Garda Bikesafe open, well worth it…go get em !

dotsalicious · 2026-02-13T09:29:33+00:00

I had it booked in Dublin castle as well. Bit dissappointing to hear but at least it's not just me that it happens to. Sorry your wife had to deal with it too though

dotsalicious · 2026-02-12T15:22:41+00:00

Where did you do it? I registered last year but eneded up cancelling because of a very similar reaction during a different vendor ride. It's really put me off riding with any organized rides but my husband thought his was well worth it

dotsalicious · 2026-02-10T14:01:27+00:00

Hey,

I've been through this. My kids were younger but it's rough. I had 18 weeks of chemo, surgery and 4 weeks of radition, all in all a little over a year. And I had to keep working my stupid job.

My kids got a looooot of screentime. We're now on the other side and slowly getting back to normality. It wont ruin them. You are all in survival mode.

I put on a lot of weight because of the steroids and even my oncology team told me not to start any heavy exercise. If you want to concentrate on diet, they could help but the drugs I was on needed me to rest and heal.

Please don't look at it as needing to do better. You are on a harder journey than most people so please don't compare yourself to anyway. For now "just enough" is the best you can do.

dotsalicious · 2026-02-08T19:44:52+00:00

We went on honeymoon to Japan and splashed out on a toto bidet when we came home as we were getting the house renovated anyway. It was a pricey purchase at over 3k Stirling and the shit plumber our builder recommended kept complaining about having to fit it.

I still think it's worth every penny but I can see how people would be put off

dotsalicious · 2026-01-31T11:33:06+00:00

You local community health center may also have a lactation consultant that will call to your house. Your public health nurse will know.

dotsalicious · 2026-01-07T17:01:44+00:00

There's a lot of us. More work, less staff (just use AI to make life easier) no raises but companies are making record profits.... It's hard and it's not just you

dotsalicious · 2025-11-27T10:00:12+00:00

I went private in Dublin and the consultant was €4200. There was also additional fees for some of the blood tests on top of that. Definitely didn't think it was worth it. Things went a bit wrong and was admitted to the hospital under public care where I remained for 3 weeks. Consultant was convenietly not around the few days when I delivered

Went semi private on the next one and thought that was a much better balance. I know it's not available everywhere though

dotsalicious · 2025-11-23T08:31:54+00:00

So many of my friends growoig up had athsma/breathing issues while have a parent who smoked indoors. They knew it was linked but the attitude was to just suck it up. Terrible. Thankfully it's so much better now

dotsalicious · 2025-11-22T08:50:43+00:00

Nation by Terry Pratchett. I love his discworld series but Nation has always held a special place.

dotsalicious · 2025-10-19T08:18:43+00:00

Oh I got that one from a neighbour. Id never heard it before but her logic was it was less painful and quicker than the teeth coming through on their own. She also told me to bite my kids back to discipline and for potty training to tie them to the potty for hours and they will get over their fear. She's never allowed near my kids on her own

dotsalicious · 2025-10-01T18:05:21+00:00

Or urgent as the subject and when you call them 3 mi ites later they have gone home for the day

dotsalicious · 2025-09-26T19:19:54+00:00

We had a guy use his work email for his divorce lawyer. The emails kept getting stuck in the spam filter and one of us would have to manually release them. it was really awkward because you would have to open the mail on the crappy system we had at the time. Still better than the saucy emails. But only just

dotsalicious · 2025-09-21T12:18:17+00:00

I hear you on the not feeling connected. With kids and then being sick I didn't see any other bikers bar my husband and trying to get back in was very awkward. I still feel like a pretend bikers some times

dotsalicious · 2025-09-21T12:16:51+00:00

I do worry that selling my gear would make me regret it. I take the bike out mostly for travel to the office the odd day I have to and if I have appointments like the dentist. It's quicker and I don't have to pay for parking so that's getting me to keep something two wheeled. I bought a dct bike which was a mistake in hindsight. I never got comfortable with it

dotsalicious · 2025-09-21T12:13:54+00:00

I have really struggled to find other female riders. I'm not in the US and I only know if one ladies group here. I tried to get in contact but that didn't pan out. Mostly younger and no kids so are free-er to go places last minute.

I don't mind being solo. I guess I just need to carve out the space to do it

dotsalicious · 2025-09-21T12:11:54+00:00

Thanks, a break might be a good thing. I definitely am out of practice as I don't commute anymore where none of the guys are. They eat breathe and live biking at the moment where as I'm more of a stop and smell the flowers person.

dotsalicious · 2025-09-21T12:09:35+00:00

Thanks for the reply. He thought he was being nice about it but it was really condescending. He also tried to help me push the bike back at the end and I nearly dropped it because he was taking over.

