Tag Archives: nurse

Old wax, crawling and an ugly spider

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View from the quay at Wells
View from the quay at Wells

The heatwave got here: it’s been in the high 20s for the past few days, but not scorching enough to be uncomfortable. We head for Blakeney today, and while it’s still going to be warm, there’s also a certain amount of rain forecast. I have several possible walks prepared – well, prepared is possibly putting it a bit strongly – but not sure how far we’ll want to walk. Obviously the Royal christening at Sandringham on Sunday is a must 🙂

I’m still having trouble with my ears, but I’ve managed to see a nurse. She says there’s no sign of an infection, but my ears are pretty comprehensively blocked with “old wax”. I’m continuing with the ear drops and putting up with the occasional sharp pain. I’m due to see another nurse next Wednesday for a syringe. Hope that sorts it.

On Monday I left Dot at Jessie’s after dropping a birthday card in at Sheila’s and picking up Jessie from the optician’s. I then continued to Mundesley for a PHS trustees’ meeting, which lasted quite a long time, with periods of obscurity. I returned to Jessie’s for a cup of tea in her conservatory, which was nice, especially as it came with a mince cake.

On Wednesday it was very warm. Dot and I walked to Riverside, where I bought some new batteries at Poundland. I had been having a few problems with my computer after I tried to update some apps. Everything started crawling, and Safari and the App Store refused to quit – some problem with web content on both. I looked at various “solutions” mentioned on the Internet. The one that seemed to work (although it may have been a coincidence) was when I emptied Trash. All of a sudden, everything was clean and very quick.

In the middle of all this the trackpad had run out of batteries, which is why I had to go to Riverside. It turned out well, though, because we bought some birthday presents for me: three(!) pairs of trousers from Next and some new sunglasses from Boots. We also had a drink at Costa (fruit-flavoured iced tea for me, which was surprisingly nice). Later we had our hair cut.

Yesterday we both felt very lethargic, and suddenly Dot had very bad diarrhoea. We still don’t know why, but she had recovered enough to go to Little Plumstead in the evening and have a P4C stall to show parents what had been going on. She spent a long time preparing, but none of the Year 5 parents came, which was a bit disappointing. She was able to speak to come others, though, including Brigitte Williams, daughter of the legendary David, who has two children at the school.

Earlier in the day we took the car to be cleaned, and while it was being done I went to look at the church water meter, about which Anglian Water had raised some query (possible leak). I had to knock up the guy in whose drive the manhole cover was, because I couldn’t find it – largely because he’d covered it with stones. Eventually I managed to lift it and discovered a particularly ugly looking spider, which I managed to avoid while noting the reading. I was unable to get the cap off, however; so I’ve written to Anglian Water explaining that they had my name and address wrong, as well as the address of the premises – and could they come and see if it needed looking at professionally. Howard has decided he “would prefer it if someone other than me engaged with Anglian Water”. Well, so would I, actually.

Ah, well. Time for a break.

I did not shoot the Sheriff

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Dot with her friend William
Dot with her friend William

We are now the proud if temporary possessors of a brand new Corsa, lent to us while the MX5 is repaired. I was taken to pick it up from Enterprise in Heigham Street on Friday afternoon. The traffic both ways was so bad that it took nearly an hour altogether, and my driver on the outward journey was not slow to point to the Grapes Hill roundabout as the problem.

The car has been on the drive since then, apart from two short trips – one to church yesterday, and one to the doctor’s today. I would also have driven it to the supermarket, but decided to wait till tomorrow because of the forecast heavy rain that annoyingly failed to materialise. Instead I watched the film Bitter Lake for the second time while Dot watched it for the first time. Still good, and available on iPlayer! It explains everything.

The visit to the doctor was routine, and had the added bonus of revealing a reduction in my blood pressure to 136/88. I had a discussion about the advisability of remaining on two Lanzoprasole tablets: the main reason for the visit. I feel better when on two a day; so naturally I have to try to get it back to one. Last Thursday, in a thinly related health event, I went to the hospital to see a urology nurse, which turned out to be a complete waste of time. She didn’t know why I was there, and nor did I (other than receiving a letter telling me to attend). On the plus side, I seem to be OK. On the minus side, she didn’t like me criticising her inaccurate diagram, and I didn’t like going in half an hour late.

When I got back from the doctor’s today I did some cutting and pulling in the garden to get something in our brown bin, which made me quite tired, but I’m sure it was good for me. Last week was a record as far as walking was concerned. When I say record, I mean the best week in the past month. Even counting Buxton.

