willows

When I first had POTS I lost weight and went down to around 7 stone , I stayed like this for about 10 years , then having had the children ( 3 live ) and the miscarriages ( 4 ) and the big problems with my digestion system getting worse and worse over the years I now find that my metabolism is running extremely slowly. Most people have around 1200 to 1000 calories when on a strict diet , I have around 1000 calories on a normal day and have to go down to 500-600 if I want to loose weight , which blows away any help I could get from one of the normal weight loss clubs etc as they do not understand how POTS works or how it has effected by metabolism . So far I've lost 21 lbs since Christmas , but I've had to have a few weeks off the diet when I've been unwell as I have needed to eat what I call 'normal' to get over the infections etc. I have another 28 lbs to go ................ and I'm hoping to have achieved this by the end of June or abouts . Loosing weight is so very hard especially when your diet is restricted . I know I should be eating tons and tons of fruits and veggies each day and be keeping off the things I cannot ever digest , but my mind is willing ..........its just the body who keeps stuffing things into its mouth when the rest of me is not looking ......................shhhhhhhhhhhhh, dont tell the left hand what the right hands doing or there will be fights !!!!! If anyone wants to loose some weight and swap recipes or tips etc message me. And YES , I take a drug to help me loose weight ( from my doctor) and its not that awful drug that makes you run to the loo every few minutes because you have eaten to much fat , the drug I take helps you eat less and its really does work , I had to fight the local health authority to get it , but as I am at risk of a heart attack, stroke or other nasties they decided that it would cost them less to give it to me than to treat another condition if I got any larger . Ami .................not quite sure what she's doing at this time , what is the time by the way ...........OMG its 3:30 am in the morning ooooooooooooops I'm off to bed now Bye XXXXXXXXXX

On Tuesday 5th may Mark at last gets his knee brace fitted and ............having been to see his consultant about his sleep apnea he was told that he should never of had his drivers licence taken away from him and the consultant also went on to say it wasn't him who told the DVLA to stop him driving , in fact the consultant was quite shocked and surprised to hear that Mark had been told not to drive . Mark has never been even drowsy at the wheel , had an accident because of this sleep problem and if they hadn't of tested his oxygen levels after I told them that something wasn't right at night , they would never have found out that Marks heart stops in the night .........and only in the night . So today I'm filling out tons of forms in an effort to get him driving again OMG it will be better than anything as having to drive the family to everything is causeing me such problems and I've had more attacks of POTS and infections etc this past few weeks than I've had in the last 6 months when Mark was driving I've had to call my local GP out from the middle of a morning surgery to inject me as I was so ill ( this was the first time he'd ever seem me in a full blown POTS attack and it shook him he told me a week later ) I've had a really nasty ear infection , which I'm still on antibiotics with , I've had the most terrible digestion problems and everytime I've been out somewhere by the time we have all come back all I've been able to do is literally crawl up the stairs and go to bed without anything to eat or drink as I'm tottally and utterly wiped out and have the strength for nothing else .........and the hospital appointments that they keep sending to us are some stupid times like 9 am ............. er...hello ..........we live around an hour away from the hospital and I take around 1+ 1/2 hours to get up , get myself together , take all my drugs and be able to walk let alone drive , so this means I have to get up and get showered and all the rest at some stupid time like 5:30 am or 6:00 am or we dont get there . Anyhow Mark will be able to walk better and hopefully Not fall down quite to much with the new brace . I'll try and do a link from here to our photo sit when he's all sorted so you can see the whole of my mechanical hubby in the flesh . Ami xxxxx

I nearly died of laughter just now ?????? As Riley cannot go out in the garden for about 4 to 6 weeks or until he's used to us and the house and we feel its safe to let him out without him doing the preverbeal 'runner' well , I've gone and bought him a shhhhhhhhhhhhh ( dog ) small animal harness and a long ( 16 foot retractable) lead , so here am I all kitted out with boots , gloves and a thick coat as its sunny here and I'm freezing cold , just for a change and out goes Riley and I, sniff here , sniff there , quick low walk belly almost on the ground like he's in the SAS doing some sort of 'Recky' and we did just manage to get down the three steps of the decking before ...................................... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzoooooooooooooooooooooooooooom Riley does a quick double back and its the quickest I've ever seen a cat go back into a house in my whole life .....................leaving me with an extended 16 foot lead still in the garden In I go and where is he ? In his ( dog ) shhhhhhhh basket which is made of soft thick squishy pale blue fur and the little critter is laying there kneading the doe purring like some pneumatic drill on fast forward...............I said he was loony like us and this has just proved it . Men ..............and cats . Oh , yes by the way , Hubby who has always said he didnt really like cats ( cough, cough ) has made the most fuss , been on his knees the most , played with him the longest and then actually said that he would stay down 'just in case Riley got scarred ' in the dark last night er ..................he's a cat dear ! And who was talking all ' cat talk , meowing and purring ' this morning at 7 am ........................hubby , the one who doesn't like cats ! As I said men and cats . Ami .

Hopefully here are some photos of Riley , you can see his eye quite clearly in them . His first night with us was interesting as I decided to stay down with him and he decided to keep me warm ! He started by laying on my feet , then moved up beside me laying full out between the settee and my body , this was then followed by a head being placed on my chest ..........followed by the rest of his body .........he then decided to wrap himself around my neck with his front feet around my left ear and his back legs around my right ear I must have feel asleep because I was woken up by Riley sitting on my head !!!!!!! Needless to say I asked him to desist his paw work on my hair ( needing the doe ) and politely shoved him back down the settee again Blooming typical another nut case living in the house !!!!! http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/ban...eyaceofcats.jpg http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/ban...yaceofcats1.jpg http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/ban...yaceofcats4.jpg

Having lost my beautiful 'Goldie ' over a year ago now with cancer we have now decided its time to bring another furry critter into our home and our hearts. Yesterday Mike and I went and had a look at the two local cats/dogs homes and found the most beautiful moggy ever He's a lovely silver tabby with a white face panel and four white paws and his name is 'Riley ' , so being a strange sort of person I suddenly thought 'hang on a minute ' there was a TV series called Riley ace of spies ! so what about calling him 'Ace of cats' and then it hit me .............................OMG what a good idea for a series of kids books !!!!!! So , I've put a few lines down about what I'd like to write about and I've come up with two books so far : 'Riley Ace of Cats ............The homecoming and 'Riley to the rescue' I'm hoping Mark will take photos of Riley doing things for me to use rather than drawings in the books and I'm looking at writing for the age groups of 5-8 years old , with around 20 pages or so to each book . I haven't written for children since I was in my 20's which is a long , long time ago so I'm quite looking forward to doing something that is not to technical or that needs loads of information . If I can once Riley is home , which should be sometime tomorrow or Thursday I'll see if I can add a photo to this page . By the way, Riley was abandoned one day , he was left at the gates to a cats/dogs home without any paperwork or food etc and he'd been attacked by another cat or a dog and has damage to one eye , but as I said to the boys 'we are all old crocks in this house so having a cats with a disability doesn't make any difference ' because his left eye is turned downwards most people who are looking for a cat ignore him .................but he's such a cutey and so adorable , so its there loss and our gain . Ami

