A few days’ worth…..

Mañana, mañana….. that’s what I’ve been doing this week. ‘I’ll blog tomorrow….’ I think to myself, and then tomorrow comes and I don’t and I didn’t and I haven’t! So here we are, with a few days worth of news!

After the excitement of shifting and cutting up the oak tree branch on Tuesday, it felt like life was going to be a little bit flat come Wednesday, but no such thing. Well, you wouldn’t expect it to be so, would you? Us being Sleaths?

I finally got to attend an online Stress Management Course (SMC) on Wednesday morning. Interesting! Homework? i) Use relaxation techniques ii) Increase exercise iii) Set yourself goals. Hahahahaha! If only…….. maybe next week?

Mid-course, my phone rang. It was the solar panel people. They’d got a slot for one of their engineers to come and unhitch the batteries and take them away. “OK to come in an hour and a half?” they said. I said ‘yes’ thinking that I’d have finished my course by then. Nah…….. the engineer arrived about 11.15. Had to break off what I was doing, leave the group chat and deal with him. Pffft! But I was pleased that the ball is rolling. Not heard a peep from them since, mind you!

We relaxed in the afternoon, had a bite to eat and watched a bit of telly when, just before tea-time, I had an episode with my eye. Nasty, dark-ish grey splodge in the lower part of my vision. Tried to shake it off, blinked my eyes a few times, ignored it for a bit. Was it a migraine? No. Was it a bit of sleep in my eye? No. Then I remembered I’d had a similar experience in 2015 in my left eye, with a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). I promptly lay down. Just in case, you know?

John phoned 111. They said a clinician would get in touch. The clinician said go to A & E. So, at 9 o’clock at night, Paul took me down to Warwick Hospital. Waiting time was displayed as 6 hours. Groan….. six hours? We saw the triage nurse a couple of hours in, however, and that turned out to be helpful….. ish. “The Registrar says there are no eye specialists on duty, so you’re better off going to the University Hospital in Coventry tomorrow,” she said. “Here’s the number to phone to get and an appointment.”

Honestly, Paul was brilliant. Organised everything for me and generally looked after me wonderfully well. “I’ll take you to the hospital tomorrow, Mum, if you need to go.” Wow. So grateful.

As it turned out, the lying down seemed to have done the trick and the symptom disappeared, so I stopped worrying.

Meanwhile, John joined in the Quiz evening. I am not sure how well they did, but I know that John certainly enjoyed himself. There was a wine bottle half-empty and nibbles to hand, so he’d clearly settled in.

Thursday dawned and we fulfilled our promise to Skype Graham and Gail in the morning. It was lovely – had a really good chat and really didn’t want to say our goodbyes. Half-way through the chat I took a phone call from an eye specialist to discuss the state of my eye. “Come down to the emergency eye clinic this afternoon,” she said, “and we’ll take a look.” Righty-ho.

Paul took me down as promised and was very patient as we waited to be seen. In the end, the consultant said that the eye was OK and that whatever had happened had resolved itself. Not a PVD then. Nothing to see here! Phew!

After all the excitement, we treated ourselves to an early night on Thursday, what with me exhausted and John still being a bit under the weather, although definitely making an improvement. His breathing is a bit easier so the antibiotics are doing their job. One suggestion from the consultant, however, was for him to try and build up some muscle, so that any effort or exercise calls for less oxygen. He ordered some weights for his wrists and ankles, so he’s wearing those now. Looks like he’s an escapee from prison…… hehehe.

Friday. Had planned to go to yoga, but decided against it. Didn’t want to be doing lots of down dogs with a dodgy eye. Instead, I went over to Michael and Danielle’s to babysit the little ones. No down dogs there! Both parents had work to do, so an hour or two of child care was required. As it turned out, it was lovely and gentle – a little bit of TV, some jigsaw puzzles, a bit of baby dandling and then sorting out lunch. Fab.

Meanwhile, John was off on a jaunt! He went with Pete for a joyride in a classic Jaguar. A gift to Pete for his 70th birthday to which he was entitled to take a guest. How nice that he thought of John, eh? Apparently, the car went well. I mean, Pete put his foot down from what I can gather……

And today? Nothing really. Not a lot going on. We faffed about a bit. John had a snooze this afternoon while I did a spot of ironing in front of the TV. Then, just before 5 o’clock, John woke up and thought he ought go outside and get on. Hmmm…. by then, I’d had an exciting exchange of messages and confirmation that a surprise delivery was due just then. “Drink your tea,” I encouraged John, thus delaying his desire to go outside. And then the door bell rang and the delivery was here:

Cool, or what?

Take care everyone. God bless.