Summer Trip

I always get a bit nervous planning a trip, paying for a hotel and tickets to something. I always seem to get ill at the wrong moment. When I was 7 I was all ready to go to Disney World in Florida with a charity that takes sick children for a once in a lifetime holiday, when I right on cue I got sick and couldn't go. Luckily they did the trip every year so I got to go the next year. I remember the woman who ran it being worried about going through trying to get me insured to fly again. As soon as an airline company hears you've got heart and lung disease they don't want to know! I think if they weren't a charity that wouldn't have managed it. If that had been a family holiday it would have been a disaster, no money back and no holiday! And at Christmas I was planning a trip to London for a bit of site seeing and going to see War Horse, but I came down with glandular fever and couldn't go, which I was really sad about. But I'm hopeful that I won't fall ill for this one. I'm not allowed.

So I'm planning a trip to Oxford at the end of August (not long now!) for five days with my boyfriend. I'm really excited to be going somewhere. I can't really go abroad because if I got ill, the last place I want to be is stuck in a foreign hospital with no one knowing my history, and as I've mentioned flying is difficult because of difficulty with insurance and problems with taking oxygen on planes. But luckily I don't really have a strong desire to travel, there are so many beautiful places in Britain to visit. Oxford being one them. We're going to spend four days in Oxford and then on the second day we're going to go to The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesdon, which is about an hours drive from Oxford. This will actually be my second time at the tour but it was so amazing the first time I went that I'm even more excited this time around and my boyfriend hasn't been so we just had to go. If you're a Harry Potter fan you definitely need to go, even if you wouldn't really consider yourself a 'fan' but want a good day out, it's perfect for that too. You won't believe the stuff they have there. They must have been planning this for a while because they've kept pretty much every prop and set they built for all of the films, and it's quite surprising the things they did actually build. One of the tour guides said they actually have more in storage that they're going to bring out later on to mix the tour up a bit. And if you're registered disabled, phone the ticket booking line and you'll get a carer in for free! They don't have to be your official carer but you do have to bring proof of Disability Living Allowance when you go. There's good accessibility there, it's all flat and there's ramps between some of the rooms but there aren't stairs anywhere so you're still in the midst of the crowd. There aren't many places to sit down though so if you have a wheelchair I'd advise bringing that. It's organised quite well so it didn't seem insanely busy, and it isn't difficult to get the wheelchair around. No less difficult that your average shop or museum anyway. 

We're going to decide what to do around Oxford when we know what's happening with the weather as some things like hiring a boat to go down the river or visiting the botanical gardens we can't do if it's raining. Hopefully my energy will last the whole five days. After feeling pretty good for a while I'm starting to get tired a lot again, but I still feel like I can push through it quite a lot. I find that there's tiredness and Tiredness, there's feeling a bit flat and lazy and there's not being able to do anything, a kind of fatigue that just takes over. When I feel like that, I don't get bored lying around because I know that's what my body needs. Thankfully I haven't felt like that for a while now, and I don't get it very often but I do have my days. But I think Oxford is going to be good. I think there's a certain amount of mind over matter when there's something you really want to do. 

So wish me luck! I have another appointment with the palliative care team this week so I'll probably do a post about that if anything interesting happens. Bye for now!