SCHOOL AND JARRETT'S RACE

23rd and 24th July 2010

Before I start on the last two days there is a story I have to share with you that I forgot to write on my last entry on my Blog. It is one about Tinkerbelle, I was having my shower and Mum was washing my hair - well what little I have but I still love to have it washed, Mum opened the cupboard to get out my special Barbie Shampoo and Tinkerbelle decided to pop her head in for a look also then when Mum had my head all soaped up Tinkerbelle stepped into my shower and ventured all the way in sitting under the chair I sit on to have my shower. Mum tried to get her out but she did not want to, eventually a wet and soapy Tinkerbelle had had enough and came out. When I had finished being dried, I had to dry Tinkerbelle off. It made us laugh and Tinkerbelle seemed to really enjoy herself.

Cold, frosty nights that freeze over the bird bath and make the driveway slippery lead to glorious, sunny days and that is what Friday brought us. Unfortunately my night had again been a disturbed one, waking to go to school is so difficult but it is something that I have to do. With pain in my right knee, hip, ankle and foot I reluctantly got dressed for school. My right arm had continued to crack and clunk leaving me feeling as though it was totally out of place, I could not lift it or bend it without massive shots of excruciating pain shooting up my arm and into my neck, so it virtually hung there as if paralysed.

On the way to school I had tears in my eyes because I was in pain but I have to try to have some routine in my life. At school we had Integrated Studies first and we learnt about soil types and food webs. While I was listening to the lesson, Mum took all the notes from the last three lessons that I had not being there for so that I could revise them with her over the weekend and on the days I am not at school. Sitting in class I felt really vague, as if I was not there, I think it was from the pain or perhaps it is from the tiredness from my lack of sleep. Next we had Science and we are learning about the different types of Energy. Our teacher brought in some toys and we were able to play with them and write down what types of Energy we thought they had. Every toy had potential energy as well as chemical energy because chemical energy is what we provide to make the toy work. It became a little noisy in the classroom with all the excitement of the toys and this is when I find that I totally lose my hearing and everything is a dull roar in the distance, someone asked me a question and if Mum had not have gently touched me and told me I would not have known. Thank goodness it is only one week until I am fitted with my wonderful pink hearing aid. Although I have been told this won't give me 100% hearing but it will have to be an improvement on what I am experiencing at the moment.

It was then recess time and time for me to leave, I have to say that I was so relieved because it had been a challenge for me to be at school that day. I find the days when I don't go to school I am able to rest when I need to and when I feel up to it I can work at my own pace and achieve so much more. I gratefully had a warm cup of tea, by the way I love Lipton Tea it seems to settle my stomach some days, after my cup of tea I had a rest and then we played Upwords. My pain continued to bother me immensely and I felt so drained but when I lay down to try to have a sleep I became very dizzy, the room spun around and I felt like I was on a very fast carnival ride and I just wanted it to stop.

Jarrett had physiotherapy in the afternoon to make sure his muscles were all loosened for his race on Saturday. I have physiotherapy next Wednesday and I can hardly wait, I have had trouble doing my upper body exercises because of my shoulder pain and of course even though I have attempted to I have not been able to do much in the way of my leg exercises due to pain and weakness. At night I watched some television and went to bed to try to sleep, however it was the usual with pain, clicking and sticking so my sleep pattern is roughly an hours sleep, waking, an hours sleep and then waking, some nights are worse than that.

Today that thick, white, icy frost covered the ground once more as the temperatures slipped below zero, however the sun had awoken and its warm rays touched the earth slowly defrosting the ice covered ground and heating the arctic air. I had a little more movement in my right arm than yesterday which I was grateful for, but with one positive there seems to be a few negatives. namely my right foot, knee and ankle which throbbed more ferociously than ever. My knee was so swollen, as was my ankle and my foot was swollen and shiny.

We played some Upwords and got ready to head off to the Lake for Jarrett's Cross Country Race. At least the sun was shinning and the wind was only very mild so it was actually quite pleasant as long as you were wearing a jumper and a coat. The water looked so peaceful, it was almost crystal clear and had a mesmerising reflection on it. Two black swans gracefully floated along the surface, occasionally stopping to look around or eat an insect. I wished I could lift myself out of my wheelchair and run towards that water, I think that I would feel free, just like those two swans looked.

Jarrett was called to the starting line and I crossed my fingers that he would have a terrific race, it was his first race back after his quadriceps injury that he got at ACT Schools Cross Country. The gun went off and my ears rung for ages afterwards, Jarrett and Alex an older boy from his squad took off like bolts of lightning to lead the race into the first turn after that we could not see any of the race and had to anxiously wait until towards the end to spot them again. The distance was 5km and last year Jarrett ran the race in 16:32:00 which was a great time. Finally we spotted the front runners coming into sight, Jarrett was one of them, he came flying home to come third, however the other two runners were senior runners, so he actually was the first junior male across the line and in the magnificent time of 15:58:00, a huge personal best from last year. His Coach told him afterwards that he was the youngest member of his squad ever to break 16:00:00 in a 5km race and how proud he was of him. He did a warm down and then to help his muscles recover he and another boy in the squad Sam went into the Lake up to their knees for ten minutes, I don't think I could cope with that, I am sure the water was icy cold! There was a presentation and Jarrett won a gift voucher from the Runners Shop which was terrific.

Watching Jarrett run so wonderfully, really inspires me to be able to run again one day, I will never be as fast as he is but I will be as determined and courageous and hopefully I will be able to achieve many personal bests.

When we came home I felt quite exhausted, probably from all the excitement of the Race, so I sat on the lounge and watched a movie. We are going to dinner tonight with Tass and Gloria I am looking forward to it but hope that I am not too tired and sore.

It is now only six days until I am fitted with my hearing aid and I am hoping that it will make a huge difference for me and even help me not feel so exhausted at school because being tired is making it difficult for me to concentrate, straining to hear makes me tire out very easily.

'A special wish I wish for you is to look in the mirror and smile at what you see, that person smiling back at you is the most extraordinary person there is'