Last Friday Dot and I went to a house somewhere in the middle of a field. I think it was Framingham Pigot, but it could have been Bixley or some other, nameless part of South Norfolk. The event was a brunch to celebrate the success of a charity run by one of Dot’s friends, Helen (a former head teacher), which involved collecting sugar for homeless shelters. Don’t ask. Anyway it was a nice event. Helen is lovely, her husband Chris was a nice bloke, and I spent much of the time talking to Sue and Roger Eagle, though not Louise, as Louise pointed out. She is the secretary of the charity, and a nurse, I believe. Probably not urology. The food was excellent.

We had to rush back to get the MX5 in place to be collected by the body repairers. It was duly carted off, and will not be seen again until next week. Dot has arranged for them to do another dent unrelated to the recent car park mishap, which will end up costing us over £300. So that’s all good.

In the evening we went to the centenary dinner of St Augustine’s Hall, which was honoured by the presence of the Sheriff of Norwich, William Armstrong OBE, the former Norwich Coroner who used to go out with Dot when they were both at City College. So obviously she chatted him up. His wife Monica was very nice. Obviously I didn’t chat her up. Or shoot the Sheriff, though I’m saying nothing about his deputy. Nice meal provided by Carrie’s crowd, and I helped with the washing up. The plaque looked good – a rare example of a suggestion of mine coming to fruition.

On Valentine’s Day Dot went to see Norwich City beat Wolves 2-0, which made her happy and relieved that she was not an unmitigated jinx. In the evening I cooked her an M&S meal that I had bought earlier. It came with fizzy stuff and was quite tasty.

On Sunday after church we were prepared to go and see Jessie, but it turned out she was spending the afternoon with Roger; so we stayed in. I walked up to the Rosary while Dot did some sewing. I know that’s hard to believe. Also hard to believe is the fact that I sent off for and have now fixed a new letterbox. It wasn’t easy, of course. The fittings were not quite right (although they looked right on the diagram), and I had to cut off some plastic bits and screw in where nothing had been screwed before. I amaze myself. The cut in my hand was not very deep.

26 June 2008

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Our new next-door neighbours have moved in. Three large pantechnicons arrived mid-morning yesterday from Lincolnshire and spent most of the day unloading. Two of them then stayed overnight and finished unloading this morning. They left around midday, while I was in the city, paying in some cheques. The street seemed strangely bright.

Mary, the new neighbour, had warned everyone what was going to happen, and police no-parking cones were installed the previous night. We were a bit worried because Dot had arranged for our carpet to be cleaned that afternoon, but in the event it wasn’t a problem. The carpet-cleaning van got into the drive, and the operation went smoothly.

My visit to the city today was the most adventurous I’ve been, though I have been for a short walk every day this week. I’m feeling quite good, but the catheter is uncomfortable. It’s difficult to find an easy position to sit in for any length of time. And it’s strange how vulnerable you feel. What if someone punches me in the stomach? Never mind that no-one has ever punched me in the stomach – the fact that you know you’re very weak there is never far from your mind. You can sympathise with people who are always vulnerable and have to live life like that.

While I was in the city, Dot has been to see her aunt in Hethersett and paid her monthly visit to Park Farm. Phil is due round this afternoon to tell me about his day in Coventry yesterday, when he attended a meeting at The Langleys. Apparently he had a very good return journey and was able to see much of the Euro 2008 semi-final between Germany and Turkey. Turkey were all over Germany; so of course Germany won, 3-2. Euro 2008 is like that. Dot and I have been watching a bit of Wimbledon too. Natalie Dechy deserved to beat the number one seed, so of course she didn’t.

On Tuesday Dot took the MX5 up to be serviced: it passed with no trouble, which is hardly surprising in view of its low mileage. In the evening our Tuesday Group was bring-and-share, and the six of us had a great time: an exceptional feeling of togetherness. I felt pretty good during it all, but of course tired afterwards. I’m reading a couple of books: one by Umberto Eco which is beautifully written and unusual – about a man who loses all his personal memories, but can remember the plots of books. The other is a criticism of the emergent church which has huge holes in it but also some points I haven’t made my mind up about yet. Lucy also sent me an Amy Carmichael book which I have barely started. And I thought I would have loads of spare time! I got out about a dozen videos out of the garage to watch in bed, but so far I’ve only seen a selection of Hancock episodes, which are certainly cheering.