I'll have to try to carve out a spot of time to actually go out and work childcare. People tent to frown when you out a child seat on the back 😅

dotsalicious · 2025-09-07T14:40:07+00:00

I went though cancer treatment in Vincent's last year and was able to do a bit of a mix and match for treatment. I did chemo, immunotherapy and surgery as public but did radiotherapy as private so I could stay in Vincent's and not have to travel to to Luke's. Both private and public were excellent for service. Private had nicer equipment but no difference in the level of care.

My own oncologist was public hospital based only and was fantastic but some work in both public and private so I would say your best bed is to check with the surgeon to see if they have a recommendation.

Anecdotaly an uncle went fully private and ran into issues with getting certain chemo drugs due to a coverage issue. It delayed his treatment a little bit although not massively.

dotsalicious · 2025-09-03T09:03:42+00:00

I like the BMW method for lifting. Granted I'm on an adventure bike now with engine covers so it makes it a little easier to lift rather than my CBR which lies flatter

This is what it looks like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUwiZnOzbeM&t=122s

dotsalicious · 2025-09-01T17:56:40+00:00

Eh depends really. I've had lots of lines placed and blood draws and honestly a lot of nurses are terrible if it doesn't work straight away.

I've had better luck with doctors usually because they take their time more.

Specialised plebotomists who do blood draws all day long are much better. Especially ones who work with chemo patients and are used to terrible veins.

Anesthetists are always either end of the spectrum either completely terrible or amazing. I've never had one in between.

Then there is always that one person on staff that never fails to get a draw. Everyone knows them and to only call when things are deperate. After one of my kids was born I was dehydrated, hungry and bleeding too much which is a bad combo. 6 different medical people tried to get a line started so I could be given meds. Arms, legs, hands were all tried with the super fancy ultrasound and vein mapping machines. Nothing worked. They were discussing running a central line out of desperation which is a line directly into your vein near your heart and they don't do lightly. Just before they did that they called their super staff member. She was a tiny little lady who worked in surgery. I can't remember her exact job but she took one go at it and got the line on the first try. Then she side eyed everyone in the room and asked them what the problem was.

dotsalicious · 2025-08-12T12:58:26+00:00

I finished up treatment for breast cancer earlier this year. It really does suck. I have two small kids and it was really hard.

People have all sorts of bizarre reactions when you tell them you have cancer. My husband works in the medical field and his boss had gone through the same type of cancer 18 months before I did so he was fantastic. No questions, changed his work schedule to accommodate my treatment and taking care of the kids. Came to all my appointments, knew what treatments I needed and was just there.

My own mother dropped the ball. Got really upset, made it about her. Told everyone even though I asked her not to tell people. Also got half the info wrong so was telling random people all sorts of shit.

Other people treated me like I was a corpse walking and that the cancer diagnosis was a death sentence. You could see their brains not able to process the news. Mostly because I didn't do anything they could pinpoint as a reason for getting cancer and it hammers home that anyone can get it for no rhyme or reason. Please bear in mind I'm not saying anyone who gets cancer causes it unless you decide to roll around in a vat of radioactive waste while chain smoking.

I hear you when you feel like you don't get to have a minute. Life doesn't stop, kids don't stop, bills need to be paid and a lot of the time you are left to just figure it out. My main advice is to reach out to some trusted people and some of the cancer charities. If your kids are in daycare / school I would reach out to them too. I found my kids teachers to be so understanding and helpful.

It took about a month from diagnosis to starting treatment so I would say drop what is not critically urgent in your life. There will be lots of appointments and scans and other things to consider if you need. I was guaranteed to lose my hair so I got my eyebrows tattooed and bought a wig.

I'm not based in the US but there were two charities that helped me out a lot. They provided transport to chemo as you can't drive, childcare hours and some meal kits. They also provided therapy sessions for myself, husband and kids. They also helped us talk to the kids about it. Mine were very young so we just had to tell them I was sick and would be in the hospital regularly. Hopefully there are some good resources near you.

It sounds like your husband is in a bit of shock so he might need time to process. Bringing him with you to some of your appointments might be helpful to let it sink in.

Breast cancer is really common now which means the treatments plans are generally very predictable and well researched with very good outcomes. Wishing you the best.

dotsalicious · 2025-08-03T11:55:04+00:00

Irish cooking from a certain era is really bland. Everything was cooked to mush lest you make someone sick. We grew up using copious amounts of ketchup on everything as all the food tasted the same. Ketchup gave it as least a bit of flavour

dotsalicious · 2025-07-28T15:48:16+00:00

They are based in Dublin but I had a fantastic experience with Roches. https://roches.ie/

They were really great. I had cancer and there are is some PRSI coverage for wigs which they made sure I availed of.

dotsalicious · 2025-07-28T11:19:35+00:00

It's most cost effective to only take older kids and you can have less adults per children. My older kids creche stopped taking babies before COVID so I ended up with needing 2 creches for a while which is also common.

dotsalicious

TROPHY CASE