I'm just weird when it comes to the sun or snow If I go out in the sun I have problems getting breath and cannot stay out more than 30 mins at a time , if I'm lucky .And as for sweat , well I have no proper control over my body temperature at all and boy oh boy can my body tell me when its not happy . I also have raynaud's which is not nice , I've been in Jamaica before and its been so hot at night that people have been falling down with the heat but me ????? nope, I went into hyperthermia and had to have hot water bottles and a fur coat on as my body temperature went below 80 degrees and I was so cold my teeth chattered and I was turning blue/grey , which had me ending up in hospital on my holiday ...........bit then I can be out in the winter in the freezing cold and start to heat up and I'm so hot I feel sick and dizzy and have to almost strip everything off ( well not everything ) I dread the summer as I seem to spend 90% of the nice days stuck in my bedroom with the curtains drawn , TV on and laying almost flat with just a kaftan for decency in an effort to literally survive this time of the year and OMG if I do to much in the sun ..............well what comes around goes around and I'm so ill the next day or two/three days afterwards , so I've learnt the hard way that summertime is no friend of mine ..................here isn't that a song ????????? Ami xxxxxxxxxx

I wasn't diagnosed until I was 47 years old but I had my first real attack of ' POTS ' which included passing out , sweats, dizziness, vomitting and pain all over followed by the most awful chest pain that lasted for 2-3 days............on my 14th birthday . I'd had a few simple things before this but this was my first full attack , which funnily enough ended me up in the woman's gyne ward as a suspected pregnancy the fact that I'd never been with a boy let alone had even kissed a boy at 14 didnt matter my mother and the doctors knew best ..............how red faced where they when they discovered I was still a sweet and innocent girl So, in all I've been told I have had .M.E. Scleroderm . Excessively bad Flu. Post Tramatic Stress syndrome ......three times . Excessive stress and shock and the cop out of all time was .........I'm a Hypercondriate , which would have been fine IF I wasn't having angina and blood pressure problems whilst actually taking to a physiatrist , who thank heavens called for help as my heart had dropped its beats to under 30 and I was on the way to the big clouds in the sky She retracted her opinion after that episode and said she just didnt know either ...................ah , the medical profession has a lot to answer for as far as I'm concerned , including the way my ex-husband treated me because of her stupid remarks and the fact that once said HE ( now my ex ) believed her and used to leave me in pain and with terrible heart problems telling me to 'grow up and stop being such an attention seeker ' ..........................even on the day I had septicemia, pulmonary oedema , heart and kidney failure .All I can say is 'thank you to my old housekeeper for seeing beyond my ex's opinion of me and calling an ambulance , which saved my life ' So, yes having to wait over 33 years to be able to stand up and actually say I do have a condition and its not all in my head was very hard going , and the day I was given the diagnosis was the most memorable day of my life , which is a shame when you think of it ,after all who wants to be proved right when it comes to such an awful condition such as we all have . But in all not giving up and having to fight to prove I was right made me the fighter I am today ..............................a crazy woman . Ami xxxxxxx P.S sorry I haven't been about a lot but I keep having HUGE pots attacks and had to have my Doc out yesterday to inject me as I couldnt stop being sick and had blood pressure of 200 + /100+ ................ouch !!!!!!!! such a sore bum now

An update on the 'magical dancing husband' The what you'll say ???????? Well poor old hubby having had to have a brace fitted to his right ankle becuase the hospital have wrecked his foot control have set off a sort of 'chain reaction' Who's seen the Walt Disney film 'Bambi'??????? If you have you'll know exactly what I'm talking about and will be able to picture hubby doing this marvellous dance , for those who haven't seen the film well....................when Bambi is born like most small spindle legged animals he has to learn to walk and there is a very sweet section in the film where Bambi stands up for the first time and does a sort of legs out in all directions , crossed over , the splits and goes sliding across the ice before falling flat on his nose.......................so now picture a 6 foot 1 inch and 13 stone man doing just that Here for you to try at home is the fancy footwork needed to impress your friends and family should you decide to put on a display of this epic dance 1: Sit up from bed at 6 am in the morning . 2: Fall from bed onto floor and say a few sweet words to wife to welcome in another glorious day ............yer , right 3: slowly drag yourself to bathroom making sure you crash into walls , clatter off a few picture frames on the way just in case son didnt hear you fall out of bed . 4: Make way down the stairs in a manner befitting that of Charley Chaplin , dont forget to loose balance on bottom step and hit the radiator causeing a nice melodic metal banging that Eco's around all house radiators on the way into the lounge. 5: Catch sleeve of dressing gown on the doorknob of the lounge door forcing yourself still in the dressing gown to be catapulted back onto the outside of the lounge door so fast you crack your head on the door frame . 6: Stagger into lounge dazed from the crack on the head and slid onto the laminated flooring where having no ankle brace for support you take part in the dance of the ' Semi conscious man with slippery feet and a knee that is now giving way ' 7: dont forget when your legs give way and slid to the right........you lean very quickly to the left catching your head on the book case and knocking off more pictures,books and that half full cup of now very cold coffee you left from last night , when at last you do land flat on your back legs almost over your head in a very modest manner ..............dont forget to call out in that tender voice Mike and I know so well at 6 am in the morning .........................ooooooops dear I've slipped again ( or words to that effect ) And so my wonderful hubby is about to be limb by limb recreated in steel ( or thats what he claims is going to happen ) as poor old hubby is now about to be fitted with a knee brace as well .Apart from this his right hip is also slowly falling apart , which in my book doesn't leave much on the right side that works well at all , so now when we go out its case of right ankle brace, right knee brace, surgical support stockings , a back support and his new false arm with its stick attached , followed by glasses ( more problems with right eye than left ) All I can say is that at this rate there will be more metal than Mark coming out with me most days and I do hope he doesn't get rusty or get squeaks in his new joints , its bad enough at night laying next to him when he's doing his 'Darth Vader' breathing act with the speacil sleep apnea mask he has to wear and him still trying to do a complete 360 degree turn only to finds out that its not me trying to strangle him , but its him doing it all on his own , mind you some nights after the Darth Vader heavy breathing and the other strange noises coming out of him ........or possibly the mask ...........my mind does wander to a 360 degree turn around his neck ................but only for a split second ....................you've just got to love him . And they say I'm the mad one in this house Ami ..........................as mad as a box of frogs .xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you all so much for your replies. I cannot sleep siting up or semi sitting up as I to have tailbone problems , if I sit for a few minutes on a hard chair the pain can be excruciating and I am known for carrying a cushion around with me to events ( not a rubber ring as its back pain nothing else ) , so a recliner is a no go for me either. I do have a very low heart beat and at night this can and does fall below 40 beats a minute setting off other problems , I also have raynaud's so I know my blood isn't getting around my body as it should do and I also wake up every hour or so to turn over , without an alarm clock as the pain after this time kicks in very strong and I have no option but to turn ...........or should I say try to turn myself over , sometimes i dont manage this and have to actually get myself out of bed in order to get back in again , which causes my husband to sit bolt upright asking me what I'm doing each and every time ...............of course when I say I'm getting back into bed he always asks 'where have I been to ' !!!! Out of all the mattresses we tried over the past 6-7 years the moulding one is the best for us both as my husband has neck/spine /hip and knee problems to , so its not just myself I have to think of when seeking a new bed or mattress. I do get hot ...........BUT my body is completely of its trolley when it comes to temperature control and whatever I wear ,eat or drink and even how I sit or stand effects my heating and cooling mechanism and I have been like this for 10 years now ( think of having the menopause at its very worst 24/7 and its 50% of what my bodies doing to me ) I could sleep in a fridge and still burn up !!!!!!! I will ask my local doc to have my rheumatoid factor, ANA, sed rate and CR-P checked again , but the problem is finding a rheumatologist who has any sense or real brains here in Devon ,unfortunately I have seen a few times in the past but because I 'dont fit into there little boxes as having a normal condition ' after doing a blood test they call it quits and send me away saying we cant help you , although I did once many , many years ago have one doctor who thought if she brought me into hospital and put me through a very strict exercise course including water exercise and everything else that they give very stiff arthritis patients ..........well ,she thought that three weeks of intensive therapy that this would be the cure all of me .............my local doctor was horrified and thought that this so called specialist had not read the letter about my condition ( pots) or she wouldnt have suggested such a stupid thing to someone who has three heart problems , lung problems, hearing , sight , blood pressure and many other nice little nasties , it would have been a case of the opersite to cure for me , if you get my drift after all I've only got to be out for an hour walking around town or shopping to get tired and leg pains and if I push myself just that little bit more OMG angina, vomitting , blackouts, blood pressure shooting into the skies then my boots, yep, some real intensive therapy would work wonders for the local co-op undertaker !!!!!!!( its OK he's one of our best friends ) Thanks for your help guys ..............yep , I'm up and its 1:45 am UK time.

