Yet another update by Paul…

I spoke to Jenny this evening (Tuesday) - they’re now talking about keeping her in until Thursday. They’ve got the sickness and stuff under control, but they still don’t think they’ve got the root cause of the problem sorted out. She was feeling a bit brighter when I rang - probably a result of Jan being there!

Hello again mates - another update from Paul.

Jenny’s still in hospital - the earliest she’ll be out now is Wednesday. They keep trying new treatments which aren’t having the desired effect, so although she’s feeling a bit brighter than she was, that’s mainly because she’s not eating anything .

On the good side, she tells me she had a shower this morning, which must have come as a relief to those in the nearby beds!

Thanks goodness she’s in a ward where mobiles are allowed - at least we’re not paying Hospicom a million pounds a minute to keep in touch! More news when I have it…

Hello mates, Paul again.

Jenny’s in hospital! She was taken more poorly last night and is having some tests - they seem to have eliminated any of the more scary possibilities, but she looks like being in for a bit longer yet while they find out what’s going on .

I’ll post more here when we know anything.

Hello chums, Paul here.

Jenny’s asked me to scribble a few lines to let you know she’s a bit poorly - she seems to have a nasty dose of head-down-the-loo syndrome

I’m sure she’ll be back to normal (whatever that is) soon

I’ve been sorting stuff out with Mum.

She’s kept them as a lucky charm in a little drawstring purse for years.

Aside from them not being - well - not particularly lucky, this seemed a little strange. Further investigation revealed a rather sweet story behind the 4 ball bearings, so I let her keep them, but the elephant’s toast.

We did two chest of drawers, and achieved a largish bag of rubbish, and a box of car boot/jumble sale type stuff.

Small steps…

Good : the new daily migraine tablets really do seem to have kicked in. I’ve only had to take 2 of the other ones in the last 10 days, so that’s a major improvement.

Bad : my doctor warned me that one of the most common side effects was…the munchies!!! I kid you not! And yes, he was right. I’ve been snacking like a loon, and seeing as I don’t snack on healthy stuff, this is not good.

What IS good though, is that I’ve just tried my first Cadbury’s Highlights chocklit bar - with much fear and trepidation, as the last lower cal choccy bar I’d tried (remember Flytes?) put me right of the stuff for, ooh, at least a week. But yum! Really yum!

Still shouldn’t eat one a day though…

*note to self : must find low cal snack I like.
*note to readers : this does not include anything even remotely celery orientated

Some women yearn for a pair of Jimmi Choos, or Manolos.

Some women yearn for a genuine Louis Vuitton (definite sp methinks) handbag.

Dolce & Gabanna, Chanel, Versace…the list is endless.

At the weekend, I finally satisfied one of my long held satorial ambitions.

I am now the proud owner of…

A pair of red tartan pyjama trousers!!!!!

OK Winter, I’m ready for you now

I knew tonight’s supper would need to be quick & easy. Having been away at the weekend, tonight was the only during-the-week chance I was going to get to give Mum her bath, and as eating late plays merry hell with my indigestion, a kitchen quickie was in order. There was pizza in the freezer, but I’m having pizza tomorrow, so my other in the cupboard option was pasta & sauce.

Hmmm. Having up ended the pasta into the saucepan, there wasn’t as much as I thought. A rootle right through to the back of the cupboard turned up some old (but still in date!) pasta shapes, so I added some of them. Trouble was though, the pasta that was already cooking only needed a few more minutes, and this extra stuff needed at least 12 minutes.

Result? Soggy pasta mixed with al dente pasta, too much blooming pasta and not enough sauce. Pretty urgh actually.

I compensated with a couple of pain au chocolates. Nothing like an unbalanced diet…

So. we got down to Newport without too much difficulty on Friday, despite hitting the road just over an hour later than planned (having been off for a few days there was ZERO chance of finishing early…), and thoroughly enjoyed our weekend.

