New year greetings & hopes

Happy New Year

To you all

We are certainly looking forward to 2018, hopefully a year not so full of ill-health. We have had enough of that this year, though the Fox is clearly starting badly with his rash.

Roll on 2018

The Fox’s reprieve was very short-lived. The rash, & with it the itchiness & pain, has got yet worse again. Now, his arms, legs, hands are all covered with spots. On parts of his scalp there are weeping sores. His backside is more red than white. All is very uncomfortable.

We’ve been going out, seeing friends, as much to provide some distraction – anything to get away from that rash.

We’re counting the days until Tuesday. Then we can get on the phone & hopefully expedite his hospital appointment. Friends have suggested he should go to A&E but that seems pointless when we are pretty certain Dermatology is closed for the holidays. Equally we could go back to the GP but he’s already seen two different ones & neither had a clue as to what is wrong. He needs specialist advice & help & that can’t come until Dermatology is back working again. It’s been going too long, over a month now.

Oh roll on the days.

One problem solved

It is so wonderful to be able to eat normally once more. The dentist managed to permanently fill both teeth, no crown needed. I had my pâté on toast starter with relish come the evening. I’m happily eating my Christmas chocolates now. Above all it’s great to be able to chew my hard “chewable” calcium tablet once more. That was particularly difficult to do just using front teeth. It didn’t exactly dissolve in the mouth without chewing but is too large to swallow whole without risking choking on it.

We went along the prom to get to the dentist.  As it grew dark on Christmas Day the sky had turned an ominous colour as though it was laden with something heavy, snow perhaps. Although we had gone along the prom on Boxing Day, the view across the Bay was obscured though there were hints of whiteness across the Bay. Yesterday was a different matter – a crystal clear day with a bright luminous blue sky. That ominous cloud had obviously resulted in a shovel-load of snow arriving on top of the Lakeland fells. You could almost imagine you were looking at the Rockies or the Alps despite the lowness of the fells. It was truly beautiful.

Today is another such bright day. There is frost once more in pockets on the lawn – a hard world for the birds to find food.

My spirits are higher today, just knowing I can eat normally, brush my teeth thoroughly clean once more, without risk of causing yet more damage to my teeth or pain in my mouth. Even the Fox’s rash seems to have eased a bit. He now has two hospital appointments at Dermatology, two days apart from one another. We suspect one isn’t valid, but which one? We’ll give them a ring as soon as things get back to normal in the new year to find out, & to see if the appointment couldn’t be brought forward if he’s still in the state he’s in now, or worse.