I've had a look about the site but couldnt find anything about this subject ,that is if anyone else has this problem At night when I lay down to go to sleep at first I drift off ( helped with between 40-80mg of controlled drug painkillers) and all is well . BUT and this is where things go badly wrong ......................if I lay ASLEEP for more than 4 hours without getting up and moving around for 30 minutes to 1 hour , well by the morning I'm in BIG trouble . So imagine that I've gone to bed at 9 pm ( my normal time as I'm so tired each day ) and for some reason I've slept undisturbed until 7 am in the morning ( something I haven't done for about 25 years ) when I wake up the first thing that hits me is the pain in my chest , around the rib area , then pain in the back around the kidney area and then down both legs and up to my hips . I cannot get out of bed and have to call for help , because I'm on my back and like a crab and just cannot move my body at all . Mark and Mike have to pull me out of my bed , little by little as the pain on moving is so bad I can shout out with the pain and have tears running down my face . On standing me up I can only take tiny steps and have to use my zimmer frame for balance and to help me take some of the weight of my hips . The hips pain is like someone has tightened the screws in all my joints and any sudden movement is so bad its like an electric cattle prod being stabbed into the part that I've moved to quickly . I cannot do stairs, sit down ,get into a bath ( ha -ha ) I cannot stand for long still or hold anything and this lasts for between one and two hours . Although I have signs of arthritis's showing in my finger joints and wrists the hospital have still said my hips are good for my age .....whatever that is ......... Yet , here I am now at 2:30 am in the morning , I'm so tired I keep making the most stupid mistakes on the keyboard and having to spell check everything twice , my eyes are killing me and I just want to sleep ................but I know that if I go to bed and do fall asleep from say 3am until 8 am the pain that I get in the morning will cancel out all the good the 5 hours sleep has given me in the first place ( if this makes sense to you ) So............does anyone have this problem ????? And yes, I have a special mattress on my bed , one of those expensive things that your body moulds to , and it doesn't work , a normal mattress doesn't work either as we have tried that as well , dont want a water bed as Mark would puncture it within a few hours with his machine that helps him breath and the floor wouldnt bear the weight and we'd end up in the lounge with gallons of water cascading around our ears So if anyone has any ideas on how to help me ..........................well ,I'll try anything as my tiredness is getting worse and worse each day and I'm at my wits end now. Ami .

Hello . I have the most awful 'red eyes' they have been so bad that I look like I'm part of Dracula's mates and have just had a nice long 'snack' on something !!!!! I find that if I over do something they come on and are with me for two to three days before disappearing again . Once when setting up a Halloween event for around 100 kids ( for my charity) when I arrived to 'perform' the next day ( dressed as a witch ) my eyes had 'blown ' over night and every one thought I had those whole eye lenses in to make myself look like that and they thought I looked really great .............on the photos I looked really scary I didnt have the heart to tell people that my eyes where killing me and that my vision was all blurred . Do you have vision problems to I wonder ???? I have this strange vision problem , when I get up from laying out flat I sometimes cannot focus and watching TV or reading is just not possible at all for around 20-30 minutes until my vision has stabilized. I am seen by our specialist eye hospital in the UK about every 3-4 months and I have drops for my eyes as on occasions the red eyes can cause me so much trouble that the mild pain becomes really painful , and yes , not just the white of the eye is red but around the eye lids hurt as well , but I dint know if this is pots at all , all I've been told is this is not the normal thing to have happen if you get overtired. Hope you dont have to much trouble with them , I've had mine for over 8 years now and they dont seem to be getting any better . And yes, I do have chronic sweats 24/7 day in day out which make my life an utter misery at times, I take clonidine to help control it , but sometimes they just doesn't work , which is what is happening at this time ( last 5-6 months) the sweats can be so bad that I am dripping off my face , my hair is sticking to my head and my clothes are so wet I cannot take then off as they are stuck to my body , so at this time I'm virtually a prisoner in my own home . Ami

