Originally Posted by Professional Princess

I cried when I read this.

I took my dear old mum out to lunch today and bought her some stuff she liked.

A thing two months ago I thought would never happen.

Bundy, you came from someone special, your mum is a miracle and proving doctors wrong.

You handle this all with dignity.

You are fantastic and dont let anyone ever tell you any different.

Samantha

Originally Posted by bundy

Awww, don't cry Sam. Mum's are pretty special beings, aren't they? But my word we take them for granted until they threaten to disappear. I don't count myself as any different, stronger, better able to cope than anyone else. I just believe that you change the things you can and deal with the things you can't in the best way possible without dwelling on the negatives. Good stuff always comes out of bad stuff (I've learnt that lesson well in the last year), you just have to be patient and have a little faith in the future.

Originally Posted by Professional Princess

Tell you one thing, have you found since your mum has been ill, you really have learned to take one day at a time?

People use to say that to me and I never knew what they meant until my mum was ill.

Never a truer word spoken.

Originally Posted by bundy

Well hello there people. Yes, believe your eyes, it's me, the Bundster, just popping in to say hello. (Ok, ok, I'm cut and pasting, bear with me, too many threads to stick this update on.)

Yes, I disappeared for a bit there, sorry about that. Now that I am no longer emigrating, the need to spend quite so much time here on Expats is reduced. Oh, and I've been finding something called a life too which is proving to be great fun

So, what have I been doing? Let's see...turning 28 (thanks for the birthday wishes), leaving my job (hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!), being offered a new job (running a programme for gifted and talented youth at Leeds Uni), being offered an interview for an even better job (tactical situation there), sorting the flat out in preparation for my move Up North. And, erm, finding a new and incredibly lovely man with whom to spend my days (sorry Bix, you missed out there ). In other words, I've been quite busy.

And then there's BundyMum...she had a bad episode a couple of weeks ago when we received a call at 2.30pm on a Sunday afternoon telling us she had a matter of hours to live and that we had to get to Jersey pronto. Try doing that out of season on a Sunday night. My brothers and I converged from 3 corners of the UK (Manchester, London and Southampton) arriving within 10 minutes of each other thanks to some very nice pilots (if anyone gets the chance to fly with Jet2, then do so, they are my new heroes and I love them all). When we arrived BM had pneumonia, kidney failure, liver failure and was unconscious, about to be put on a ventilator. The doctors told us they had done all they could and didn't expect her to make it through the night, so it was a miserable few hours.

But you know BM. She was still with us the next morning, her kidneys and liver started working again and the following day they started to get on top of the pneumonia. She then got a nasty stomach bug in hosp which set her back a few days, but she bounced back once again, was discharged after only a week in hospital and was well enough to have her final dose of chemo. The doctor who admitted her came in specially to see her off and told us she'd never met anyone like BM....confirming what we all know, that BM is truly a marvel.

So, she's back at home now, awaiting lots of post-chemo test results. As usual, we know she doesn't have long, but she wants another summer at least, and wants to make it as far as my parents 35 wedding anniversary in October. Knowing her, she'll do it too.

And there we have it.....update from the world of Bundy. I still won't be around that much, but I'll pop on when I can to check up on you all.

Bundy

Originally Posted by bundy

One day? More like one hour, sometimes one minute at a time. There have been times when it's been hard to look ahead to that evening, let alone beyond that. So yes, the whole one day at a time thing certainly rings true with me, and that's the way I've been getting on with things. I have a few vague plans for the future, things I'd like to achieve in life, but mainly I just enjoy each day and hope by the time I get to the end of it that I've had a good, productive, fun day. And even if I haven't, I can't shake the optimism that makes me believe the next day will be better...Don't get me wrong, I definitely get down days, like my birthday, days when it all seems a bit hopeless or you look forward to the next year and realise how much will have changed by then, but on balance those days are a rarity.

The main thing about my mum getting sick is that it really made me sit down and take a long, hard look at my life and understand that no one else was going to change the things that weren't working for me, that it was up to me. Good lesson to learn and so much has changed in the last year that it clearly worked!

I know that there are going to be a lot of hard times ahead, but I think I now know how to deal with them better and I know that whenever things are bad, they will eventually get better. It's one of those universal laws.

Originally Posted by Nicky & Dave

Hi Bundy,

First time I've seen this thread and, having read through, it has bought a lump to my throat. Just wanted to say my thoughts are with you and your Mum.

Nicky
xxx

Originally Posted by bundy

BundyMum is a bit of a celebrity now, so it's an honour and a duty to keep people up to date with her progress (plus she revels in her fame, and I'd be the first to know it if she thought I was letting her reputation slip )

Originally Posted by Nicky & Dave

Yep, that soundS about right for the perogative of a Mum! Just reading through made me think about how much I take my lovely Mum for granted (as most probably do at some stage). So, I'm going to give her a call in the morning and tell her (in that wonderfully understated English way that says everything without saying the actual words) how much I love her!

Nicky

Originally Posted by Professional Princess

Bundy I havent read all the threads so forgive me if you have posted it, but did you hear from the genetic testing you had done?

I was thinking about you last night and if you had heard or not.

Originally Posted by bundy

You know, that seems to be the first reaction most people have, and it's something that makes me feel very happy. We should all appreciate our mums a lot more and we should certainly say it a lot more too. It's one of the best things that as come out of my mum being at death's door more than once - the ability to lay all that stuffy reserve to one side and tell her how much I love her and how much she has done for me. Shame it took this to do it, but still, better late than never.