All At Sea

Today is a “day at sea” day. We left Cadiz at 11pm last night and we are due to arrive at Palma de Mallorca around 8 am tomorrow morning, We passed through the Straits of Gibraltar at 4:20 this morning so today's veranda view is somewhere south of Malaga.



It's a pleasant 20-22 degrees (70 Fahrenheit in old money) so most people are sitting by the pool at the moment. We're there at present, blogging and drinking Pimms.





The cruise is as good as it has ever been, and the staff just get better and better. On the first night when we arrived at the restaurant the Maitre 'D stepped out from behind his lectern, held out his hand and said “Hello Mr & Mrs Harper. Lovely to see you again”. It's been three years since our last cruise. What kind of memory do these people have. We've seventy two hours in and just about every member of staff is calling us by our names. That's service.

Really the only difficulty we're having to trying to decide which cruise to book for next year.

And finally, if you want to see where we've been …

Y Viva Espana

Today we are in Cadiz.

We're moored in a cruise and container terminal so today's veranda view isn't very inspiring, but the view from the stern is much better, showing the gold dome of the cathedral.





This morning we took a stroll round the town, which is mainly narrow streets, little more than alleyways, connecting small squares. Very nice to look at but hard to photograph as all you can see are walls.

Since you asked, last nights meal with the shore program manager was excellent. There was us, a dentist from Australia and his wife, and a dealer in commodities and his wife from Stow on the Wold. It must have been a good night because we spent three hours at the table and missed the show in the theatre.

It's a day at sea tomorrow so we'll need to get down to the pool deck early if we want a seat.

A tale of three airports

In which Marie and John leave home at an unearthly hour, experience the best and the worst of air travel and START THEIR HOLIDAY CRUISE.

We set off yesterday morning at 4:30 am (don't ask what time we got up) and headed for Newcastle airport. As this is the first time we have traveled with a wheelchair it was always going to be an interesting experience. The staff at Newcastle were very good. We were allowed to use the fast track security lane and the security staff were helpful. We were given assistance from the gate to the flight but sadly Whizzy, Marie's wheelchair had to go in the hold. This meant we were unable to make our own way through Heathrow. The flight was uneventful, except we shared it with one of the Milliband brothers. I can never remember which, but it was the uglier of the two.

Then we got to Heathrow. We were taken off the aeroplane on one of Heathrow's wheelchairs, and left. Now we had no more then ninety minutes to go from terminal five to terminal three to board a flight to Lisbon. We waited. And waited. Eventually I went to look for help and found a BA customer service desk. They were apologetic and promised help. It finally arrived and we were on out way to terminal three. This took more then half an hour. Worse was to come. The person assigned to escort us to the gate was late. Then he stood doing something with his computer while his colleague screamed at him that we were running out of time. Eventually I had to take the boarding passes from him head for security myself, pushing Marie and dragging the hand baggage. This got our man motivated and we reached the gate with less than ten minutes to spare.

Now we get to see the best of air travel. As part of the cruise deal we got business class seats. What an experience. Instead of three by three seats it was two by two, with lots of legroom. Then they brought round the drinks, and we got a glass of wine, in a real glass, made of actual glass. Lunch was amazing. Real china plates and a china teacup. Proper metal knives and forks, and excellent food too. Marie's coffee was a bit too strong for her (if you know Marie you will understand this) so they actually made her another, exactly the way she wanted.

And so we reached Lisbon. Here the assistance staff were very good (and spoke better English than the Heathrow staff). All three bags arrived which we regarded as something of a miracle, and we were reunited with Whizzy, Some minor damage but easily fixed.

The the holiday could begin. We are on the Silver Cloud, sister ship the the Silver Wind, venue for out 2006 holiday (See “Holiday Pictures” in the sidebar). This is the view from our veranda in Lisbon.



And this is our suite, looking in from the Veranda.



Today we are in Portimao in the Algarve. The Veranda view isn't exactly inspiring, but the view on the other side, overlooking the port and lots of timeshare villas is better.



Tomorrow we are in Cadiz but tonight we are dining with one of the officers. This came totally out of the blue as those in “normal” suites don't normally get this. And finally, I packed to pair of decent black shoes to wear with my dinner suit on formal nights, such as tonight. When we returned after our suite had been serviced, we found that my shoes had been taken away, polished within an inch of their life, and returned wrapped in tissue. Amazing.

Sew busy

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household since we last blogged.

At the end of March, we, along with my mam, went away for a few days. We set off on the Thursday to our hotel in Hockley Heath.

Thanks to the glorious weather on the Friday, we had a change of plan. Instead of going to the NEC, we went to the Black Country Living Museum.

We’ve been there several times before but it was a first for my mam and a first for me in Wizzy. I’m pleased to report that their Wizzy faculties are really good.

On the Saturday we went to the Hobby Craft exhibition at the NEC. Other than possibly buying some fabric, I wasn’t expecting to purchase anything. However the lure of the sewing machine stands were too much, so after a couple of demonstrations, I bought myself a new overlocker and John very kindly bought me a computerised sewing machine.

Before we went into the craft exhibition, my mam wanted to buy a bottle of water, so whilst we were waiting for her, someone came over to say ‘hello’.



There was a memorabilia exhibition also taking place that day and several characters (Darth Vader, Spiderman, Storm Troupers etc) were wandering around the NEC saying hello to people.

My new sewing machine and overlocker really came in handy as my sewing for our cruise is well underway. So far I’ve altered nine summer tops, made four skirts, two shirts and one dress. Another dress is nearly finished and there’s still three more to make. With only four weeks to go before our cruise I’m hoping to have them made in time.

Marie

A stitch in time

My hands are going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks making clothes for our cruise – 10 weeks and counting !!!!!

I’ve got two formal and three cocktail dresses to make, along with three skirts and a couple of shirts.

I’ve also got to alter several of my sun tops. They need a bit more fabric adding to the sides as the style of them isn’t Wizzy friendly.

One your marks, get set, sew….

Marie

Pluming the depths

Yesterday morning, shortly after John had left for work, I went into the bathroom and noticed that the water in the loo was higher than it should normally be.

I gave the loo a long flush to see if that would clear what ever blockage there was. That only made the water level rise even more.

Taking the loo brush I gave the loo a couple of good pokes. The water instantly turned chocolate brown and bits of poo started to float to the surface. Yuck !!!!!!!!

I gave the loo another couple more pokes. More poo appeared. Double Yuck !!!!!!

I rang my mam to see if she knew how to unblock a loo. Her suggestion, other than what I had already done, was to try and get some wire to see if that would unblock it.

As wire was John’s department I said I’d have to phone him at work to see where it was kept.

“Until I can get the blockage clear, when you come through this morning you’re going to have to use a bucket when you need a wee”, I told her.
“I’m not using any bucket”, she exclaimed, “I’ll just use the loo as normal”.
“What!! Pee in that gunge”, I replied.
“Yes. What’s wrong with that”.
“Mam, you’re disgusting!!!!”, I said, shuddering at that the thought.

John was still on his way into work so I rang his office and left a message for him to give me a ring when he arrived.

