Wednesday 17 September 2014

Poppy scatter



As Linda, our home help, left yesterday I bumped into our neighbour, Steve. He’s a real garden enthusiast & hadn’t been to see the new garden yet, so I suggested he might like to come round now. He did.

After enthusing about the garden, he finally reached the wild part under the silver birches. His eyes lit up.

This summer, in remembrance of so many who lost their lives during the First World War in particular, there has been a poppy seed scatter project in Morecambe. Under this scheme people, especially school children were given packets of poppy seeds to scatter wherever they liked. There was a particularly large area scattered with seeds in Happy Mount Park.

Steve was one of the principal people in the campaign. He still has a lot of seeds left. When he saw this wild part he asked if it would be okay with us, if he brought his wife round (to see the garden) & scattered some poppy seeds under the silver birches. We happily agreed.

So, come the evening, Steve & his wife came round & scattered seed. We duly watered them in. Now we live in hope of a field of red poppies to come next year. I do hope so.


Monday 15 September 2014

Exciting times of some wonder



One of the delights of the new garden is discovering what is planted. Most of names are on them so I know what to expect but not all. Some I can recognise the leaf, or think I can, but in the absence of flower I’m not so sure. Each day things change. New flowers open up, others die away.

The latest source of wonder is the delphiniums. I’ve never had a garden with them in. We started with a few small deep purply blue, progressed to a phase of dark blue with white centres & have now got to the stage of great spikes of white with navy centres. Whatever the colour the bees are happy buzzing around.

It had never occurred to me that the same flower may blossom at different times according to the colour. I suspect the white ones are so much taller because they’ve had more time in the ground to regain their vigour after the move into our garden.

I’m looking forward to the penstemons which are budding up. I hope they either open up before we go on holiday or last until we’re home again. They’re another plant I’ve never lived with before.

The Fox tackled the first mow of the new lawns over the weekend. He was relieved to find it took less than half an hour to do the job. He feels that’s an amount he can manage himself, without getting a gardener in.

The lawn cut was one of our first tasks on our list of things to do before we go away. Over the weekend I made a list of foods that need to be used up. So it is today we’re having a Chicken & Egg Sauté, using up some green & yellow peppers, & some leftover roast chicken.

(It’s one of the things that bugs me. Why does buying one pepper cost 75p but a bag of five assorted peppers cost 99p? I always end up buying many more peppers than I need because if I want two it’s cheaper to buy five. And then they tell us that we should waste less!)

This afternoon it will be time to go to the library to return books & jigsaws, followed by a visit to the surgery to collect holiday medication.

I observe last night, after I went to bed, the Fox decided to load up some books of short stories on the Kindle. I can’t see either of us appreciating the Kindle to read anything much longer. However, the Kindle is a useful way to carry plenty of reading for a holiday without using too much luggage space or weighing the bags down too much. It has its uses.

Things are getting exciting.

Friday 12 September 2014

Waiting again



I’m back to waiting. I sometimes think I spend half my time waiting.

Today I’m waiting for the delivery of some fence panels. The neighbour who’s building a wall dividing his garden from our small enclosed garden near our bedroom, has decided it would look better if we put some fence panels at the top to give extra height without reducing the light unduly in our garden. We’re happy enough about that, so yesterday we got off to choose some fencing that will look good with the existing fencing next to it. It will be delivered some time today. So now I’m waiting.

The hospital went reasonably well. My medication has been reduced rather than stopped. I will still have to go back to the hospital for another review. They’re happy about the statins.

While I was there they decided I should have a blood let session to check on my liver function.

What a mess they made of it. I warned them I always had difficulty giving blood. This is usual sufficient to cause them to take extra care but to have no problems. It didn’t work this time.

First he tried my left arm. He tourniqueted it up & went in. The vein moved as I’d warned him. He wriggled the needle around & eventually managed to get a couple of drops, not enough to fill one phial let alone the three required, before it dried up.

He tried again with the other arm. Tourniquet on, I clenched & unclenched my fist to encourage the blood to flow faster. He used a finer needle & in he went. Again the vein moved. Another assistant by this time had entered the blood room. She’d done two other people while he was working on my arm & he was still fighting. She took over, wriggling the needle, while he kept hold of my arm. Eventually she managed to get the needle in. The blood flowed. The phials filled up.

Now he had another problem. He couldn’t stop it bleeding. Eventually he managed to get it to a level he could plaster me up. I came out of the blood room feeling very bruised, hardly able to bend my elbows, making pushing myself in my wheelchair out of the room difficult.

I’ve just taken the plasters off this morning. I’ve now got two inside elbow joints of magnificent colour, ranging from yellows to greens to purples. I’m not surprised after all that struggle.

You now know why I abandoned all idea of becoming a blood donor, an idea that appealed to me as a teenager but got dashed the first time I had to have a blood test for something. On that occasion I ended up having both arms bruised at the surgery before they decided to send me to the hospital instead. There, after complaining about the mess the surgery had made, they finally managed to get enough to cover the bottom of the phial & just had to hope it was sufficient for all the tests. Otherwise I was going to be called back in to have my throat cut. That was enough for me.

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Hospital time again



It’s hospital day again today. This time it’s a check up on how the pancreatitis is doing.

Personally I think it’s doing well. For the first time in about 5 years, my weight seems to have stabilised. I have been losing weight gently since I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. The weight loss increased considerably when I got pancreatitis a couple of years ago. The speed of loss slowed down again after a few months but still continued. I’ve finally got to the stage when my weight seems to have settled. Indeed I may even have put on a pound. Throughout the time I’ve eaten like a horse which is why I’ve found the weight loss so concerning.

I’ve certainly had no stomach pains for a while despite the fact I am drinking a little alcohol.

The Fox keeps asking me why I’m so keen to attend this appointment, even chasing them up about it. There are three main reasons:

1.     If they dismiss me I will no longer have to declare it when I apply for holiday insurance, a considerable saving
2.     Having got into this state as a result of long term use of medication I would like the reassurance that the use of statins, begun in May, isn’t likely to have the same effect
3.     I am also hoping to be able to stop taking the omeprazole I was prescribed for the pancreatitis & so reduce my drug intake that way

We’ll see.

Meanwhile we’ve heard the new car should arrive mid-October, which will suit us fine. We will be back from our French holidays then. Our car insurance is due for renewal at the end of October, so there will be no fuss over stopping that. We can hardly expect to reclaim money spent for a couple of weeks left in the year, nor will we have to worry about finding insurance for a couple of weeks only. It will be something to look forward to when we get home from Paris.