Friday 9 September 2022

A Sofa Day

 Today has seen me having to rest up, from necessity.  I clearly didn't drink enough at the Fair over the weekend (although we brought 2 litre bottles of mineral water with us), as by Wednesday night I went to bed early, slept half an hour and was then up every half an hour for the loo - clearly a UTI brewing.  I got some Sodium Citrate powders from Boots, but decided I would try for an emergency appt. at the Dr's as my kidneys were starting to hurt and I felt yuk and the weekend was looming.  Now I'm on antibiotics for a week - only taken two so far but feeling a little better, though I was awake half the night again.  After 2 hrs downstairs, I went back to bed and slept deeply for 4 hours, comforted by one of my quilts folded in half and making me nice and warm. At 9 a.m. two cats woke me (brothers Little Whale and Alfie) who clearly thought I was slacking as they were still Locked In The Kitchen - Keith had come down earlier but not noticed the door was still shut.


I've been on the sofa all day, either sleeping or watching tv and reading the paper, but had a stroll along the lane to get some fresh air and felt better for that.   I made an executive decision this morning that we would have a chippy supper as at that time I felt so out of it, cooking was definitely a non-starter.  I couldn't even face hoiking out a frozen anything I'd batch-made earlier to be slung in the popty-ping. Update: I had an end of the fish (sans batter) and some chips, but felt so guilty for having them 3 times in a week, my appetite went. No more till next year now.  Mr Fox will do well tonight.

Underlined clouds!

Should we both feel up to it tomorrow, we hope to go and visit one of the houses open for Open Doors, but the one we like may be a bit too far an ask for Keith.  We'll see what the morning brings.



Theo goes from woofing down some pate-type cat food he loves, to ignoring it and hoping for Something Different - which sometimes he eats and sometimes he doesn't.  He has gained a little weight, is snuffly, but looks quite bright.  Obviously there needs to be a key to getting his full appetite back to eating dried kibble again, and I am so missing his chirrups.  He has decided he Might Like Dreamies (which are an exorbitant price) but only a couple at a time . . .  As long as he has an appetite we will persevere but I may take him back to the vet again on Monday and see what she thinks.



12 comments:

  1. I am sorry to hear you aren't feeling well and I hope you feel a lot better soon and you and Keith can go out tomorrow.

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    1. We did go out, but the driving, which wouldn't normally bother me, absolutely floored me and I was out like a light when we got home! It was a scratch meal again. Worth it though.

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  2. hope you'll be feeling better soon. Nothing like a UTI to lie you low.

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    1. You're right, not had a UTI before and this made me very weary.

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  3. Uti's are so horrible - be sure and rest up while the antibiotics do their work
    Hope that the puss cat remains stable this weekend
    Alison in Wales x

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    1. I had to rest but felt brighter yesterday. There was only one FREE open day, so we had to bite the bullet! Theo still eating and depending on what is offered, eating with gusto.

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  4. Dear BB, hope you are feeling much better this morning. You do make me laugh when you talk about Theo and his preferences. As my daughter used to say when I offered a treat “That’ll feel me better”. One of those expressions that has entered family lore, along with the drawing titled “My family are my fiends”, of course she meant friends but I think she must have been so focused on the i before e rule she forgot the r! We have heritage weekend this weekend and we will probably visit our friends at the water mill down our lane. Barry and Chris bought the mill in 2015 and single handily Barry has got it working and producing wholemeal and now white flour, milled from local wheat, which is sold in the village shop. The beautiful mill pond across the lane is now owned by Sussex Wildlife Trust and there are special boats to hire which are adapted to take wheelchairs. I have promised S that when he is in a wheelchair I will get him on board. T arrived last night on his bike (he is in training for a Triathlon and when he was here a few weeks’ ago he swam in the mill pond which was a bit green and slimy!) in time for supper and tonight we are having roast pork with ALL the trimmings. We haven’t had a roast dinner for months so this will be a real treat for our 30th wedding anniversary. Yesterday afternoon we walked to the Lords Piece, an area of open access land which is owned by the Lord of the Manor. It is sandy heathland and yesterday it was a tapestry of yellow gorse, maroon-stemmed blackberries, pink and purple heather, browning bracken and baby birch trees already yellowing. There are clumps of monumental Scots Pine and the odd oak tree too. The land is grazed by retired dairy cows and orphan calves and these maternal groups move gently around. When you stand on the high ridge and turn around 360 degrees you only see beautiful countryside. Once home and nicely warmed up from our walk I hauled the ego mower out and cut all the garden grass filling seven large (half cubic metre) sacks. There was a brisk wind, sunshine and the grass was dry on my boots so a good job done. I also harvested the squashes - only nine from eight plants and six of those are small - a mixture of Turks Turban and Uchiki Kuri - and they are now curing on my mum’s wonky galvanised shelf unit in the greenhouse. I love seeing the orange squashes lined up through the glass - autumn is on her way. Wishing you a happy and healthy and relaxing weekend - and a full moon tonight which will signify a change (for the better). Sarah x

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    1. What a lovely expression! Gabby had a crawling mat, inherited from Tam, and this became known as "Wilt". Wilt became her comfort blanket, and is still here, in tatters now, but am not allowed to get rid of it . . . Love the sound of your friends' water mill. I have a thing about mills (some Millers in the family tree down in Devon) and really miss the one at Sturminster Newton in Dorset where we used to go every week to get bread flour when we went to auctions and/or the market in the town.

      Happy 30th Wedding Anniversary. We're at 34 yrs next time.

      The heathland sounds beautiful where you are. There is much of it in these parts - I love the rocky wildness of it here. At Bromyard yesterday, there is a lovely common and downs and I would love to explore round there on foot.

      I do love the sound of your garden. We struggle here as the ground is poor and so much rubble beneath it and it is much drier here than Carms was. Tamzin is the squash grower for our family but has struggled this year too - a new garden and no rain!

      Let's hope that the new moon does signify a change for the better.

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  5. I looked UTIs up, sort of vaguely knew what it is. Not good, hope it gets better. As also Theo, there seems to be a dearth of vets as well as doctors round here. How old is Theo by the way, cats are very good about being choosy.

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    1. Mine was still at the wee-a-lot stage rather than going temporarily ga-ga, but bad enough. It's only as I start to feel better that I realize how bad I was. Theo is about 12or 13 years old now. He arrived as a young stray - probably about 1 yr old or just under. He - fingers x'd - seems to be slowly mending but no chirrup has returned yet.

      Sorry there is a dearth of good vets and Dr's in your town. Not an ideal situation.

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  6. It sounds as though you knew exactly what to do to get yourself on the mend again. Hope you are feeling much better now.

    Cats (and Mavis's) are a law unto themselves aren't they, as soon as you think that you have found a food that they love ... they hate it, and look at you as though you are trying to poison them. Ginger actually prefers Aldi's version of Dreamies which are much cheaper and much tastier according to Ginger.

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    1. Well, right now I am happy he eats anything! I try and ring the changes every meal but I'm still chucking the cheapo stuff away so not bothering with Tesco anything right now.

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