Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Promises, Promises...

My partner had an interview yesterday at a local care home. He was very happy with the way it went and was under the impression the interviewers were quite impressed with him. They told him they'd ring before lunch today to let him know if he'd got the job or not. Well..they didn't ring. We're assuming that means he hasn't got the job but I get so made when people promise to ring or email and then don't bother. It's disgraceful to get peoples hopes ups and then disappoint them like that.

Mr C's positivity has taken a severe nose dive due to this. Not only that but he's been told by the other job that he can't start until his new CRB comes back (he had one done last March so they can see he's no risk, although I completely understand why they want to wait). Unfortunately, Mr C had it in his had that convictions were "spent" after 5 years but it turns out it's 10 years for sentences over 6 months - this now means that he has 2 "unspent" convictions; which could mean he's no chance of employment until 2014 when they will finally be "spent". You can imagine what kind of head space he's in right now. Things are more than a little strained and after a few days of finally starting to relax about our finances, I'm back to panicking again.

I'm not sure if it's anything to do with his Hep or not but my partner has had an upset stomach the past week, maybe a bit longer. I really hope he's not going to end up ill again. His stomach can be very problematic. He passes blood in huge amounts when he's going through a bad episode and it scares me half to death. In fact he spent Christmas Eve the year before last in hospital and I was stuck at home worried sick about him. Luckily he's not been passing blood this time, he just has very loose stools and a feeling of something pressing or weighing down on his lowere left side of his abdomen. Hopefully he'll go and get checked out at the doctors sometime this week.

Anyway, I got a bag of goodies from my best friend today - a belated birthday pressie! My birthday goody bag consisted of a huge box of Lily O'Briens chocolates and lots of pampering bath gels, body scub, body butter, bath bombs and face masks...so I'm going to have an hour of Me Time whilst my partner has some of his own in front of the TV!

Monday, 20 February 2012

Just Another Manic Monday

Well, the weekend and the kids half term holiday are done. We had planned to do a lot of nice family things but none of us were really up to it. Hopefully next weekend we'll do something nice together to make up for it.

Mr C went for his interview at the care home today and he thinks it went very well. They told him they'd let him know by tomorrow lunchtime if he's got the job. Although he already has a concrete job offer, he would be happier with this job as it's a few minutes from our house so he'd save a fortune on travel expenses (the other job means catching 6 buses a day!).

The positivity on the job front has helped keep his spirits up no end. I don't think I've seen him this happy for such a sustained period of time before. I think he's really looking forward to getting out there and being himself again not just the guy with hep sat at home staring at the same four walls. He can't wait to be financially independant again too. I just hope his health holds outand he doesn't end up suffering with the Hep again. He did say today he's more aware now that he has to take extra good care of his body..plenty of water, decent sleep, light exercise, a very healthy diet and no alcohol.

It was my birthday on Saturday, I had a small glass of Cava to celebrate, no idea what to do with the rest of the bottle though! I think my partners biggest test this year will be next month at our first music "alldayer" of the year. If he can get through that without drinking or just having a couple of pints I'll know he's going to be alright.

If you saw ads on here recently, I started using google adsense but they disabled my account today for using the word shit in my blog. I find that a little ridiculous but there ya go. I thought it might be a nice idea to earn a little bit of money as I blogged - every little helps as they say - perhaps I'll use an alternative or maybe just leave the whole ad thing alone...

My partner has been using a Hep C online support group quite a bit recently and he's finding it very beneficial. Another user of the group who's from the UK was telling him how they're taking part in a treatment trial at the moment so hopefully we can get some more info on that and see if Mr C can jump onboard something similar!

Time for an early night, so it's bye for now

Thursday, 16 February 2012

A Job Offer At Last!!

The neighbour popped round at lunchtime with some post which had been wrongly delivered to her house. Turns out Mr C has been offered a job!!! He's ecstatic, we were just on our way out for him to sign on at the job centre so hopefully today will be his last time signing on.

He is a bit worried that they might change their minds when they get all the forms back as one of them asked for an in depth medical history and he's had to make them aware of his Hep C as they'll be checking with the doctor. We'll know by next week if he can start, other than the health stuff it's all looking good and they were keen for him to start a.s.a.p.

Oh well, if they change their mind about him working there, he still has the interview on Monday to fall back on.

Aaargh, FLU!

I've been stuck in bed for a couple of days, suffering quite badly with flu. I normally have quite a good immune system and don't get ill often at all. I guess the recent stress I've been under has taken its tll on my rsistence to nasties! I tend to cook a lot so luckily there was plenty of leftover pasta bolognaise for the family to have for lunch. Dinner time was a Pot Noodle a piece which isn't exactly brilliant but they were happy enough!

