Op Week.......

 
Time to get rid of bladder cancer for the seventh time! 

The operation was booked for this Tuesday as a day patient, however I doubted that as not arriving until noon and from previous experience I'd needed to stay in at least one night and sometimes more. 

This time we arrived and went through the whole thorough and repetitive admissions process with various members of staff including the surgeon and anaesthetist, during which I sent Hubby home. Next was to struggle into those awful compression socks and gown. 

I'm guessing it must have been around 2pm ish when I was walked to Theatre a few doors down. 

Prepped and sedated by a full team of lovely, chatty, calming staff with one thing I've never had before which was a strip attached across my forehead which was to monitor brain activity while I was under (clever eh?). 

Then I was being woken and told all went well. Bit of a problem as I couldn't breathe or speak but thankfully they resolved that quickly. Another problem is always my blood pressure which will rise just because I'm in hospital. Plus I've extra medication adjustment issues which I'm explaining to each person. Eventually they decided I was stable enough to be wheeled to Lavenham Ward. I've no idea how long I was in recovery or even in surgery.

On the ward and reunited with my stuff so turned my phone on and let Hubby, Daughter, Son and then others know that I was out the other side. Told those others that "I will chat more but not tonight", I was still sleepy of course. Think there were four different nurses that came to take my obs and panic over my high blood pressure and listen to my probable reasons why. I'd asked a few times for tea (I'd been nil-by-mouth for hours) each time promised but not arriving. When I had a little moan on WhatsApp to my children Daughter immediately said she was coming with her full up travel mug. While we were still chatting the tea trolly man arrived miraculously! Daughter came anyway, turned up about the same time as Hubby, think that was just after 6pm ish. I couldn't eat the sandwich, crisps and yoghurt I'd been brought as my mouth was making everything taste awful, I was brought more tea and drunk three jugs of water and went to the loo twice so they said I could go home. WOW

I still hadn't had any surgery feedback in person or on the MyChart online record system but I eagerly got dressed and Hubby brought me home. 

Wednesday I woke from a good night in my own bed and only feeling minor discomforts. So grateful I hadn't needed a catheter as I had every time before. 

My phone was pinging nearly all the time. Flowers came up from neighbourCM with a card and she brought a card from my nails lady too as we both use the same one. Flowers also came up from neighbourLW

And Son came to visit and brought his own vegetarian sausages to take the place of our ham and we all had the eggs, croquettes and beetroot and sat down for dinner together. 

It took until Thursday before I discovered one of the stickers they wire their monitors up to, stuck to me pre-op and missed at post-op removal. 

By Thursday night I couldn't put up with those painful compression socks any longer so I got Hubby to pull them off before bed. Awwww bliss! 

Friday NeighbourAB messaged to see if I was ready for a visitor. I was ready for a change of scenery so invited myself to her house as it's only two doors down. Lovely tea and chat. While there Daughter messaged to say she was coming over with the dog and we arranged a delay as I was already out. Also friendNH phoned and we decided what time I should call her back. I'm feeling so loved and so lucky. 

When Daughter came, R came too and it was lunch time. R made tea and I made the sandwiches. I would never have been capable of being this active after previous surgery's... am I super woman or a complete forgery hahaha. 

I'll leave you now, if you don't mind, as I'm still busy counting my blessings.

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Through Rose Coloured Glasses?.......

 
Last weekend Hubby noted it was a very full laundry box, so feeling very blasé I confessed that I'd spilled food down my thick jumpers three days running. One of those days we'd had fried egg sandwich for lunch and I hadn't noticed at all that I'd been wearing an uninvited bright yellow broach all afternoon. 

This week started with a lovely family day. Because I'd had a break from the evil pills that ruin my appetite and I was eating almost normally Son gathered the flock and booked a table at The Ship Inn for eight of us:  2 parents(us) + our 2 children + their 2 partners + our 2 grandchildren = my family

Our third grandchild E couldn't make it to the pub but Daughter picked her and the dog up on their way back to ours and Hubby and I were in Son's car so very nearly a full list when I called the register but M didn't come back with them. We'd gone for a late lunch at 2:15pm and they all stayed till late evening. Lovely! 

