Hospital visiting

It’s not yet 9am. The phone goes. It’s Tasha, my regular carer/home help. Would it be OK if she came early? I said yes.

Tasha is a lovely young girl in her early twenties. She’s a single mum of two. One of her children is very sickly. He seems to have had one problem after another. He had an op earlier his month to enable him to breathe easier. Tasha was assured he would be like a new child. However, he’s back wheezing again. She’s managed to get a Morecambe hospital appointment for him later this morning, when she is normally with me. Tasha doesn’t drive yet. Fortunately another member of the family can drive her & her son to the hospital. She just had time to come to us before she needed to set off to the hospital. The lad who is having all this ill-health is around 2, too young for all these problems.

Our minds are still on the Fox’s problems. The rash has been spreading wildly. There’s no doubt that there will be something for them to see when he gets to Dermatology later this week. He’s going slowly bananas with all the itchiness & soreness.

Yesterday he popped into the health food shop for some dried herbs. While he was there, he asked if they could suggest something that might help. He came away with another cream.

We’re just hoping when he does finally get to Dermatology they have some answers. Above all he wants to know the cause. He would also like some treatment which will cure the problem, hopefully for good. Fingers crossed.

We’re half dreading the trip. We have to cross the river Lune to get to the hospital. There are only two bridges to Lancaster, each one way. Unfortunately the three lane bridge from Lancaster is closed as of this week for 26-week repairs to its foundations. So the other two lane bridge is being changed to two way. As there are often long queues even now, after the new bypass being built, coming out of Lancaster on the 3 lane bridge, we dread to think what it is going to be like when just the one bridge is available to go both ways. We’ll be allowing plenty of time. We’re contemplating going on the Bay Gateway, the new bypass road then coming into Lancaster on the hospital side of the river. Whichever way we go we expect long queues. We’re even wondering if it might be faster to go down to the motorway exit south of Lancaster then come back up the A road which reaches Lancaster by passing the hospital. It may be a long way round but it may be faster. Fingers crossed for the trip too.

Bird count

Yesterday I took part in the national bird count. I nearly forgot about it this year – too much worrying about the Fox & his health.

The results were quite different from usual. A whole flock of starlings appeared. Our usual small birds – the sparrows & tits – made swift flights across the garden, obviously intimidated by the larger birds especially when they included a couple of crows this year. Indeed the small birds were too swift for me to identify the variety of tit or sparrow & so I did not include them in the results. It wasn’t helped when I noticed a black & white cart climbing along the branches of a neighbouring tree – a favourite nesting place for the magpies. This cat, in full stalking mode, seemed to get onto some very thin looking branches. I was surprised they didn’t break under his weight.

The hunt for lost treasure

Once more the rain comes tumbling down. There seems no end of it this winter. I suppose I should be grateful we’ve not had snow & ice, but it still doesn’t make me feel any happier. It’s bright blue frosty mornings that raise my spirits, not damp grey drizzly ones that just dampen my spirits.

After I’ve finished on the computer I shall be back at the freezer, rummaging around for the next month’s goodies. I know there should be ½ chicken breast 100g, pork fillet 173g, a bag containing two 8oz bags of cooked beef & finally 8oz cooked chicken. I wonder what other mystery items I will find as I rummage. Yet more unlabelled bags? The way things are going at the moment I’m quite expecting it.

Once I’ve located these items & got them to the top of the pile, I’ll have to decide what to do with them next week. My rough thinking at the moment is maybe a chow mein (chicken breast), pork stir fry, chicken pie (cooked chicken), beef curry/cottage pie with the leftover beef. But first I’ve got to locate them. The way things have gone I half expect to find I’ve already used them up & just forgot to cross them off the list.