Catching up

Arriving back from our holiday we thought we’d be refreshed. We were, in one sense: our souls were full of family and friends, having caught up with Michelle and Tim in Bristol on our way back. The journey home was a bit of a monster though, with hold-ups pretty well all the way up the M5. We played ‘tag’ with Michael and Danielle as far as Bristol, waving as we passed each other:

And we felt tired out by the time we got back to Balsall, and that persisted for a few days. Heaven knows why! I’m still putting my fatigue down to the ‘do a bit, rest a bit’ required after Covid but, in reality, I am heaps better than I was and can keep going for ages now.

John is putting his fatigue down to his condition. We went to see the prostate cancer consultant last Tuesday and she said that, disappointingly, John’s PSA level had risen again. It was 4, then 9 and now 12.5. Although he is on this all-singing, all-dancing drug that helps many patients with prostate cancer, there is a certain percentage for whom it’s not quite as effective. Ha! Guess what? It looks like John might be in that category. Quelle surprise!!

Although the PSA level isn’t very high at the moment, it’s the direction of travel that they are concerned about, so the consultant ordered more scans to see what the state of play is. We went over to Solihull Hospital this evening for the first of those: a CT scan, where dye is injected before the scan itself. At the end of the month, John will have a nuclear bone scan and then back to the consultant for another review. Watch this space……

Meantime, despite his fatigue and in between naps, the ol’ man is pushing on. Disgusted at the rate at which the weeds are growing in the patio, the flowerbeds and the front drive, he decided to do something about it.

On Saturday, he ventured outside to view the situation. “Have you got one of those weed removing tools for the patio, Anne?” Erm….. yes…. maybe…. I know there’s one in the shed somewhere. But for the life of me, I’ll never find it ‘cos the shed is jam-packed full and it’s chaos in there. The ‘shed tidy-up’ is on my list of things to do, but……. maybe tomorrow? (Doubt it…. hehehe!)

Anyway, I offered John a hoe so that he could chop the weeds off at slab height. John looked askance at the hoe, but thought he’d have a go. I went indoors to carry on with other chores.

Every so often, I would look out of the window to see how the Chief Gardener was getting on. Well, the sight made me laugh! He’d do a bit, sit down on a strategically-placed chair, and then do a bit more. There were chairs strewn everywhere. I chuckled as I watched.

But I chuckled even more when, on the last time I looked, he was no longer putting his back into it. He’d gone and got the flame-thrower and was busy scorching the weeds to death instead!! Regrettably, no photo to accompany the picture I’ve tried to paint. But it wasn’t half funny.

He did a bit more weeding on the front drive today. No flame-thrower this time but I narrowly avoided killing him as I drove back from yoga. There he was, Mr Determined, sitting in his electric wheelchair in the middle of the drive, hoe in hand, and giving the blighters what for! That’ll show ’em!

All for now, folks. Take care and God bless.