Suddenly I'm an old lady

 I'm feeling somewhat better now, although still worn out - my energy disappears very quickly and I'm having to stop and have a lie down almost every afternoon.  It just means that I try and get all my jobs done in the morning, including any food prep for that day's evening meal, so come the afternoon I can go up for a snooze without worrying I've still got things to do.  And if there are still jobs outstanding - well, there's always another day.  I've been very down about things this week.

This week I've had the slow cooker going every day, I've batch cooked ale braised steak & kidney, smoked haddock & salmon chowder, bolognese and Lancashire lamb hot pot, so there's loads of ready meals boxed up and frozen.  I also made and froze a batch of cheese scones earlier in the week.  I was intending to make a couple of quiches and some cakes for husband's relatives arriving tomorrow but have run out of energy so bought some this morning on a quick shopping trip, I'm sure they won't mind.  I can only do what I can do and I'm having to learn to accept that.  It's the neighbours' afternoon tea party today, so I shall go and have a nap soon before we go - wouldn't look very good for me to nod off at the table! 😂  The party was supposed to take place in their gorgeous garden, but unfortunately it's forecast to rain all day so I guess we'll be inside their (equally lovely) old cottage.

I had a physio appointment yesterday, over the phone(!!) for my ongoing bladder problem....they wanted to do a course of phone appointments but I said I'm not willing to do that, as I'm not at all confident I'm doing the exercises correctly - I certainly wasn't getting the feelings/sensations the therapist was describing during the exercise procedure, and her instructions weren't particularly clear.  In any case, both my consultant and the specialist nurse I saw months ago said I should have the physio face to face, as it was very difficult to be taught the correct procedure over the phone.  So a face to face appointment has been arranged, but November was the earliest appointment available.  Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for the physio for my back and hip - I've had a letter to say there's a backlog....no shit Sherlock 😒.  The walking stick I'd ordered arrived in the post the other day, it's a snazzy purple flowery folding one, nice enough looking but it did upset me a bit that it's come to this, needing a walking aid.  What with the walking stick and needing a nap every afternoon, I feel like I've aged about 20 years practically overnight.

We're back to the caravan briefly next week, I shall be there on my own for a couple of days at the start of the week whilst husband has things to do at home.  The intention was for us to stay at the van for a fortnight, but we now have 2 or 3 appointments that will necessitate us being home midweek.  We'll go back to the van again though once they're done, hopefully we'll be able to stay there for a good while then.  On the subject of the caravan, I'd emailed the before and after photos to the site owner, at his request - he's replied saying he's very impressed and intends to publish them in the site newsletter, which will be nice.

Betty's had quite a severe ear infection again, necessitating treatment this week and a follow up next week, it affected her a lot and she was very out of sorts at the beginning of the week, she's picking up now though.  The vet suggested we might think about an operation to widen her ear canals, which might help to resolve the recurring infection problem.  I'm not sure about that at all - whilst I don't like the fact that she gets these repeated infections, I really don't like the idea of putting her through an operation.  I'll have to do some research and find out more about it, and also whether our pet insurance would cover it....I suspect they'll say it's a pre-existing condition that's therefore not covered.