I'm jinxed................. I'm 100% sure that I'm jinxed now A day or so ago having been in bed for about 4 hours as I was so tired I suddenly started to get the most horrible pains in my foot again and on standing up and inspecting the thing , well its started to bleed again ( under the skin that is ) I called my GP as the pain was quite nasty and he sent me up to the hospital to get this sorted as he was now getting worried . The out come is this : Not only have I torn muscles and damaged nerves in my foot but I have also damaged all the cartilages that surround the many small bones that held make up the movement of the foot itself ( the small bones that are in front of the toes ) and it is these that are now bleeding . They cannot do anything other than to increase my pain control and I've now been given a large bottle of liquid morphine to get me through this extra pain . They can strap the foot but this will mean I cannot get any of my shoes on at all and will have to buy some extra large ones , as the weather is up and down in the UK at the minute I think I'd rather have the foot strapped whilst I'm in doors and they have just a light dressing on when I do go out . So , having had my foot go a nice shade of greens and yellows ( quite like dress in chiffon in this colour combination ) its now got streaks of black and blue along the toe line , quite honestly I think I'd rather have broken the foot becuase at least in plaster you know its going to heal in a certain amount of time and its over and done with , with this condition I have no idea how long its going to be before the bleeding stops and my foot is a normal colour and pain free ...............Ami ..............down but not out ( unless you count out of her mind )

It seems such a longtime since I've been on here , I've been stuck in bed with a huge swollen foot which looks like a heard of elephants have run over it and feels like it to My jaw has at last settled down and having taken four lots of antibiotics I'm now no longer in agony , and I was in so much agony I didnt know what to do with myself at times. I've now got stitches dangling down from the tooth hole as the gums have shrunk down to their normal size again , which makes me feel like I've a load of spiders legs in my mouth ......just for a laugh ! My foot has gone down a bit since that night but the pain re,ins and although my doctor has said I didnt actually brake th foot , well thats a new one on me for a change not to brake anything ! but I have torn the ligaments and very badly sprained the front of it , my poor little toes are all now bright yellow + green+ red and black and this mass of colour extends to the base of my ankle !!!!! Mark also had his operation on Monday last week , he had a large mole removed that I suddenly found and that had a matter of weeks grown huge and irregular , so poor old man now has 8 stitches on his back in line with his trousers waist band, he's also been told that he now needs a knee brace as well as the foot brace he supports from the mess up the hospital made with his foot operations. Mike has just come back from a night at his 'so called mates home' I say 'so called' as no real mate would ask you to go around then expect you to pay for your own lunch and then buy him and his other friends who just happen to turn up a Chinese meal !!!!! and then when it was time to go to bed tell Mike that he hasn't got a bed for the night and he has to sleep on the floor...............I can tell you that this young man will never set foot in my house again or eat with us and Mike is just so angry with the way he's been treated over the 24 hours at this lads house , well I think the friendship has now gone . I had the most wonderful card from Mike for mothers day and a DVD of The Duchess film , inside the card it reads ( he hand written this for me to read) ' To Mum on mothers day ...............Thank you for all that you have done for me over the last 18 years , just a little something to let you know how much you mean to me . Happy mothers day lots of love Mike ................you are truly one of a kind. xxxxxxxxxxxx Mike was standing in the kitchen as I opened it and his mates looked at me in a strange way as I started to get all tearful ( having just taken a piece of wood from his mates eye ) on giving Mike a huge huge and kiss he also started to get tearful and I saw his mates getting a bit red eyed as well , talk about an emotional dinner !!!!! This is the first time Mikes ever gone out and done this for me without being prompted or having asked Mark what to write or what to say , so my little boy is really becoming a man . Better go now as I'm very tired again , although having spent the last week or more in bed and not even being able to speak on the phone has been very strange for me , still hopefully I'll be back to me again and will stop this awful 'lisp' that I've now obtained from having the big tooth and part of the jaw removed . Roll on the summer ..............P.S. I'm now back on my diet again and although I didnt loose weight whilst I was on antibiotics I did keep what I'd lost off , so I am still at 1 stone and 7 lbs gone since christmas. Ami ...............with another 2 stone to go ................OMG

Last Friday morning the pain in my jaw/face etc became so bad I nearly passed out . I called my own doctor who told me to go to A & E and refuse to go until someone had seen me from max-fax and done something about all this . On arrival at A & E I asked to see the registrar on call with max fax and within 10 ins I was rushed from A & E reception to x-ray then to see the registrar , who on seeing the state of me was shocked He took me to see the x-rays and the infection which was around the one tooth had now spread to two , then into the actual jaw bone and into the sinuses as well , no wonder he said I was in so much pain ! I was given yet another course of antibiotics and told to come back on Monday at 2.00 pm and then he himself would take out the tooth that had died and sort the jaw bone out as well . So all through Mikes 18th birthday I couldnt eat a thing , I 'could'nt drink and kept running a temperature ..............but eventually Monday arrived and after 4 large injections into my gums and the roof of my mouth the registrar set yo work and with a very loud cracking noise 90% of the tooth came out .............along with a jet of puss and other stuff .............OMG yuck Unfortunately a small amount of tooth had broken off in my jaw bone , so he had to drill it out ..................mmmmmmm, at this point all I can remember was the nurse saying to me 'open your eyes ami...... are you Ok , ami , open your eyes' I must have blacked out for a short space of time as I cannot remember him taking out the rest of the tooth at all. Its now 3: am in the morning and having come home and gone to bed as I felt just so ill , I've had to get up as my face is killing me and all I can taste is blood , my head is pounding , I'm dying of thirst and my right foot is killing me as well ..................er right foot you say ?????????? Well , Mikes birthday party was a great success and I'm hoping to send the first 3 photos to be put in our photo section later today ( if I'm still able to get about ) but whilst I was talking to Mike one of his mates who was sitting opposite him moved his chair slightly back ( I was standing beside this chair apposite Mike at the time ) he lifted the chair up and without looking ................put the wooden leg onto my foot then as he was almost standing at the time .............just chucked himself back into the chair ..............all 12 stone of him . NO , I didnt scream , I heard loud noises in my head and thought I was about to pass out , but hung onto the chair back and in a quiet controlled voice asked him to move his chair . Getting back to mark I whispered what had happend and asked him to come to the loo with me to check out any injury . My foot from my toes to my ankle joint is now black/blue /red and you can clearly see in amongst all the other swellings over the foot , the imprint of the chair leg base..............is it painful?????? Well all I can say is that I cannot get a shoe on properly and I cannot bear weight on it and walk any distance , if that answers the question ! I didnt tell Mike until the next day , not that he would have missed it ! and he was so shocked at the state of my foot . So in all I've had a really poxy weekend , Mike had a really brilliant weekend and Mark , well poor old Mark just had to battle along as best he could , because guess what ??? He went down with an infection two days before Mikes party as well ...................I tell you this house is jinxed . Ami , Mike and Mark all hobbling about .xxxxxxxxx