Busy Monday with coffee morning and still quite a few missing with coughs and colds. They left and we had a quick lunch then across town to have my nails done which always makes me feel good. After we got home I had an unexpected phone call from my lovely friendNH and it was a proper catchup long chat. She is also a cancer patient and has taken on an effort for her, physical fundraising challenge of walking a mile every day in March so of course I'd sponsored her as I do most people I know raising money for cancer research and Macmillan Nursing. 

Another special friend and I used to do so much together but our daily lives and family commitments went in different directions and our get togethers got mainly to a couple of theatre trips a year. Thursday friendKK and I planned a day together and the sun shone all day. She came here to pick me up, (she drives a convertible and the top was down) and Daughter had actually just walked over with the dog and KK and Daughter had a good chat before we left. First stop was back to her house so I could inspect her new kitchen (I'd heard about all the disputes she'd had with the kitchen fitters) and see all the redesign and hard work she'd done in her garden. Next stop was to Milsoms Hotel Restaurant for lunch which she paid for as she'd been given a voucher. Oooooow ladies that lunch hahaha! As the sun was still very much shining we did a lovely drive through our beautiful villages before she brought me home. She very kindly swapped me at home for the large amount of charity stuff I had waiting to take and filled her boot as she had a heap of her own for it to join and it would get there sooner than if it stayed here. 

So much of this week has been medical too with test results coming through and phone calls and my appointment for surgery being confirmed for next Tuesday!!! Of course a worry so all distractions gratefully taken on board, hence the rose coloured glasses, and pics of my beautiful flowers to keep my mood 'in the pink'.....

Indoors the Orchids

Outside the Camellia

Hyacinths all coming up suddenly

And the top patio bordered with the bright blooms of the bergenia 

I wish you all good health xxx

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Medical With Social Punctuation.......

 
Last Sunday Daughter and Son surprised us by coming here after their walk, didn't know they'd planned one for this week. Tea biscuits and chat then Son had to leave but Daughter stayed longer to help Hubby hedge shredding and took over excitedly using the new shredder. 

There were fewer than usual at Monday's coffee morning as there seems to be a coughing virus doing the rounds. 

Tuesday started medical with my monthly blood test.  Confusion at the clinic as before because the system has changed so as well as putting the request on 'Epic' online my Oncology care team also sent me paperwork and stickers. However when I handed them the form it wasn't accepted because it states on it I've refused to have bloods taken there, which I haven't, so they had to print it off 'Epic' anyway.

Bit of a rush home as I was then being picked up for lunch out with friendM and Hubby had arranged on the same day to have lunch out with friendRA so we didn't have to even think about an evening meal. 

Wednesday afternoon we headed to the hospital for an MRI scan. I mostly have CT Scans but MRI are so much louder and take so much longer, I survived. Just the same I'd removed all my jewelry and left it at home.  

Again we had a very short gap between getting home, getting all my jewellery back on, getting changed, hair wash and blow dry and getting out again as this week the usual gang were meeting earlier than normal as friendM was catching a very early next morning flight, so Wednesday a big rush for us but fun as it was the pub's open mic night. 

First thing Friday morning back to the hospital again for the pre-op assessment appointment. Actually both times this week we've been lucky with both traffic and parking. Pre-op included lots of question answering, usual height, weight, bp, ECG and another blood test for the flavours that weren't on Tuesday's list. 

No appointments today (Saturday) medical or social so I'll try to act normal with a bit of housework, some knitting or crochet (I've both on the go) and mostly relaxing. Have a good weekend. 

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Time To Celebrate.......

 
Last Saturday, 14th February, is a double celebration day in this house

Valentines day when we give each other a card and Hubby gives me flowers

And Hubby's birthday and all the rest of the cards are his. 

I suggested he gets a new shredder as his birthday gift from me rather than use friendA's that he often complains about.  He thought that a great idea, however, he had to do his own research and do his own order as he has the online account, and of course he paid for it, then collected it and finally put it all together. 

We know it works well as he has been hedge cutting and shredding and already made three trips to the tip this week. 

Saturday afternoon Son&fiancé came round and brought him a new jumper and cake to share. 

It was also a Doggy Day Care day so she was very pleased as Son&fiancé are her favourite people too. 

