Sometimes we have to stand back and realise how lucky we are,

Sometimes;
We have to stand back and realise how lucky we are.

I keep reading about how we are all in a period of change, I guess we are, I feel as if change is all around me.
 I’m going to see my friend who lives a couple of hours away most Saturdays now; I went to see her today and spent a lovely afternoon with her.  She’s had so many medical problems for so long and I’ve lost count of her multiple diagnoses. The root of the problem is an auto immune disease that triggers may other serious illnesses.  The latest, and what will be the last of her many diagnosed illnesses is liver disease. It’s advanced, severe and untreatable; I go to see her as often as I can.  It’s so sad, she is two years older than me and some days she looks closer to 80 than 60.
On a somewhat brighter note; my two daughters are in serious training for the biggest challenge of their life. They follow an exercise programme 4 times per week and have completely changed their diet. My youngest daughter, has a horse and rides every day, because of this is has remained quite fit and has never become overweight, but even for her the training is strenuous.  My eldest daughter has an even bigger fight on her hands,  she used to be very fit but now has some early arthritis and needs to lose about  2 stone in weight. They are taking part in something called ‘’Tough Mudder Scotland 2013’’. It’s described as a; ‘’hardcore 12 mile-long obstacle course designed by the Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. With the most innovative courses and half a million inspiring participants, Tough Mudder is the premier adventure challenge series in the world’’.
I get scared just reading about it. Their reasons are sad but also inspiring; they are doing this challenge in support of a young woman who has battled cancer for several years. The woman thought she had beaten it, her chemo finished, her hair and eyebrows started to grow back and she began planning her wedding. Then the illness came back with a vengeance and it’s now terminal. She’s living every day and still planning her wedding. 
My daughters are training to compete in Tough Mudder to raise funds for the charity that  helped this young woman, the charity is called ‘Bosom Buds of Scotland’ and my daughters has named their team ‘Mud Buds, a combination of the challenge name and the charity name.

This is their donation page
http://www.justgiving.com/mudbuds2013
this is about the challenge
http://toughmudder.com/
this is the ( rather scary) video  


My final eye surgery is to take place on Monday, I used to feel quite sorry for myself about the problems I’ve had with my eyes. I don’t any more. I’m extremely grateful that my sight in that eye has been saved and even more grateful that they can remove the cataracts and restore near perfect vision in that eye. I’m a coward about hospitals and procedures but all of this puts it in perspective, I’m looking for ward to getting it done on Monday and very happy its not something far more serious.