News of Changes

Change is in the air for all of us. We are all going to be studying, and I'm not quite sure how it came about.

Caelyn and Nigel are each doing two and a half days a week in College in Dover. Caelyn is doing Beauty Therapy, which isn't a "Tracey" course. It takes 3 years and involves a lot of anatomy and physiology, legal aspects, chemical reactions etc. It isn't for the faint-hearted, but she is determined to get a qualification she can use from home becuse she wants to spend a lot of her young life actively bringing up Wendy. Her motivation for study is that she wants to create a good life for Wendy. Caelyn won't be able to work full time outside the home because of the kidney damage and head injury she had as a child. She gets far too fatigued and it runs her health right down when she gets too tired. If her work/play balance is right, she does very well. She knows it will be hard work to do this course and succeed in it but she is determined.

Nigel doing his second year as a student Motor Mechanic. He did brilliantly in the last academic year and he will do very well this year too. And Motor Mechanics can find work in any part of the world they choose. He did last year's course while waiting to see the Gastroenterologist about his Crohns Disease. He has also had to help Caelyn a lot because she has needed help with Wendy and the house while her kidneys have been bleeding and forming stones and getting infected. Her last renal function test came back at 37% for the left kidney. It is small, scarred, misshapen and not functioning well at 37%. The other is prone to stone formation, bleeding and chronic infection.

Michelle has passed her probation period and has been proposed for Advanced training. The management get to select two people out of the whole group of companies to do the advanced training every year. The training is expensive so they only propose people who they are confident are worthy of the investment. Michelle is undoubtedly excellent in her niche vocation and I'm delighted that even during her Probation period that her talent and potential has been recognised. This is a great honour and she is justly very proud of herself. She has worked hard and she is being rewarded.

I have accepted that my nursing career is over, never to be practiced again. It was something I did not want to acknowledge to myself. I have spent years hoping my health would improve. My health has improved, but not enough to practice as a nurse again. I still have problems with bright light, background noise, concentration and sensory stimuli. The difference is that I have now accepted this change in my life and have decided to pursue a home-based career. I have already done two computer courses at the local college and was sad that nothing further was offered locally. Almost casually I clicked on a link about IT training and I've surprised myself. I've signed up for a CIW course which is technical and well respected. I will learn how to be a webmaster and design websites, write technical code and a lot of stuff like that. When I qualify, I will be able to do most of my work at home in the right lighting and sound conditions, during the hours I have energy and without being exhausted by commuting. As soon as I get exhausted, I get very nauseous and lose my concentration so wouldn't be much use at work anyway. The company I am studying with actively help their students into work on completion of their courses so the future looks rosy. I have studied by distance learning before ad although it isn't easy and takes a heck of a lot of work and discipline, I know I can do it so I have a new sense of optimism.

So - change is in the air for all of us. We hope you wish us well.