Back In The Land of The Blog

Phew! It's very good to finally be back. Posts of substance will follow shortly, but in the meantime I'll ease myself back in with some ever-dependable Random Bullets of Crap:

• First and foremost, MASSIVE thanks to the lovely Clare for keeping the blog afloat in my absence. Not only is she a guest blogger extraordinare, she's also a wonderful friend.
• Notwithstanding this, Clare did spread some scurrilous rumours in my absence. These will have to be dispelled! ;)
• Just to confuse you all, for the next few weeks I'll be blogging both here and over at Ink and Incapability. Clare's got a few things going on, so she asked me to co-blog, and I'm delighted to have the opportunity to return the favour (read: spread equally scurrilous rumours about her!). So head on over to read my musings about Summertime in England and all the other stuff that we'll be blogging about, including...
• The 18th Carnival of Feminists which Clare will be hosting on 5th July.
• Thanks to everyone who sent their good wishes whilst I was away, I really appreciated your comments and emails enormously. Obsessive blog reading also helped to keep me sane. So if your site meter showed someone in the South of England clicking on your blog about 100 times in a day, it probably meant that I was about to go for a scan or an appointment with a doctor!
• On that note, after 12 months, 6 scans, 4 X-Rays, 1 ECG, 4 consultants, 2 general practioners, countless appointments and more test tubes of blood than I'd care to recall, I'm very pleased to say that although I still don't know exactly what's wrong with me, it's been narrowed down to several things that will hopefully either disappear in time or be fairly easily treated. As I've been generally feeling quite a bit better these past few months, my Rheumatologist is giving me a vacation from all things medical to see if I keep improving. If not, then he's going to run a few more detailed blood tests in September, to try to narrow things down.
• I'm massively relieved as I'd been getting so fraught, worried and downright sick of it all. I got to the point where the stress made me feel physically sick for days before going to an appointment or test, and then just as bad in the days after. I couldn't even telephone my doctor's receptionist without getting into a huge state. That's just not like me. I began to feel as though I wasn't living in the real world and I just couldn't see an end to it all. That's why I stopped blogging for a while.
• I'm now left feeling incredibly exhausted and disoriented. But in a good way that's oddly settling. I'm just starting to get my head around all the other aspects of my life (like dissertation writing!) that have been on the back burner for so long, but I do feel a bit like a little animal blinking its way out of hibernation. So far my only progress on the dissertation front has been list making and placing an Amazon order for Moleskine notebooks. But, it's a start, right? And, a girl can't be without good stationery. :)