He rang back about 10 minutes later.
“The wire’s in the shed”, he said, “but I don’t think that will work. Why don’t you try putting a freezer bag round the loo brush, as that will give it a good seal, then give it some really vigorous plunges”.
“How vigorous”, I asked.
“As hard as you can, and then some”.

For a person with a bad back and only one good leg, that wasn’t going to be easy….

Donning my rubber gloves again, and praying that they didn’t have any holes in it, I wrapped two freezer bags around the no longer white loo brush, then immersed my hand into the brown water and plunged, plunged, plunged.

Success !!!!!!

Alive and kicking

Just a quick blog to say we're still here....

Things have been very quiet in the BOGOF household so there hasn't been anything exciting to report.

Normal service will be back shortly - especially as we're getting close to our cruise !!!!!

Marie

Burns Night

An Englishman is being shown around a Scottish hospital. At the end of his visit, he is shown into a ward with a number of patients who show no obvious signs of injury. He goes to examine the first man he sees, and the man proclaims: "Fair fa' yer honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain e' the puddin' race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, painch tripe or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace as lang's my arm." The Englishman, somewhat taken aback, goes to the next patient, and immediately the patient launches into: "Some hae meat, and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit." This continues with the next patient: "Wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beastie, O what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, Wi bickering brattle. I wad be laith to run and chase thee, Wi murdering prattle!" "Well," the Englishman mutters to his Scottish colleague, "I see you saved the psychiatric ward for the last." "Nay, nay," the Scottish doctor corrected him, "this is the Serious Burns unit."

Belated Happy New Year

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household. Not a great deal I’m afraid.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Santa was extremely good to us so we got lots of lovely presents. As we had my Mam on Boxing day (she went to my sisters for Christmas day) we had to give her the full turkey and all the trimmings. My sister doesn’t ‘do’ a tradition festive lunch so it’s a hard life having to have two Christmas feeds in two days !!!

New Year was celebrated with some good friends who were able to make the journey ‘up north’ to Sunderland. The sticky sausages, cornbeef pie and New Years day chocolate (forget about the calories…) fondant went down really well.

Thanks to Jan, I bought myself a Kindle with some of my Christmas money. I’d been interested in the e-book readers for a while but hadn’t been able to have a good look at them. Jan had just bought herself a Kindle and had it with her so gave me a full guided tour of what it can do. 24 hours later I bought one…

I’ve managed to put my entire classic book collection on the Kindle (as they are out of copyright, most, if not all, of the books are free to download either from Amazon or other ebook sites). This is brilliant as I can now put the classic books in the loft, get three book shelves back, and fill with books that I don’t want to go on the Kindle. Marvellous !!!

Marie

Days Of Thunder

We were just finishing breakfast this morning when the ground shook and there was an almighty bang. There's been a lot of noise lately with melting snow falling off rooftops but nothing quite like this. A quick check round the house revealed that all the ceilings were intact but looking out of the bedroom window it was clear where the noise came from.



Across the back lane a wall had collapsed. We had noticed first thing that it looked to be bowing a little and I think that water had got between the inner and outer wall and frozen causing catastrophic wall-tie failure. At present we're waiting to see if the council send round the highways people to seal off the road as it's impassible, and the inner wall looks like it could go at any moment.

On a less exciting note, Christmas was good, and Santa was very generous. It's back to work tomorrow then looking forward to seeing friends from afar on Friday night.

Pies galore

Following the mincemeat we made a couple of weeks ago, here are seven dozen mince pies we recently made.

We’ve still got six jars of mincemeat left. So it’ll be mincemeat sandwiches, mincemeat curry, mincemeat casserole….

Marie

Winter

When icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail
And Tom bears logs into the hall
And milk comes frozen home in pail.

From From Love's Labours Lost, Act V. Sc. II by William Shakespeare



Well, I don't know about Dick the shepherd, or Tom bearing logs, but we've certainly go icicles by the dozen at the moment. These ones are about 20 feet above ground, precariously hanging over our back door. We try not to slam the door too hard.

They're there because on Friday morning on my way to work I saw a temperature of minus eight degrees. A colleague saw minus eleven on his way to work. Brrr.

Snow Joke

This global warming is getting beyond a joke. The snow began on Wednesday, and began falling really hard on Friday. This is the view from the front of our house



And this is the view from the back.




And the shed roof shows how deep the snow is.



Meanwhile one of out neighbours wins the prize for the biggest icicle.

All minced out

I’ve been wanting to do make some homemade mincemeat for years but, for one reason or another, never got round to it.

This year I (with the help of John) decided to give it a go. It was a toss up between Delia’s or the Hairy’s mincemeat recipe. Delia’s took too long to do, so the Hairy’s won.




I slightly adapted the recipe as we don’t like ginger and didn’t have any brandy or sherry, so just used rum instead.

Anyone for a mince pie….

Marie

The Unknown Warrier

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart;
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget.

From "Recessional" by Rudyard Kipling



You have probably never heard of David Railton, but his idea touched the hearts of many.

In 1920 he was a vicar in Margate and when the Cenotaph in Whitehall was unveiled he was reminded of a time, back in 1916 when he was an army chaplain. He had been conducting a burial service somewhere near Armentieres and in the back garden of his billet, very close to the house, was a grave marked by a rough, white cross. On the cross was inscribed in black pencilled letters: 'An Unknown British Soldier'.

The scene at the Cenotaph spurred him to put his thoughts into action. He wrote to the Dean of Westminster, Bishop Ryle, asking whether he would permit the body of an unknown soldier to be buried in Westminster Abbey. The Dean responded warmly to the suggestion and wrote to the King. Initially the King was not responsive to the idea, perhaps thinking that two years after the end of the war it may reopen the war wound which time is gradually healing.

But the Dean was undismayed. He now wrote to the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, and to the C.I.G.S. (Chief of Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson). They took up the idea with enthusiasm and reluctantly the King gave his assent. An announcement was made in the House of Commons and Lord Curzon, the Foreign Secretary, was appointed chairman of the cabinet committee responsible for the ceremony.

In October 1920, the G.O.C. in France & Flanders was Brigadier-General L.J. Wyatt. As such, it was he who issued the necessary instructions and it was he who selected the body.

According to the Brigadier he gave orders for four unidentified bodies of British soldiers to be brought in, one from each of the main battle areas: Ypres. the Somme, Arras and the Aisne (some reports say six bodies). They were brought in on the night of 7th November and placed in the hut which served as the chapel for the garrison. The parties that brought the remains in. returned immediately to their respective areas so they had no way of knowing which body had been chosen.

At midnight, accompanied by a senior member of his staff, he entered the chapel and selected one of the bodies which lay on stretchers covered by Union Jacks. The other bodies were taken out and buried in the nearby British military cemetery of St. Pol-sur-Ternoise.

The remains were placed in the casket brought over from Britain, bearing the inscription:

'A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918'

The next day the Unknown Warrior began the last stage of his journey home, beginning with speeches from prominent French politicians before travelling with an escort of British and French cavalry to the quayside to board HMS Verdun At 3.30 pm H.M.S. Verdun came alongside at the Admiralty Pier, Dover and as she did so a nineteen gun salute was fired from Dover Castle and the band played 'Land of Hope and Glory'. Six warrant officers representing the various services carried the coffin off the ship and handed it over to six senior officers who acted as pall bearers.

