A visit from the Happy Badger

No, I've not been drinking. Honestly, I've got to go out in an hour, and it's either blogging or watching Dog The Bounty Hunter to keep myself awake.  Lucky for you I chose blogging.  What's this Happy Badger thing all about then, you're probably wondering to yourself?

Well, the Happy Badger is the latest lovely visitor from ao.com, Appliances Online to you & me.  And the Happy Badger is visiting blogs across the internet spreading happiness and warm fuzzies by making £50 donations to the charities that bloggers choose.

Actually, this was the really hard bit.  Which charity to choose. There's so many out there. I work for a charity, and we get so much help and support for our work and our clients from other charities.  Plus you add in the issues that have affected our family over the years and it becomes almost impossible to choose.  I mean, where would that £50 make the most difference?  Could it be the hour in a lab that helps to find a cure, could it be the support for a homeless young person, the rescue and care of a mistreated animal?  Could it be the emergency care parcel to help a refugee who has lost everything, the lifesaving injections for babies in the third world, the friendly visit for an elderly person who can't get out?  It's everything, and a drop in the ocean.  And a really difficult decision.

Eventually, I came to a conclusion, though not after a considerable argument with myself.  My £50 is going to go to meningitis.org.  Without the work they do, the research they've carried out through the years, I probably wouldn't be sitting here writing this blog, so I've got a lot to thank them for, and the Happy Badger's kind donation goes a small way towards that thanks.

If you want to know more about the Happy Badger, or want him to pay a visit to your blog with a gift for a charity close to your heart, pop over to happybadger.co.uk/ and register.  Then watch out for a visit.

Disclosure: I have not received payment, but a donation will be made to the charity I have chosen to support in return for my writing this post.  I have not been told what to write & all opinions remain my own.

A personal post

I figured that I write a lot about shopping, a bit less about food, and an AWFUL lot about Squeaky, but actually very little about me.  And maybe I should change that.  There's a few things that make me who I am, that maybe the world should know.

Right.  When I was 12 I had meningitis.  I don't really know the full details, there's a lot they don't tell you, even at that age.  As far as I understand it, I had Pneumococcal Meningitis, which is the variant that's immunised against with the PCV vaccine.  If that vaccine had been available or generally administered 30-odd years ago, I wouldn't need to be writing this post now.

I'm here.  I'm a survivor, ok?  I have severe hearing loss in both ears, with no indication of the long-term outcomes, whether it'll stay the same or not.  I don't know what tomorrow will bring any more than any of us do, but I know that it'll never get better, the nerves are permanently damaged and it's not the sort of problem that can be treated with surgery.  (NB, the level of hearing loss edited on 6/8/13 as I asked the audiologist for the official level)

That's kind of why I didn't try to go to CyberMummy.  I'm not good at crowds, I'm not good at having conversations in loud rooms, or working out different accents.  I worry that people will think I don't like them, or that I'm being rude because I'm being quiet & not joining in.  I worry that I'll get something wrong because I misheard and people will think I'm stupid. I worry all the damn time about something or other.

Having Squeaky gave me a whole new set of worries.  Would something be passed on to her? (how, I don't know, it's like a scar, and I didn't pass on the scars of 2 broken ankles!) Would being pregnant somehow do more damage to me?  Would I be able to hear her crying?  Will I be able to understand her when she starts to talk?  I still don't know the answer to that last one.

I could have got more help than I have.  But that would have involved talking to social services.  And that's not something I'm prepared to do.  I'll have stopped needing any particular bit of help by the time anything arrives, and I really REALLY don't want them in my life if I don't have to.  If I didn't have SqueakyDaddy, yes I would probably have to suck it up & accept that it's necessary, but as he's here, they're not.  And that's the way it's staying.

So what am I saying with this post?  Apart from that I'm pro-vaccination?  Meningitis kills.  Even when it doesn't, it still turns lives upside down.  Know the signs.

Babies & toddlers                                             Children
Fever, Cold Hands & Feet                                   Fever, Cold Hands & Feet
Refusing food, Vomiting                                        Vomiting
Fretful, Dislike handling                                         Drowsy, difficult to wake
Drowsy, floppy, unresponsive                               Confusion & irritability
Rapid breathing                                                     Severe muscle pain
Tense, bulging fontanelle (soft spot)                        Severe headache
Stiff neck                                                               Stiff neck
Dislike bright lights                                                 Dislike bright lights
Convulsions/seizures                                              Convulsions/seizures
Rash that doesn't go away when                             Rash that doesn't go away when
   pressed with a glass                                                 pressed with a glass

Not everyone has all the symptoms, and they can show up in any order.  If you suspect meningitis, phone your GP or NHS Direct or go to your nearest A&E.  Please.

Key facts

• Babies, toddlers and young children under five are an at risk group for meningitis, with over 50% of all cases occurring in this age group.
• With 2,500 cases of bacterial meningitis reported in the UK every year, more than three babies, toddlers or young children will be taken ill with meningitis every day.
• Meningitis kills more children under the age of five than any other infectious disease in the UK.
• Meningitis is the disease parents fear the most.

Why are babies and children at risk?

• Babies and young children are particularly vulnerable to meningitis as they cannot easily fight infection because their immune system is not yet fully developed.
• Babies and toddlers can’t tell you how they are feeling and they can get a lot worse very quickly. Keep checking them

For more information visit Meningitis Trust

I have not been asked to write this post, or been offered any incentive to do so. It is simply a topic that is close to my heart, for obvious reasons