I've now 'emptied my abscess around 7 times and every 6-7 hours I have to check to see if its grown in size again full of muck this is not a very nice thing to have to do I can tell you and my right back upper jaw is in so much pain now . I've just one more lot of tablets to take at 8 am today and thats it , so if the abscess is still chucking out pus , well I have no antibiotic cover at all from then .................typical isn't it , no one will take responsibility for the infection ! Max -fax at the hospital say its not there department as its on the gum , my dentist says its not his department as its nothing to do with my teeth or gums .......he says its my jaw and that the Max-fax people are not seeing it and as for my own Doctor , well he says its either a max-fax or dental job and not a medical ....................hello you lot I'm the person stuck in the middle with an infected jaw, gum, face or whatever and I'm the one who's in such awful pain ans has been for 20 days ..............yes 20 days of swollen face , rip roaring spikes of shooting pain up the face , swollen jaw bone , tender gums, bleeding gums and teeth and now a huge abscess and I should think around 3-4 tablespoon of infected pus have come out of it now .......................so are'nt we the lucky doctors and consultants and dentists who can go home and eat and drink properly and of course go to sleep without waking up to empty the abscess because you cant stand the pain anymore . PERHAPS YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT THE PERSONS WHO'S SUFFERING ALL THIS ...............AND NOT WHO'S TO BLAME OR WHO'S DEPARTMENT HAS TO PAY TO CLEAR UP THE MESS. Am I angry ????? you bet I am with just today to go before family start arriving for Mikes big day I'm feeling like .................dogs do-do , have pain down the whole of right side of my face to my jaw line and am so tired that I'm way behind with everything I should be doing , including collecting the cake which I will do tomorrow after I've taken Mark to the hospital for another check up . So , if there is anyone who watches over this earth , please please give this girl a brake and let me have just one day without pain and all the other bits that goes with it , all I want to do is give Mike the best 18th birthday he could possibly have and give him a day to remember . Ami xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Its now been some weeks that I've been on antibiotics and I';m still not right . Today I went back to the hospital to see about my jaw and had a surprise, the consultant had a poke around and found a huge head on an abscess on my upper jaw line , he felt under my jaw and said that there was a small lump of some sort , but then dismissed it as he found a 'nobble' of filler sticking out near to the infection and decided that this was the cause of all my weeks of pain and infections ...........so even thought he knew I had an abscess ready to burst at any time he said I had to go to my dentist and get it sorted as it wasn't a 'Max-Fax' problem. So driving to the dentist , which is just 10 ins from the hospital I was told to come back in three and half hours to get it sorted out ..............ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! this meant I had to drive both hubby and son back home ( 30 miles ) then drive back to the dentist ( 30 miles ) then back home again ( 30 miles ) not a nice thing to have to do when you feel ready awful and your jaw is about to explode! Having gone back to the dentist I was seen within minutes and he filed off the tiny little nobble of filling and explained to me that there was no way that that small section of filling had caused all the infections I've had in my jaw and the abscess , when he had stuck a probe in it to rupture the head and cleaned up such a lot of pus that his assistant looked a bit queasy , but what he found was interesting as the swelling wasn't like a normal abscess and it didnt trek off to the root of any tooth , it was just there ! My dentist is now saying that it isn't his fault and that the infection is from another source not the teeth or roots etc , so Ive got to back to see fax-max again and get this sorted out soon. I'm now on to sets of antibiotics and just a couple of hours ago the swelling in my jaw was very painful again , so with a miners lamp stuck to my forehead and a whole load of tissue pushed into the right side of my mouth I used a sterile surgical needle and ruptured the thing again ...............OMG more muck and pus came out of the thing , but its now feeling a bit better and its flatter than its been for 3 weeks or more . With only 4 days to go until Mikes 18th I'm so worried that my jaw doesn't suddenly kick off and have me ending up in hospital , for this is the sort of things my body likes to do to me , so fingers crossed that I stay well and that this last lot of antibiotics ( 500 mg of one sort & 250 mg of another 3 times a day each ) will kill that ever is lurking in my face and 'give a girl a break ' for once . Ami xxxxxxxxxxx

Hello all , well its been sometime since I've been on here and below is the reason why , what a time for us all Mike had a HUGE pots attack , he woke up and felt 'strange ' you know that feeling when you know somethings not right but dont know what it is .............he got up to come and knock on our bedroom door and as he did he went very dizzy and was sick , in a waste bin luckily ! Having got up to sort him out I discovered he was running a slight temperature and his blood pressure was quite low , so having given him some paracetamol to keep his temperature down and a large bucket for beside his bed I thought all will be well in the morning ....................not so . By morning Mike was looking pale and sweating rather a lot so naturally I thought he had a bug ...........nope! By lunchtime it was clear that he was very unwell , all he kept wanting to do was sleep and he kept saying his joints hurt .....................now that rang a big bell with me . I kept taking his temperature and although it wasn't