Puree Week - Day 1

SW⟫ 207.7 | CW⟫ 160.1 |

Puree Week⟫ Day 1

I find myself wondering what exactly I expected from Friday the 13th! A bit of an on again/off again sleep thing – this cold is truly wiping me out – but I was up at 6ish and felt not bad. When Stripes got up to feed the beasties, we went into the kitchen and I made my first smoothie: coconut Fage yoghurt, mango slices, skimmed milk. Felt a little bit like I was cheating – I blitzed it down so that it was pretty much the same liquid texture as I’ve been having since the surgery. It tasted nice – maybe a little bland?

Lunch-time, and Stripes decided to tempt me with Salted Caramel Fuel porridge made with skimmed milk. This was more of a challenge – I was worried that some of the oats might slip past my teeth without me chewing and choke me; that it was too thick; that it was too thin. I also wanted to be sure that I was taking small enough spoonfuls and ‘chewing’ it for a long enough period of time. I think quite possibly the hardest part of it all was not drinking while I was eating. You’re meant to give yourself 30 minutes after a meal before drinking anything and I struggled with that. Maybe because I am beginning to feel like I’m not drinking enough as a general rule and I’m concerned about becoming dehydrated.

I think the plan is chicken, mushrooms and spinach for dinner but I don’t even know if I’ll have the energy. 20 minutes of eating the porridge and I probably managed three tablespoons if that? And I am tired!

Some of my tiredness is frustration – the Airtasker cancelled (again) and I’ve been trying to find a way to remove them from the task without having to pay a fee. She claims that she can’t remove herself but surely if she has to reschedule or something goes wrong, she has access to cancelling a job? It all feels quite dodgy to me and it’s annoying AF because it means the task still isn’t complete.

I called the PIP consultation line to see if there was any news about my review. They received and acknowledged my paperwork on 15th October and I haven’t heard anything since. When I finally got through to speak to a person, he asked if I had been given any timelines for the review. Apparently, because of a backlog, it is sometimes taking up to a year before reviews are complete. However, as my award is due to expire around 3rd May, if they still haven’t got to my review by 3rd April, I will automatically be renewed for twelve months.

We will still be able to get a motability car for a one year lease as apparently as long as your award has over 12 months to go on it, you can use the mobility part for a car. But how incredibly ridiculous is it that they chased me to do a review form, complete with deadlines, whilst being unable to handle the sheer amount of reviews and new claims they already have to handle. And they weren’t going to say anything – was I literally meant to spend the next six months on tenterhooks wondering if I was going to get the award? It’s like they have no idea how stressful the whole thing is – it beggars belief. It does mean that I’m not going to be eligible for the Advance Payment assistance that they are running until 3rd January, so I need to start putting money aside for that. It might be a big ask, especially since we’re going to have to keep using Ubers, but I want to try to put aside £250 per month so that I can afford the Advance Payment.

I finished wrapping the last of the Christmas presents (apart from the conch ring I bought for Stripes – no idea where that has disappeared to! But now there are presents for all of us on top of the bookcase and the cabinet and I feel like it’s a decent enough haul.

I finished the pattern I was crocheting for my beanie and because I have a planet-sized noggin, it’s too freaking small. I tried to unravel it but the chenille did not react well and began to snap and break. So it looks like I’m going to have to do some fine-tuning to the pattern to allow for the size of my head! I think I will try to finish that this evening, then spend the next couple of nights working on the blankets for Jay’s grand-kids.

I put an order in for the condiments tubs from Amazon – size-wise, they should be good for keeping small portions of things and not taking up too much space in the freezer – but I can see that it’s going to be a bit of a learning curve figuring out all of this stuff. My brain is fried so I think I’m gonna turn off the laptop and do some reading. Only three more meals to have today!