Isolation Day 56

Chocolate!! The great comforter of all things. Confused by the advice of the government? Stay in and eat chocolate. Anxious about your husband’s health? Stay in and eat chocolate. Suffering from lockdown syndrome? Stay in and eat chocolate.

What great advice and, courtesy of dear Margaret and her hubby, Chris, who called on me today to drop in a bar of Cadbury’s fruit and nut, that’s exactly what I am going to do!!

I was so thrilled to get an unexpected knock on the door and see two lovely, smiling faces standing there with such a gift. I was so grateful and overwhelmed and all I could do was stutter a big thank you. Oh, and we had a virtual hug which was nice, too!!! Made my day. Thank you Margaret.

It’s been a day of grateful thanks to many, many people today.

Firstly, we have been (well, as always) grateful to the medics for their attention to detail, carefulness and reassurances in treating John. First nurse of the day reassured us that the horrible mess on John’s arm was still OK for one more infusion – and don’t worry, Joy is coming at lunchtime. Joy is the IV nurse on whom everyone seems to rely. Joy duly arrived at lunchtime and promptly and efficiently sorted the situation. New line in, old line out – bish, bash, bosh!! She returned again this evening and inspected thoroughly, administered the antibiotic and left with a reassuring wave and smile – all will be well. Thank you medical team.

Secondly, every time I have a problem on the computer, I panic. Did I click on something to introduce a virus? Is this a phishing email? Should I put my password in when it asks for it unprompted? And every time, without fail, my dearest friend, George, comes to the rescue. As he did today. And I confessed to him that I was getting less confident with the darned thing as time went on. With the wisdom he has demonstrated over and over again in all the years I have known him, he said, “It’s cabin fever. You’re just suffering from being indoors.” Well, yes, that makes complete sense. Thank you George.

Thirdly, friends and family have offered tremendous support across the e-connections. In particular, Lizzie, with soft words of understanding and advice about my Mum; Michael, echoing Lizzie’s sentiments; church friends offering prayers for better times ahead, with Dawn’s words equally resonating; and Carol, sympathising with us. Thank you, all of you.

In addition to all of that – as if my cup doesn’t runneth over enough – I was blessed with an hour’s chat on Zoom with Meg (or Michelle to me) and delighted in that easy conversation of old friends; and the dishwasher behaving itself all day – I think it was frightened into submission by the thought of us following Malcolm’s very practical advice to put a hand into its bowels to see if there’s blockage!

The other members of the household, too, have had a relatively good day today.

Mum got herself up, dressed herself before going downstairs, and got her breakfast pretty much all unprompted. She then took herself a little walk round the house to be out of earshot of the music on the radio, which was tinkering with her hearing aids adversely, and happily ate our slightly unusual food at lunchtime. Even more exciting was the fact that she sat in the kitchen with me as I prepared the Chapman Family Traditional Hotpot, and she instructed me from beginning to end. Then, while we waited for it to cook, we played a hand of cards which she thoroughly enjoyed.

John was also slightly better today and felt well enough to tackle the curtain rail in the lounge which had fallen off its perch. Mum always closes the curtains for us every evening and had had a horrible shock on Saturday evening when it fell down from a great height. Although I had had a little go at mending it, I didn’t have the time or patience just then, so it had lain limp for over 24 hours, looking a bit like we felt yesterday, very weary. Anyway, the ol’ man got up on the step-stool armed with his trusty electric screwdriver and set about pinning it together – forever – we hope. It certainly withstood Mum pulling on the cords to close it this evening, so fingers crossed it holds!!

Later on in the day, John managed a good few laps of the garden to try and exercise his lungs a bit, so things are beginning to look up. The power of prayer? I like to think so.

So prayers for every single one of us who feels like the latest advice from government has offered mixed messages and left us confused. These Sleaths are not confused because we are continuing to stay put, but….. who knows how the general public is going to respond??

Let us pray that whatever they do, it doesn’t bring a second wave of the virus. Still too many are being infected – 3,877 on the government website – and too many are dying – 289 in hospitals and 210 in all settings. Figures we believe may not show the full picture, and so everyone still needs to take the greatest care when out and about.

Mask anyone?