Adventures of Pom

Here is an example of how having a disability has a huge effect on every aspect of my life, but with planning, stress, worry, determination, stubbornness and a whole lot of willpower, even I can meet an A-list celebrity! When I invented my Hanx challenge at the beginning of this year, I gave very little thought to about how it would end.   I guess my assumption was that I would collect all the films on the list and then have my Hanxathon and that would be that.   Mission complete. However, fate had other ideas. I finished the film collection mid-August and although I have yet to do my Hanxathon, it was around this time that I received an email from Waterstones that would give me the perfect ending. You know that time when you log into your emails and all the new messages load and 99% of them are junk emails where you scan the subject line and just click the bin icon without reading the actual email??   Well, sorry Waterstones but the majority (not all!) of y...

Relationships are tricky things even when you are not throwing a disability into the mix.   I mean I have so much to cope with in my everyday life plus I want to find time to live and do everyday things that having a personal relationship never actually seemed a priority.   At least it didn't for 17 years and it still isn’t but there has been a change in my attitude, for the better I think though maybe I’ll just let you, the reader, decide how healthy my point of view is! For 17 years, I have felt completely happy being single. I did whatever I wanted to do or at least as much as I am capable of doing and I kept up with my hobbies.   So, I have to ask myself what has changed?   There is a one word answer to that: ME. This year I have had a few health problems and my overall condition has declined.   In some ways, I would say that this decline has been significant and there have been many issues for me to deal with.   Seemingly not the o...

Not a lot of people know the word Dysphagia. The dictionary defines dysphagia as difficulty or discomfort swallowing as the symptom of a disease or condition. Dysphagia is perhaps the largest reason preventing the adequate nourishment of many people and can be life threatening. I do some voluntary admin for Dysphagia Matters who aim to raise awareness of this and offer training courses to combat this. They are launching their new blog 'Dysphagia Chronicles' to coincide with European Swallowing Awareness Day and I am their first guest blogger! Please follow this link and have a read:  Dysphagia Chronicles also contact emma @dysphagiamatters.com for more information if you are interested in being a guest blogger.

My close friends will know that I have had issues with my Care recently and I have had to have my number of agency calls and my care budget significantly increased.   This is no one’s fault and indeed, would have inevitably happened anyway. However, it left me with two things.   A sense of not being in control of my life or anything at all (an extreme fear of mine!) and having to directly and openly assess what my quality of life is and what I need to maintain it at the level I want. Quality of life (QOL) is the standard of health, comfort and happiness experienced by an individual.   This can be measured using many factors including physical health, family, education, employment, wealth, the environment, religion.   Social services produce an annual care plan to not only ensure that my basic physical needs are met, they also ask many questions in an attempt to quantify and record my QOL in accordance with their own agenda and using their own general criter...

Have my talents as a blogger finally been recognised? No probably not because most of the time I just wing it and type out whatever's in my head. However, someone actually liked the way that I write and I wrote a special blog piece for them. Attitude is Everything improves Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music by working in partnership with audiences, artists and the music industry. Unfortunately, since I wrote this in 2017 their website has been revamped and my guest blog has been removed. I bear no ill will about this because they are a brilliant source of information. Here is my article as it was in full: I am writing having failed to secure tickets to see Bruno Mars.  I am disappointed I didn't manage to get some as I have been waiting, almost literally, years for him to tour again in the UK although I can at least say to myself 'I tried' and I am sure that I am not the only fan to be gutted when the sold-out...