I really didn't want to get up this morning

 

. . . However, the day has improved.  As usual, I was awake a couple of hours in the night again, and ended up writing down everything that was going through my mind.  I had a phone call from the Hospital yesterday, to say they had had a further cancellation and we could have the appt with the Consultant bought forward to tomorrow.  Still 10 a.m. which is a push for us living 45 miles away and Keith isn't too mobile first thing.  We'll manage - we have to.  

One of the things which hit me in the night was the fact we had upped Keith's  dairy intake to try and get weight back on him.  Yesterday Keith had cheese on toast for breakfast, and later we tried the whey protein which Tam had left us at the weekend, mixed  with full cream milk.  Keith had a small glass at teatime, but then later on we really struggled to get him up to bed as his balance was so bad.  He had some cheese biscuits in the evening too and that really increased saliva production.  I have read that too much dairy prevents the Parkinsons medication from working efficiently and I think that we need to cut right back and see if it makes a difference.  Today he's only had a little milk in his tea and I did him the fluffiest omelette for his breakfast.  

The District Nurse has just called, and will be back later.  We were chatting outside and I mentioned the LPAs and blimey, she can help with that.  Then she asked about carers and of course I told her I was a one man show, which really surprised her.  She is going to sort that out too and get in touch with Social Services.,  It does seem to me, if you are a professional, you can make things happen - get the attention of Social Services etc - in a way that I as an individual can't.  I had left a couple of phone messages but then decided Danny & Emma would be here in January, so I just had to slog on till then.

I am just sat down watching Bargain Hunt with Keith, and we are doing our usual "DON'T buy that" and "HOW much?!!"  or "I wouldn't buy that".  I will get back to he cake I began mixing earlier (Chocolate Apple Cake to use up some stewed blackberry and apple I had in the fridge and needs using.)  I have apples to stew up as well, after being given that huge bag last week. Oh and I have mandarin oranges to use up too from a tin opened and put in a cup, and those will be a Mandarin Orange Cake.  

I even made progress with a brick wall  for my Adams Family in Plymouth - Non-Conformists are always wriggly worms - and now it looks like they came from Cornwall.  I shall do some more research later - I have been looking up all the Adams names in the censuses and will be mapping out different families/occupations/areas of Plymouth area in a "Spider" later.  The ones I need most are the Carpenters with Plymstock and Charles the Martyr Plymouth and have found what may be a brother now, of my g.g. grandfather.

So, we shall see what transpires with today's developments.

Rant! Update and how to order a £2.50 digital birth or death certificate for Debbie

 It's 5.30 a.m.  I can't sleep.  I shall do some family history I think, and find out what g. granny Brown and her grand-daughter Rosina died from (the latter only 17).  Get right through to payments for the first death certificate and then for the heady sum of £2.50, all of a sudden I have to put the payment through my card reader.  This involves:  going upstairs to get card from handbag, plus mobile phone, finding said card reader, turning phone on and going upstairs to bedroom to get a signal, waiting about 5 minutes for said signal and the appropriate code and then putting that in so I can have the HUGE payment verified.  You know - I can't be bothered.  It can wait until daylight.  Update: with my brain engaged, I found I just had to find the card reader and put in the number they had supplied online.  Doh.  Found that my g.g. grandmother whose husband had up-sticks from London and taken them to the Welsh Valleys died from a) hemiplegia - brain damage/spinal cord injury - probably a stroke, and b) myocarditis - heart inflammation.  Her grandaughter, just 17, died from Acute Broncho-Pneumonia TB... She was taken ill when staying with the rest of the family in Hampshire, and went home to die.

        Debbie - GRO £2.50 birth or death certificates. Go to the GRO site, and - having checked the GRO Index Reference number from Free BMD or similar site, click on the  "start now."  I am registered with them so just have to log in.  Then a page comes up with various options - chose the Order a Digital Image and then follow the instructions.  Hope this helps

        I did 22 trips up and downstairs yesterday - is it any wonder my legs get tired?!  I'd just got to the bathroom yesterday for the loo and I heard a knock on the door.  Plans abandoned,  up and leg it to front door - it's a delivery van, looking for blardy Orchard Cottage again.  If that happens once, it happens a dozen times, or else they just dump their parcels here to avoid going up the dog-leg steep driveway.  Our postie uses the catflap or rings bell and pops parcel through the door.  Other parcel deliverers pretty considerate too.

        If I have to spend today waiting around for people to phone me back I shall not be pleased.   There's nothing worse - I can't be far from the phone because it only rings 6 times before going to answerphone.  If I'm upstairs I can't even hear it ring. 

