Our holiday

Well we booked a holiday on a canal boat that was specially adapted for wheelchair users. It looked perfect, a slow moving, gentle holiday with lots of time to do stuff as a family...when I say 'family' I mean me, DD, DS1 and DS2, DP hasn't been included in our holiday plans for years as he can poison anything with his temper and foul moods. We had planned a route that would take us to Stratford on Avon and it all looked idyllic.

We got to the boat yard on Thursday and got everything on board and DS1 got taught how to steer the boat. It all looked fine...the boat wasn't as wheelchair accessible as we'd imagined but still workable. We were recommended not to do the route we planned as it was not easy for beginners and would need more able bodied people than we had...really just DS1 and me. So we set off down the River Severn for Worcester.

The river was lovely, everything we'd hoped for. Lots of nature, warm sunshine and plenty to see on the river. Unfortunately the boat was not easy enough to steer that anyone except DS1 could do it so he stayed at the tiller all day and ended up extremely over tired, sunburnt and dehydrated. He was concentrating so hard he didn't drink or eat enough and couldn't take a break to get suncreamed up. Not that suncream made that much difference...it was very sunny.

But the main problem wasn't DS1 it was DD. She just found it all too much, too much light, too much movement, too much having to concentrate because she felt she had to help cope with manoeuvring the boat as much as she could. She couldn't rest when she needed to and got dangerously over tired. She has been flaring mildly in recent weeks and we were anxious about how she would cope on holiday but wanted to go anyway, well we found out how she coped and it wasn't well.

We moored up in Worcester on Thursday night and I decided we would go back on Friday....DS1 admitted he found steering the boat all the time harder than he'd imagined, DS2 loved the boat but was getting bored as there was little for him to do when he were moving, I found the constant motion disconcerting (I suffer appallingly from motion sickness and even a slow moving boat on a gentle river affected me) but non of these would have mattered if DD was coping. But she wasn't, she was struggling too much and the only option was to bring her home before she got too ill to manage the journey back. To be honest only DS2 was disappointed with the decision and even he could see how desperately poorly DD was...he gave her the teddy he'd brought on holiday to protect him. He is such a sweetie, hard work but sooo worth it.

The holiday was worth it....DD and I were up at 4am on Friday morning watching the dawn over the river...total magic. I saw an otter, she saw kingfishers and we all saw loads of heron. DS2 got to steer the boat for a tiny section which made him feel amazing and he got to sound the horn loads. DS1 got his low opinion of motor boats confirmed by the arrogance of the motor yacht owners, he is definitely a sail man. But even with all of this coming home was the right decision.

Unfortunately it was a hellish journey coming home...6.5 hours for a 3 hour journey, thank God for air con! The traffic round Birmingham was VERY slow moving. Still it was good to be home again and DD was happy to be back in her own room where she could control the light and she was able to rest in  more comfort. She was still dangerously overtired and in huge amounts of pain but found it easier to manage at home.

An interesting note: on the first night I had a text message from my Mum and DP both basically saying 'hope you have a good holiday'. I replied to both saying the weather was good but DD was struggling and we were coming back early. DP replied briefly saying 'what a shame', but no enquiry about DD. My Mum didn't reply at all. I also texted my friend to say what was happening and got texts back expressing normal interest and offering support and the following morning she texted again to check how DD was coping and basically showed she cared. Nothing from DP or Mum. When we got home DP was plainly not expecting us back and was VERY plainly not happy we had got back early to invade 'his' space!

I didn't find out anything I didn't know but it was a very clear example of how little DP and Mum care about DD.