The Daily Echo: Day 202

A slight improvement in mood today – not quite so lethargic and meh. I even managed to pop out to the shops and visit Mum today so can’t be too bad. Although the weather hasn’t helped, has it? I mean, I couldn’t decide if morning had actually arrived as it was so dark when I woke up just before seven.

But morning had arrived and John eased himself out of bed ready for the morning visit. He even brought me a cup of tea in bed. That’s two days on the trot now. How lucky am I?

I did a little pottering about before I decided I would risk going to the Co-op. The car park was slightly less full than it had been the other day, but interestingly, there weren’t that many people in the shop when I got there. Presumably people had parked and were doing errands elsewhere before filling up their baskets at the Co-op. I managed to get most of the things I was after, and only had to wait until two people went ahead of me in the queue. Anxiety levels therefore, were not too heightened.

After the ‘shopping washing’ I did a little more pottering about and sat down to watch an hour of tennis before steeling myself to go over to Mum’s. Just as I was doing that, John appeared, so I thought I’d go over later. We had lunch – well , brunch in John’s case – while I was still glued to the TV.

Before long, however, I couldn’t delay the inevitable any longer and so I set off with a bag of clean washing and a few groceries for Mum. She was in the loo when I arrived, so I was able to put everything away before she re-appeared. I knew I’d have half an hour if she was in the bathroom – she certainly takes her time! I had coo-eed when I arrived, but I don’t think she heard me, so after about fifteen minutes I coo-eed again and she finally called out, “Is someone there?” I replied, “Yes, it’s me.” to which she responded that she’d be out ‘in a minute’. Fifteen minutes later she emerged.

She was on good form again, no hint of criticism at any point this afternoon and we had a pleasant enough time. She hums a lot though. The minute the conversation stalls, she starts to hum the tune to Lee Marvin’s ‘Wandering Star’. We must have had at least six renditions of it this afternoon.

Mum wasn’t able to tell me what she’d been doing all week, but thought she’d watched a bit of telly. On about the fourth rendition of ‘Wandering Star’, I asked her which TV programmes she’d been watching. Only to be told that she hadn’t watched any telly this week. Now I don’t know what to believe – but it made me chuckle anyway.

She’s a little devil though, for tissues. When she was living with us she was a little devil for hankies. Millions of the blooming things floating about. Now it’s tissues – millions of them floating about now. I asked why she’d given up on her hankies and she blithely told me she hadn’t got any. Only a drawerful stuffed with them…….. “Oh? I didn’t know I’d got those.” Would she like to have one or two by her now? No, thanks, tissues’ll do.

We had a little sort out of some of her papers, going back to 1993, which she wouldn’t let me throw away. I was allowed to chuck out empty envelopes though…… and in the spirit of looking at papers, she found some Christmas cards and Orders of Service for one or two funerals she’d attended – none of which did she want to put in the bin either. But she enjoyed sifting through her history, so that was nice.

More tennis when I got home and more tennis as we ate our evening meal. By the time we’d eaten, I’d had enough of tennis though, so we scrolled through a few programmes until we plumped on one about Borneo which was brilliant and uplifting until the end, when we realised what a hash we humans are making of our world.

John then selected a film to watch but, to be honest, it was a bit harsh for me, so I thought I’d do my blog early. As I sat thinking about what I might write, I realised it was half past ten and no nurse had been. John said he’d wait a bit longer before we started phoning anyone and, sure enough, ten minutes later the nurses arrived.

The visit wasn’t a great success though, as the nurse found the cannular was blocked and no flush or drugs could get through into the vein. Unfortunately, the nurse wasn’t qualified to insert a new cannular. This has happened before. We know the ropes now. Nurse phones the ambulance service. We wait. Ambulance arrives and paramedics do all the observations again, then insert a cannular. Nurse administers the antibiotic. Paramedic removes the cannular. No, sorry, we can’t leave it in. You’ll have to have another one tomorrow morning. Well, we know that that is likely to cause a kerfuffle, but we’ll see.

We were lucky this time, though, the paramedics were on board with the idea of cannulating and didn’t argue about it. Last time, there was a great debate for well over an hour before they agreed to do the procedure. This time, no debate and they were efficient and very friendly, completing the job in about an hour. Midnight – and I’m now doing my blog late.

We had to laugh though. At one point, we had seven people in the house…… well, put it this way, we hope we are laughing about it but only time will tell, won’t it?

And…. brace yourselves for today’s COVID-19 figures. Due to a technical issue – blah, blah, blah – the numbers weren’t being collated correctly recently, and so today’s figures (and those in the coming days) are inflated with those that weren’t previously included. Ready? 12, 872 people have been reported as infected today. Obviously not everyone was infected today, but still, that’s a lot of people, don’t you think? 49 deaths in the community and 33 in hospitals on the 1st & 2nd October.

There have been no cases in Balsall Common, but there have been quite a few round and about locally, in Meriden, Hampton-in-Arden and Knowle. Is it a matter of time before it hits our village? Fingers crossed it doesn’t.

Take care everyone. Keep up with the hand-washing etc. God bless.