        I am hoping it won't be too cold today so I can get back to planting my bulbs in pots and planters. I made a good start in October and then Covid struck and it's rained daily since!  Right, back to bed in the hope I can sleep but I'll have to set the alarm so I don't sleep on like I did on Sunday, as Keith can't be in bed too long or he can barely move at all.

Green Darkness

Part of the stunning borders at Powis Castle this summer.

 I first read this book when it was published back in the 1970s and have read it a couple of times since. When we were moving I hardened my heart and gave it with the boxes and boxes of books to the charity in Carmarthen who were still taking books.  It's written by Anya Seton and the review of it here may tempt you to seek out a copy, if historical timeslips are your thing.  It is a book I can lose myself in anyway, and right now, is about the best way to get respite without leaving the house.  

        I decided my blog was becoming a "poor me" moan, and of no interest to anyone, but unable to get out anywhere for weeks to have much "me time" it was inevitable, and everything has been grinding me down.  There have been further health problems et al and further challenges over the weekend, and I spent all morning on the phone, which I find wearing at the best of times.  Hoping the LPA problem has been solved but that requires an answer to a phone message I left this morning, so fingers crossed. 

        Keith and I were just watching the firework display on the Showground - it's the Welsh Winter Fair being held there and queues of traffic on the lane to go over the bridge across the Wye.  Fortunately I was able to go up the inside lane, and up the road past the Strand and Eco Chic AND get parked - a minor miracle.  I had to go out again this afternoon for another prescription for Keith, and not only was there a parking space, I managed to reverse into it.  If there is a long queue of traffic waiting for me to do so I tend to get flustered.

        I knew this was going to be a tiring day - I'd been up and downstairs 10 times before 10.30. Now that's got to 21 an the day's not over yet.  Hoping I will sleep well tonight.

        Sorry, not much to report.  Tam was here for just a couple of hours on Saturday morning, as she was meeting up with her best friend (who's settled in Sheffield now) at the Elan Valley.  The winter weather brought us a beautiful hoar frost and I went out for a walk and took photos in the afternoon, but the computer has filed them somewhere random again.  I couldn't face trying to sort it out today.  Gabby has been making phone calls on my behalf again too, so that lightens the load.

        I don't know how often I will get a post together but if I go quiet, don't worry, life has gotten in the way again.

Having a little break

 Sorry good friends.  Life is really being sh***y right now.  This hasn't been a good day on several different levels.  I will have a break from posting as there is nothing positive to write.  Oh tell a lie, I chased up his appt with the Consultant and managed to get a cancellation so we will see her 2nd week of December.  We'll stress the need for Botox injections for his neck as that is what is causing so many problems, including the eating.  I made Keith get on the scales this morning and he has lost over a stone in recent weeks - I knew he had as he's clearly getting so thin and he was never fat to start with.  9st 2lbs now.  Not been that slim since he was a teenager.  He says he is too tired to eat. I have tried my best to get him to eat more, but no . . . I forced a good piece of salmon down at lunchtime with some fried potatoes, and a banana, and some yoghurt.  That is a BIG meal for him.  

Just going shopping for high protein, easily eaten food.  And wine.  I need something to take the edge off my anxiety levels, but I promise, a glass won't be poured till nearly bed-time.

Another of those days - the Universe is sticking its oar in again

Perhaps positively this time.  We shall see.  A medical issue and we will be told in a week how permanent it is likely to be.  A possible emergency trip to A&E may have been on the cards, but difficult to tell.  I won't give details, but it was a bit of a shock, and the speed of it all happening too didn't give us time to take it in fully.

    Today I have had my first "walk" - i.e. one that didn't involve smooth flat supermarket floors! when I went up the lane to see our neighbour's new Whippet puppy, who is adorable but has needle-sharp teefs!  It was lovely to catch-up and have horsey cuddles with her two boys.  I came home laden with about 12 lbs of apples (cookers and eaters) which slowed me down up the last hill rather.  But I have proved I can do a few slopes and less challenging hills again so need to build up my stamina once more.

    This afternoon I will have to get back to making my Hedgerow Jelly, which had to be abandoned yesterday.  I may try bottling some of the apples I was given, but that will have to wait until the weekend.

    No rain so far today - yet!!

    Another g.g. gran death certificate and sadly she died from TB - as did her youngest son just a couple of years before.  The other certificate which appeared at the outside to be another g.g. gran was her 15 week old grand-daughter who died from Enteritis.  Whatever problems the NHS had, we should be glad that treatments are available for things which killed our ancestors not that long ago.

