And the next thing...

I would say that life for us is like a roller coaster, but it seems as though there are more downs than ups over the past few months.  It does feel a bit like someone's got it in for us....I know that's rubbish, it's just what it feels like.

The lovely lady doctor I saw in A&E a couple of weeks ago, as well as recommending the Sleep book to me, also picked up on something completely unrelated to my teeth.  The reason she picked it up was because she just happened to have been to a conference last year on this very condition.  She said I should mention it to my GP with a view to having tests, as it wasn't something that would be checked in a routine blood test, or even thought about.  So I did.  The GP has taken it seriously enough to arrange for me to have an initial test.  If it comes back positive, then I will have to have further tests, most likely as an inpatient in hospital.  If they're positive too, then it means an operation, further treatment and probable medication for life.

If it is positive....well, sod's law says it'll probably all happen around the same time that husband is due to have his foot operated on.  In which case, I'll postpone my stuff - husband's in pain and needs his foot op, my condition, if indeed there is one, doesn't really impact on my daily life (as yet) and if that A&E doctor hadn't picked up on it, I would in fact have remained in blissful ignorance.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves...it may turn out to be nothing.

I'm being (well, trying to be) positive about it all, but I do wish that something nice would happen for a change.

It'll be alright....hopefully

Thank you all for your very kind comments...and to AKM Evans, thank you so much for the offer, amazingly kind considering we are strangers.  There are some lovely people in Blogland and I'm so grateful to be a part of it.

I think yesterday's diagnosis was a bit of a shock to us both - we were expecting him to be told it was arthritis and that it could be managed with medication, we weren't expecting an operation (well, two) and weeks out of action.  Having slept on it (well, laid awake thinking about it) and talked a lot, we do feel more positive about it now, although there are still concerns.  

To answer a few of your queries....taxis, dog walking and dog obedience classes all cost money that we don't have, we can't pay if we haven't got it.  Having looked at a few dog walking services in the area, the going rate seems to be around £12 an hour - well, dogs need walking every day so that's out of the question, although I may well consider having her professionally walked once a week.  Betty's been to 1-2-1 training classes regularly, when she was a puppy we took her for a 6 week course (we found an absolutely delightful trainer), and since then we've taken her for the odd refresher session every 4 or 5 months.  Betty is very wilful and stubborn, as well as being very strong - she understands all commands, she just chooses whether or not to obey them.  As she gets older, she is becoming more and more obedient, we (and her trainer) fully expect her to settle down into a lovely obedient dog in due course - although I'm sure she will always retain her spirit and liveliness, and I hope she does.  She still has a lot of growing up to do...after all, she's only 2 years 4 months and is in a 'teenage' phase right now.  Incidentally, the training classes are about 25 mins drive away, so not an option during husband's convalescence.

Although we have some nice neighbours, there is no one nearby who could walk Betty, even though a couple have offered - she's just too strong and wilful for them.

Husband's initial reaction was to pronounce that he won't be able to walk or do anything for the 8 week period - well of course he will, he'll just be on crutches.  And shopping won't be a problem...as I said, I can have it delivered, and between now and the op date I will make sure we're stocked up with everything.  The consultant said the waiting time is around 4 months, so we have plenty of time to prepare.

And our lovely neighbours will give us lifts if/when we need them.  There's just a bit of reluctance on our part to have to ask, nobody likes having to rely on other people or inconvenience them do they?

As for not being able to go out - I dare say we'll both be feeling quite stir-crazy after a few weeks, but it'll be summer and there'll be plenty to do in the garden...although husband will be a bit restricted in what he can do.

The next spanner in the works

Well, life just keeps throwing us curveballs.

This morning husband had a hospital appointment to do with his feet - he's been having pains in his feet, one more so than the other, for a few years now, mainly in his toes and front part of his feet.  None of his footwear (and he has a lot....trainers, Skecher type slip ons, lace up shoes, work boots, walking boots) is comfortable, he's constantly having to change his footwear because it's hurting him.  The GP thought at first it might be ingrowing toenails (it wasn't), or infection under his toenails (not that either) and finally possibly arthritis.  

