Long time no post – and no wall, either, after a builder’s lorry slightly misjudged the corner. This happened while I was in the bath and Dot was in London, The builder guy was very apologetic, and it has been measured up for rebuilding.
That came in the middle of an awful ten days or so. We had a nice weekend in Caddington for Amy’s fourth, staying over to the Monday – her actual birthday. But I was feeling under the weather and didn’t accompany them to Milton Keynes. Nothing I could really put my finger on, but it wouldn’t go away. We came home on Monday evening and had a pleasant journey with Dot driving, but I was extremely tired by the time we got home and into bed. The next morning I was feeling awful in just about every area and went to the doctor’s, who thought it was flu or something viral. Of course.
Paracetamol barely touched it, and the next two or three days were very unpleasant, but it seemed to be easing off by Friday, when I managed to eat a meal with Jessie and Roger and Adrian and Clarissa, who were staying with us for the Norwich-Doncaster match. But then I felt so bad I had to go back to bed, and didn’t get out again, despite the free tickets for Carrow Road. On the Saturday I couldn’t stop shivering, and Dot called the emergency health line. A doctor came out around 5.30pm and said he was pretty sure it was influenza: he gave me some cocodamol tablets and some antibiotics (“just in case”). The cocodamol did have an effect, though not as dramatic as he indicated they would. I stopped shivering and slipped into a sort of alternate reality where I just lay very still for a long time. No appetite at all.
Not a lot of progress before A & C went, though I managed to have a brief chat from my bed. I had to cancel my poetry reading, of course, also my chess game, Tuesday night, visit to UEA with Nicholas to hear David Hare, Ambient Wonder involvement and so on. Though not in that order. Dot rang surgery on the Monday to get my blood results, but they insisted on speaking to me, and eventually I spoke to another doctor (Dr Holt) who said my blood test was OK, but I could see him on the Wednesday if I wanted to. I did. In the meantime Dot went to London on the Tuesday to meet Chris and Jan Stokes and was delayed on the way back by a trolley on the line.
On the Wednesday the doctor said he was sure it was flu, and it would take me quite a long time to recover fully. I completed the antibiotics but don’t think they had any effect and it really was (is) viral. Now I am taking tablets off and on, feeling pretty OK one minute and not at all right the next. On the plus side, recovery from my operation seems to be unaffected. I am supposed to be preaching at church tomorrow, which I think should be OK, but I’m writing it out in case Dot has to deliver it!