Three hours later the train drew into Victoria station where a guard of honour from the 1st Grenadier Guards waited. The body remained in the station in the funeral coach that night, watched over by a guard from the Grenadiers.

Just before 10 o'clock on November 11th the procession started from Victoria led by massed bands, the drums muffled and encased in black. On either side of the coffin marched four Admirals, four Field marshals, three Generals and an Air Marshal.

At 10.40 am the King came out from the Home Office accompanied by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, Prince Henry (later to become Duke of Gloucester) and the Duke of Connaught. He took up his place with his back to the Cenotaph, still shrouded with Union Jacks. Queen Mary, Queen Alexandra the Queen Mother and Queen Ena of Spain watched from the Home Office balcony. As Big Ben sounded quarter to the hour the head of the procession passed the Cenotaph and gun carriage swung round across the road and stopped immediately in front of the King with the pall bearers drawn up in line behind it. The King stepped forward and laid a wreath on the coffin, bearing a card with the following inscription in the King's handwriting:

'In proud memory of those Warriors who died unknown in the Great War. Unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and beheld they live.'
George. R.I.

The last note of eleven o'clock died away and everything was still. Throughout the capital, throughout the land, across the Empire and on the seas all stood in silence. The Cornish Riviera express halted near Taplow; the Irish Mail came to a stop near Crewe. The stillness was total, the silence complete.

Then came the clear, haunting sound of the Last Post and as the notes died away the King stepped forward and laid his wreath against the Cenotaph, followed by the Prince of Wales, the Prime Minister (Lloyd George) and representatives of the Empire.
The procession now began to move towards the Abbey with the King and the Princes marching behind the gun carriage. As the bearer party entered the Abbey with the coffin they passed between two ranks of a guard of honour made up of ninety-six men decorated for gallantry, seventy four of them holders of the Victoria Cross.

The King stood at the head of the grave facing the Archbishop of Canterbury. the Dean and the Bishop of London; the pall bearers stood on either side while Lloyd George with Asquith and the members of the Cabinet were grouped in rows behind the King. During the singing the bearer party came forward, removed the wreath, side arms and helmet and the Union flag and lowered the coffin into the grave. The service continued, and at the words "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes . . ." the King sprinkled French earth onto the coffin. The grave was later filled in with earth brought over from France.

Still Off

As of yesterday we have been without our broadband for Seven weeks.

Last weekend we thought it was fixed. It came on at 4:30 on Friday and lasted until Sunday evening.

It came back on Monday morning and went away on Monday evening and hasn't been seen since. As you can imagine we're not happy.

We fully intend to ditch our less than helpful ISP but as the fault is not in the hands of BT Openreach there's not a lot we can do until it's fixed.

I was shocked to read a survey in a magazine that ranked MinusNet as fifth best for customer service and support. Some mistake there. Presumably it was an internet survey and those without broadband couldn't take part.

John

Boredband

It’s been over six weeks now and we’re still no further forward in getting our broadband back. Lets just say that Minusnet and BT have both been worse than useless !!!!

After several weeks of getting nowhere with Minusnet, it was finally established that there is a problem at the telephone exchange, which is hardly surprising as the exchange was build before Moses was born…..

BT are trying to repair the fault, however things are being hampered by Minusnet not arranging for a BT engineer to go out, BT forgetting to attend and BT only allowing their engineers two hours per day to fix the fault.

Minusnet’s fault department have been pants so the Customer from Hell had a great time speaking to them.

Things have now escalated so their complaints team have now taken over dealing with the problem, as John completed a customer service fault repair survey and gave them 1 out of 10 for everything !!!!

We were fed up with using the antiquated dial-up connection that we bought a dongle. It’s not ideal as only one person can use it at a time, however it’s a thousand times better than the dial-up.

Minusnet have assured us that our broadband will be fixed today. Look out for flying pigs !!!!!

Marie

We’re back – part 3

What a nightmare we’ve had with our broadband !!!!

It’s been down for four weeks and it’s still not quite right. Our broadband provider (they’re from Yorkshire and are currently advertising their services on TV and radio at the moment…..) have been worse than useless. The Customer from Hell has been on the case and will be making another appearance soon…

BT have also been out at least twice to fix various faults on our phone line.

The Yorkshire broadband have provided us with a free phone number so we can use good old dial-up until the problem is rectified. I thought our broadband speed was slow until we went back to dial-up !!!! I sat and read while I’m waiting for a page to appear….

The lack of broadband was proving to be a right pain. You don’t realise how you rely on the internet and email until it’s taken away from you. I felt like a teenager who had their mobile phone taken away from them !!!!!

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household.

John finished the bathroom and he’s done a fabulous job. Pictures will appear very shortly.

We’ve gone from having a vanity unit and a small mirrored wall unit to three wall units (one of them double doored), a huge mirror with lights and a huge sink unit with two cupboards and four drawers.

The bath, although is slightly smaller than standard baths, is really deep. When I first got into it I thought I was going to sink into the kitchen !!!

Things didn’t run smoothly though with the company we bought the sink, loo and wall units from. We renamed them ‘bathroom for you if you don’t mind waiting’... I lost count on the number of times the ‘customer from Hell’ had to make an appearance. It got to the stage were the little man started trembling whenever he heard my voice.

Got my new car and it’s fabulous. Leather seats, satnav, rear parking sensors. It’s got so many toys it’ll take me three years to find them all !!!!

Saw Kermit about my hip. You can read the full story in the joint journals blog. However it’s not good news. I won’t be getting a new hip any time soon. As you might expect I’m not happy about that. However life must go on…

Marie

Here today, gone tomorrow

Sadly the joy of having our broadband back up and running has been short lived. It went down again on Sunday afternoon so we're back to using the good old dial-up....

I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a little longer for photos of our bathroom.

Marie

Yippee !!!! We're back

We're finally back in the wonderful world of broadband.

A round up of news about the bathroom, my new car, my visit to the hospital and everything else will appear very soon.

Marie

Still Here

Just a quick word about the lack of bloggery. Our broadband has been down for a week now, and being off work we've had no internet access. We'll be back just as soon as it's fixed.

John

New bathroom – part 8

Today John did tiling, tiling, some more tiling and finally a bit more tiling....

It’s only a small bathroom but there’s a lot of tiling to do!!!

Marie

New bathroom – part 7

John made really good progress with the bathroom today.

Out went the old vanity unit and the last lot of tiles and in came three new wall units and another row of tiles.

Marie

New bathroom – part 6

Today has been one of those days where little bitty jobs seem to take forever so I’m afraid there hasn’t been a lot of progress with the bathroom.

I’m pleased to report that John’s got the bath fully plumbed in and working.

His arms though looks like he’s been self harming himself as they are covered in lots of cuts.

Marie

Rest day

Because today is my birthday, we thought it would be an ideal time for John to have a day’s rest from working on the bathroom.