He had several x-rays this morning, then saw the consultant.  To cut a long story short, he has something called Morton's neuroma - it's damage and pain to the tendons and nerves in his feet, basically.  It's caused by wearing tight constricting footwear (in his case, steel toecapped boots) for many years....can also be caused by high heeled shoes.  He's worn those type of boots virtually all his working life.  

He has to have an operation, following which he'll be on crutches, not allowed to put weight on his foot or to drive for 8 weeks.  When he's recovered from the first foot op, he'll have the other one done.  So we won't be able to go out (as I don't drive), I'll have to do all the dog walking, and do all the shopping online, for a total of 16 weeks.  We'll have to ask friends for lifts to the GP/hospital appointments.  More of a  bloody nuisance.

An added complication is that the consultant said the op is normally done under general anaesthetic, as it's complicated and can be quite long.  However, due to his heart condition, he may not be able to have general anaesthetic...the consultant said she'll have to liaise with his heart consultant for further advice.  I guess local anaesthetic will be less of a worry and he won't have the side effects and tiredness a general anaesthetic can give, so that's something.

Online shopping isn't a problem, I do it that way sometimes.  I'm not so keen on taking Betty out by myself....she's very strong and tends to yank on the lead if she sees a cat or another dog, or a person she knows, or a tractor or farm trailer...all of which we have in abundance round here.  I could always just take her in the field behind us, but in a few weeks the crops will have grown and she loves rootling about in there, gets hidden amongst it so we can't see her and is reluctant to come out.  And I can't get in there to pick up her poo - that's if I could even find it!

Oh well, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.  Husband needs this op, he's been in a lot of pain.

Thank you for your concern

Thank you for all your supportive and outraged comments, very kind of you.  Just to be clear....these people who have asked for money, they're not con artists - well, not professional ones.  We do know them, they're relatives....unfortunately.  They didn't get in touch via email, they sent private messages via social media....the only social media we use.  And I would never open a suspect email, I always check who an email is really from if it's not someone I'm familiar with.  I may be blonde and a technophobe, but I'm not stupid.

It's the early hours of the morning again, I went to sleep quickly and easily but woke up with a headache, I've had sinus trouble the past few days.  So I've come downstairs, taken some tablets and made some warm (soya) milk and am now going to sit and read my new insomnia book(!) whilst waiting for the meds to work, before going back to bed to practise what I've learnt....😁  

Heavy rain showers and strong winds are forecast, Storm Freya apparently, so it'll be an indoors day - apart from taking Betty out in between showers.  She doesn't like going out in bad weather any more than we do, sensible girl. 

No, we're not a bank!

As you know by now, we don't have a lot of money.  I'm not complaining, we have a great life - all our bills get paid on time, we have no overdraft, nor do we need one, we eat well, we have a nice warm cosy home and a lovely garden, in which we grow plenty of veg & fruit and lots of lovely flowers.  We have enough for our simple needs, the occasional day out and even a cheap holiday sometimes.

We've been contacted by private message on social media 3 times in the past year, by 3 members of the same family.  These people we have very little contact with, for various reasons, in fact we haven't seen nor spoken to them on the phone for several years, our only sporadic contact with them has been via social media.  So it was surprising to get messages from each of them, within a few months of each other, asking for money.  

The reasons given were the first one having serious rent arrears, the second was about to move house and needed money for a security deposit, and the third, this week, has no car now and can we lend them enough to buy a car!  

I don't know where they all get the idea that we have piles of cash sitting waiting just to give to them...or indeed why they think that we'd even be willing to just hand it over to them.  Especially after things that have gone before and having so little contact for years.

But what has annoyed us even more is that they all clearly think we're stupid - the first one (whom we did actually scrape together £200 for, although we did make a point of telling them that there would be no more forthcoming) posted a pic on social media a week later showing a pair of riding boots they'd just bought (yes they have a horse).  The second had, the week before asking us for the security deposit money, which we didn't give them, posted a ton of photos of the piles of presents, including designer clothes and expensive toys, they'd bought for their 1 y.o. child's birthday.  The third has literally just come home from a fortnight's holiday in a hotel in Egypt with their partner and child - we're not giving them any money either.  Not that we have it to give them.

All of them are the type who post details of every aspect of their shallow materialistic lives on social media, so it's a bit dumb of them to not think that we would see how much cash they all throw about.  

