My Diary – May 2008

Friday 30th May 2008

I'm not feeling too well at the moment, so will do my diary soon when I feel up to it.

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Sunday 18th May 2008

Sorry my diary is late. I’ve had a problem with my internet/emails. It’s all sorted now though!

I’ve had quite a good fortnight ‘hearing wise’. On Tuesday the 6th I went to St Thomas’s Hospital for the appointment I missed the previous month due to transport problems. I had three appointments to talk about a multi-channel brain stem implant which could help with my hearing. I saw a doctor first to talk about it, and then the surgeon who would do the operation. I also had a hearing test while I was there, and they surprised me with a different hearing aid. This one is a lot clearer and the difference is amazing. It makes everything louder like the other one, but I can understand voices better, plus the bit that goes behind my ear is a lot smaller and smoother, so it’s comfier to wear. Best of all, though, he didn’t stick anything in my ear to programme it like I had with the other one! I’m going to have hearing aids for both my ears now - he took new moulds of the inside of my ears so that the new hearing aids can be made smaller too, and guess what? They come in pink! Well, they actually come in lots of colours, but pink is the only one for me! I’m going back next month to St Thomas’s for another appointment, so I can pick up my new sexy pink hearing aids then! I can’t wait! It really is amazing the difference it makes. I can actually have a half decent conversation with people now. They still have to speak really slowly, but at least I can hear them a little bit. It’s still very frustrating, and I’m still doing a lot of deep breathing, but at least it’s a bit of an improvement.

Molly, Daizy and I spent a lot of time in the garden last weekend sunbathing! We were lying on my giant beanbag eating strawberry cornettos. Well, I was anyway, Molly tried to, and Daizy wasn’t that bothered! I don’t think I’ve got much of a tan yet. I’m determined to get one this year though!

I went to Guy’s Hospital on Wednesday to see Ros Ferner, the neurofibromatosis specialist. I’m still confusing her with what’s wrong with me - especially since the NF2 test came back negative in March. She said that there is a good chance that the brain stem implant could help with my hearing, and that it could be done in about six month’s time. I’m going to have other tests done first. I don’t know what they are, though, because I didn’t want to ask!

On Friday I helped judge this year’s entries for the Try Angle Awards. It was a long day, 9am-2pm, but we managed to pick the winners. There are ten categories, and three winners in each, plus three overall winners. I can’t give you any more details than that! The award ceremony is on the 4th July, and it should be a really good night. I’m doing the opening and closing speech which I’m a bit nervous about. I’m sure it’ll go well though…

A quick update on Lee - he’s slowly getting better and has now gone back to work. He has lost a stone in weight through not being able to eat, but gained a few new names like “jaws” and “chinny chin chin”!

I now have my own fan club! It’s about time really, isn’t it?! It was set up by someone called Glenn, who saw me on BBC News 24 when they filmed the rotary citizenship awards. He said he was so inspired by me that he set up the ‘Nicole Dryburgh Fan Club’ on Facebook, so if you have a Facebook account, please join my fan club! It already has 48 members!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?

Thanks!

My zoo is growing! This week I received a parcel from my friend Susanna in America, and she’s adopted a tiger for me! That was actually the next animal I wanted to adopt. So that’s now a monkey, an elephant, a swan, a dog and a tiger in my zoo! Thank you Susanna!

Thanks this week to Lorna and Ben for sponsoring me to do my 100ft abseil. I’ve now raised £610 from the abseil which I’m really pleased with. Next week I’m at King’s College Hospital, so I’ll check out the building where I’m abseiling down. It’s not long to go now and it’s getting quite scary! My friend Dan is now doing the abseil as well. He’s had some of his cancer treatment at King’s, so he can relate to the hospital too. It’s going to be fun!

Staying on the fundraising subject, and brilliant news to end with - I’ve made it to the top 10 for ‘Britain’s Most Inspiring Fundraiser’. There were 600 entries, so I’m really pleased! I’m going to an award ceremony next month where the winner will be announced. The winner gets £20,000 for his or her chosen charity which is fantastic! I will of course keep you posted!