As usual the Birthday Bunny was extremely generous so I got lots of lovely presents. We went out for our usual birthday lunch at the Chinese restaurant which was yummy as always….

We’ve been getting requests for pictures of the new bathroom so here’s where we're up to at the moment.



The old radiator is out and tiles in for the new towel radiator




Pipework in




And so is the new radiator




This is where the bath used to be




And here is the new one being manhandled into the bathroom





And here it is, all ready to connect



Marie

PS To the person who sent me the tall birthday card, many thanks. You sent me a blank card so I don’t know who it’s from….

New bathroom – parts 4 & 5

Our internet connection was down last night so I wasn’t able to put up ‘part 4’.

Yesterday John finished the shower pluming and nearly all the tiling around where the shower/new bath are going.

Today the final bit of tiling and grouting around the shower/bath were completed and the new bath put into place.

Marie

New bathroom – part 3

John got some more tiling and the grouting done.

The electrical cabling and pipe work for the new shower is also sorted.

It’s coming along nicely…

Marie

New bathroom – part 2

John made quite a bit of progress on the bathroom today.

Because the shower is now going to be fitted on the wall which used to have the towel rail on, John had to remove ¾ of the wall for the pipes and the electrics to hidden by the new tiles.

Instead of using a mallet and a chisel, which is the normal way to remove a wall, he used a pair of scissors !!!! The wall wasn’t made of brick, it was plasterboard…

Once the wall was removed, John then set to work on some of the tiling. As that is my speciality, whilst I couldn’t physically help, I gave him my expert advice and words of wisdom…

And yes, we are still speaking to each other !!!!

Marie

New bathroom – part 1

Because our bathroom was getting a little past its best, and not really ‘Marie’ friendly, we decided it was time for out with the old and in with the new.

So today John started by removing the old bath and the tiles.

Sadly due to all things medical I’m having to watch from the sidelines. However I did have my uses – my stairlift came in very handy for getting the broken tiles down stairs….

Marie

Crash, bang, wallop

That’s what I did at 4am this morning…..

I got up out of bed to go to the loo and somehow lost my footing.

I stumbled into my bedside table and both me, the contents of the table and it ended up in a heap on the floor.

I sustained a bruised and sore hip from landing on stickies and a throbbing headache from hitting my face on the floor. My table sadly suffered a broken leg.

That’s the second time I’ve ‘kissed’ the bedroom carpet while going to the loo during the night. If I make it a hat trick I might be asking for a bedpan !!!!!

Marie

Every 'phone you'll ever need

We've bought a new telephone. The man in the shop said it was "every 'phone you'll ever need".

How do you solve a problem like Marie

Yesterday we had the builders in. Our friendly builder and his son were doing some repairs to our roof, ready for the winter, and also building two steps by the back door to make it easier for me to get out. They’re coming back in a couple of weeks to make the front of the house more ‘Marie’ friendly.

Earlier this morning the friendly builder called off for his ‘envelope’* and happened to ask if we knew anything about fruit. He’d got some fruit (not sure where from) but didn’t know what it was.

He had a couple in his pocket to show us and said they tasted a bit like a plum. Neither John or myself were sure what it was so I said I’d have a look through my cookery books to see what it was and give him a ring.

I went to one of my trusty cookery books and found the pages on fruit. Sure enough there was a picture of the friendly builders mystery fruit. It was a green gage and is a member of the plum family – hence why it tasted like one.

I rang the friendly builders wife and told her the good news as his wife had been concerned that they might have been inedible.

Problem solved…..

Marie


* his payment.

Newsround

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening in the BOGOF household since the last blog. Not a huge amount – hence the lack of blogs…

Went for my MRI scan and x-rays on my back (you can read all about it in the Joint Journal blog). Was told to contact the consultant’s secretary if I hadn’t received a follow up appointment two weeks after I’d had the scans.

As expected no appointment came so I rang the hospital. The scan still hadn’t been sent across to the consultant so until he’s looked at it an appointment can’t be made. Given that scans and x-rays are now on computer it’s inexcusable that it should take this long. All it needs is for the radiographer to press ‘send’….

For a while my mam has been saying it was a shame I wasn’t able to get out when she came to see me on a Friday as she could take me out for a walk in Wizzy. What she really meant was she was fed up of staying indoors and wanted to get out.

Last weekend was the airshow, (which meant that we would be prisoners in our own home due to over 1 million people descending on the area), plus it was John’s birthday on the Saturday. I asked my mam if she would take me to Sea Road on Friday to pay the newspapers and also to get a couple of items, which I couldn’t get from Morrisons the previous night, as I needed them for John’s birthday. You can read all about what happened shortly in the Joint Journal blog. All I will say is ‘never again’ !!!!!!!

In September John is spending some of his summer holidays putting in a new bathroom to make it more ‘Marie’ friendly. The new tiles have already arrived (the beauty of on-line shopping…..) and he’s already made a start on removing some of the old tiles.

So that’s about it.

Marie

Shake it all about

Last night when we went shopping at Morrisons John drove into one of the disabled car parking bays. He then got out of the car and opened the boot to get Wizzy out.

The driver of a van, which was parked next to us in the disabled bay, took his blue badge off the dashboard and shook it at John, indicating that only blue badge holders were allowed to park there.

The little van man was too busy telling off John that he didn’t notice me putting my blue badge on the dashboard.

John ignored the little van man, who was still shaking his badge, and unloaded Wizzy from the boot. He then turned Wizzy to face the van and shook it a couple of times.

As we walked/wheeled passed the van, I turned my head and gave him a big sarcastic grin.

Something to look forward to

Having not had a holiday last year (we thought I would be going into hospital because of my knee – we were partly right….) and are not having one this year (because things were up in the air about my hip and back), we decided it was time we had something to look forward to that wasn’t medical related.

Following my visit to see a back consultant last Thursday (the full story will appear in the Joint Journal shortly), surgery, (if it does happen) will be well into the future and there’s a strong possibility that I won’t be able to have a new hip put in.

This means that next year we’ll be hospital free. So yesterday I booked a cruise for next May.

We pick up the cruise at Lisbon, then it’s off to Portimao, Cadiz, Palma, Mahon, Corsica, Livorno, Portofino and finally Rome.

I won’t say we’re looking forward to it but we’ve already started the count down !!!!

Marie

Reporting in

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household these past couple of weeks. Not a great deal I’m afraid.

We went to the Goodfood Summer Show in Birmingham, which was a really good. As expected there were loads of things freebees to taste and drink. We also saw the Hairy Bikers giving a cookery demonstration. They were so funny.

It was a little busier than I would have liked, and as usual, Wizzy was invisible which was a bit annoying. Still, we did get our own back by running over peoples toes when they wouldn’t move out of the way….

Took delivery of a new bath aid (you can read all about it in the Joint Journal), so getting in and out of the bath is a little easier.

The Customer from Hell made a couple of appearances over none receipt of some vitamins.

Had a bit of a run in with my dentist (full details will be appearing in the Joint Journal in the next couple of days).

So other than that there’s nothing else to report.

Marie

Opps

Last night John was making a batch of Pimms.