No-one else has ever asked us for money, and these three are all from the same family, I think that says it all.  They must think we're mugs, a soft touch with an open wallet.  Well, they're very wrong.

Insomnia cure?

Morning all, thank you for the comments on our day out post, you're very kind.

When I was at the hospital last weekend, the A&E doctor I saw recommended a book about insomnia to me (she was taking a general health history and one of the questions she asked was if I slept well).  It's written by a doctor who specialises in sleep problems and has been on TV - not that I've seen or heard of him before, Dr Guy Meadows.  The book is called (imaginatively) The Sleep Book, I ordered it from Amazon at a cheap price on Sunday evening and it arrived on Wednesday morning, I took it with me on our day out and started reading it in the car.

It's divided into chapters covering a week at a time, giving various dos and don'ts and suggesting exercises (not star jumps or anything like that!  More mental exercises or things to think about or do or not do) and giving case histories.  I've not read it all yet (I'm still on Week 1) - there's quite a lot to take in and sometimes I've just been too tired to absorb it all and have had to backtrack!

From reading the introduction and having a quick flick through, the general premise seems to be that everything you've been told before and everything you've been trying to do to help you sleep, is wrong and you need to stop all of that.  Not just things like sleeping tablets or a drink or 2 before bed, but even getting up when you can't sleep and having a warm milky drink and listening to music.  He claims that insomnia can be cured in 5 weeks.  Hmm.  Well, I have an open (if knackered) mind and am certainly willing to give it a try.

I have suffered with insomnia literally my entire life....my mother used to drive herself to distraction with worrying about my lack of sleep as a child, she worried about it much more than I did, although I think eventually her anxiety about it rubbed off on me.  I remember her taking me to the doctors when I was about 7, he said it was because I had an overactive imagination and would grow out of it....50 years is a long time to be waiting to grow out of something though!  😕😂😜

I do think that a lot of my health problems could certainly be down to my lack of sleep, or at least would be vastly improved if I did get more, and better quality, sleep.  And scientists have been saying recently that lack of sleep contributes to making people fat.  No wonder I'm the size of a small house then!

If this book works, I'll let you know (in a post written during the day, not, as is my usual practise, in the early hours of the morning 😁 ).

A grand day out

Thank you for comments, we had a fabulous time yesterday.  Here's where we went:-

Selworthy is a small, hilly, very unspoilt village near Minehead, it's part of the National Trust Holnicote estate, which encompasses several small villages.  It's like stepping back in time....centuries old pastel painted cottages with huge chimneys (some of them were round!), leaded windows and thatched roofs, and well kept gardens laid out like allotments but with lots of cottage garden flowers and Spring bulbs too, just like my Granddad's garden when I was a child.  It was a glorious day with an azure blue cloudless sky and wall to wall sunshine, which affected some of my photos...well, that and the fact that I'm no photographer anyway.  I did take loads of snaps, but some of them didn't come out very well - half the time the sun was so strong that I couldn't even see what I was taking a picture of...I just pointed my phone, pressed the button and hoped something would come out!

The view from the car park - Betty's tail did a lot of photobombing!

The church, which looked lovely from the outside and has the most marvellous views:-

A cottage behind the church - it has round chimneys, never seen those before:-

Another very pretty cottage, they seemed mostly to be painted primrose yellow, perhaps it's by order of the Holnicote estate, who I believe own all the cottages:-

How's this for a tea room?  The front of it:-

And the back, where we sat in the very pretty garden (just look at that sky!):-

Husband's Ploughman's lunch (Betty's tail got in the shot again!):-

And my Brie and Cranberry toastie (it was delicious):-

Another cottage, this is a gift shop selling a wide range of handmade goods, locally made by very talented crafts people.  Too costly for me to buy anything, although I could easily have spent a couple of hundred pounds if I had it to spend!  However, the prices reflected the quality and amount of work that had gone into everything:-

I think I'll leave it here, as it's 04.12 and I'm now tired enough to go back to bed!  Our broadband is so slow here, it takes several minutes for each photo to upload, so it's already taken me about an hour to do this post.  It's a pain in the bum, frankly, hence why I don't put photos on every post.