Me & My Op….

Well folks, I got back from the hospital a short while ago. I had to go for a Pre- Assessment walk-through.

They took more blood from my arm than I can afford to give! The nurse explained what would happen. Apparently they were hoping to use key-hole surgery, but not now. So I’ll be in for about a week as they are going to have a good look around and cut out all the damaged part in my tummy.

Apparently, all my problems stem from 1985 when I had radio therapy. In those days they used to give you three times as much as you needed. But looking on the bright side, I was very lucky they found this cancerous little lump nestling behind my womb when they spayed me… I mean I had a hysterectomy. If I hadn’t, it wouldn’t have shown up and I’d be dead by now!!!

It is over the last five plus years that I’ve had the most trouble. After this operation, I should be able to build up my appetite and hopefully I will be able to put some weight on. This should give me more energy… May be I’ll be able to find my brain cells that have gone walk-about lately!

Unfortunately, this operation will do nothing for my Diverticulitis, but I should be able to control it better afterwards.

I am going in on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday will be spent clearing me right out! Yuk… I hate going through that, but it will be easier to handle when in the hospital. Then I’m going under the knife on Friday… So fingers crossed folks. I’ll miss you all while I’m away from the internet.

So don’t expect any updates here till I get home after it’s all over.

I’ll be so busy tomorrow… I have to get my things ready to take in with me… Nighties, slippers and wash things.

We also have the decking wood being delivered tomorrow. Then the people are coming on Wednesday to saw the decking and put it round the edge of the pool.

We also have Sky TV etc., being delivered on Wednesday morning. I just hope the man comes before I have to leave for the hospital!

I am not expecting Dave to visit much, what with having High Definition Sky TV and another Grand Prix F1 next weekend! He’ll be too busy playing around. At least he’ll have complete control of the remote while I’m away… I just hope he doesn’t break it before I get home!

You know I said yesterday that he broke our Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner? Well, Chris fixed it so I don’t have to call the man out! I wonder how many other things he’ll break before I get home?

The pool heater is up and running now… Sid the man, finished the work off this morning.

My biggest worry while I’m away is my dogs. I know Chris is here to care for them, but I will miss them so. And Jade will miss me… she always does. I’ll telephone each morning to make sure they are fed and let out… Then again each evening to make sure they have their tea!

Bye for now folks… You all take care of yourselves.

A Busy Week…

After the visit to the surgeon at King’s Lynn hospital last Monday, followed by the visit to the vet to have the girl’s stitches out, the place has been full of people and other dogs.

A friend Jan has moved up here to Holbech with her four German Shepherds. They visited us and had a good game in the garden. Trevor, our gardener, has been up and mowed the lawn and Pete has done some more work on the pool. Sid the electrician turned up to wire the pool heating element up properly and another friend Brian turned up.

Brian and his late wife Jill, have been friends for years. We met them at dog shows and training. He used to be a top class carpenter but he’s got bad rheumatism now and can’t do the work he used to. But if Chris helps him, he’ll sort the wooden boarding out to go round the top of the pool for us. They want to also build some steps up the side of the pool with wood treads.

Mean while, it seems the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Mother dear has spent ages talking to someone on it. Apparently, she is arranging to have Sky TV installed with the HD box.

She says they all argue enough about which channels to watch already. It will be like WW3 with more channels! But apparently, she can watch one channel and record two others… That’s if she can work out how to use the box. She never got to grips with the DVD recorder she’s had for ages!

She’s also having and extra Sky+ box for her bedroom! Actually, it will go in the conservatory when she’s got it cleared of all the stuff in it. It is still full of her mother and father’s things she brought home after they died a couple of years ago.

More Phone Calls… The hospital also rang… Could mother dear go into hospital next Friday for her operation. She can come in the evening before. But to come up on Monday for a Pre-Operation talk. All this was followed by a letter. Apparently she had another hospital appointment at Wisbech on Monday about the pins in her femur… Just a check up.

King’s Lynn didn’t think they could get mother dear’s notes back up to them, so they cancelled the Wisbech appointment for her. Mother dear suggested she bring the notes up with her… But apparently, that’s not allowed! How silly. They are her notes.

Back to Sky TV… Mother dear has weighed up the odds and is going to not only get Sky TV, but also change her ISP and phone over to Sky Broadband too. She’s a bit worried it won’t all go smoothly. No way does she want to be without Internet access.

