A new beginning

Four years ago my life changed. I went from being an independent, active person to someone who is housebound, unable to walk and totally reliant on my husband as my carer. All because of a hip infection.

My NHS orthopaedic consultant admitted that as it would be an extremely complex operation, he didn't have the necessary skills to repair the damage caused by the infection (it ate everything in it's path - skin, muscle, bone, even my metal hip joint). Instead of referring me to another consultant who could do the op, in his opinion I was coping well without a hip and that was the end of it.

The idea of spending the rest of my life in a wheelchair, looking at the same four walls and been completely reliant on others really did hit me hard.  I became depressed. 'Understandable', sympathised my GP, as she had known me long before this had happened. My mam and sister took a different view. They thought I should pull myself together and make the best of what I had.

One of our motto's is 'we will never be beaten' (the other, by the way, is 'dignity, always dignity'....) so we decided to try and find a private consultant who could perform the operation. After a lengthy search we eventually found Professor Cobb and I had hip surgery on 13th June.

Although I've had a slight set back with my hip I am confident that once my period of convalescence is over I should be in a position to learn how to walk again.

I've thought a lot these past four years about what would happen should I be able to walk again, and I've decided to use it as an opportunity for a new beginning - a new life.

I know it's all very slushy (totally out of character for both of us!!!!) but what better way of starting a new life than renewing your wedding vows. So that's what we're going to do when we're on our cruise next year. When I suggested the idea to Mr Gertie I said 'I'd like to get married again'. He replied, 'I hope it's to me....'.

There are a few more things I'd like to do with my 'new life' but the main one is setting up my own business designing and making one-off and limited edition bags and other handmade items. I know it's a huge undertaking as there are lots of others doing the same thing. However it's something that I really want to do so maybe starting a new life is the right time to do it.

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.