Unfortunately though, it was cut a little short by a message from our catsitter this morning, advising that the catflap was broken, and there was a hole in our patio door where the flappy but used to be. From what we could gather at the time, we couldn’t really gather what might have happened - but from a security point of view, that wasn’t really important. Heading home was.

And on our arrival, the evidence does appear to point the finger of blame firmly in Button’s direction, but we think the (until that moment) impenetrable Button Barricade might not have been constructed as securely as it needs to be.

Regardless, we’ve had to shell out for a new cat flap, which can’t be fitted until tomorrow after work. Tonight we tape up, and tomorrow, our neighbour will keep an eye out.

Bloody cats!!

Married life is great - you get to share everything. Colds included.

For the past 2/3 days, Chris and I have been incredibly snotty and unpleasant to be around, and consequently off work. We’ll both be back tomorrow, but then off for the weekend (HBA Autumn Conference, down in glamourous Newport - yes that was sarcasm!!), so there won’t be much bloggage activity over the next few days.

Just in case you were wondering!!

It’s car insurance renewal time, woop dee doo!

With my *little incident* back in the summer, I guess I was expecting a rise, and I got it. So, I decided to shop around, and ventured onto that well known website with the annoying ads. Surprisingly, it was quite good, and directed me to a number of cheaper alternatives, one of was with the Post Office. Checking their quote like for like, I worked out I would be £70 odd better off, so rang my insurers to see if they could improve. They couldn’t, so back to the PO and click to buy online.

All went swimmingly until they wanted payment details. And told me my sort code was invalid. I checked my card, and even my bank website, and I hadn’t got anything wrong…so I tried again, but to no avail. So I rang them. And went through ALL the details again, even though I’d given them the quote ref from the website. And AGAIN all went well until payment time. And my sort code got rejected again. Indeed, they went so far as to tell me my bank account wasn’t set up for direct debits. Which is a little strange when you consider it already has three on it…anyway, they weren’t having any of it, and referred me to my bank.

So it is for that reason that I spent half an hour in my bank this afternoon, with a very helpful lady called Natalie, who also tried to convince the PO that all was well, but without success. The end result is they’re passing the details to their software people (’cos it looks like something is well screwy; she gave them the branch’s business sort code to check, and it tolod them we were in Coventry. For those of you who don’t know, I do not live or bank in Coventry.This is the PO. Worrying isn’t it?), and they’re taking the monthly instalments directly from my card.

What a palava!

Seeing as I was almost certain of losing another day to a migraine after last night, today definitely exceeded expectations.

Chris rang Mum last night to check she was OK - I didn’t think it was a good idea for me and her to speak again so soon, as I certainly needed time to calm down, but I wanted to know she was alright. This morning when I rang her however, she’d interpreted his call as his being cross with her for upsetting me, and she completely invenetd something he said (guilty conscience methinks), which I know for a fact, because I was in the same room as him when he called!!! So I (gently) told her off for playing chinese whispers inside her head, and agreed to head over to hers this afternoon to do some tidying & sorting.

It started off quite well - we had a bit more of a talk, and outlined an initial plan for going through her flat : obvious rubbish first (she makes a squirrel look minimalist), followed by stuff that hasn’t been used in the last two years, followed by a prioritising list of what she MUST take and what she’d LIKE to take. I was able to tell her a bit more about the nice place, and she said she liked the sound of it, so that was progress.

We did obvious rubbish from the bathroom and half the kitchen. Mum had a bad panic attack half way through, and went to lie down, so I just got on with it, and in total we filled two bags. There is one HELLUVA lot to do, but small steps, and she agreed both rooms looked better for a basic de-cluttering.

The truth of it is, Mum is going to feel bad for a while, and nothing I say or do will change this. If I could wave a magic wand and have everything suddenly sorted and her in situ in whichever home we choose, that’s be great, but as that ain;t gonna happen, I just need to get my head down and get on with things. And enjoy my holiday regardless. With alcoholic help if necessary, sod the tablets.

Meantime, Chris and I are about to settle down to a large *ahem* salad. It’s medicinal, OK?