Tuesday pancake day didn't go unnoticed, but nothing special as our favourite is our childhood traditional of thin crepes with sugar and lemon juice mmmmm

Wednesday evening our usual pub shared their new entertainment of music bingo.  Each bingo card is filled with song titles and their artists then it's luck what tracks are played. Out of our group of six only friendP won a dishcloth hahaha

We were very recently told of an old fried Charlie who had been very ill for a couple of months who had just passed away. Thursday was his funeral so Hubby and I and Son joined a huge crowd to celebrate his life. . Charlie and his family were good friends of ours way back in the days when Hubby and Son were heavily into 10 pin bowling but we had all lost touch for far too long. It was a pleasure to join everyone and remember the good times with these good people. 

I was hoping Friday's hospital appointment was also going to be a celebration but unfortunately I'd had to ask for my annual Cystoscopy to be a month earlier than it was due and unfortunately my suspicions were confirmed they had found another tumor mass in my bladder and it will be surgically removed as soon as possible. As this is now the seventh time I'm not panicking and we even managed to find it funny when the nurse was doing an update of my online records and when commenting on the shear extent of my heath records asked if maybe I was being sent in as an NHS Secret Shopper hahaha 

Maybe give each other a hug or kind word more often eh?

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Pick n Mix.......

 
Early Saturday morning I get a WhatsApp hello from my children who are out on one of their walks. The view behind them is The Orwell Bridge (I think). 

The next pic I received was the empty mugs and plates inside an eatery of some sort. 

My beautiful orchid has been naked since Christmas and now it is full of buds all taking their time to gradually try on their new dress and show it off. 

Schlumbergera often called the Christmas cactus  or Easter cactus depending when yours flowers. This one has never made up its mind when it wants to flower and most years doesn't bother. So that was why I got excited when I saw a bud, a single bud but a promise of a flower. 

Long before Christmas we bought the stuff to clean our ovens with. It never happened. Every time I used either oven it was a poke to my conscience but it still never got done. 

Finally I got round to it when I knew the ovens would be redundant for two evenings running. I have to confess that I started it all off but when I stopped (too early in the proceedings) Hubby took over and did a great job as he always does. 

Monday evening we were out to eat at a really lovely Italian restaurant, 

iI Palazzo, Chelmsford. 41 miles away from home but worth it as it's about the same distance from the friends we were meeting. We met friendsL&K and friendsL&M. Always too long a gap between meeting up and catching up with each other. 

Wednesday night out again as our usual group of six, in our most frequented pub..... The Grosvenor which has recently been refurbished. Last week was my first visit there. It's mostly OK but we were reserved one of those horrid booth tables which isn't really big enough for six and both friendT and I had difficulty sliding along, also the backs are very high which made seeing round the room and the entertainment tricky and a couple of dinners even had to be served over the seat back. I was at the wall end and just above me was an opening/window that was covered with a wire grid, I felt like I was inside the rabbit hutch!

This week when we arrived it was quite empty and we noticed they had replaced the small round table in the far corner with a large round table, the way it used to be years ago. Made us remember all the fun social things we've done as a group and friendM and I found our old coach trip holiday photos to laugh at. 

Sadly another horrid thing to report about our NHS. On Friday our neighbour,  the one that had suffered hours and hours before getting a hospital bed two weeks ago, then caught noro virus while in there which got passed to his wife and daughter. He was brought home by hospital transport and was home for less than two hours when his wife had to call an ambulance again as he was sick and then passed out and did it again when the ambulance was there. Apparently the paramedics said it was definitely a failed discharge as their tests showed he had low magnesium and low potassium and was dehydrated. We all need to worry about this! 

Back to happy things, today is a celebration day and a Doggy Day Care day so I'm off to get ready.

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Getting Springy.....

 
While Hubby was looking out of our lounge window this little chap was looking in. 

Around the garden so many of the spring bulbs are now showing through.

It's still cold and quite damp most days. 

Cuppa at Daughter's and we were there as Hubby had to help her get her broken dishwasher out of the back room and removed to the tip ready for the new one to arrive the next day. Hubby was there for the new one to install too. 