"One part Pimms", he said as he poured the Pimms into a measuring jug, "and three parts lemonade".
"Three parts lemonade", I replied, "don't you mean two parts lemonade".
"No", he said, "two parts would make it too strong".

So to those who read my comment on 'Summertime' and made some Pimms following my directions - sorry !!!!!

Marie

It’s French Jim but not as we know it

Last night an advert for Peugeot cars came on the TV and it announced that any new cars bought in June would received a free mobile phone with SatNav.

“Will I get one of those”, I asked John.
“One of what”, he replied, looking up from the book he had been reading.
“The free mobile phone from Peugeot for every new car bought in June”.
“No”, he said, getting back to his book.
“Why not”, I replied, getting a little annoyed, “even though I don’t take delivery of my new car until September, the paperwork will show that I bought it in June”.
John sighed, “because you’re buying a Renault….”.

Summertime

Today is overcast and it’s been raining, but yesterday was one of the first days this year that could reasonably be described as summery. So yesterday in the BOGOF household we saw the arrival of the First Pimms Of Summer.



It would be nice to say that we drank it on the terrace overlooking the formal gardens, but sadly we have neither. It was however a welcome reminder that winter is past.

Power to the people

Yesterday I had a phone call from the hospital complaints department.

I had been given a new appointment of 1st July.

Nothing was mentioned about why I had been put back on the waiting list or even an apology for been given the wrong information.

However I was happy with the result.

The Patient from Hell 2 – the NHS 0

Marie

The Patient from Hell

Yesterday I received a letter from the hospital to say that my appointment to see a consultant about my back on the 15th July had been cancelled, but they had given me an alternative date and time of 22nd June at 2.20pm.

As I would have preferred a morning appointment I rang the clinic earlier today and asked if there were any available.

Before the little reception woman looked for another time she cancelled June’s appointment, then said the next appointment she could give me was 27th July at 2.20pm.

I said that wasn’t any good so could I have the June’s appointment back.

No was the answer...

Because I was a new patient for that consultant and had ‘refused’ their appointment of 22nd June, I had to go back on to his waiting list. An appointment will be sent out when I got to the front of the queue.

To say I was not happy was an understatement !!!!

I was straight on to the hospitals complaints department and the Patient from Hell made an appearance.

I told them I thought it was extremely unfair to be put back on the waiting list when it was them who cancelled my appointment in the first place. I also pointed out that it was a bit rich to put in the letter that if the new appointment time wasn’t convenient, I had to let them know and they would arrange a new one.

The complaints officer agreed and said she would look into it and get back to me in the next couple of days.

The Patient from Hell 1 - The NHS 0

Marie

Four months today….

…. And I’ll be the owner of a brand new Renault Clio.

Having started with a short list of four cars – Vauxhall Corsa, Peugeot 207, Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio, - it was whittled down to the 207 and the Clio.

This afternoon the Clio became the winner.

Roll on September 15th !!!!

Marie

Challenges update

Back in January I set myself some challenges - to read two books a month, finish off the blankets that I was crocheting and knitting and complete the two projects I was cross stitching.

So far this year I’ve managed to read:

Home in time for breakfast – a WW1 diary
MASH an army surgeon in Korea
Rescue me – my life with the Battersea dogs
Voices from the Home Front
Remember, Remember, the 5th November (history of Britain in bite size chunks)

Not quite the two a month I was hoping for, but considering I’m a slow reader, I don’t think that’s too bad.

As you can see I’ve finished my crochet blanket.



I also finished chart number three (out of nine) on one of my cross stitch projects.



Here’s to the next few months…

Marie

OT

Yesterday morning we had a visit from an Occupational Therapist.

When I was in hospital a referral was sent to Social Services for an OT to come and assess me at home. They had only just got round to dealing with it now…

He’s going to arrange for a bath lift so I’ll be able to get in/out of the bath easier than what I currently do - which is slid in, then on the count of three John helps to heave me out.

One of the biggest problems is getting in and out of the house, so he’s going to arrange for a surveyor to and see if a ramp can be built at the front and back.

It’s taken a while but it looks like things are finally moving so I can have a bit of my independency back. Yippee !!!!

Marie

The return of the Joint Journal

Just to let you know that the Joint Journal is back….

Marie

Goodfood leaves a nasty taste

Due to the problems with my back, and that I might have surgery on it later this year, we’ve decided to put our holidays on hold until we know what’s happening.

With nothing to look forward to (we were to be going on a cruise this year…) John suggested we go away for a few days sometime in early summer.

The Summer Goodfood Show is taking place at the NEC in June, and one of the chef’s theatre sessions will be the Hairy Bikers. I think the Hairy’s are brilliant so John suggested we incorporate the NEC in with our couple of days away.

I rang the NEC goodfood show ticket hotline to arrange the tickets. I gave ‘Barry’ (he sounded just like Barry from the Iceland adverts….) my Goodfood magazine’s subscribers code which entitled me to reduced costs. I then advised him that I would be in Wizzy*, which according to their website, gave wheelchair users ‘carer’s complementary free admission.

‘Barry’ explained I wasn’t entitled to any magazines subscribers reductions because I had already received a reduction due to the ‘wheelchair complementary free admission’.

I haven’t written a ‘customer from Hell’ letter for ages !!!!

Marie

* the name I’ve given to my wheelchair

Normal service has resumed

Now that conference is over for another year we can now get back to blogging again.

Having been constantly nagged at, we’ve finally brought ourselves into the 21st century and joined facebook. As one of our friends said, ‘about bloody time’… I’m still not that convinced about it so we’ll see what happens.

There’s been a few changes on the medical front since I last blogged. My back is still causing me problems. The strong painkillers my orthopaedic consultant prescribed for me weren’t doing anything, so my GP upped the dosage and gave me some slow releasing ones as well. They’re a Class B drug so there’s a mountain of paperwork to sign when I get them delivered*. The side-effects aren’t that good. They make me quite tired (I could sleep for England…) and quite spaced out, which is really weird. Still at least they seem to be dulling the pain a little.

I saw my orthopaedic consultant recently and he’s going to refer me to a spine specialist in the hope he can do something for my back.

The news on getting a replacement hip is still up in the air. The plastic surgeon, who I saw a few weeks ago, sent a long rambling letter to my consultant saying he wasn’t prepared to do a skin graft, yet in the final paragraph said if he (my consultant) wanted to go ahead with the hip replacement, he would do it.

Without the skin graft I can’t have a replacement hip, so my consultant is going to have a chat with the plastic man to see exactly what the score is.

I’m afraid my aim to read two books a month have fallen by the wayside a little. During February and March I only managed to read ‘Rescue me – my life at Battersea Dogs home’ and ‘The voices from the Home Front’. I did though manage to finish my crochet blanket.

Marie


*my local chemist arranges all my repeat and extra prescriptions with my GP surgery

Still here

Just a quick blog to say we're still here.

Normal blog service will resume shortly.

Marie

Spooky

For the past few days I’ve been watching the first couple of episodes from series one of Torchwood on the DVD player.