very high it was not normal at all. By 6 pm that night Mike was looking very yellow and although he'd been drinking a lot his excessive tiredness and pain was starting to get the better of him , he got up to go to the loo and staggered about like a drunken man wanting to be sick again . Sat him down and all was well .Got him up and he was dizzy , staggered about and tired to be sick .............alarm bells rang in me .............so I called the local Doc and asked her to come out to see him , she asked to take 2 blood pressure readings first one standing up and one laying down . The first was mike laying down which was 120 /50 and he was fine .............then I stood him with his back legs against the bed ( just in case) and his blood pressure was 60/40 and his heart beat was rising to 160 beats !!!!!! he then collapsed on the bed and sicked violently over himself , in the bucket and back onto his hair ................yuck 1111 The Doc didnt even bother coming out but an ambulance came instead and Mike went into Critical care for three days as his heart beat when laying down went below 40 and his oxygen levels went to 85% and below which caused all the alarms to go of on his machinery !!!!! I can tell you I was so scared having seen Mike like this , but then .................Mark and Mike see me exactly in the same way when I have a bad attack , something I had never thought of before until Mark pointed this out to me when Mike came home . He's now back on his feet and almost well.He went in 2 weeks ago to have his wisdom tooth out and his face was so swollen and battered and bruised he couldnt speak, eat or sleep for about 5 days , which meant he lost quite a large amount of weight .He's been looking after his stitches ( 12 of them all at the back of the jaw and along the gum line ) but even with this he has now surcome to an infection , but that was just 3 days after the right side of my face swelled up with an infection ..............for no reason at all ..................so we looked like we had both been in a fight with identical swollen faces on the right hand side , blimey talk about like mother like son !!!!!! I've just gotten over another huge pots attack , my second since the end of Jan 2009 and I've now lost in the region of a stone and a half, but need to loose another of the same amount to feel 100% me again. In 11 days time ( 14th March 2009) it will be Mikes 18th birthday and we are all so looking forward to the days events . I've managed to buy myself a small digital camcorder so that I can keep all of the party on record, at this time we have had 25 replies out of 30 and are still awaiting the last to come in . I've bought at least 5 metres of gold coloured netting to cover the long table in the restaurant with then I'm adding gold napkins to each place setting along with a special pair of black and gold chopsticks tied with ribbon ( for the guests to keep) I've made gold and black place settings and the table will also have 4 large shiny 18th birthday decorations on and some of that shiny birthday confetti all over , so with any luck it should look very good for when Mike arrives with everyone. We managed to get Mike another super crash helmet ( black with a gold dragon on it ) also our family crest framed , a cystal mug with his details on and a huge yellow rubber duck !!!!! Mike loves ducks of all things ( strange lad) so I found one of those you have in your bath as a kid , but this one is the size of a large cat . Mark is still unable to drive .............except me up the wall that is his night time air machine is driving me mad with its noises , which he sleep straight threw , yes, I've tried ear plugs but they keep shooting out of my ears and I find them all over the bed room floor , so other than sellotaping them in I have to put up with a gale force 10 hurricane every night in the bed room Well , other than this ................Oh yes, Mikes college had to make him a special disabled parking space by the back door of the college after Mikes solicitor , who himself is disabled actually went into the college in person to sort out why they where discriminating towards a disabled student !!!!!!! But guess what ????? Tow days after the college reopened mike and I went to see this new space for him and three normal bikers had parked all over it ignoring the fact that it was for Disabled bike owners with a college permit only ( mike has been issued with a college parking permit as well now ) , so how embarrassed are the college now .................................VERY The out come of this is that anyone now parking in the bay will be given a warning , then a fine then not allowed to park on college premises at all ................oh , yes and pigs will fly is all I can say So, quite an eventful month or so in all , what with at least 10-12 trips to the hospital for Mark, Mike and myself and poor old Mikes 999 to critical care , never mind soon be christmas . Hope you are all well and not having to bad a start to 2009 , drop me a line at home if you want a natter as I can sometimes pick up my emails on Mikes lap-top ( my own is just for my writing ) as I cannot always get down the stairs when I'm ill to get to mother here ( main big computer in study ) Bye for now and I will be posting some 18th birthday photos of all the family .....even Mark and I as soon as the birthday party's over and I'm still upright ................. Willows............slimmer but still as insane as ever .xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hello all , sorry I haven't been about much but Mike has been very ill, then myself, then Mike then me again ...........................not much fun for either of us . At the minute both Mike and I are on antibiotics as I have a huge abscess in my upper right side jaw and he has the same in his lower right side jaw Mine is because of this jaw problem and Mikes is because he had his wisdom tooth out about 2 weeks ago and it just will not heal . I've written more on whats been going on here in a post called ' sleepless in Plymouth ' Willows.