I hate moaning about our NHS as they have certainly given me all they have over the years, however there are now so many problems! Last week our neighbour had to leave home in an ambulance. It arrived with three paramedics from Colchester as Ipswich didn't have one to spare. We heard later he had to spend nearly eight hours on the ambulance as there was no room inside A&E. That stopped the ambulance and three paramedics able to take more calls!  He then spent 24 hours in A&E before there was a bed on a ward for him! For me two things this week. On Monday I ordered more prescriptions online and left a message on the answerphone of the urology consultant's secretary. Tuesday the NHS App showed my prescriptions had been issued direct to my chemist. Thursday I still hadn't heard back from urology so asked my Oncology Nurse to chase for me, she did and rang back to say I can't get a more urgent appointment than the end of the month. Friday when Hubby called in the chemist they had no meds for me, so I rang the surgery who said they had been predated for next Monday..... they have never predated meds before and she didn't know why these had! 

Friday was the funeral for Jo Carrick, owner and director for The Red Rose Chain Theatre and R's boss. I knew the town centre church would be full and I joined them online at the live stream. The front choir pews were filled with her theatre performers, including R, who all came out to the front four times and performed songs Jo had written, with Vincent on guitar and R on accordion. Her husband and son both gave very emotional tributes and poems were read. It was a beautiful service. 

Enjoy whatever you have planned for the weekend. I'll see you next week.

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Ho Ho Ho Again.....

 
Saturday 24th January and the table is set for 10.

Gifts are wrapped and ready for those that didn't make it here on everyone else's Christmas day. 

And we are ready to have our own 2nd Christmas day. 

It didn't go totally to plan, which is as expected, R didn't come as she was feeling unwell. We all knew it was mostly exhaustion and stress from the chaos at work the theatre is under, however E was worried about R germ spreading if she was brewing an illness of any sort. So Daughter ate with us and plated up a dinner for R and left early. She was going to leave anyway as she was working, rehearsing then performing with people new to her. 

M arrived just as we were finishing our dessert, as he had been working, but we had saved plenty of dinner and dessert for him. 

Lots of stories from Son&fiancé's holiday. Board games and chat. Tea and cake of course and a really lovely day. 

The consultant's phone call appointment happened to be right in the middle of coffee morning, but that wasn't a problem as he likes a very short phone call. His last call was back in September but he still doesn't linger and I'm not sure how much he even listens to my answers as his report letter afterwards slightly distorts the facts, though nothing that I would need to correct. 

 

I found an unopened jar of lemon curd in the fridge that needed to be used and the quickest way is a basic sponge mix thrown into a cake case and dollops of curd swirled in then baked. Yummy. 

We had a phone call from one of our neighbours whose garden backs onto ours, they had caught photos on their garden camera of two otters that had been disturbed before taking all the fish from their pond. They had got into their garden through a hole they had made in our fence. So finally we had confirmation of how all our fish had disappeared from our pond late last year, we knew it hadn't been a heron or fox as the pond was netted and when ours was attacked so had at least three other neighbour's ponds. There was speculation of otters but no proof and we did seem a long way from the Brook. So Hubby repaired the fence, warned the rest of our neighbours and we have decided that for now we won't restock our pond just keep it healthy for wildlife as we can't compete with otters. 

Within two days this week we heard of an old friend, Charlie who died after about four months in hospital. We haven't seen him or his family for quite some time so it was really appreciated that they let us know and we will definitely go to his funeral. Very sad. 

Then my niece messaged to let us know that her daughter, my great niece, is pregnant. Life goes on eh?

Remember to make memories. 

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Time Worth Saving.......

 
When we got up Saturday morning Son&fiancé were about eight hours into their second flight home, first was South Island New Zealand to Auckland on North Island and then leaving Auckland for Singapore. Daughter was at Heathrow to pick them up Sunday morning. I'm looking forward to seeing them. 

I've decided to reduce my needless tasks, like not renewing my Flickr subscription last month. Now my free membership allows me storage of 1,000 photographs and as I currently have 14,600+ I need to do a lot of deleting before the app does it for me. I've till the 1st March so I'm enjoying the wander through and remembering. 

I've also decided it's a needless task to print my blog posts. Originally I treated the blog like I've always treated my diaries as physical evidence and reminders of my life, I used to joke that if/when I get forgetful I would have them here even if the blog server was long gone. However, it's not good for the planet to waste all those trees and especially daft now the monthly subscription price of printer ink and paper has gone up again. So I've stopped! 