I must add that with all the activity this last week, mother dear has suffered quite a bit. She’s been bad in the middle of the night, first thing in the mornings and again, in the evenings.  She’s spent more time than usual in the bathroom and hasn’t felt like writing anything. She says she just can’t think straight half the time. I think it’s lack of food as she hasn’t been eating at all well.

If you have Sky TV and Broadband and have any advice, please leave a comment below.

Housework… Mother dear may have mentioned a couple of times that she doesn’t like housework. It always seems like a never ending job. She’d rather take us out for a walk or a game. She’s been feeling very guilty when reading friend’s blogs about all the housework and clearing out her friends have been doing, she’s now arranged for some help!

Her friend Jan, who’s just moved up here, is looking for work. She’s going to come and help mother dear get her place sorted out. Then she’ll come once or twice a week to keep it tidy for her. Chris is good and does vacuum the sitting room, but he doesn’t do the dusting or the bedrooms. Daddy dear can’t be trusted not to break something, so mother dear won’t let him dust!

This morning, daddy dear got the vacuum out and began to Hoover. Then there was a funny noise. Mother dear yelled to him turn it off… He’s broken the Dyson Animal some how. I expect she’ll have to call the man out now… Luckily, she has insurance to pay for call-outs on the Dyson washing machine and Dyson vacuum cleaner. So it’s safer not to let daddy dear touch anything… or it has to be repaired!

She hates him cooking now. The other day she found a tea towel and a cardboard TV meal cover on the hob with the hob on! She screamed at him and forbade him from using the cooker again… On the grounds of safety. He does try to do things for himself… but she says he’s very trying! Now she watches him if he goes into the kitchen and not straight through to another room.

If he empties the dishwasher, she can never find anything as he never puts any back where it belongs… Or he stacks different sized plates things on top of each other. This really annoys her!

Back From The Vets…

As I said below, I had to take the girls up to the vets to have their stitches out.

Why do I have dogs that go mad with excitement as soon as you walk them through the surgery door? Another dog was sitting down with her owner shaking like a leaf and there was a cat in its carrying cage.

Kate went to say hello to the dog and Jazz pulled to say hello to the owner of the cat. Then they both jumped up at the counter to say hello to the vet nurses.

Neither Titch nor Jade were happy to be left in the car. They had wanted to come in too! Of course it could be that I am always armed with titbits when we are in a vets!

Jazz went to say hello to the little Corgi cross that Kate had greeted when we walked in. The Corgi wasn’t so keen on Jazz and growled at her! Poor Jazz. She doesn’t have a mean streak in her. She was most surprised.

Mind you I’m not that keen on letting my dogs get too close to other dogs in a surgery… After all, they are there for a reason and one never knows if the other dog has an infectious something or other!

Anyway… We were soon called into the surgery for removal of the stitches. In the past, I have always removed any stitches at home, but these only had one knot and were woven in and out of the wound. I couldn’t see how it would pull them all out in one go, so I left it for the vet.

Silly me…! What I didn’t realise was that you just cut the knot off. You don’t pull anything out! Must be a new way of stitching up.

The reason I like to do it at home is that you can catch the dog relaxing and laying down on its back waiting for a tummy tickle. There is no stress that way. I have a pair of special scissors to remove stitches, and a clamp like pair of scissors to pull the stitches out. But they weren’t bothered when the vet did it… but were a bit wriggly as they wanted cuddles!

When we got to our lane, Chris got the dogs out of the back and walked them home along the field. It’s the first proper walk Jazz and Kate have had because of their operations. Luckily, they weren’t that interested in racing each other, just sniffing the hedgerow.

Lefy: Titch and Chris.

Below: Titch, Jade and Katie with Chris.

Below & Right: Chris with the dogs in our lane.

 

Left: Katie running towards me with the others still sniffing around in the lane.

I took the top two photos out of the car window – I was stationary at the time - as I drove the car on to our bungalow. Parked up and walked back into the lane to get the dogs coming home.

I am on cloud nine still. I am just so happy that at last someone is going to try and do something for me. After the operation, I can hopefully go out and eat a proper sized meal and enjoy it with no fear of bringing it up sometime later!

There are – obviously - no promises from the surgeon, but I can at least hope and pray that removing this constriction somewhere in my tummy, I will – hopefully – no longer get these awful swollen tummies which can get very painful and incredibly uncomfortable. They stop me eating. May be afterwards, I will be able to put some weight on.