Yesterday afternoon I settled down to watch episode six. It started off ok - the voice of Jack saying ‘Torchwood. Outside the Government, beyond the Police…’

The ‘scary’ music was playing and a woman’s mobile phone rang. She answered it but no words could be heard. The music continued and I could hear her car coming to a stop on the road. Again she opened her mouth but no words came out.

I skipped through various scenes and the same thing happened. I tried the next episode but it was still the same.

I even tried the episodes I had watch the day before. The same thing happened.

Thinking there might be a problem with the DVD player I loaded one of my ‘Family Guy’ DVD’s in to the player. That worked perfectly….

Last night after we had watched a film on the DVD player John tried to see if he could get Torchwood to work. The same thing to him.

This morning I decided to try Torchwood on my new TV/DVD player which is in my work room. I’ve played a DVD on the new TV before, but this time I couldn’t find the DVD slot.

It was ridiculous. Of course it was there. I spent ages pressing buttons on the remote trying to get the slot to open, then running my hands over the TV to try and find where it was. It was not there ….

Spooky !!!!!!!!!!!!

Snow

You think we've had it bad do you ?

Well here are a few pictures from Canada and Russia to show you what REAL snow looks like. But first, here is how they clear snow from their roof in Italy, the land where health and safety is unknown.




Now to Canada and a look at the Labrador Highway



And here's why the 'phones in Russia don't always work as well as they should.



And finally a few pictures showing why you should never leave your car out in the snow ...

It’s back

Remember the problem I had with my back when I was in hospital, well it’s returned…

Not the weekend just gone, but the one before that, we were in Scotland finalising things for Renfrew conference. We think it was either the long car journey or the hotel bed that set my back off again.

Last Monday I started to get pains in my lower back and both of my legs, and as the week progressed, they gradually got worse.

Now I can hardly move first thing on a morning as the pain is excruciating. It is not nice….

This afternoon I was back at the hospital to see my orthopaedic consultant. As usual his opening lines were “How are you doing”.
My reply was “I was fine until Monday…”.

He explained as I now had a weakness in my back, the disks would continue to displace and that the only cure would be surgery on my spine. Wonderful !!!!

Thankfully that’s not a route he nor I want to take right now. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about.

He’s prescribed me some stronger painkillers in the hope that will ease it a little and fingers crossed it will settle down like it did when I was in hospital.

He then asked how I got on when I saw the Plastic Man last week. I explained that I wasn’t impressed with him and that he didn’t think it was possible for him to do the plastic surgery what my consultant wanted.

“Did he now!”, replied my consultant.

I don’t think I’d like to be in the Plastic Man’s shoes when he next has a chat with my consultant...

Marie

NHS – otherwise known as useless

Yesterday I had an appointment at the hospital to see a plastic surgeon. The infection in my hip had eaten everything in it’s path – skin, bone, muscle, even metal !!!

Consequently once my metal hip (or what was left of it….) had been removed, all that was left was a huge cavity.

In order to try and put another hip in, my orthopaedic consultant arranged for me to see the plastic man as I was going to need a skin graft on my hip and a muscle transplant to replace what had been eaten.

To cut a long story short, I wasn’t impressed with the plastic man. According to my consultant they had had several long chats about what various procedures would be done. You could have fooled me…

If it wasn’t for my name being on the file that was in his hand, I would have said he had the wrong patient. I also know it was the right plastic man as he introduced himself when he first came into the room.

To be honest it was pretty much a waste of time. It’ll be interesting to see what he actually wrote in his notes.

I’ll find out when I next go to see my consultant. It’s supposed to be on Monday. However I’ve been trying for several weeks to get the appointment time moved back half an hour as I can’t make it at the time they’ve given me.

Whenever I’ve rang the reception to get the time changed they said that there were no later appointments, so I’d have to keep ringing back every few days to see if any later ones have become available. This has been going on for over eight weeks…

I rang them this morning and was told the latest appointment they could give me was 2.15pm. I explained that was still no good as the earliest I could get there was 2.30pm.

They couldn’t give me anything later as that would mean the consultant would be hanging around until I got there.

I was to ring them on Friday and if the latest time they could give me was still 2.15pm, they would change my appointment time of 1.50pm to 2.15pm then make a note on my file that I would be fifteen minutes late.

You couldn't make it up !!!!!!!

Challengers done so far

In January I set myself some challengers for 2010. They were to read two books a month, complete my two cross stitch projects and finish my crochet and knitting blankets.

I read the two books: ‘Home in time for breakfast – a WW1 diary’ and ‘MASH an army surgeon in Korea’.

I’ve done a little bit of one of the cross stitch projects. The other one is on black fabric, and as my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be, I need good sunlight when I’m working on it.

I’ve now got only 39 ½ knitted squares and seven more ‘rounds’ to do on the blankets.

Here’s to February’s challengers.

Marie

A whim away

16 years ago today John and myself got ‘officially’ engaged.

Although John has asked me to marry him a few days earlier, we chose 29th as that was the day we were going to the Metro centre to buy my engagement ring.

We had told the two sets of parents a couple of days earlier. John’s mam and dad were all congratulations and lots of hugs and kisses.

Mine were slightly restraint… My dad didn’t say anything, but that was just normal as he wasn’t a man of many words. My mam’s first words were not ‘congratulations’ or anything like that. Oh no. We’re talking about my mam here. Her words were ‘ Well, bang goes my new kitchen”.

I can’t remember exactly what I said in reply to that but it was something on the lines of ‘thanks for your congratulations. Much appreciated’.

She continued her show of congratulations the following day by saying that my wanting to get married was just a whim.

I’m pleased to say that after nearly 15 years of marriage my ‘whim’ hasn’t worn off. John however has asked that I give him 50 years notice when I wish to end my whim.

I think that’s fair enough….

Marie

Challenges

I decided that this year I’ll set myself a couple of challenges.

I’ve got loads of unread books so I’m going to try and read two books a month. Ok that may not seem like much of a challenge, however I’m a really slow reader so it takes me ages to get through a book. I’ve already finished one this month and have 100 pages to go on the second one.

The next set of challenges is to complete all my unfinished needlework:

I’ve got 10 ‘rounds’ to do on my crotchet blanket.

I’ve got another 44 eight inch squares to knit then stitch them together to form a blanket.

I’ve got two cross stitch projects to complete. Both have nine pages of charts and I’ve done four and half out of 18….

Looks like it’s going to be a busy year !!!!

Marie

Joint Journal

Just a quick message to say don't forget to have a look at my Joint Journals which officially began today (www.joint-journals.blogspot.com or click on the link at the side of the page).

Sorry about keep plugging it but I'm hoping you'll find it an interesting read.

Marie

All can be revealed

Beginning Tuesday 19th January 2010

The Joint Journals

Being the full and on-going story of a joint and it’s owner.

For more details visit http://www.joint-journals.blogspot.com

Reporting in

Just a quick blog to say we’re still here.

Things have been pretty quite in the BOGOF household, hence no blogs.

Off to cuddle under a blanket to keep warm.

Brrrrrr, don’t like this global warming !!!!

Marie

Seasons greetings

Just a quick blog to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Marie

Why, why, why Delilah

Last night Gillian my hairdresser came.

She hadn’t been since August so as you can imagine my hair was a bit on the long side.

