Kat

My colleagues have started referring to me as God Empress. As they should.

Woo hoo! I am on leave till next Friday.

Except I am working tomorrow.

It being a medium, means that somewhere there is a large - which will be even bigger!

I found out today I have a heart-shaped uterus. That lesser known album of collected Nirvana B sides.

I also have a large ovarian cyst so it's surgery for this bunny.

Gynaecology in the UK: I'm supposed to have an urgent uterine ultrasound today. There's a 2 week deadline from referral, which I will breach on Monday. It was cancelled yesterday. Meanwhile a friend who no longer has a cervix has ONCE AGAIN had a shitty letter about not having a smear test recently.

Same with us. Last cycle we converted fewer insurance choice at UG because RG took students with lower grades who would normally drop down to us & then they were in Clearing too. For PGT - in the UK it's mostly international, and from the little sector data we have nobody is having happy times.

Today was A Day! I feel like my head has been in a vice.

....and then we convert fewer home students and we are financially stressed. These are also just the latest in a long list of redundancy announcements. We made ours a couple of weeks ago.

You know this, but it is more complicated than that. HE is an ecosystem, when it's stressed in one area it impacts all of us, and while international student numbers are falling everywhere, higher ranked institutions just fish in the ponds that us lower ranked are in for Home recruitment instead....

Luckily I live in a country with socialised healthcare. I also don't get any medication from my clinic, the focus is on interventions which don't use analgesia in order to reset the nervous system.

(3/3) Why is it so hard for middle aged women to have their pain taken seriously? There is a world of difference between a nervous system disorder that results in chronic pain and fatigue across the whole body and a degenerative spinal arthritis that can in the worst cases shorten your life.

(2/3) Petitioning from the physio & my GP did not change their mind. Today I went back to my Dr because despite the best efforts of the pain team & myself following the ABC protocol, I am still in significant pain every day. My GP agrees that I am a textbook case of AnkSpon so we are trying again.

(1/3) Two years ago I saw the physio at my GP practice about my chronic low back & SI joint pain. They were pretty sure I had ankolysing spondylitis, & referred me to rheumatology, who said 'yah no, she meets the diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia, so she can go see the pain clinic instead. Bye'.

My vets have asked me to start sedating Bramble before check ups as he is hard work. So I now have to give him gabapentin in a lick e lix. He has bloods done earlier so he is a bit spaced out this afternoon.

Nobody is more obsessed with chicken than my cat. He knows there's roast chicken in the fridge and it is the best & worst knowledge he could have. It's ruling his evening. He is staring fixedly at his dish in case more chicken magically appears in it. He is the embodiment of hope and disappointment.

I don't think so. It's the holes down the middle, like the human sacrum. It's very delicate and light looking which would indicate a bird and their pelvises are elongated compared to ours. But they do look like skulls. Almost dragon ish.

Possibly a seagull pelvis?

One of the risks of queerness that I feel doesn't get discussed enough is the risk of dating somebody with the same name as yourself.

This post was prompted by my going on a date with another woman called Kat.

Fibromyalgia Pillow Fibromyalgia Pillow designed for Spoonies. This cushion supports your body in the recovery position during sleep use in bed for pain relief.

BTW, I always get asked what pillow it is. It is this
putnams.co.uk/products/fib...

My mum bought me a fibromyalgia body pillow for my birthday, which Bramble initially hated because it reduced access to me at night At 7am today however, he realised he too could sleep on it, and get even closer to me than usual. And so I awoke to him sprawled all over my face snorepurring.

It feels early but I have blue tits in my nesting box already & have done for about a week. I thought they may have been sheltering from the cold, but the level of industry this morning makes me think they have claimed it for this year's breeding season. Super flattered to be picked this early 😁

Do you ever just sniff your cat? Pick them up, bury your face in their fur and properly smell them?

I know I am stating the obvious here, and yes it is winter, but fuck me it's cold.

Cross stitch pattern of a sampler based on the film midsommer

Very excited about starting this project soon...

Gosh. Going back to work after nearly three weeks off in the middle of winter is quite tiring isn't it. I propose we just hibernate in the winter in future.

I doubt I would have any skin on my arms if I tried to put Bramble in one.

Not posted for a while. Back to work tomorrow after a long Christmas break. Spent most of it trying to get my nervous system to calm the fuck down. Made some progress there. Suspect Bramble will be unhappy about this turn of events. Oh, and it was my birthday on Sunday. Now closer to 50 than 40...

I made a comment to a friend recently that you are either a drinks all the time ND (that's me) or forgets to drink all day ND (that's my friend). There seems to be no middle ground.

Heading down to Brighton in a bit. Only for one night, but I got my bag down to pack, and Bramble (cat) hid under the bed. The curse of having a smart and very clingy cat ☹️

Devin Stanfield as Kay Harker and Patrick Troughton as Cole Hawlings in The Box of Delights (1984)

The Box of Delights is being repeated on BBC4 from Saturday 7th December, kicking off at 7pm with a Renny Rye Remembers... intro.