Hubby was on his mission this week. He has continued with the office warming up mission, and it has been continuous heavy physical work. He is determined to save our energy bills. The whole room is now back how it was with the addition of extra sealant around all the edges under the existing double floor. He hasn't taken final heating readings because as soon as he had finished we both had to move straight into preparing for Christmas! 

Yes today we are hosting our second Christmas day now our travelers are home. 

So I'll have to leave you now as there's food to cook and the table to set before they arrive.

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Sad News......

 
We did get one little flurry of snow over the weekend but it was sleety so didn't settle. The rest of the week has mostly been cold, grey and wet. 

Very sad news this week when we heard that Joanna Carrick had died, she was just 58 years old. You can put her name into Google and be swamped with information and glowing reviews so I'll not put that all here, however in brief, she was the founder and Artistic Director of Red Rose Chain Theatre Company in Ipswich, highly respected for her personal acting talent, as a prolific playwrite and for her inspirational community work. Most importantly to us is she was R's employer, director and mentor within the theatre, Daughter had worked with her over the years too and the whole family have been in the audience of so many of their performances. 

There is no doubt in my mind that the theatre and the ethos Jo has built is such a strong legacy that it will live on in her name. RIP Jo Carrick. 

I had just decided there was nothing else to tell you when Hubby announced he has a new solution to resolve an ongoing problem. We had an extension built about 25 years ago, part of which extends beyond the original house footprint so giving us four outside walls and the concrete floor remains colder than it should be even though it has double layers of insulation and double wood flooring. Hubby is now planning to add a more modern underlay but he will need to empty the room and very carefully lift the current wood floor so it can go back on top before all the furniture goes back. A very big job. I'll keep you updated. 

So now I really do have nothing else to tell you so I'll say cheerio for now and hope to see you back here next Saturday.

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Too Krispie?.......

 
Last Sunday and the weather was so cold the pond was still frozen but this beautiful rose was alive and in full bloom. 

Monday morning we woke to this covering of overnight snow. 

Hubby cleared a safe walk way to our front door and walked with a neighbour to ours to make sure she didn't slip. Our neighbours at coffee morning made sure they had the right grit-bin codes and two of them made sure our Close was gritted. 

By Wednesday morning it was all gone. 

We decided to borrow M's carpet shampooer as a few places needed freshening up. Ideal time as Hubby didn't have any other jobs to do and was  getting a bit cross with his new jigsaw. So the main walk areas in the lounge were done, some of the hall and the bathroom was done, then Hubby and I popped out to a couple of shops. We were actually shopping for a few extra Christmas presents, sounds crazy but we have a second Christmas day planned for when Son&fiancé are back from their travels and hopefully E&boyfriend will be able to make it here too. 

Even though our heating was on it wasn't the weather to have a window open, so back from shopping and the carpet was still too wet to walk on so we had lunch in the dining room then relaxed in the office and Hubby did a bit more of his jigsaw (it's a really tricky one).

As we were wasting time... or should I have said keeping busy away from wet carpet? I decided to make Marshmallow Krispies as there were lots of marshmallows bought for festive season recipes that never got used. 

As you can see the shapes are totally varied as I couldn't get the blooming things out of the dish and called in my backup but Hubby struggled too. There were pink and white ones so I cooked them separately. I used the traditional recipe, however I found a video of someone who did it all in the oven saving so much hob stirring and halving the washing up, so I went with that. The result was a lot more crunchy, mainly I think because of too big a dish so spread too thinly, but still a yummy sweet treat that I'm eating far too many of mmmmmmm.

Sitting most of the time under a blanket I've caught up this week with some admin spreadsheets, my accounts, my online address book and my online dates are now all current and usable. There are neighbours helping with recycling used postage stamps and Christmas card fronts so I've passed those items on and this information on. Those big plastic tubs that our Quality Street and Crackers for Cheese came in are being saved here for when we next go to a Green King Pub as they are recycling them for Macmillan fundraising. I've passed that info onto all our neighbours too. 

Enjoy your week ahead, keep busy and keep warm. 

See you next week.

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