She’s in a depression. Faster than I’ve known her dive before. It’s all about the home. And tonight she said she might not be well enough to go into respite care for our holiday. I flipped. I can’t do this anymore. I need this holiday. Needed? How the hell am I meant to relax now?

I’ve been told off for not blogging. Well, not told off as such, but the lack of bloggage had caused concern. So I thought I ought to show my face and re-cap the last few days, though not an awful lot has happened.

I lost the whole of Saturday to a migraine - this one wasn’t being fended off by tablets, oh dear me no. It was rest and dark and incredibly low volume and pyjamas and all. Shame, because we had meant to be going out Saturday night to celebrate the successful meeting on Friday, but there was just no way!

Sunday passed by in a blur of trying to catch up. Did the usual for Mum; she’s beginning to feel a bit down again, it seems that *that* conversation is preying on her mind somewhat. I was afraid this would happen, but there was never going to be a good time. I’ll just have to keep an extra eye on her and tweek her medication if necessary.

Yesterday (alleged day off!) I caught up on some more jobs in the morning, and then went to visit a couple of homes. I’ve seen 4 so far, 1 definite no-no, a possible, and 2 very nices. Unfortunately the two very nices would both require top up payments ranging from £200 - £300 per month. Until I know exactly how the finances are assessed, it’s hard to rule anything in or out, but it’s true, you get what you pay for. Still have a good few to see in the immediate area, and am hoping to discuss the whole thing in more detail with Social Services at Mum’s care review in a couple of weeks. In the afternoon I scooted Mum around three appointments, and then home so’s she could see her cat for a bit. I then sorted out her medical file into something that was actually usable - 13 subject dividers!!!!!

AS for me, well, I’m still pretty knackered, very headachey (the daily tablets don’t seem to have kicked in yet) and working at the usual million miles an hour rate. 1 month - AND COUNTING - til holiday.

I can fake it GOOD in sassy shoes.

This morning’s meeting with the hospital went much better than I expected. Chris and I were faced with three consultants (the nice one chaired the meeting), plus the ward sister, one of the staff nurses, a rep from PALS and a rep from ICAS, and the whole thing lasted just over an hour and a half - a full on hour and a half at that!

In a nutshell, they held up their hands to virtually all the issues, and acknowledged that mistakes had been made. I only had to argue one point, and that too was eventually conceded - but then they didn’t stand much of a chance in the face of my notes, my diary, and my precise recollection of timings and events. The one remaining open issue is that of the (lack of) social services cover when she was discharged, and this time, it was their notes that were detailed, and it would seem that the fault may actually lie with social services - the hospital will conduct their own inquiry on this one and let me know.

In short, the meeting was constructive and amicable, and they are looking to review, change and implement a number of things as a direct result of my letter. Woo hoo!

I feel so totally relieved to have got this out of the way - I don’t think I’d realised how much the spectre of it was hanging over my head. What with that and the emotion of last weekend, and the ongoing hectivity at work - think it goes some way to explain how low I’ve been this week. I hope so - I don’t ever want to feel that bad again.

Today’s motto : the only way is UP.

Making a bit more sense today. Have got to at least fake being sassy & confident tomorrow, it’s the meeting with Hospital 2 to discuss my complaint to them following Mum’s long stay earlier this year. I have new shoes. I can fake sassy in new shoes. Wish me luck!

Can’t shake it yet. Bloody black dog. Got some new regular/daily tablets for my migraines, to hopefully reduce the number of ad hoc migraine tablets & paracetamol I’m having to take on a regular/daily basis. Work is very, very busy. Doc is concerned that mid November is a long way off before I get a break. Head’s full of crap. Might make more sense tomorrow.

My day off today - I took the chance to start checking out some of the homes in our town. It’s a pretty sobering experience, and although one was quite nice, it’s brought me back to earth with a bump. This is a huge, HUGE thing. Mum could live another twenty years in one of these places. Even though I know it has to go this way, I’m suddenly weighed down with guilt for starting the ball rolling. My moods are all over the bloody place at the moment. I’m glad I’m seeing my doctor again tomorrow.