The district nurse came to see me on Tuesday as planned, and removed the dressing from my drain wound, which seems to have healed well. The operation scar also seems fine, and my general functioning down there seems to be sorting itself out. Roll on Sunday, when the catheter is removed. That will seem a huge step in the recovery process.

The weather this week has been quite summery (apart from some brisk winds), which has been good for me, because it means I can go for walks and enjoy long bright days. Hard to believe that the nights are already drawing in – in fact I think I shall refuse to accept it. I’ve written a couple more poems based on the hospital experience, making about five in all, I think. They probably need a bit more work, but two or three of them are quite reasonable.

2 April 2008

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Dot on a little-known bridge over the Wensum, halfway along the riverside path from the Gibraltar Arms to Sweet Briar Road – our Sunday afternoon walk. Now we’re halfway through another week, and the weather is almost springlike. I’ve just written another piece for my website and made some changes to both the InPrint site and the Meditation Centre site (still in development). I have four websites to keep up to date, which is proving quite difficult, although it will become easier when they are all established. Maybe.

Yesterday Dot and I travelled down to Metfield in Suffolk to see a friend with whom Dot is discussing expanding their “thinking skills for children” activities. While they went into detail I took a three-mile walk through the surrounding countryside and at the end of it found a house which looked as if it might suit us. Nice village, but I’m not sure it has enough pluses: for instance there are no mountains, and it’s no nearer the coast than Norwich is. In the evening we had our usual Tuesday group round – plus one, who said what a nice house we lived in. Which it is, of course.

In between these two events I went to see the nurse, who looked into my ears and said that if she syringed them, she might perforate the eardrum. I asked her how many ears she had syringed, and she said: “Hundreds.” I asked her how many eardrums she had perforated, and she said: “None.” Still, I didn’t go for it. This desire to warn patients about every conceivable thing that could go wrong is clearly having the desired effect.

On Monday I spent a couple of hours with a friend from church showing her how to put a piece on the website. As she had a Windows laptop, this proved a bit of a tortuous experience, but we got through it all right. She has a lovely little house on King Street, in the section that has been done up.

This morning Dot has taken her aunt up to the hospital and left her in the city. We are planning to go through our books this afternoon and get rid of as many as possible, which may not be many, but we shall try to be ruthless. Have just read a brilliant novel by a Swede called Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

4 March 2008

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Granddaughter Amy turns on the charm – something she’s extremely good at. Meanwhile her brother Oliver has learned to swim underwater. I personally have no problem getting under water, but I can’t swim there. I can sink quite well. Oliver has also started e-mailing us, so it’s clearly just a question of time before he has his own website.

Dot has pretty much finished the living room, and all the pictures have been rearranged, because some of the frames didn’t suit the new paint. All looks good, I have to say. We’re just back from the city, where we ordered new insides for our sofa cushions to try to stop them falling forward. I wonder if I would stop falling forward if I had new insides. We also put some money in Dot’s ISA, so of course we got the hard sell about switching to an online one. I really can’t be bothered arguing any more, so we’re going to do that. Needless to say, we’ve heard nothing from the insurance company. What would it take to get them to react? A pile of manure on their doorstep? No, I’m not going to do that. Oh, I don’t know. It’s an idea.

Bought some food from M&S and then had a look at some lights in John Lewis. Weather is very cold and windy, as it was on Sunday (Mother’s Day), when we went to North Walsham cemetery and also to the Rosary, where we found that my parents’ grave had been totally refurbished, with a new headstone and words. Looks really terrific. I haven’t had the bill yet.

It was cold yesterday too, when I played for my club’s A team at The Goat, Skeyton, which is so in the middle of nowhere that I suspect the home team were hoping to pick up a few points from defaults when opposing players couldn’t find it. Well, we all found it (I know it well, of course), but we might as well not have done because only our captain managed to avoid losing. I played weakly again after my momentary resurgence in February.

Saw the nurse again this morning, who repeated her usual mantra that my blood pressure was just below the level where they would start prescribing things. I’m amazed it’s not higher after this last week, but even if they do prescribe things, I have no intention of taking them.
Instead I have an olive oil spray to get rid of some of the wax in my ears. How romantic is that?

I’ve submitted a couple of poems and short piece of fiction for the Fish competitions. I think the piece of fiction is really quite good, so it clearly has no chance. That’s the way competitions work.

16 January 2008

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Heavy rain on Friday last week didn’t worry us too much, but Howard was the car park attendant. Well, you can’t win them all.

