Under the weather…

I may have mentioned that John is wheezing well. I may also have mentioned that he has tweaked his back. Both states of health lead to a noisy night – and boy, it was noisy last night. Poor John, he really couldn’t settle and he was groaning exceedingly loudly as his back bit. His lungs played like organ pipes all night long, interspersed with a bit of a cough which served as the percussion interval to the organ music.

He was pretty exhausted when he woke up this morning and, of course, so was I. Having listened all night long to the wheeze, I was bothered, so the first thing I did when I got out of bed was phone the respiratory nurses. Fortunately, they had a slot available in which to check John over.

I thought John would be cross with me for making a fuss, but actually, he was reasonably agreeable to going over to Heartlands this morning. And we are both relieved we did, because they were able to reassure us on several counts. 1) Lungs are working hard, but rest assured they are taking in and processing sufficient oxygen to keep the ol’ man going – and the wheelchair wasn’t needed, after all. 2) The pain in John’s back might have been pleurisy, but it isn’t. More likely to be a pulled muscle. 3) The X-ray taken shows no more damage to the lungs than before. 4) The nebuliser is to be continued but ‘take a rest for a week then start a different product’ – oh, and have some Salbutamol for nebulising too. That’ll improve the situation. 5) And finally, here are some physio exercises to do. His favourite – go up and down the stairs several times a day… ……..Boom.

We arrived home at lunchtime, ate our lunch, collapsed in the lounge for a while before John set to in removing part of the dresser in the kitchen. This, in preparation for the measure-up and template-taking of the work surfaces tomorrow.

Then it was another trip out to Solihull Hospital – ostensibly to attend the Urology Clinic. Except that there was no clinic there this afternoon after all…… Oh, dear. A trip for nothing. We are not sure how it has happened that we have all the detail of the clinic in the diary – but no letter and no actual clinic. Ah well, that’ll be me hanging on the telephone line tomorrow morning trying to establish exactly when we should be going.

When we got home after our abortive trip, John decided to have a rest on the bed. I decided to have a rest on the sofa and nurse some sniffles that have emerged. Hmmm….. thought I’d better take a COVID test just in case. All negative – which I expected – just need a good night’s sleep, I expect.

Despite our looking forward to Quiz Night, I was feeling lousy – exceedingly tired – and John was still in bed. I thought we’d better abandon our beloved Quiz Night for once and get some rest. So that’s what we plan to do. Me in the spare room though. Beautiful as it is, I can do without the organ music tonight……

We are now being encouraged to ‘think carefully’ about how we enjoy the lifting of the lockdown, as the Indian variant is increasing all the time, so I am not sure where it leaves us really. The volume of infections is increasing significantly in some areas, but overall it’s still steady. 2,696 people tested positive for the virus today and three people died in the community and just three in hospitals on 17 – 18 May. Scientists are still confident that the vaccination programme will shield us from the most serious of illness, so there’s still hope.

On a different topic, I texted Gail yesterday to see how she’s going on. Apparently the infection is still there somewhere but it’s hiding, and the medics can’t work out where it is. She, then, is still in hospital while they try to sort things out. Oh, dear, our hearts go out to her because we know just what it’s like – well, I don’t, but John does. I only know what it’s like from a spouse’s point of view of course. Prayers, please, if you are so inclined……..

So there we are. Another day done and dusted. Take care everyone. God bless.