I decided to get it cut really short. I would have liked it longer but at the moment it’s too much for me to manage.

All last night I was freezing. I had two blankets wrapped round me, two pairs of long socks on, a hot water bottle to cuddle in to and the large collar of my dressing gown pulled over my head, all to keep me warm.

I think it must have been my Samson moment…

Marie

Wot no blogs

Sorry folks for the lack of blogs but there hasn’t been anything to report.

Hopefully we’ll have something to blog about in the next couple of days.

Gosh we really do lead such exciting lives…

Marie

Things you notice

Yesterday morning we placed our Christmas turkey order with one of the local butcher on Sea Road.

Ever since we’ve had Christmas lunch at home we’ve just bought a frozen turkey from Morrisons.

However this year we’ve decided to go for a fresh one. There’s a wonderful old fashioned butchers on Sea Road which we often call in for his fabulous ‘old English’ sausages and peas pudding. So we thought he was the best place to go for our turkey.

There was only one problem with his shop and that it’s not very wheelchair friendly so sadly I had to wait outside while John placed the order. I did though get a wave from the window from Billy the butcher and he sent his regards.

There are several things you notice whilst being in a wheelchair:

Pedestrians/shoppers don’t see you so they walk into the wheelchair.

Because of cars who have parked part on the road and part on the pavement, it’s either extremely tight manoeuvring past or you have to take to the road because you can’t fit through the small gap. I’m thinking of getting a device fitted to the wheels, which when I press a button, metal spikes come out and scratch the side of the cars as I go past them…

Paths are in a terrible condition. The flagstone are so uneven so the ride is extremely bumpy.

Not all shops are accessible. There was one shop (it’s closed now – it was a chained local convenience store which went into administration recently) which had a huge step to get inside. Even I had a struggle to get up it when I was on two legs… However they did come up with a solution to this. Wheelchair uses simply had to press a bell – which was over six feet off the ground !!!!

Marie

Nothing really exciting to report

Sadly there hasn’t been much happening in the BOGOF household these past few days.

Monday I had an appointment at the hospital to see my consultant and he’s given me two options to consider regarding the future.

Thankfully he doesn’t want an answer soon. Both options are major, with one of them being life changing, so I need time to think about.

The rest of the week passed without any great excitement.

Marie

Another small step for Marie

When I was in hospital the physios decided just to let me start walking at my own pace. Normally you have to complete various stages before they let you home – walking with crutches, walking upstairs etc. However as I wasn’t your normal ‘joint’ patient, anything I did was a bonus.

I managed to walk unaided using a Zimmer frame and at various times walking supervised on crutches. However whenever I started to make good progress on the crutches, I’d be back at the ‘woodshed’* and end up back on the Zimmer.

When I left hospital I was allowed to take with me two Zimmers (one for downstairs, the other upstairs) but not the crutches. A referral would be made for me to be assessed to start using them again and I would be notified of this by post.

Last week I received the referral. Someone would be coming out to see me in six months time….

I decided to take matters into my own hands so bought a pair of brand new crutches (even better ones than they had in hospital) on Ebay for £15.

They came on Wednesday and I’m making steady progress with them, though I haven’t gone walking solo with them.

When I was in hospital, due to lack of strength in my non-hip leg and my other being extremely swollen, I wasn’t able to climb stairs.

Now that I’ve got a lot more strength in my left leg and the swelling has gone down in my other leg, I thought it was time to try the stairs again. So yesterday using my new crutches I managed, extremely slowly though, to walk up and down them.

The stair lift won’t become redundant but it’s nice to know that I’m slowly making progress. Who knows that I’ll be doing this time next month….

Marie

* the name I gave for the operating theatre

Why we need to remember

Twixt Nieuport sands and the eastward lands where the Four Red Rivers spring,
Five hundred thousand gentlemen of those that served their King.

All that they had they gave - they gave -
In sure and single faith.
There can no knowledge reach the grave
To make them grudge their death
Save only if they understood
That, after all was done,
We they redeemed denied their blood
And mocked the gains it won.

From "The Kings pilgrimage" by Rudyard Kipling



There is a lot being said at the moment about wounded soldiers, and I think it's important to remember that once our Government sees sense and gets out people home, those in need won't just go away. I found some facts about First World War veterans, twenty years after the end of the war, and they make sobering reading.

In 1938 which was twenty years after the cessation of hostilities, there were still 442,000 men still alive who were so maimed, gassed, nerve-racked, or otherwise ruined in health, that they could not work at all, or only with diminished efficiency, and were wholly or partly dependent on the State for money to live.

Over one hundred and twenty seven thousand widows still mourned their men that they had last seen in uniform, and two hundred and twenty four thousand parents and other dependants were still suffering through the loss of sons and relatives who were their breadwinners. There were 8,000 with one or both legs missing, 3,600 with one or both arms missing, together with 90,000 with limbs damaged to a marked degree.

Ten thousand men had eyesight injured by poison gas, and explosions, with 2,000 of these being completely blind.

Head injuries accounted for 15,000 with many wearing metal plates to protect them, and 15,000 had been deafened by explosions of various kinds. Most soldiers who had served near the front line, or in the artillery suffered from some impairment of their hearing.

There was no such thing as industrial deafness, being recognised as a pensionable disease in those days.

Severe exertion due to heavy labour in the trenches produced Hernias in 7,000 men making them unfit for manual work, whilst some 2,000 still suffered the effects of Frostbite with in some cases loss of toes and fingers.

Thirty two thousand more suffered from various unclassified wounds causing disability of various kinds. Many of these men (14,000) still had wounds unhealed that required treatment including amputation even at this late stage. Much of this was due to a condition called Latent Sepsis which was very common in the wounded of the Great War especially in France and Flanders. Almost without exception soldiers wounded on the Western Front had wounds which were grossly infected, due to the manured soil in which they occurred. Even after these wounds had healed, many still contained organisms deep within the tissues which were liable to flare up, many years after, to cause amputation and even death.

These are the figures for the wounded, but the legacy of diseases contracted during their service, such as Malaria, Dysentery, and other tropical diseases, still persisted in 1938, the year before the next great conflict began.

One hundred thousand men were afflicted with diseases too numerous to classify, with 41,000 suffering from bronchitis and tuberculosis often as a result of gassing.

Consumption, or pulmonary tuberculosis of the lungs to give it its medical term, was rife in the Royal Navy especially in the submariners. This filled many sanatoriums after the War, with something similar occurring after the Second World War but not on the same scale.

Heart disease in addition to hernia affected 38,000 due to excessive labour at the front, with the terrible conditions of the front line convincing the not too easily convinced Ministry of Pensions doctors that the 28,000 cases of severe Rheumatism deserved a disability pension. Many more who suffered got no pension at all, there being many cases of grave injustice done at this time. These included many of the 25,000 still suffering from shell shock and other neurasthenias, with 3,200 of these still in asylums, their minds broken beyond repair.

The cost to the country was enormous with one shilling in every pound (i.e. 5%) of the national budget still going to keep these war victims.



John

I've missed you

I’M FREE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Words can’t describe how good it feels to be back home.