Hello , sorry you are having probelms with swallowing , but it sounds exacatly like waht I have which are some sort of throat contractions. I get these on a regular basis now and they can start at the most inopportune times , like when I'm having dinner or just taken a mouth full of coffee...........hubby's used to me spluttering and starting to choke and is dab hand at tapping me on the back and making sure that I dont cough the food or drink up all over myself ( which I have done before now) I also loose my voice ..............I sound like a cross between a teenage boy who's voice is breaking and a man who's' trying to talk like and woman , most strange I can tell you and very funny as peoples faces when you suddenly go from a normal sounding person to someone who's wearing 2 or 3 sizes to small pants !!!!!! I've had my throat x-ray at hospital and been seen by consultants etc but they cannot find anything wrong with the mechanism ( as they call it ) it just appears that my throat contacts and I choke . I do see a voice specialist three times a year to check that I'm still OK as sometimes when my voice starts to go it can go completely and I cannot speak for 6-8 weeks .............that is not pleasant I can tell you as people seem to think because I cannot speak I'm deaf , dumb and stupid so I have made some laminated cards which I use when this happens with just about everything I could possibly want to say ( yes, No , thank you , can I have etc) and these work a treat or my son or hubby explain what I want when we go out . I do hope yours isn't the start of what I now have everyday or so as it is a pain in the b** when it happens . Look after yourself . Ami xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sorry I haven't been about for some time but the computers being playing up and Mikes been very unwell , since around the middle of January we have had : First............... mike had a major Pots attack and ended up on a 999 into hospital in critical care I stayed with him as I never like to leave anyone alone in hospital . So with Mark now unable to drive as he lost his licence because of sleep apnea I have been driving around all the time and I have been getting so stressed and so tired its just unbelievable how some driving can make you feel so unwell. To start of the year my washing machine packed up its being dying for sometime now and we had hoped it would last until after Mikes 18th but it was not to be , Mark in all his wisdom had been looking on the Internet and found a really good one , but................it was almost ?700 but undettered he went and did some fast talking to a shop and lo and behold I'm now the proud owner of a black and steel huge machine that is an all singing and dancing ...................clothes washer , it does just about everything you could possibly want except make tea and do the hoovering for me !!!!! But I've just found out it actually steams cloths clean if you want to re-fresh things that have to be dry cleaned , mmmmmmmmm very clever me thinks . We've had it a week now and I still cannot work the thing shhhhhhhhhhhh(or so I'm saying ) so Mark has to out all the washing on for me shhhhhhhhhhhhh( its good exercise for him ) Then...............a few days after this the screen on this computer went down OMG what next , so off we went and bought a new one , got home ( some hours round trip by the way ) plugged it in ...................and off we went back to the shop again as that one didnt work either BUT , they didnt have another one so we had to go up a size and up in price do you know I'm sure that these shops see us coming and hide all there stock just to get us to buy bigger and more expensive stuff . Then.................yep it goes on ...................Marks all singing all dancing mobile phone decided to go and visit the big phone company in the skies . My silly little one which cost around ?20 and which I've had around 4 years now is still going strong , never had a problem with it ( except I still cant work it properly ) but Marks with its emailing , photos and and Internet things goes bye-bye after 6 months , me thinks man should buy a cheap one and ignore what other people say about it . Then .............the main TV in our lounge is making strange noises sort of whistling and turning itself on or changing channels at us ( nope , not me honestly ) so thats now on its last legs .......................is there any sanity left in the world I ask ? Mark is now hooked up to a full face mask at night which has straps that go around and over his head and what appears to be a tap just about level with his nose from which a hose leads to a pump which in turn sends air back to him .......................and keeps me awake all night as it sounds like we have a gale force storm hurteling around the room. Ear plus ? yes, but for some strange reason they keep popping out and I found one the other morning after 10 minutes searching in every strange place stuck between the cheeks of my bottom and completely flattened , dont think somehow I want to stick that back in my ear !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Mike , well he was OK after about 48 hours of rest in hospital , when they called for an ambulance his blood pressure was in his boots at 60/40 and his heart had gone tachy at 155 and rising , along with his temperature and buckets of sick which kept rising out of every orifice , poor love. OMG he did look ill , at first they thought he had a bug , but I kept telling them it was a full blown POTS attack ...............I was right in the end (mums ,why dont they listen to us , it would save so much time ) On Monday ( 3 days time ) Mike goes into hospital to have his wisdom's out , the hospital called me yesterday to say they had found a slot for him , they have been so sore and he's been having to take so many painkillers to keep his sanity , let along ours. And me ................apart from my birthday I've been ticking along , the stress of all has helped me loose weight and my GP whom I see next Wednesday will be over the moon ,I'm sure I've now lost a stone and a quarter ( or more ) since Christmas and its showing , so I'm chuffed . It will soon be Mikes 18th birthday and I've sorted the restaurant and sent out the invite ( 30 coming ) I managed to find a silly hat for Mike to wear on the day which is a white birthday cake with candles on it and he's promised he will wear it for his birthday dinner so I can take lots of picture to show you all . We have friends and family coming from Suffolk and Bath to his dinner and he's getting so excited about it , which for mike is unheard of as he's normally a quiet lad who doesn't like parties or being in the limelight, yet for some reason he's really looking forward to his 'big night' and keeps checking off the days on my calendar . He's had most of his gifts from us including his new 125 cc motor, proper bikers boots and padded trousers ( to match his jacket ) and I bought him a whole load of new designer clothes to go with his new hair cut ( which I did by the way as I did some hairdressing in my youth ) On the night of his party he is getting his speacil watch from his late grandfather which was bought on the day he was born and has been kept in the bank until his 18th birthday , we will get him a few other small things so he has something to open on the actual day shhhhhhhhhhhh , I'll tell you about thses nearer the time, our friends and family are all giving Mike money so that around May time he can arrange to take his bikers test and get rid of his L plates . I'm still not sure what to wear on the night , I have two or three outfits in mind but as I'm loosing weight the more I loose the more outfits I can get back into , so I think I'll try everything on and do a fashion show for the boys around the 10th March , then they can choose.......................mmmmmmmm, that means I could end up wearing the paper bag the dress came in if I know them and there sense of humour Right , better go now as its 3 am in the morning and I'm starting to feel tired again, upstairs a hurricane is blasting around our bedroom as Mark complete with his what appears to be a tap stuck on his forehead with a garden hose attacked lays sound asleep .....................blooming typical , I swear he could sleep through the house falling down around his ears .men................. Bye to all and will let you know what else falls off, explodes, disappears or disintegrates soon . Ami , Mark and Mike xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you all for your birthday messages, sorry I haven't been about but things have gone from bad to worse here with things going wrong left, right and centre......... . I did have great birthday and the boys bought me 2 dresses that I desperately wanted and a beautiful shirt with embroidery and sequins on .My brother sent me some money and guess what I bought with it ????? Now before I answer DON'T take what I've bought wrong as its NOT for me but for Mikes little ones when he eventually marries and has some , so what did I buy ??? A 'Winnie the poo' baby buggy as some of you may know I have a granny room upstairs and in it I have everything you need for a baby to come and stay : folding cot, high chair, change mat , car seat, a wonderful play mat with things hanging over it , cot covers including a quilt, quilt covers, fitted sheets and tons and tons of baby clothes for both boys and girls ranging from 0 to around 3-4 years , plus everything you would ever need to feed a baby with : bottles, sterilizer, cups, plates, spoons ..................then toys OMG have I got some toys !!!! including a huge 3 storey Victorian dolls house which I am working on and will one day finish ( a christmas present from the boys a few years ago ) a full size dolls pram , high chair and the most beautiful white wooden dolls crib with blue and white covers along with an assortment of baby dolls............so who wants Mike to have a granddaughter first we ask ! So buying the baby buggy was something I'd been trying to do for some time and as I didnt want anything else I decided to go onto one of those shopping channels that sell items at silly prices and managed to grab myself a lovely one in navy blue and yellow . So apart from all the things that have been happening to the whole family , well I'm a happy girl at the minute. thanks again for the birthday wishes and a big hug to Corina for the card ...........xxxxxxxxxxxx a much slimmer Ami ( see whats been going on post )

