Things are looking up, and lovely friends

The tests have shown that Mum has a serious urine infection - again.  So that accounts for her confusion and near collapse.  The hospital are keeping her in for a few days, she's on a drip as she's very dehydrated and on intravenous antibiotics.  An occupational therapist had a talk with her and with my sister yesterday afternoon, she was of the opinion that Mum needs more living aids at home (we know she does, but Mum has refused most of them up till now).  The therapist said that she should have one of those emergency call button things and will arrange it for her.  She also said that Mum should either stay upstairs all day (her bedroom is set up as a bed-sitting room and even has a small fridge), or come down in the morning and stay downstairs all day, she should not keep attempting to go up and down the stairs.  It has been suggested in the past that she should move to a bungalow or ground floor flat, but she flatly refuses to even consider it, as it would mean moving away from my sister, who lives next door.

We're glad she's not at death's door right now, but it's certainly been a roller coaster for the past few months, and will no doubt continue to be.

Spent a really nice evening with our lovely friends who invited us round for a bbq, had a really good time, they thought it would help us to relax a bit after all the traumas we've had lately, and it did.  Got home just before 10 pm, went straight to bed and I went to sleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.  Still woke up ridiculously early, but I did have 4 or 5 hours of unbroken sleep so that's good.

Not yet

Seems it's not the end, just yet.  

Mum's in hospital, had a battery of tests last night, didn't get settled in a ward until 02.30 this morning, when sis finally left to go home and I went to bed (sis had been WhatsApping me with updates the whole time).  Should get some results this afternoon.

The doctors' initial views are that it's mainly heart related, although they think her kidney cancer could be a factor too.

Thank you everyone for your kind words.

Is it the end?

Sister has put us on notice that Mum is very unwell indeed, so it looks like the inevitable is coming.  Although she has come back from the brink before, so who knows - but it will only be putting off the inevitable by a short time in any case.

We shan't be rushing up there - husband's not well enough to drive all that way (nor is the car really, come to that) and with his current urine infection he keeps needing a pee every few minutes anyhow.  I did speak to Mum a couple of days ago and it was a very strange conversation, she was clearly very confused, to the point where it was almost like we were having two totally different conversations.  She was pleased to hear from me though, at least she knew who I was.  So I'm just glad to have spoken to her.

Ho hum

Our run of bad luck continues.  After the car failing and then passing the MOT last week with a few advisories, it went back to the garage yesterday to have work done on the brakes, one of the advisories.  The garage rang yesterday afternoon to say they'd found another problem with the brakes (seized caliper), so the car wouldn't now be finished until today.  So it's taking twice as long to fix and now costing more than twice as much as the original quote.  This car clearly has it in for us and thinks we have a bottomless pit of cash.  😡  The sooner we can get rid of the bloody thing the better, I'm just so sick of it.

Looks like husband has another water infection, he says it hurts to pee again, so another trip to the GP (when we get the car back!!).  And Betty has the runs and is very restless this morning (unusual for her at this time of the morning, she normally doesn't get up until around 07.30 or 08.00 am).  And I've been up since 03.50.  So just another normal day for us then! 👅😒

It's no wonder my hair is falling out and I can't sleep.

Husband did some gardening for friends on Tuesday and nearly brained himself by walking into a tree branch, he's got a lovely long, but thankfully shallow, gash on the top of his head, good job he had a hat on or it would have been a lot worse.  He's always been clumsy but even more so since his heart failure diagnosis, and he bleeds because of his blood thinner meds.  I frequently say he shouldn't go out of the door without wearing a full suit of armour.

It's our wedding anniversary next Monday, we'll have to think of something lovely (but cheap) to do, we really need a bit of time out.

And would whoever is throwing all this crap at us please give us a break?!

Reorganisation

The plumber turned up next door at 07.15 this morning, I thought 'oh no, really?!  That definitely is taking the p**s!'.  However, seems he just came to pick up some tool he forgot yesterday, he left again straight away and there's no sign of any other workmen yet.  Perhaps they're giving us a day off.  The scaffolding's still up, no idea when that's being taken down, it's been there well over a month now and they did the roof weeks ago.

I had another terrible night, my sleep pattern (well, lack of) is just getting worse and worse, I got up about 04.20 this morning after tossing and turning for an hour or so.  Roll on next Tues when I see my GP about the Sleepstation referral thing.