At 8am yesterday morning my consultant popped in to see me and asked how I was. Before I had a chance to say anything, Tracey, the nurse who was accompanying him on his rounds, said that I really would like to go home as I was getting a little fed up as I had been in hospital for nearly eight weeks.

He looked at my wound and the redness from my dressing allergy, then asked if I could cope with everything at home.
“Yes”, I practically yelled at him.
“Ok, you can go home”.
“What! Today”, I asked.
“Yes”, he smiled.

I rang John to tell him the good news then my mam who burst into tears…

I wouldn’t say that they wanted my side room but I was told I had 10 minutes to pack (I was still in my nightclothes at that time…), and if I wasn’t ready then the discharge nurse who was taking me to the discharge lounge would go without me.

While I’ve been in hospital I’ve kept a diary so you can read all about my exploits.

Finally I want to thank everyone for all their cards and good wishes. It really did mean a lot.

Marie

Plastic Man UPDATED

The plastic man hasn't been, but he sent one of his minions today. He wasn't able to say a lot as he's only the monkey and it's the organ grinder who makes the decisions.

He did however say that what Marie needs is to go home and give everything time to heal. We're not complaining about that.

And finally, after 28 hours, the cortisone cream still hasn't arrived.

John

The Plastic Man

The muscle graft man (actually he’s a plastic surgeon or “plastic man” as the nurses call him) was supposed to call on Friday. He didn’t turn up. It seems someone at the hospital in Durham failed to process the referral. Now we know from experience that not processing a referral from a GP in good time is commonplace in the NHS, but to fail to process a referral from one consultant to another could have far reaching consequences of the career-limiting kind for someone.

However, there have been other developments. The hospital put a drain dressing on to measure how much her wound was leaking. Very little came out, but Marie’s leg turned bright red. Some sort of reaction to the adhesive we think. It can’t be serious because the consultant simply asked for some cortisone cream to be applied. Of course when that will appear is another matter. On past form it will take at least 24 hours.

John

Not MORE surgery

Once again we would both like to say a big “Thank You” for all your good wishes over the last seven weeks – yes, it’s seven weeks to the day since Marie was admitted.

Marie’s wound is showing no sign of sealing up. It’s only a trickle plus the occasional rush, but even a trickle means no going home. So they’re trying a different approach.

It would seem that you need muscle to mop up the fluids, and to replace muscle damaged by the infection, the next step is a muscle graft. There is an expert in that field available, but he works in Durham, so there is a possibility of a transfer to another hospital on the horizon.

John

Stairway to ...

... nowhere at the present.

We've got a stairlift. Well, actually we've got two. If you know our house you will understand that we have two staircases, one long and one short, with the bathroom between them. Since climbing stairs is the one thing Marie won;t be able to do for the foreseeable future we looked around and I found someone who would rent stairlifts for a very reasonable price. So on Friday, Gordon The Tattooed Engineer came and installed them. This is the bottom one, modeled here by Thomas.



On the medical front it's a waiting game. Once Marie's wound stops leaking she can come home. Trouble is, you get one very good day with very little coming out, the the next morning it's Niagara Falls down the leg. Actually it is slowly getting a better, but the Consultant has given the wound a deadline. He said that if it wasn't healed in the next two weeks, then he will do something about it. You can imagine Marie's response when he said two weeks ...

Back from theatre

Just a quick note to say that Marie had her surgery yesterday, and they gave her wound a “good wash-out”. Everything seems to have gone well, and Marie was in good spirits last night. She was tired, but there was none of the sickness that she often gets with anaesthetics.

Of course we’ll have to wait and see if it has been successful. If it has then we’re looking at getting her home round about Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Maybe ...

John

D-Day Monday

On Monday the Consultant will decide whether to leave Marie's wound to fix itself, or whether to go in and give it what he calls a "proper wash-out". Ant it's looking like the latter is the more likely course. The wound is still bleeding, but just a little. This is fine except that by yesterday the original site had healed, but it was bleeding from a slightly different place.

On the positive side, Marie has a new little friend. Thanks to Jenny and Chris, a package arrived the other day, with this little fellow.



Marie reckons his name is Frank, because he has blue eyes. He's cheered Marie up no end, so many many thanks.



John

Setback

Marie saw the Consultant yesterday. It looks as though the infection has not gone away so it’s on to some new antibiotics and another week of wait-and-see. Of course, being the NHS, the antibiotics took eight hours to arrive.

And if that doesn’t fix the problem it may be a trip back to theatre for another, more thorough wash-out of the wound, which could add another week.

Needless to say we’re not at all happy, considering how close Marie was to getting home. It will be five weeks on Thursday since Marie was admitted.

John

Almost, but not quite

On Friday the doctor told Marie that if her wound stayed dry for 48 hours, then she could go home on Monday.

So what happened. It stayed dry all day Friday, then started weeping on Saturday morning. Actually it started with quite a gush. It's clean blood coming out, no pus or other unpleasantness, but still enough to delay things.

Today things were a little better with very little coming out, but still enough to keep her in. The Consultant will be round in the morning so we'll see what he says then.

John

Post Op

Marie has had her surgery today and all seems well. When I arrived at just after 6 this evening she was sitting up in bed eating her dinner.



Latest news is that - all being well - she hopes to be home sometime next.

And finally, Marie sends a huge "Thank You" to everyone for their good wishes.

As expected

The surgeon decided to go in and have a look at why Marie's wound has not sealed up.

The operation is scheduled for Wednesday. As there is a risk Marie may still have an infection she is on last so they can give the theatre a good scrub down afterwards. So lots of waiting around for Marie. Thankfully it's only expected to take 30 minutes so hopefully she will be back by visiting time.

John

One step forward – Two steps back

First the good news.

Marie has been passed as safe to go home by the physiotherapists. In the time available they can’t really do much more. It’s going to be a case of exercise and practice at home. She did however manage to walk a few steps with elbow crutches instead of a Zimmer frame yesterday.

Also, the visit to the Occupational Therapist went well. They are satisfied Marie is not a danger to herself, and they can assist with some equipment to make life a little easier.

On the down side Marie’s wound is still leaking. Just a little, and from one place only. No doubt caused by the anti-clotting drugs.

The consultant is taking a look today and if he’s not convinced it will stop then he’s going to “go in and take a look” which could put homecoming back by a week.

Progress

At last – Marie is rid of the line in her neck (cvc or central venous catheter if you want to be correct). It was very uncomfortable and made resting difficult. It also meant that she was hooked up to antibiotics for several hours, usually late at night or early morning.

After an episode that was worthy of Kafka where one specialist wanted the line out because it was a risk if infection while the other wanted it in because they were still administering anti-clotting drugs which prevented removal, the consultant put his foot down. “It’s coming out today” her thundered. And when a consultant does this, people jump.

So at last it’s out and Marie is on oral antibiotics. Ones that turn your wee red, and if you wear contact lenses it will turn them red too.

Now that the lines are out, there’s more time for physio and Marie can walk with a frame and is allowed out in the ward without the physio provided someone walks with her.

Now it’s just a question of convincing the O.T. that she’s safe to be let out.