Weathervane girl

Its been three months since James Shunt moved in to my cranial space and we appear to be jogging along right now. I almost hate saying it out loud for fear of jinxing myself but my sickness is managed, the headaches are less and the dizziness comes and goes a will which means I'm in a whole better place than even a few weeks back so pleased that some progress has been made on my journey to improved health. A few weeks back though the first time I caught a cold I thought I was in trouble. I reacted like a man with flu. In defence of my over reaction I wasnt entirely sure that a cold was all of what I was experiencing and my head had fun playing games with my rational mind by trying to persuade me that all manners of horrors were happening. I calmed down after managing to assure myself that I would feel even worse if something had gone awry with the head plumbing and groundwork; great internal argument eh? I might feel crappy but not as crappy as I could or have felt! And yes I realise I'm sounding slightly crazy for my silent dual personality inner dialogue but hey the reassurance worked and my first cold has passed with only the advent of a few more grey hairs which don't really detract from my scarecrow hair, which is how my daughter describes my current look! One other new side effect of all this brain work is I am now more attuned to weather changes than ever before. I am like one of those little weather vane houses with a little woman on it. Thinking about it they had slightly odd hairstyles too so I may cultivate the look, my friend in switzerland will probably be able to get me some national dress outfits....Yes I know that with the easy availability of the iPhone weather app the kudos of being able to predict weather changes is lower than it probably was in the nineteenth century but I'm takin the positive angles anywere where I can find them. For the science lovers amongst you it appears that I am now ultra sensitive to the molecular pressure in the atmosphere....yep folks I can tell if it's going to rain based on the pressure I feel in my head! My theory is that I now have some air bubbles in my previously closed system. Now I'm not suggesting or asking the friends who live near me to tap me on the head a few times to get a decent reading but I'm pretty sure that thanks to James I will never again hang the washing out only for it to be rainwashed a few hours later. And if Im carring an umbrella you have been warned! I also suspect I will develop a slightly nerdy interest in air pressure as it directly affects how I will be feeling on a day to day basis but I suppose that will come in handy for a school science project at some point. Mr Raw would be so proud that my physics lessons are coming back to haunt me.

Ice cream life

They used to say you know you're getting on a bit when the policemen start looking young.

Well this means I must be ancient because I swear one of the surgical team doing my procedure last week was no more than 16. I was welcomed into theatre by a very hunky team of young men which was slightly disconcerting. I mean we all knew that in a few minutes I would be flashing my newly coiffured bikini line for them to send lashings of iodine mixture into the grey matter.

Its been a long time since i flashed good looking young men. Portugal 97 i think! Still we passed the time talking about the weather and such as we English do in situations like this and it went without a hitch. We await news of what the noodle experts make of it. I got to see counting nurse whilst back in, guess what? she still can't count, I couldnt resist checking!! I also almost did myself a mischief laughing at the hilarious reviews for men's veet hair removal on amazon. Esteemed MIL also found them amusing, I just don't recommend that amount of giggling when you're lying flat trying to be still.

James shunt has arrived at a setting that appears manageable and i wait in hope that at some point in my future there will be an intelligent shunt for hydrocephalus. A cross between Siri, the best app ever and probably invented by Dyson..(or RB). I can imagine it now.
Tifty, "what's happening in there James?"
James " your left ventricle is overdriving, I'm turning you down a notch"
How cool would that be? Predictive shunting.
Another cool thing that the Children were interested for a nano second was that Roald Dahl helped invent a cerebral shunt. A small fact we learnt at the end of a bedtime read of George's marvellous medicine. I was able to point at my head and for the first time rather proudly say," mummy's got one of them". It seems i am becoming more accepting of my hardware.

Time is still passing slowly with me. My physical world is smaller than the one I previously knew. If I walk too far then exhaustion finds me, if am somewhere noisy then dizziness jostles and unbalances me and if I think too much then everything seems to stop as if my brain is callng 'time'.
Hmmm, thats a thought, there is a ringing in my head that accompanies it, dont say James and the gerbils are runnng a pub!
All that said , there have been more better days than even just a few week ago so I try and steal parts of the day to catch up with people I love and whom make me laugh and to achieve small simple tasks. That makes me content. For now! Someone told me to 'eat the ice cream whilst it's in your dish and before it melts' so I think I'm living an ice cream life right now.

Mint choc chip flavour.