Christmas is coming... and Mum update.
The house smells nice - last night D-d came around for the evening especially to continue our tradition of making our Christmas cake together. All I need to do with it now is feed it with some brandy, wrap it, and store it for 8 weeks before we decorate it. I am already plotting what it will look like.
In other news, last Saturday was somewhat fraught; D-d visited Mum in hospital and, just as she was leaving about 5pm a nurse came in to say that they had just heard that Mum would be going to Liverpool on Monday for her next procedure. My sister is away, so when D-d rang me I began to look at going over to be with her.
Fortunately I didn't book anything before going up to see her and talk about it. I arrive on the ward and they say it has been brought forward and she will be flown over by the air ambulance on Sunday lunch time to be first on the list on Tuesday morning. I get her bag packed and arrange with the nursing staff that either D-d or I will collect her other stuff after she has gone, depending on which boat I go on. (I had been psyching myself to fly if she was going when my sister was away, but when it came to being told 'it's on' I found myself having palpitations and nausea at the very idea.)
Bag packed, Mum's doctor (Dr. N) comes in and says "Don't get too enthusiastic. Didn't you have diarrhoea yesterday?" For a variety of reasons the other hospital would be unlikely to take her and do it under those circumstances. Dr N says what worries her most is if they fly Mum over and they more or less turn her away at the door to just have to fly back again. Dr N rings the Liverpool hospital. They agree with her, and the trip is called off. So now we wait for them to give her a new date. As she said to Dr N she has been backwards and forwards so much recently she could probably pack the flight bag by clapping her hands and everything would jump into place.
Mum has now decided the tummy trouble is because she has started on statins since her stent was implanted; she is sure that everybody who takes them becomes ill, and all ills in those who are on them can be traced to the statins. I left her on Monday evening planning on discussing it with Dr N yesterday. I don't know the outcome as I didn't visit yesterday - I'm going up after lunch today. Mum has a lot of faith in Dr N - having suffered for years with 'something the matter with her lower leg' she finally had it amputated in the summer and is already managing to walk on her prosthesis without crutches because 'they were bloody difficult to manage at work'. So she understands things from a patient point of view better than most!
And on the TV at the moment, just because I was watching something earlier and hadn't got around to switching it off, is an American programme about two guys in a small aeroplane flying from Europe to the USA. They have just landed at Wick airport in Northern Scotland and the Scottish people are all subtitled! Honestly - American friends do you think this is insulting your intelligence just a little?
In other news, last Saturday was somewhat fraught; D-d visited Mum in hospital and, just as she was leaving about 5pm a nurse came in to say that they had just heard that Mum would be going to Liverpool on Monday for her next procedure. My sister is away, so when D-d rang me I began to look at going over to be with her.
Fortunately I didn't book anything before going up to see her and talk about it. I arrive on the ward and they say it has been brought forward and she will be flown over by the air ambulance on Sunday lunch time to be first on the list on Tuesday morning. I get her bag packed and arrange with the nursing staff that either D-d or I will collect her other stuff after she has gone, depending on which boat I go on. (I had been psyching myself to fly if she was going when my sister was away, but when it came to being told 'it's on' I found myself having palpitations and nausea at the very idea.)
Bag packed, Mum's doctor (Dr. N) comes in and says "Don't get too enthusiastic. Didn't you have diarrhoea yesterday?" For a variety of reasons the other hospital would be unlikely to take her and do it under those circumstances. Dr N says what worries her most is if they fly Mum over and they more or less turn her away at the door to just have to fly back again. Dr N rings the Liverpool hospital. They agree with her, and the trip is called off. So now we wait for them to give her a new date. As she said to Dr N she has been backwards and forwards so much recently she could probably pack the flight bag by clapping her hands and everything would jump into place.
Mum has now decided the tummy trouble is because she has started on statins since her stent was implanted; she is sure that everybody who takes them becomes ill, and all ills in those who are on them can be traced to the statins. I left her on Monday evening planning on discussing it with Dr N yesterday. I don't know the outcome as I didn't visit yesterday - I'm going up after lunch today. Mum has a lot of faith in Dr N - having suffered for years with 'something the matter with her lower leg' she finally had it amputated in the summer and is already managing to walk on her prosthesis without crutches because 'they were bloody difficult to manage at work'. So she understands things from a patient point of view better than most!
And on the TV at the moment, just because I was watching something earlier and hadn't got around to switching it off, is an American programme about two guys in a small aeroplane flying from Europe to the USA. They have just landed at Wick airport in Northern Scotland and the Scottish people are all subtitled! Honestly - American friends do you think this is insulting your intelligence just a little?