Recovering from this tough time is hard and messy. To a certain extent I think my husband and I have ended up clinging on to each other for dear life. It's how we've coped. I would be lost if I hadn't had this closeness, not just to him, but our other kids too.

I've always been something of a hermit and a loner, but since the long hospitalisation of my daughter, it's turned up to 11

I really really miss having a bath

Morning

It has been hard to see our daughter change so much. I've struggled with sadness for what has been lost. But being with her and seeing how hard she tries to move her body, even when doing so triggers a seizure, is mind-blowing. The love I feel is massive. I guess as a family we're regrouping

Our new life is often overwhelming. I really miss having spontaneous zone out time.

If I was an allegedly centrist Prime Minister of the UK who is facing being wiped out by fascists in a few years, I probably wouldn’t be building them infrastructure with which they can track & surveil citizens. But that’s probably just me.

The line is pretty blurred at the moment

A lot of the last 8 weeks has felt chaotic. Full of love but equally matched by mayhem.

Getting used to our new normal has been difficult

A couple of quickies

So I did actually draw one picture since A and I came home at the end of July. I haven't wanted to post it as it's pretty raw, but I've decided to post it now. Oof

Not sure it's finished tbh and may tinker with it, but I cannot describe how good it feels to be drawing again, finally.

Another trip to Oxford unfortunately, this time seizure related. Hoping it's a swift one this time. 🤞

Here's the problem - the right make up a story and the media plaster it everywhere. The left tell a true story and the media ignore it. The right hasn't actually 'hijacked' anything. The right have been given an open door while the left - the majority - are barricaded away.

I want at least one political party which is proudly and vociferously pro-trans rights that i can vote for. I really don't think it's too much to ask that we no longer have to put up with "let's listen to the people who just want trans people not to exist."

Seeing/hearing people who previously had nothing to say about what is happening to the people of Gaza, now coming out and saying ‘it’s gone too far’. All I can say is ⬇️

I've missed my partner so much this last year. Can't wait to be properly back home

Tuesday morning was fraught with scary desats and hitting 999 It was a frightening and demoralising day but thank goodness, our daughter has bounced back fast. Today we'll take her home from Oxford for the second time this week!

Bad news folks. We're heading back to Oxford

Oh my goodness, today's the day! My daughter is coming home

Earlier in Labour's term I put this down to growing pains. But I'm increasingly sure I was wrong - a continuation of the Tories' cultural politics really is what Labour wants.

People are afraid of disability. They can’t comprehend the “chronic” part of chronic illness. They expect us to tell them we’re “fine”. They ask if we’re “better yet?” They ghost us when we don’t improve. Disability is not a moral failing. It happens to most people eventually

I have seen how governments' piecemeal approaches to encouraging people to have kids have failed. In Japan the falling birthrate means that parents need to join in after-school baseball teams because there are not enough kids to make up a team, for example. Labour's 200 nurseries are a joke.

This happened recently, and I lost my shit. It's not resolved but my general Banshee level has moderated. It has to. I have to keep going to MDT's and talking to people who hold my daughter's life in their hands. So, dear Sheila the Banshee, I hear you, even when I have to pretend you're not there

The Billionaire Media endlessly go on about Grooming Gangs because it allows them to distract from the real criminals like the people behind Grenfell. But those are crimes by their mates.

I originally started drawing this about the conference I went to recently. I found closing my eyes and trying really hard to drink all the words in did help. But equally now A is back in Critical Care, it's taken on a different more emotional meaning. Though don't worry folks, she's recovering well

Fucksake

Catherine Fookes says that the update says that trans men should not be able to use the men's facilities and in some circumstances should not be allowed to use the women's either. Falkner concedes that this is ambiguous and 'is not intended to be comprehensive analysis'.

Mary-Ann Stephenson was very active in feminist politics in Coventry during the 2010s. I can confirm she is extremely transphobic, although she always kept her nastiest comments behind closed doors. This proposed appointment should be resisted in the strongest possible terms.

We can protect people. We can protect nature. But Labour are protecting the profits of property developers. The Planning & Infrastructure bill needs ripping up & starting again.

Today, the first day of pride month, the English FA begins its ban on trans women in women’s football. Checked the “LGBT inclusion” page on their website to see if anything had been updated & it still contains this paragraph. “address barriers to participation”? You are the barrier!

More drawings from the Reverse Rett conference.....

Am at the Leap Rett Conference in Manchester. It's organised by brilliant charity Reverse Rett. It's my first time going to a conference and I'm so relieved I can hide behind my sketchbook as a)there's a lot of peopling and b)huge amounts of info to process. Really enjoying it

It’s overwhelmingly mothers who fight these SEND battles, who leave their jobs, who have their lives turned upside down, & who keep on fighting for others I wonder if the No10 strategy and comms bros who’ll sign this off have clocked this

It's so hard to explain all the feelings. It's absolutely not grief, but there's loss, fear, hyper focus, shimmering moments of joy..... Just simply so much to process. So I do this

An apology to Keir Starmer:

Just found this gem in one of the historical display cabinets at the hospital we're at (RBH) I think they should bring it back

who's ready for the return of everybody's favourite chaos thread, ✨ travelling while disabled ✨

tomorrow will be talking about The book with lovely panel

How does one non-offensively ask what someone’s genitals were as a baby?

I am lost for words. "Had a miscarriage? Hey, don't worry - the Police may be round to treat you like a criminal! That will make things so much better!" Yes, the UK, and yes, now. Have we run out of empathy, as a country?

I can't think of anything useful to say about a speech describing our lovely colleagues, friends and neighbours as some 'squalid' failed experiment in immigration. But I think Sir Keir Starmer needs to reflect on his words, and apologise.

That our government is basing trans healthcare policy on the internationally-discredited Cass Review is a scandal. This peer-reviewed critique in the BMC is further evidence of its flaws. Cass - the modern day equivalent of the Wakefield scandal - belongs in the bin. #CassScandal

Every election in every country shouldn't be a race between a Far Right Nazi and a candidate who will keep the same crap we have now. Lets have candidates who will make things better. The Media won't give you them because they have created this current crappy situation.

STATEMENT FROM ENGLISH FOLK DANCE AND SONG SOCIETY

In the last 10 months, I'm so chuffed my drawing abilities have definitely shifted up a notch. My whistle playing however....... 😢

Labour's new policy - of humiliating trans people by requiring them constantly to self-identify - we believe puts the UK (again) in breach of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and will seek a declaration of incompatability. goodlaw.social/0r6l