My dog and the memories she brings

I was thinking quite how much my dog means to me. It has just been her ninth birthday and I got her just after Christmas when I was ten. I was on six weeks bed rest and she spent the remainder of those weeks in bed right there with me. She used to curl up just by my head and we would go to sleep together and try and while away the day one way or another. At 3.30 we would move to my parents bed so I could watch Art Attack, Blue Peter, Newsround etc. It was the highlight of my day.

Most of the time I read though I played with my toys as best I could restricted to laying in bed. My sleep patterns got shot to pieces and I used to lie awake just waiting until the morning came and Mummy let my dog up.

When I then went into hospital for intensive physio to repair the damage that the doctor had done by prescribing this bed rest she was still so small and Daddy used to smuggle her in to say hello. I missed her a lot. My parents were brilliant, in the four weeks I was in hospital I only spent one night alone, they took it in turns to stay in the bed next to me (which had a jelly bean under it the entire time we were there!).

I am not quite sure how they managed it as my younger sister was a day girl and not very old herself. It was an odd time, I was in the teenage ward as the beds in the children's ward were too small and it was too noisy at night, it was completely empty except me. The hospital was far away from home and so it was difficult for both of them, I doubt they saw each other much that entire time. Daddy spent most of the time at home and my dog has a deeper bond with him than anyone else in the family except me.

It is now ten years that I have had ME, this year has sucked eggs (as the expression goes) and has had some really fun and amazing times too. I got to go to France to see the WW1 battlefields, a dream since I was six, I went with a different family and for four days I had the time of my life and I didn't have a relapse. I have managed to get to all bar one munch so far and I am now doing some Reeling (Scottish Dancing!). I have done something 'fun' every week for the last couple of weeks and it has been increasing.

I might have moaned and admittedly still do about this new treatment, I still hate it but I love what it has done for me. A few weeks ago I had more energy than I knew what to do with, I hadn't had that much for so long I had forgotten how to handle it. I slightly over did it but touch wood I am still okay. Christmas approaches with its own difficulties, both my sisters will be home and that is never an easy time with the family but it will be Christmas which tends to make it better.

If (and please God let it happen) I manage to get to Christmas without having a dip or getting a cold, it will have been my first Christmas since I first got ME that I will have got to at the same level as I felt at the end of the summer. It is so extraordinary to think this when life looked decidedly bleak at the beginning of the year.

I still have repercussions from that, I have to wear glasses more and sunglasses whenever it is bright, I can't really listen to the radio for that long, I feel car sick even when driving and I get really bad headaches most days but they are all things easily taken in stride when i think of what I am doing and how I am living at the moment. I had some problems with some new pills last week and it really brought it home how I was actually feeling now, to feel suddenly so sick and weak was sort of life affirming as it only lasted a couple of days and within three days i was at another munch!

My dog instead of sleeping next to me most of the day is begging me not to wash her after we go for long and very muddy walks. She snuggles up to me while we watch television downstairs and I can look forward to driving her somewhere exciting for a walk pretty soon as I am learning to drive and up to an hour and a half at a time now.

So yeah at a time when I normally get a bit depressed as yet another year has passed and I still have ME, I am happy and content, I have come to terms with what I have (at the moment anyway!) and the life I lead now (long may it last) is fulfilling and I am even straining to do more. I admit to having an aversion to making long term plans now but next week for me is a good week with lots of things to do and people to see and after that we shall see, I'll take it as it comes.