Mustn't grumble

Less than 36 hours to go until knee surgery of doom and I am getting more and more anxious. I've tried incredibly hard for the last five months to carry on as normal and stay positive but now that the day is almost here I am terrified. Not least what I should take to hospital with me, but how long I will be in pain for, how long the four wounds are going to take to heal and worst of all, whether the operation will actually work. It is technically experimental after all since they don't actually know for sure why I'm so sore. I received a letter from the NHS the other week apologising for not seeing me within their twelve week target. I don't know if that made me feel better or worse. I know the pressures they are under so am not resentful. My knee on the other hand seems to have taken on a personal vendetta and has gotten incredibly painful just recently. It's like hot needles appear out of thin air sometimes, but it's probably just in my head because I'm ...

I love food and beer/wine/whisky/rum. Most things... except rhubarb, celery and gin. No matter that I am less than five foot tall, my body thinks that I am the size of the average woman and can easily eat the same amount as my six foot tall husband. Of course that means I can easily get fat. At my worst - in my mid-twenties - I was 11st 4lb, a size 16 and so had to do something about it. I went to Slimming World, lost over two stone and decided I knew all the rules, so left the club. Of course, I've put weight back on, luckily not so much that I need a new wardrobe, but it's getting close and having knee pain makes for a vicious circle. I'm pain-miserable so I comfort eat, I can't do a lot of exercise because my knee hurts and my doc says losing weight will make my knee pain more bearable. What's a girl to do? Hopefully, post-surgery, I'll be in much less pain and will be able to get back to hiking up hills with the dogs and I'll be less inclined to com...

I know everyone has somewhere they've got to be, but rules are rules and laws are laws, and I'd really like for everyone to get to their destination with minimal stress and well, erm alive. I have cruise control on my car and whenever possible - especially on motorways - I set the cruise at the speed limit for that road and as respectfully as I can, make my way from A to B. I'm not a lane hog, but equally - unlike some vehicles I've seen - I won't weave back and forth from the slow to middle to fast lane repeatedly catching up on lorry after lorry and potentially getting stuck before accelerating like the clappers to pull out again. I like the idea of not increasing the chance of an incident, but more importantly not having to break and reset my cruise... :/  However, should I require use of the fast lane on a three lane motorway, where last I checked the speed limit is indeed still 70 mph, I will not break the speed limit or accelerate past the setting on my car...

I was born with hereditary Metaphyseal Chondrodysplasia, Schmid Type which means that I am very petite, am big boned and have various malformed bone structures. Most recently, I've discovered that I could have said 'yes' to those young minds that queried if I was a dwarf in my childhood, as this disorder does include short-limbed dwarfism. Obviously growing up I was as desperate to try and fit in as much as everyone else and adamantly denied being anything other than just a bit shorter than my peers. Of course, this wasn't the case and presently being in my late thirties and a good nine inches shorter than the average for a woman in the UK, I look up the nose or into the chest of pretty much everyone. The kink in my neck is alas the least of my troubles. Throughout the years I have struggled with back ache, sore hips, shoulder pain and most recently poorly knees. Most pains come and go, but unfortunately my right knee has decided it's not going to improve. So, n...