I've been thinking about doing a bit of reorganisation indoors.  Our lounge is quite small and looks cramped with a leather 3 seater sofa and 2 large leather armchairs, a fairly big desk and large office chair and a sideboard.  It doesn't help that the chimney breast (out of use and boarded up, so serves no purpose) sticks out quite a lot taking up valuable space, nothing we can do about that, however.  I'm thinking about getting rid of the desk and sideboard and getting a corner desk to fit in one of the alcoves either side of the fireplace.  The TV and computer can go on top, and we'll get one of those kneeling stool/chair things to go under the desk, so it doesn't obstruct the telly view.  I had one a few years ago and they are surprisingly comfortable.  Then one of the armchairs can go in the other alcove, that'll make better use of the space.  Won't be able to see the TV from that armchair, but that's fine by me, I'll sit there and read or play on the laptop whilst husband falls asleep on the sofa in front of the TV (I don't know why he puts it on really, he's never awake long enough to watch a whole programme!)

The other room that needs sorting out is the dining room.  I currently do my cardmaking on the dining table, which means I have to keep putting everything away in my boxes, which then clutter up the place.  We do have 2 spare bedrooms but I don't want to use either of them.  The landing is quite big, it currently houses my Ikea 8-drawer set with all my yarn in (erm, plus a couple of boxes on top for the surplus!) and a large heavy duty exercise bike.  Which is almost never used....it hurts my hip to use it, and husband is too busy.  (Or asleep, lol).

So I'm thinking about getting rid of the bike, and getting a desk or table to go in that space on the landing.  A desk would be better actually, as it'll have drawers and/or shelves.  The desk we have in the lounge is too big though, so can't use that.  Our landing is lovely and light, with a big window right opposite, so would be perfect for my crafting.

So now I need to keep a lookout for a nice secondhand corner unit for the lounge, and small desk for the landing, in wood - we never buy any furniture new nowadays.  I'll try selling the sideboard, desk and bike on our neighbourhood website, they have a For Sale section on there.  There might well be someone selling what I want, if I'm lucky.

A crafting day

It's been a lovely day, 22 deg with blue skies and almost unbroken sunshine.  If it wasn't for the fact that there was a bit of a breeze, it would have been too hot for me.  Forecast to be less sunny and more cloudy the rest of the week, but not much rain and still fairly warm.

Husband was out all morning, I did a few little housework jobs, then a bit of crafting, I have a few 'occasions' coming up to make cards for, I have a few ideas floating around in my head for them.  Having been doing the cardmaking for a few weeks now, I'm finding out which bits of equipment etc. I've bought are the most useful (my cutting board with lines and measurements and the paper trimmer that came with it - a bargain sale item from The Works - is by far the most useful), and which aren't so good (one of my craft knives - the blade is far too wobbly, and the PVA glue and brushes - I'm just too messy with that).  I'm also realising I could do with a few other things - a smoothing and folding tool, some blotting paper (I'm always forgetting ink stamped designs stay wet for ages) or some kind of fixing spray, and some more greetings stickers and toppers.  Think I'll have another trip to The Range, they have a really good crafting section, which is just as well as there's no Hobbycraft nearby.

The workmen were only here for a couple of hours this morning and, other than a bit of banging, there wasn't much noise, thankfully.  I do think (hope!) the end is finally in sight.

I'm so tired I could go to bed right now (7.45 pm), but know if I do I'll be awake around 2 am and unable to get back to sleep.  

Early morning sick and noise, huh

8.07 this morning the workmen started drilling next door....we keep being told there should be no more noise now, yet it still keeps on.  Just as well we're going out soon and will be out most of the morning.

Betty's going to the groomers at 9.30, then we're off to the library in the village.  After that it's into town, we have a few things to do there, we tend to wait until there's a bunch of things.  On the way home we have to stop off at the surgery to pick up a prescription for husband.  Oh, and pick up Betty!

She was sick early this morning, luckily on the kitchen floor so it was easy to clean up.  She's fine, just something disgusting she scavenged on her walk in the fields last night I expect.  She's been sitting in front of me looking at me with pleading eyes for a bit of my toast (she's not getting any though), so she's clearly over it.  When she's sick I starve her for a few hours, then give her a little bit of cooked plain rice and chicken with a little parsley and ginger in it to settle her stomach - I keep 3 or 4 tubs of it in the freezer for that purpose.

The builders 'graced' us with their presence on Saturday - they don't usually work weekends, I'm hoping it's a last push to get the work done soon.  The new tenants turned up yesterday (they come for a look most Sundays) and brought a few small bits of furniture with them, so it does look like the works will be over soon.  The tenants did say they'd be moving in early July, but perhaps it's being brought forward.

We had a lovely couple of hours yesterday afternoon, sitting chatting in our friends' garden, they have a really beautiful garden and it was a nice warm afternoon.