I to get boughs of this if I'm having a very bad pots day and my teeth chatter to quiet uncontrollably at times which makes it very hard to talk . If I have fall or my heart plays up I go into my 'teeth chattering shaking dance ' which according to hubby who's got used to it now is quiet interesting to behold ( ha , thanks dear ) So , as soon as it starts out comes a sachet of the electrolytes mix , this goes into a measured amount of warm water or juice and its unceramoniously shoved down my throat , I sometimes cant even hold a glass I'm shaking so much and my jaws moving so violently ! Hubby recons I'd make an excellent limbo dancer when I'm like this This works for me ........... good luck and hope it doesn't stay with you to long ..........Ami .

This is the first time I've been up and able to write on here for such a long time , but I've been so ill . So, lets start at the beginning.................... The pain in my face got worse and worse to the point I could no longer speak at all , I couldnt eat , sleep or do anything much as it kicked off everything else Pots wise and my painkillers didnt touch the face pain . After the MRI I was reeling in pain and crying , which for someone of my age to do and given the amount of pain I can take was something my family had never seen before............! So off we went to A & E and after ENT had looked at me and my MRI along came the Maxilo Facial team and lo and behold they didnt know either , BUT the pain was getting worse and worse , so it was put down to sever facial myalgia and injected up between my teeth and my gums .........straight up into my face /cheek ( not an enjoyable thing to have done I can tell you ) but the pain stopped , so off hubby and I went home and sleep ..................ah after 48 hours with constant pain it was heaven. 3.17 am I woke up screaming in pain rolling around th bed not knowing what to do again . The annoying pain that had me crying was now raging and so bad that after 8 hours...........yep..... 8 hours of it I had to drive myself off to hospital as hubby had woken up feeling very unwell and there was no one else ( learn all about this in a few minutes) This time the hospital was ready for me , but the only way I had found to stop the pain for about 30 seconds was to drink cold water , or rather to slosh it around the right side of my mouth , hold it there until it was warm then swallow it ............all 3 gallons in 8 hours !!!!! so by the time I got to hospital I was now throwing this up as well , screaming , crying and just about ready to strangle the consultant who said 'we've fixed it ' The maxilo facial consultant said he'd never seen someone in such a state ( mmmmmm, thanks mate, you dont look so hot yourself for your age ! ) and this time they would freeze it , good and proper ...........oh , yes did they freeze it ...........with 7 huge syringes of stuff and boy oh, boy did I know all about It. After then seeing the neurologist , as the right side of my face now has some strange things going on and my right eye is moving slightly ( like flicking about sideways ) , I'm even more unable to walk a straight line ( is that possible she asks? ) and if I close my eyes ............well we all know what happens and its a good job he caught me or I'd be having stitches in the back of my head now . This Monday coming I'm back up the hospital to see the max-fax again and neuro team , I was due to see them the Monday after the horrendous weekend but they unfortunately gave me some Tegretol to take and I went out cold for 48 hours ...........tottally out cold like I was dead according to hubby dear !!!! quietest I'd been for about a week he said..........cheeck! Now Mark. He's had his drivers licence taken away as they think he has that condition where you fall asleep all the time ...........which he hasn't accoring to our own Gp, Mark holds his breath at night and his heart stops for 3-4 minutes at a time but until they can fix that he's not allowed to drive at all . He was devastated and so upset I didnt know what to say or do and its for 2 YEARS!!!! So I'm now the designated driver 100% of the time which puts a huge pressure on me and means that if I'm ill the household comes to a total standstill . Now Mike. In around 7 weeks time he's 18 years old , mid week ( still unable to speak properly ) I took him and 'upgraded his bike' .....yep he said he didnt know what he wanted for his 18th so I asked if he'd like bigger cc bike ???? which he jumped at so off we went to the shop I bought the last bike from ( now just 6 months old and still sparkling new ) and I got a deal with them for a Peugeot Summit 125 cc in blue and black ( a beast of a bike according to Mike ) which he takes ownership of next Tuesday . I've organised his 18th party at a place in Plymouth and we're having around 30 -40 people for a banquet of the chinese variety ( as long as I can still eat ) Along with his Oyster Rolex watch his grandfather bought him on the day he was born for this very special day ( If I can get it out of the bank ) and on the day of his birthday his name official changes ( if you know who I am you will know what I'm talking about and the great responsibility this has for Mike ) so today I spent a few ( cough , cough ) pounds on him kitting him out in new designer gear for college ,............jeans, jackets, tee-shirts , tops and a brilliant bright blue scarf , well all I can say is the girls of Plymouth will not know whats hit them when the 'new Mike' hits the streets next week after his designer hair cut , after all with the new special name he has he now has to look the part and not like some scruffy college student ( I'll get 18th birthday photos posted after the 14th March on the photo section ) So in all............. I've had a really horrible few weeks , we still don't really know whats wrong with my face and I'm still in pain thought not 200% as bad as it was and still unable to open my mouth , eat or talk like my old self ...............dont even ask what hubby says about that I lost 4 kilo in 2 weeks and am now well and truly on my 'shift it for Mikes 18th party. Marks wandering about the place like man whose only got a few weeks to live not knowing what to do next .........housework dear ???? nice pile of Ironing ????? And Mikes got a grin on him so wide he looks like a Cheshire cat ! says she who's' sitting scoffing a croissant and a cup of coffee with a straw at almost 4:am in the morning ...................ah , yes all well ( not ) back in the crazy household of the jolly old Andrews again ( well as mad as ever or just about ) Keep smiling ...........and have a smile for me to as I'm still unable to !!!!!!AMi xxxxxx

I've been sort of talking to the hospital today and am having an MRI on Monday 12th at 7 pm in the evening. I'm in so much pain at the minute I dont want to eat , cant sleep , feel sick and quite honestly just want to curl up and ***, yes, I know this isn't like me as I'm normally so 'bite the world to let them know your still alive' but this pain is something I've never felt in all my years of bits going wrong or falling off. I cant describe it as such, but its NOT a pain like if you had a headache or had an infected lump somewhere nor is it toothache or earache.................when I broke my ankle and wrist neither felt like this which is what I just cannot understand , its a pain that is new and so horrible , so uncontrollably horrible. At the minute I'm taking a 40 mg oxycodone slow release every 12 hours plus 40 mg of oxynorm every 4-6 hours , the oxynorm are supposed to 'kick in' after 20-30 minutes but they dont start to help until an hour or more after taking them and then only for around another hour if I'm lucky .Nothing really seems to stop this pain and I am spending most of my time 'drugged up' get still feeling everything and it goes on and on and sometimes when I try to eat or speak its so bad I just want to hold onto my face and scream................... I also had a horrible thought , my voice has been having problems , my swallowing has been having problems and now I have this unbelievable pain .......................it makes you think doesn't it , I won't even write what I've got going through my head at this time for it just doesn't bear thinking about . I'm so tired , so if I'm not on again over the next few days you'll know that the other new drug my doctor is adding in to kill the pain tomorrow ( 9th Jan 2009 ) has worked and I'm at last getting some sleep . I will let you all know as soon as I get some answers from the MRI hopefully on Tuesday or later next week .OK. Corina has my phone number so if its anything very bad and I have to go in to hospital immediately I'll get Mark to call her and then perhaps Corina can post for me , but keep your fingers crossed its just a huge fracture whats rubbing bone on bone and has mutilated my inner beauty . Love to all Ami xxxxxxxx

Thank you so much for all your replies, yes its pretty horrendous isn't it and so unnecessary . But I'm not the only one that this hospital in Suffolk has misdiagnosed, my friend had a fall and had a broken wrist , at the time the A & E doctor said that the whole arm should be X-ray but it wasn't and about a month later they discovered that she also had a broken elbow , she has now been in constant pain for 3=1/2 months and never had a plaster cast on her wrist or arm , she was just told to 'rest it ' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm begining the think that there is some very big failings going on at this hospital but after 12 years I don't think they would even bother to listen to me . The consultant who saw me on the 2nd thinks its a fracture high up almost in line with my ear ......now think about this . About a year after the crashes etc I had 2 wisdom's out and the top one took around an hour of pulling and twisting etc ............I was in so much pain I was throwing up and shaking , but the ( same hospital by the way ) dentist just carried on saying that he'd frozen the area and I couldnt possibly be feeling pain ...............so what if he was pulling by fracture apart with each pull and twist ??????????????? OMG it doesn't bear thinking about does it !!!! Today we all go back to our dentist and hopefully I can get him to write to the Devon hospital to back both Mike and I for the need for emergency help . Mikes been so unwell over the past 3 days and only just been out of bed , the jaw pain has set of his POTS and he's been so tired , yellow and dizzy , it makes me so mad that the hospital hasn't called him yet , if he's as bad as this next week I'm going to just take him to the dentistry department with or without an appointment. I've been eating less and less as the pain I had in my face on christmas eve is still with me and the only way I can get any pain relief if is I stick a warm hot water bottle on my face , eat lukewarm foods that are very soft and drink lukewarm drinks ....thats hot or cold drinks at skin temperature. Its just been constant pain in my ear, eye, nose, teeth, jaw and face 24/7 for a whole 13 days .............well 12 years 5 months and 13 days to be totally 100 % exact !!! Ami and her poor old squeaky jaw.