My partner doesn't really know how to cook, otherwise I know he'd have taken over meal duties. He's spent most of his life living off takeaways and ready meals. Apparently he can make a pretty good curry, maybe I'll let him loose in the kitchen..on the proviso he doesn't use my Global knives or Le Creuset cookware (of which he's alreally broken one!).  Luckily he's not fallen victim to the flu as he gets his yearly flu jab because of the Hep C, he's a bit chesty and tired so is fighting something off though.

Despite feeling crappy we're quite excited as he has a job interview on Monday and he says he's got a really good feeling about this one. I'm trying hard not to get too excited though as we've been here before - too many times - and I hate the disappointment. If he does get the job, it'll bring a whole new set of obstacles though. It's 12 hour shifts, 8pm-8am or 8am-8pm. That's going to take a lot out of him and not leave much time for us. But I guess he really needs to be out there doing something and getting some selfworth back. The extra money is desperately needed right now too. The cost of everything has rocketed the past few months - groceries, bills, fuel - it's insanely expensive just to keep a roof over your head, not to mention a car on the road

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Happy Valentines Day!

Things have been very stressful the past few days, hence my not keeping up to blogging! My daughter started with the Flu on Friday and has subsequently passed it on to my partner and I so we're suffering a little with that. Our relationship also hit a slightly rough patch around a week ago and we've been doing our best to work through that. Thankfully, I'm pleased to say we seem to have come out the other side unscathed!

We don't really do arguements. Neither of us will engage in it as we both know how destructive things said in the heat of the moment can be, so one of us will always remove ourselves from the situation until things calm down. This time it was me that did that by jumping in the car and driving round for a few hours to calm down. Nothing serious set the argument of really, I think we're both just feeling the stress of money troubles, the Hep and my Mums cancer. Add to that our insecurities and low self esteem and we ended up with a a slightly fractious situation!

All's good now though. We've spent a lovely Valentines Day together so far. Mr C posted my card so I had a nice surprise in the post. We gave each other boxes of Thorntons chocolates, I made some heart shaped Scottish Shortbread this morning for my partner and he gave me a lovely rose scented candle in a pretty tin. I also made a helium balloon dispay to go on the coffee table which my little girl was mesmerised by - I have a feeling the balloons will end up in her bedroom by the end of the evening!

My partner is going to see the doctor this week to see if he can get anything to help him with his total lack of libido. It's really starting to get him down a lot these days and he's willing to try anything. Fingers crossed there's something available that will help him. We have a pretty perfect relationship really, but a bit more intimacy would make it even stronger and help us both get over some of our insecurites.

Thursday, 9 February 2012

Putting A Brave Face On...

My last post was meant to be a lot longer! for some reason, my BlackBerry didn't save the entire post so I'll just carry on ;)

I'm dealing with the recent changes to my life in the best way I can; by keeping busy and trying to control what I actually can. I bought some gorgeous red paint and started painting in the living room - just the feature wall - but it looks so much different and little things like this make me feel so much better. I also went online and did a bit of bargain retail therapy, I bought a gorgeous rug, curtains and coffee table for the new lookliving room and a linen set for the guest room. We're having friends come to stay next month for our Anti Racism Alldayer and I thought it'd be nice to revamp the guest room a little. I need to keep busy. If I don't I know I'll just break down in tears and that's not helping anyone.

My partner is still upbeat and proactive. He's being hugely supportive and is feeling positive about things as he got a call from another recruitment agency about a job yesterday. They're checking his referces and will get back to him if he's got an interview so we're keeping our fingers crossed. Unfortunately, nothing came of the call from earlier in the week about the other job - or at least that is what we assume as he's not heard back from either the agency or the company themself.

We'd arranged to spend the day with my parents this Saturday but according to the weather forecasts, we're due a lot of snow tonight and into tomorrow so I might take a drive over this afternoon. My Mum is still refusing to have her lymph nodes biopsied and the hospital need a decision by Friday.

Other than that, we're all feeling well - the healthy diet is still going strong and my partner is still feeling physically better than he has in months which is brilliant. He's still waiting on his appointment with the Consultant at the hospital though.

Wednesday 8th February. Digging Deep

Apologies for not posting yesterday (Wednesday). We were still pretty much in shock about my Mums diagnosis.

Despite the fact we were coming to terms wth new, my partner has dug deep and found the strength and positivity to support me through it. I think having something else to focus on has stopped him dwelling on the consequences of his own illness.