Dot is off for the day on an Exclusions Board, hearing an appeal by the parents of a boy who has been excluded from high school. She spent most of yesterday reading the related papers, which led to the cancellation of our normal Tuesday evening meal – that and the many apologies for absence. In the end we couldn’t reach H, who turned up, and so we did her a baked potato before Dot returned to her study.

Earlier in the day we had lunch at Park Farm before calling in to see A Ethel, who had been rumoured to be very ill. In fact she was in bed but in good spirits and quite lively, except that she couldn’t move. Her leg is very bad – probably fluid on it – and something will need to be done soon. Nevertheless we had a good chat, and left when Rodney and Angela arrived to move some of her furniture – it has to be thinned out on doctor’s orders, so that she can use a walking frame.

Afterwards we went to Waitrose, then I dropped Dot off in the city to get some boots repaired. A wet day in general: happily today is quite bright. I went to see the nurse late in the afternoon. Everything Ok, though my blood pressure is still higher than she would like. I said I didn’t want to take blood pressure tablets unless it was absolutely necessary, as I have an aversion to going on something you can’t come off. She seemed to understand this.

So it was a quiet evening. I finished a mainly graphic novel that I got for Christmas – Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Fascinating stuff, and beautifully drawn.

BTW, I managed to lose another chess game on Monday. Yet again I got a really good position – this time against someone graded higher than me – and made a knight sacrifice which he said afterwards “should have won”. But I followed it up inaccurately, and left my king too exposed. When he just managed to get to the time control, I had to resign.

Nearly as bad as Norwich City, who went out of the FA Cup against a poor division two side (Bury) after scraping a replay at home and having to travel north. Still, Spurs are through, beating Reading 1-0 despite the absence through illness of Berbatov. They are starting to look quite reasonable in defence, but will have to be more than that in the next round at Old Trafford.

22 November 2007

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Dot’s birthday. I can’t reveal which one, obviously. The picture shows her lovely as ever. We are going out for a meal tonight with friends, which will be a bit tricky, as I am on a weight-losing regime. I’ve lost almost half a stone in a couple of weeks, which is quite pleasing. My stomach was getting much too prominent. Hope I can keep it up (the weight loss, not the stomach). I don’t really know what got me started; I must have caught sight of myself or something.

I went to see the nurse on Tuesday – not because I needed resuscitation after losing yet another chess game on Monday (I’m actually playing quite well, but cracking up at the death) – but because I had to renew one of my pieces of medication and they wouldn’t do it without my seeing a nurse. She was commendably thorough, making sure I wasn’t addicted to steroids and testing my blood pressure, which at 146/94 is apparently on the upper limit of OK. I shall resist any attempt to put me on blood pressure pills, because you can never come off them.

Dot left on Tuesday to do a school inspection in south Suffolk. She had considerable difficulty in finding her hotel in Sudbury, but was eventually led there by a man in a white van. I knew they must be useful for something. Appparently a very nice hotel, but she had to leave too early the next day to take advantage of it.

On the way home yesterday she got lost, somehow managing to get on to the A143 going south in the direction of Haverhill, which is pretty much the opposite of what she wanted to do. She rang me up and after we’d established where she was (not easy, because I assumed she was north of Bury) I managed to get her back in the right direction. Meanwhile the police were parked in our drive most of the day while investigating stuff nearby, which meant that when P & J dropped off Dot’s present, they couldn’t stop. The road was full of cars, probably because it was raining. It’s been pretty wet recently.

Incidentally, the forecast storms are still possible, though happily rather later than suggested. A look at the Atlantic charts reveals a couple of ominous, tight lows hovering in the vicinity of Iceland and Greenland.

On Tuesday I did a meal for four others without the aid of Dot, and it went quite well. Nothing tricky, of course. Just quiches, potatoes and salad, with a few extras. Good discussion etc.

Today I’ve been to Bally to help Joan hang some of her work with my poems. I like her work very much, and I’m quite pleased with the poems too. Rupert, Annette and Mike were also there, and Mike took some pictures of my feet to use as part of his illustrations to my prize-winning poem, The Island Grows on Me. He’s already tackled my head and chest, with alarming results. Can’t wait to see the finished work. Rupert is frantically trying to prepare for his exhibition of his parents’ work at the beginning of December. The Open Studios private view, for which we were preparing, is tomorrow evening. There may be a poetry reading. Who knows? Certainly not us.