Thursday 27 June 2024

Several Positives


One of my new roses in full bloom - this is Champagne Moment.  £12 well spent!

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Keith has had medication to sort out his throat, which worked after two doses.  

He had his Covid booster today.

He had new cream for the pressure sores today.  

The Care Workers are a step nearer as I heard from the Social Worker today, and his case goes before the Panel next Tuesday.  She said she would be very surprised if it wasn't passed and then it would go out for brokering.

Yesterday we had a visit from "Technology" - which had bewildered me when it was made as the chap on the phone was rather vague.  Anyway, a really helpful Dr turned up with his assistant, and they were the Technology arm of Speech and Language Therapy, and to cut a long story short, Keith is going to get a device which he can operate by hand or even by eye control!  It will enable him to switch the light, the tv, DVD player, etc on and off, but best of all, it has a pager so he can contact us wherever we are in house and garden.  That is a great improvement on his original "hurl the bronze bell" onto the floor (so I hear him in the kitchen or living room) or turn the tv sound up to 84 (which is deafening!) 

The BIG positive on a practical level for me, is suddenly remembering that I had the phone number of the master carpenter who did our sash window repairs and fitted and tiled our kitchen.  The door at the bottom of the stairs has been coming apart at the seams all the time we've been here.  It didn't matter too much until Shadow-cat arrived but it has to stay shut and you wouldn't believe the number of times we are all going up and downstairs each day, and how many times I had to thump the top bar of the door with a big wooden mallet.  Paul put in a gigantic 6"?! screw so that joint will never come apart again, and then planed the door edge so it fitted snugly into the frame.  The best £30 I've ever spent!! You have no idea how irritating that door had become.

Other positives - Keith and I can bird-watch through his lovely big picture window.  There are Kites, Buzzards, Crows, Pigeons, Swallows, House Martins, Swifts, Robins, Blackbirds, Thrushes and cheeky Sparrows, and best of all are the Flycatchers who are nesting out of sight behinds our stables.  They do a repetitive "flight loop" to their favourite perch on the power cable to the cottage next door.

Not so good on the wildlife front was a rather enormous Hornet which decided it wanted to try its luck inside the bedrooms.  I managed to get it out of Keith's room as it stayed by the open window and when it buzzed off, I quickly shut the window.  Then it went into Danny & Emma's room and was more persistent - they pulled the curtains to stop it coming in, but it couldn't work out how to get out through a huge open window! It was hanging around for half an hour or so.

Off to watch Gardener's World and relax now.


D - I have not forgotten to answer your lovely emails but I have been inundated with phonecalls, professionals and going out for prescriptions etc etc.  I'll get back to you soonest.



13 comments:

  1. Good to find all the positives...xx

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  2. I've been checking for an update, hoping that you were 'merely' busy and not in the midst of another crisis. The heart of your new rose is pretty, does it have a scent?
    Anything that can be done to make Keith's life--and yours--more bearable is welcomed, I'm sure. It sounds as though you are finally getting some attention to Keith's needs.

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  3. Such wonderfully positive news! You "sound" much lighter & brighter.
    Keeping you & Keith in my thoughts and hope all goes well with the Panel next week.
    Stay safe, well and keep smiling!

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  4. Hugs. Marjorie

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  5. So many lovely positives in the day. I am glad that you got the wasp out of the bedroom.

    God bless.

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  6. Some much needed positives for you and Keith. I hope there is good news soon about carers. Watching birds is always entertaining. I hope you get some rest and enjoy that gorgeous rose!

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  7. Oh it does sound like progress on all fronts. I am glad to read this.

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  8. Could it be there is light at the end of the tunnel? Fingers tightly crossed for the wheels to keep turning. The rose is lovely.

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  9. It sounds as if things are moving on the help from carers front at last - good news
    And good to have such a good wildlife view too

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  10. Glad you ousted that hornet!
    In the midst of the mire of misery here I have signed on to the Parkinson's Cymru Forum. Hopefully it will result in some positives for me! Hoping the new technology will be useful and helpful.

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  11. Good to hear the positive news and lovely that you can birdwatch through the big window.

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  12. Thank you for all your comments. I really cannot imagine how the NHS is still going - just the free prescriptions alone in Wales would sink a lesser ship. Keith has a lot of drugs, from necessity, and there are others who have even BIGGER bags than his. We are grateful for what is being done for him.

    Today's positive news is that I found a pair of size 6 (I've always been a 5) Sketchers trainers in a charity shop in Llandod and they allow room for the damaged foot and also support it. Couldn't get in to Minor Injuries at Llandod as they said I had left it too long since the original injury. Sure - but it had gotten almost better before suddenly heading downhill again. Now sat icing it.

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  13. It’s good to note down the positives and to hear that finally wheels are moving for care for Keith. The communication technology you mention has been around for decades for paralysed patients so it is wonderful to hear it is being more widely shared. We do a lot of bird watching too and now the swallows have fledged from our woodstore the kestrel is back on sentry duty and I was thrilled to see the barn owl over the meadow one evening this week. New sightings in the meadow this week include a grass snake, the first pyramidal orchid, hundreds of marbled white butterflies - they always emerge with the first purple knapweed flower, and a new elegant meadow flower, cirsium dissectum which is apparently quite rare and certainly I’d never come across it before. Our meadow is looking outstandingly flowery and seeing old favourites like the rosy-pink silky-petalled malva moschato return makes me so happy. We had a day of grass cutting yesterday so we are all ship-shape again and although my knee is slightly complaining this morning it responds well to an application of CBD balm and rest so it is slowly mending. I went out to a wonderful concert last night at nearby Champs Hill. Champs Hill was built on the site of three old sand quarries and even though the garden opens for the NGS and is famed for its heathers and rhododendrons the garden was looking like a desert last night and I appreciated coming home to my green garden and the scent of jasmine and lavender and newly mown grass. I had a good deadheading session of the roses yesterday and will give them all a can or two of comfrey tea today and mulch them with freshly cut comfrey leaves as I’m out of homemade compost. It is hard work growing roses here and the inherited ones will mostly be resting now until September. Luckily R. Vanessa Bell is unstoppable in a new border by the house and the two newish R. Penny Lane under the pergola keep on flowering too - both of these make great roses for cutting too. The veg garden is just about hanging on and I hoe around all my plants every morning releasing the dew instead of watering so I am only giving a can each to the salads, the newly-planted basil and the sweet peas which started flowering this week. I am very sparing with water, the very valuable lesson learnt from 18 years of allotmenteering without a hose! Hope your garden is giving you pleasure too and the positivity continues - we must keep on looking on the bright side of life and take good care of ourselves. I’m now having a weekly reflexology session at home and also go to a weekly Qigong session in a beautiful garden studio and these little bouts of self-care make me feel energised and calmer and less frustrated with S. Actually he’s in fine fettle this morning, - the mowing he did yesterday evidently did him good and he’s currently tucking into a full English breakfast. He’s the most brilliant breakfast chef - another instance of muscle memory coming to the fore! Have a good weekend BB and I look forward to reading more positive news from you in the near future. Sarah x

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