome time he has been having.

So the OSO and dad flew out to meet them in Australia and of course do other things whilst they were out there. The trip was a great success. Initially they flew out to Sydney and once Mum had recovered from her throwing up migraine they had a few days there doing all the usual sights and from there they flew up to Cairns which was where they were scheduled to meet Al. Bit of a hiccup there in that Al and his mates were flying up from NZ and missed their connecting flight from Sydney ( Al still maintains it was not their fault) so they were a day late arriving in Cairns. In the end all went well and they all had a great time, the best bit being on the Great Barrier Reef with Al and the OSO scuba diving looking at the fishes, turtles and sharks. As Al said ‘how amazing is this’

You may be wondering what Fossil was doing, he stayed in a glass bottomed boat and looked at the reef that way! As he said

‘If God had meant me to swim under water he would have given me gills!’

If you look on either Mum’s or Al’s face book site you will see some pictures of them snorkeling and scuba diving.

They all had a fantastic time. Mum and Dad and Al had a day on their own, Mum worrying about Al’s sore foot caused by his flip flops rubbing which he said was fine, but ended up later having to have hospital treatment because of a really bad infection (in some cases Mum’s do know best!).

They parted company after a few days. Al and his group carrying their trip in Aus. and the OSO and Dad flying off to Aukland in NZ (in case you didn’t know). They really, really enjoyed their time there. The scenery was spectacular with so many great things to do. From there they should have gone on the scenic railway all the way down the North Island. This was a bit of the holiday that had been specially planned for Dad but it didn’t happen cause the train had broken and they weren’t told until they arrived to get on the train at 6.45 in the morning. The train people tried to put all of them onto a coach, but the parents were having non of it and with the help of a lovely couple who lived in Aukland, managed to hire the last available car in Aukland and drove themselves down in one day, which was a long way, but the roads were very quiet, the scenery was amazing at at least they wern’t stuck on a coach with the OSO throwing up!

From there they had a couple of days in Wellington, caught the ferry to South Island and then drove down to Kaikoura which was where, I think, that the OSO really had the best time cause she kayaked with seals swam in the sea with wild dolphins, went whale watching, basically she never stopped. Fossil had a great time too waving her off and having a more leisurely time on shore! They have been married for SO long now, they just know how to keep each other happy! Ah!.

After that they drove down to Christchurch for a couple of days and then flew home where Roger met them at the airport and looked after Mum with another of her sick migraines. (long haul flight DO NOT suit her) and then home to rainy old England. The OSO was so depressed for at least a week after getting back home that Dad vowed never to let her go away again! She’s fine again now, back into her old daft ways!

So there you go; a quick guide to what they got up to.

Now that I’ve got more time not having to keep an eye on them whilst they were travelling, I will have more time to write my blog so watch this space!