Love Nicole xxx

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Saturday 3rd May 2008

Sad news to start off with this week – little Samantha Hughes passed away on the 15th April. She’d just turned five years old. Thank you if you took the time to write to her after my message in my diary a couple of weeks ago. I know it would have really cheered her up. At her funeral her family asked for donations to Post Pals instead of flowers and I think that shows just how much Post Pals means to them, and meant to Samantha, so thank you again if you wrote.

On Tuesday (22nd April) I finally had my hearing aid fixed. I still only have the one, but we’re going to see how I get on with it first, before fitting the other one. So far it seems to be helping. It makes noises much louder which is good, but people’s voices are still quite difficult to hear properly. Everyone just sounds like daleks to me at the moment, but hopefully I’ll get used to it.

It was Lee’s turn to spend a couple of days in hospital last week, and it was horrible. He was punched in the face a couple of weeks ago, and four days later his front tooth was loose, so he went to the dentist. They x-rayed it to reveal his jaw was broken. Mum and Lee then went to hospital where they said it was broken in two places. They said that they would try to operate on it that day, so he was ‘nil by mouth’ and they waited. They couldn’t do it, so he stayed in hospital that night and they tried to do it again on Friday. By 4 o’clock they knew they wouldn’t be able to fit him in, so he came home. Saturday, third day in a row of nil by mouth, he had his operation. The surgeon fitted two metal plates, for which he had to make an incision in Lee’s cheek to put the screwdriver through, and which leaves him now with stitches on his face. The surgeon also fitted a thin wire to his top teeth, and a brace to his bottom teeth with bands connected to the top and bottom, to keep his jaw in place. He has to keep these on for six weeks. Mum spent a lot of time with him while he was in hospital which meant I had to have a carer in to look after me. I visited him on Saturday when he woke up from the anaesthetic. He came home on Sunday and is doing ok. He is on a lot of pain killers and obviously can’t open his mouth or chew food properly and has got to take a lot of time off work. I would like to thank everyone in Kent and Canterbury Hospital who looked after my brother. He would obviously thank you himself, but it’s a bit difficult with a broken jaw and a mouth full of metal! Lee’s one of the nicest people you’d ever meet, so I hate the fact that someone has done this to him. I just hope he makes a full and super speedy recovery, and it’s best I don’t say any more than that.

On Wednesday morning I had an appointment to get new splints made for my legs. I felt the ones I have at the moment don’t fit properly anymore. I didn’t have new ones made though because they said they still fitted, but I’m going to have thicker straps put on them, so hopefully that will help.

Two of the girls came round in the afternoon, so it was good to catch up. The other two are away at Uni and ‘repping’ in Spain. Alright for some eh!

Evelyn came over on Thursday. She’s helping me with a little project, but I can’t reveal it yet. It’s going to be great though! My friend, Sue, came over too, and it was also Daizy’s 4th birthday!

I was very, very touched a couple of weeks ago when I received an email from someone called Mario who read my book, and he liked the bit in it where I say I want to adopt a zoo of animals, so he has fostered me an orphan elephant! She’s called Kenia, and lives in Kenya, at the place where the BBC did the Elephant Diaries. Mario said he fostered her for me because when he saw the picture of her, she had a blanket over her with pink squares on it! I’m going to receive monthly emails on her progress, so I’m looking forward to finding out more about her. I now want to go to Kenya to visit her! My little zoo is coming along well! I now have a monkey in North Carolina, a swan in Surrey, a dog at The Dogs Trust and now an elephant in Kenya! I’m hoping to extend my family of animals soon. I’m just deciding what to adopt next!

Thank you to Rosie and John Edge and David F for donating on my Justgiving page this week. I really, really do appreciate it.

This week I made my column in the Gazette to be fortnightly, and I’ve decided to do the same with my diary. That way I might actually do it on time, so see you in a fortnight!

Love Nicole xxx