So, we’ve just got back after a trip away to see one of my oldest and bestest mates and her family. Sounds fun and pretty normal right? Wrong.
I mean, yes it’s definitely fun – it was the most I’ve laughed in ages. But no, this is not normal for us.
Me and Pete have been together for 6.5 years, and this was the FIRST time we’ve done any proper socialising together with any of my friends. So, this trip was important to me as it was my first time seeing how he interacts with the significant people in my life (other than the odd 5mins here or there) outside of our immediate family.
This is the kind of stuff ‘normal’ couples do in the first year or two of a relationship … not 6.5 years, a mortgage and one child down the line. But we had no choice.
Pete and I were together for only 3 months before my health began rapidly deteriorating. We missed out on all the ‘normal’ stuff couples do in the first few years of a relationship. We managed to have one holiday 8 months into our relationship – but even then, although it was a dream holiday – I needed wheelchair assistance at the airports by then, and had to spend a lot of time resting at our Air bnb. We haven’t been able to travel abroad since, although I’m hoping that will change now my health has finally improved.
By the end of our first year together, I was predominantly housebound and used an electric wheelchair on the rare occasions I could leave the house. I was too ill to socialise – let alone take a road trip to see friends. So we didn’t. Which meant Pete never met them (or at least, not properly). Until this week.
Our trip away this week was amazing on so many levels. It was truly wonderful to see my friend and her family and catch up properly. And it marked a milestone in mine and Pete’s 6.5 year relationship: we have FINALLY done something ‘normal’ that involved other people.
It’s simple things like this that I totally took for granted before getting ME and POTS. But never again. Life is precious.
(We didn’t actually take any pics of us together on this trip – oops 
… so I’m borrowing this one from a day trip out last year!)
