My Holiday to England - A Happy Story

With as much trepadation as excitement, my Husband and I set off from Australia for England. I had hopefully prepared as much as I could before hand. I had a letter from my docter listing all my medications, I had requested wheel chair assistance from the airline. I had all my medications and a few extra just in case. I take Simponi and our holiday was planned to take place in between my monthy injections. I REALLY reccommend if you are flying anywhere to request wheel chair assistance. I was wheeled around the airports, this turned out to be are very good thing as Heathrow is enormous! I also took my cane which proved invaluable. It helped me get about a lot more that I otherwise would have been able to.

I has the best time overseas.

We spent a week in London, where for most days I did need to take pain killers as I was not used to the amount of walking that we were doing. My husband was really good. If I needed to stop and have a rest he was fine, we would find a little place for some tea and food. He never pushed me to keep going. I think that the time we spent together also helped him understand better the limitations that this disease puts on me. We got to see all of the things that we had planned to see. (Tower of London, Madam Tussauds, Greenwich, London Eye, The Globe Theatre and a lot more...)

After that we went to Bath, mostly because I am a huge Jane Austen fan. That was amazing, of all the places we visited, I could happily lived in Bath. Again two more days of walking, but again I coped with it with just painkillers.

We went to Cardiff after that, just to go to the Dr Who Experience - I am such a nerd :) I could wax lyrical about how much fun I had there, but I will not bore you with my nerdiness.

Then on to Nottingham where, unfortunately, I fell ill. This had been the thing I had beed fearing the most. Luckily it was just a 24hr stomach flu (yuk). The staff at the hotel where we were staying were marvellous. I cannot thank them enough for their help while I was ill. I was glad that I had the time to recover as well. This did however mean that I could not see as much as I would have liked in Nottingham, I didn't get to go to the castle, but I did go to the Galleries of Justice and the Caves that are under Nottingham. Of the four days that we had there I only had one where I wasn't sick.

After that we went to York. York is the most amazing place. There is SO much history to see, from the Romans and the Vikings, as well as a Medieval Hall. While we were in York we took a day trip to Edinburgh. We went to Edinburgh Castle. I loved it, not so much the cobblestones which played havoc with my feet, but the views made up for it, we also stopped on the way back to the train at a place called the Whiskey Experience, where we had a Gaelic Coffee and scones (Yum). Back in York we went on a Ghost Tour, which was a lot of fun, not on the same day!

I really surprised myself with all the things I was able to do. As long as I paced myself and used my cane I could get about. I think the key was planning, and then not sticking to the plan, just seeing how I was feeling by the afternoon.

I have come home with more confidence in my body. I now know that I can do a bit more that what I was doing before.

I am really glad I had the chance to explore a small part of the world that I never thought I would be able to see. I'm glad I said to myself "I'm going to try" rather than "I can't do this".