Some call it determination, writes blogger Emma Suddaby, some just plain pig-headedness. Some call it a stubborn streak . . . but whatever term you prefer to use, I’ve got it in spades – that’s what living with a degenerative illness does for you, as I’m sure many others can agree.

Readers may remember that I will be attempting a sun-soaked holiday in the new year. If I ever get there, with so many hurdles to leap, obstacles to clamber over and medical hoops to jump through before I even get near an airport.

It’s a mire of my own making, though, as instead of choosing nice, safe Blackpool, Brighton or Torquay, I’ve chosen Gambia as my dream destination. And why not? After all, this – like every holiday I take – may well be my last and while I’m even slightly capable of enjoying exotic climes, I figure I would be foolish to squander the chance.

Holiday insurance companies, doctors, the airline and my mother, however, disagree!

Consequently, I’ve spent most of the last few weeks sheepishly explaining my medical history to the few specialist medical holiday insurance companies that exist – companies who should be unimpressed by tales of dire health problems – to be answered with a dry laugh and a swift refusal.

So the great insurance search goes on, as yet unsolved. And now I have a new crisis – holiday vaccinations. The list of required vaccinations covers some seriously exotic diseases with anti-malarial tablets on top. However, the treatments I’m on for my RA prohibit the use of live vaccines.

Which is how I find myself trying very hard to maintain my holiday excitement as a nurse on the other end of the phone, explains in dread tones the symptoms and effects of Yellow Fever to me, a highly prevalent and potentially deadly disease in the area I’m travelling to which needs no exaggeration.

I can’t have the simple live vaccine that would protect me from this little charmer, spread by the bite of infected insects and potentially carried by the monkeys who roam freely throughout the holiday complex I’ll be staying in. The choice she says, voice full of drama, is mine. Yikes.

So am I being seriously stupid even considering such a risky trip? Probably.

Should I be picking up the phone right now to cancel Exotic and reschedule for Safe and Predictable? Almost certainly.

But 16 years of living with rheumatoid arthritis, battling every day against something so much stronger than me, sticking two fingers up to the relentless attack and living life anyway while it brings the house down all around me, has left me with this stubborn streak you see . . .

So I’m thinking a mosquito net should do the trick, and DON’T FEED THE MONKEYS!

Quote of the week:

“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It’s never of any use to oneself.” – Oscar Wilde