Working to be less stressed

 I didn't have a restful day yesterday after all, lots to do and organise prior to husband going into hospital for his angiogram on Friday, but I did do it all at my own pace.  Quite a bit of it involved writing lists and form filling, so at least I was sitting down a lot of the time.  I was beginning to feel very stressed when I got up in the morning.....I need to know that I'm organised and everything is done or ready, else my mind can't settle.  I have to be organised, even more so as I get older, or it really stresses me out.  I did get husband involved in doing things, although that's not without its problems - e.g. I got him to make the dog food, but I have to tell him what to do (and more than once as he instantly forgets a lot of the time) every step of the way.  Which is frustrating.

I got the washing out and hung up first thing, then made a simple veg soup for lunch - using a couple of types of frozen mixed veg cooked in veg stock in the Multichef, with a splash of milk, some grated cheese and a shake of dehydrated potato mash to thicken towards the end.  After we'd eaten it, I put the rest in a plastic tub in the fridge, then re-used the Multichef pot to make a chicken and tomato-based stew with sage dumplings for dinner....I used the last of our homegrown tomatoes which I'd cooked to a sauce with onions and garlic a few weeks ago.  So easy lunch and dinner which I could just bung in the pot and cook away without any further involvement from me.

Then I finished off my shopping list for next week, we're going first thing this morning.  I was supposed to have a nurse appointment at the surgery at 9 am today, but they texted yesterday afternoon to cancel it, due to 'unforeseen circumstances'.  I did think about getting the shopping delivered next week, but sometimes things are out of stock and they don't provide an alternative, or the alternatives they send aren't what I would choose.  For example, I have lactose-free milk due to a lactose intolerance.....the supermarket once sent me that expensive Cravendale milk as a substitute - erm, that's not lactose-free, they'd have done better to send soya, oat or nut milk.  And 2 or 3 times the eggs they've sent have had a cracked one in the box, or I've been sent things with a very short shelf life left.  

I also made a start on the ghastly Attendance Allowance form, filling in all the easy bits.  Honestly, the form is really designed to trip you up, make things as difficult as possible to answer or confuse the hell out of you, they clearly don't want to actually grant any allowances.  Some of the questions are remarkably similar, I read them and thought 'haven't you just asked that already?' - they just use slightly different words.....it's almost like they're deliberately trying to get you to contradict yourself.  I'm still waiting for Age UK to get back to me with an appointment for an advisor to come and help me with the rest of the form.....I've both emailed and left a message on their answerphone.  I guess they must be really busy.  I've got until 4 Jan to send the form back (it's stated on the form) but what with all the postal strikes going on, I need to get it done asap.  I'll be sending it recorded delivery, as one of you advised, thank you.

Having had a good look through the form though, and bearing in mind the things the Age UK advisor I saw told me, I think I could probably fill it all in myself, if they don't get back to me in time.  So I might do that tomorrow, it'll occupy my mind whilst husband is in hospital.  I think - well, I am - more worried about husband's procedure than he is, he's just assuming it'll all go exactly like it did the last time (he's had 3 stents fitted, on 2 separate occasions, before).  All well and good, if it does turn out to be a case of narrowed arteries again, but his cardiologist did say he won't know for sure until he does the angiogram.