I do wish I was a chocolate eater or had a sweet tooth! Dave bought me several Easter eggs which are just sitting there. Anyone want some?

Another Hectic Day…

Letter in the post this morning. An appointment for me up at King’s Lynn hospital at 2.25 this afternoon. When I got there, I found there had been a cancelation and they had slipped me in.

The appointment was with the surgeon to see if can do anything to help me with my problems. After chatting and explaining my situation he said he’d have look and see if he can do anything.

He is trying to get me into be operated on next week, or in May. I am so happy. At last someone is going to try and do something for me.

He can’t help the Diverticulitis but he wants to do something about this constriction I have. Hopefully, I’ll be able to eat a proper meal after that. Oh boy, would I like to be able to put some weight on. I am 6 stone (40.5kg) now, and have been for ages.

Woo Hoo… I am so pleased. I just had to share with you my good news!

Now I have to put the girls (Jazz & Kate), into the car and take them up to the vet for their appointment to have their stitches out. Both of their scars have healed up nicely.

Important Government message

Dear  Recipient, 
Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown of the economy, your Government has decided to implement a scheme to put workers 50 years of age and older on early retirement. This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early).

Persons selected to be RAPED can apply to the government to be eligible  for the SHAFT scheme (Special Help  After Forced Termination).

Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under the SCREW program (Scheme Covering Retired Early Workers). A person may be RAPED once,
SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as the government deems appropriate.

Only persons who have been RAPED can get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependants & Spouse) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel  Early Severance). Obviously, persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not  be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by the government.

Persons who are not RAPED and are staying on, will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity Training) as possible.

The government has always prided itself in the amount of SHIT it gives out. Should  you feel that you  do not receive enough SHIT, please bring this to the  attention of your local MP. They have been trained to give you all the SHIT you can handle.

Sincerely,
The Government (YOUR  Government)

This would be funny if it wasn’t so true.

Dearly Beloved is Home Now…

Daddy dear in hospital yesterday.

Mother Dear got home from visiting Daddy Dave in the hospital last night and began to feel rotten a couple of hours later. She went to go into her bedroom to get undressed and was suddenly sick. I have no idea why? She is sick sometimes, due to this constriction she has, but it never comes on that suddenly. She always gets a warning. She managed to grab a bowl she keeps by her bed…

I stayed with her though I was not happy she’d gone up on her own to see him. She says she hates to have to leave me alone in the car in case the car and me get stolen. She’s paranoid about this nowadays. I used to go everywhere with her. She never  left me behind as I am happy just to wait in the car.

Anyway, she was – yet again – late actually going to bed. She said she couldn’t get to sleep. She got up around 7.30am and gave us our breakfast then went back to bed and fell fast asleep. The phone rang at ten and she jumped up with a start. It had woken her up. It was daddy dear saying he thought he’d be allowed out in the evening. He’d ring again after he’d seen the doctor.

Mother dear ran a bath around eleven and as soon as she got in, the phone rang! Typical… She found it was daddy dear after she’d got out, so she phoned him back.

He told her that he could come home and she could collect him at five. He also told her that she’d have to put a gown and gloves on to collect him. She couldn’t just walk into the ward as she had the evening before.

Apparently the hospital is very worried about a bug that’s going round the hospital. Mother dear said she’d seen a notice in the main entrance saying there was sickness and diarhorea. They didn’t want to move daddy dear out of the MAU ward because of it. That’s why he could come home.

Mother dear took me with her to collect him. By now, and after another couple of phone calls, it was arranged that daddy dear would wait for her by the entrance after getting a porter to wheel him down. He was in fact, waiting in the doorway when we got there.

We were ten minutes late. First of all she found her mobile battery was flat, so she plugged it in for five minutes, hoping there was an in-car charger in the car. There was as it turned out. Then for some unknown reason the A14 had a great deal of traffic on it. It took five minutes to get out of our side road on to it. Then it was 30 to 40mph all the way along till we got to King’s Lynn and the hospital.

Mother dear said it was lucky we were only ten minutes late!

It was nice to see daddy dear. He was pleased to see me and gave me a cuddle.

Mother dear took a couple of photos of daddy dear in the hospital yesterday. He wanted to show you a big bruise he got when a nurse gave him an injection. It really hurt, he said.

The Bruise.

 

 

This is an Easter egg the nurses gave everyone except the people who were Diabetic. How he managed to get one, mother dear doesn’t know.

But she took it home with her last night to make sure he didn’t eat it!

What a Week…

Last week was spent doing the swimming pool with Pete’s help. Chris worked with him.

They had stuck the liner around the sides. Here they are discussing laying the felt on the bottom.

It went in quite easily. Behind Pete, there is some coving that Dave said had to go round the the pool underneath the final skin.

Needless to say, after getting everything sorted and the new skin put on, it wouldn’t lay flat and tight. All the coving had to be removed and then the new skin fitted well !

Here you can see that the bottom isn’t laying flat at all!

 

 

Dave isn’t really helping… But – bless him – he thinks he is! He is at least trying.

I took over as it was easier if someone held the weight of the liner up so Pete could tuck it in.

Needless to say, it all had to come out to take the coving out. Then it all lay flat.

No… we don’t keep a chair in the pool! Pete is screwing in the drain covering and used it for his tools as we had to have a little water covering the bottom of the pool.

Note it is now all laying flat, thank goodness. He had welly boots on but his hands were freezing. The water was very cold.

Here’s Dave in his usual position of watching the others working.

It took ages to fill up the pool, but it’s all done now. Just waiting for the electrician to come next week to fix the heating up for us.

The heater has to sit outside the poly tunnel so that air circulates.

You can see the pipes that lead into the tunnel. On instructions from Dave (the supervisor), Pete and Chris stuck all the pipes into their respective elbows with glue. There are several inside the tunnel. They cost 75p through the internet… Then the water pump was switched on.

It turned out that Dearly Beloved had told Chris and Pete wrong and the sand from the filter was flowing back into the pool. Chris had to take all the pipe work apart and redo it all. The elbows cost £2.50 in the local shop and there are about 6 or 8 of them. Again, Dave is lucky to have survived till Easter. I could - yet again - have strangled him on behalf of Chris and Pete!

Dave Has Survived Till Today…

He’s been fine for a good few day… Weeks even. But he’s been a little ‘high’, in my opinion, over the last few days. I am sure it’s when his sugar levels are high (he’s insulin dependant Diabetic). He drives me up the wall when he’s like that… Singing (out of tune), dropping things and not concentrating on anything you try to say to him.

Last night I tried to sort his PC out. He was having trouble with some emails. It’s not easy sorting out a PC when someone is breathing down your neck and saying “I’ve done that… and that… What are you trying to do now?” And a whole lot more… I lost it and got up and said “Fix it yourself!” Then went to my bedroom for an early night.

I’ve had a bad tummy on and off for the last week. That’s why I haven’t written a blog up. I just haven’t been able to concentrate.

Dave was up first this morning. Well, he wasn’t up first. I had been up for a couple of hours and made a coffee and fed the dogs and let them out. But I then went back into my bedroom and rested. Around ten I went through to the living room to find Dave having a little trouble breathing. He’s been coughing quite a lot lately. He does get phlegm on his chest. It put him in hospital last January.

I watched him. He was rather short of breath. He had a tightness across his chest, but he was nowhere near as bad as he has been. I popped into my bedroom and took my tablets (to bind me), and put him in the car and drove him up to A & E.  They saw him straight away. I think I was right to drive him straight up. The hospital is 20 minutes away. An ambulance can take over half an hour to get to us sometimes. I would have dialed 999 if he had any chest pains or needed oxygen. He’s had that many Angina attacks, we both know when it’s serious.

I keep his over-night bag at the ready as I know - sooner or later – he’ll have a trip to hospital. All I had to gather was his prescription list of tablets and his tablets and insulin.

After running some tests on him and taking bloods, then an X-Ray, they decided to keep him in and sent him to MAU (Medical Assessment Unit) ward. I came home.

Around 7.00pm I got a phone call… ‘Please could I bring his glasses up and his Ipod.’ I had just put some food on to eat. Never mind… I can eat when I got home later. I got Chris to drive me up.

Here he is sitting on the side of his bed looking a great deal better than he had this morning. They are keeping him in for a day or two so they can check his bloods every 12 hours.

He had been chatting away to a lovely elderly lady in the next bed. Her husband who is 94, and her son were visiting. We had them laughing with me threatening Dave that he should behave himself because I wanted to go home and have some rest with him safe in hospital… I did not want to be driving up and down to King’s Lynn a couple of times a day!

I got hoime and had a little rice and chicken to eat, then wrote this.

So I am off to bed now. It’s been a hectic day.