FINALLY - 6 weeks on . . .

 

. . . from testing positive for Covid, I feel back to normal today.  We both slept better, my brain is clearer, I have energy and what's more I have purpose.  I WANT to do things again, and have some wild foraged fruits out of the freezer to make Hedgerow Jelly with tomorrow along with a kilo of Crab Apples which were being given away in the PO.   All the time I've been ill I haven't given a sh*t about anything, and everything has just been SUCH an effort. Even going up and down stairs has made me feel like I've just run a marathon (mind you, I counted the times one day last week and it was 19 trips up and down the stairs!!)  

    Keith too has been better - speech clearer, he has walked briskly up and down the kitchen twice with his stroller, and we've been doing his Pitcherwits puzzle together - his writing was the first thing to go with this horrid disease - it just got smaller and smaller and his whole right hand side was affected with slowness. Only on a very good day can he manage some shaky capitals, so he tells me the answers and I write them in.   

    I had the energy to go up to our neighbour's again and this time he was in and came back with me straight away to change the noisy smoke alarm battery.  I have done the one in the kitchen and think we need a new one entirely for the yellow bedroom as when I tried to get the cover off it started falling off the ceiling!  I will have to get either Danny or Jon to fix that though.  

    Keith and I watched Escape to the Country and then Antiques Road Trip together (Carmarthenshire & Swansea, so some shops and countryside we knew well) and I've done some family history too.  I want to apply for the death certificates of my g. grandmother Harriet Wootton and her mother Mary Ann Fosdick.  They died age 36 and 42 respectively, but it's possible that Harriet died from childbirth complications as she had her final child within 3 months of giving birth.  Until I get the certificate I won't know how close to parturition. You can still get digital copies of the certificates for just £2.50 - I got those of my Bolt G. grandparents that way - but today it's been very slow. 

 *DEBBIE (Country Ways and Cottage Days) - it's the GRO (General Register Office).  You will need to research the death details (Free BMD will be fine) and get the Name, Place, year, which quarter of the year and that will give you a reference  (1A 7 for instance).  When you are typing up the details on the GRO site, ignore the prices for posted certificates and there will be an online option in one of the boxes where you put your person's details.  Then you go on to pay, and THEN you click I'm not a robot and have to jump through all sorts of loops if you can't include every bit of car, motorbike, bus, traffic light etc in photos . . .  Yeesh!  I would say unless you have superfast broadband, wait until the daytime tomorrow when less people online.

    FINALLY I now know - Acute Rheumatism Pericarditis. A rare form of heart failure and due to, I believe, auto-immune problems. Treatable now but of course, not then. Her poor baby was only a month old when she died and my gran was only 3. G. Grandad quickly remarried of course, just 8 months later - he had to with 6 children under the age of 10.  Not much in the way of prophylactics available THEN!  

    Her mother was young too.  Still waiting for things to load on the site before I can share her story. If I've identified cars or motorbikes or zebra crossings or traffic lights once, I've done them 20 times, and then the broadband fades out!  I shall report back later.

    

Insomnia . . . and another day of phone calls

. . . I've had four - or is it 5? - nights of it.  BIG chunks of sleep, as in 4 hours awake each night, worrying and fretting.  Had one of those fall asleep for ten minutes and then still awake at 3 a.m. nights.  Hate those. Still trying to sort out the IPA. I read online that a Social Worker can do it so I phoned them this morning.  They've just phoned back and suggested alternatives.   If they were our only choice we could be waiting months for an appointment and that won't do.  They have suggested the Parkinsons nurse - who I thought of but discounted as she was part of the Surgery team and they told me the Surgery don't do LPAs.   I spoke to them this morning asking whether Keith's appt. or medication we asked for (to slow down saliva production) could be brought forward and explained why.  Fingers x'd now - she's not in until tomorrow. I've now left a message about the LPA for her too.

    Some positive news anyway, as Tam and Jon have got the keys to their new home.  Just a little modest ex Council property in a small close of houses, but in a quiet spot near fabulous walks and they won't know themselves after being at the mercy of the vagaries of the renting market for so long.  Plus she will have her first GARDEN all of her own, so she'll be over the moon about that.  They'll be able to decorate it as they want, hang up paintings and make it their own. 

    Now I need to go and post a New Home card and her birthday card and can't wait for them to send some photos of how it's looking.  I'm not sure if Keith is up to the 3 hour return trip to go and see it, but we'll see.  He's just taking the CBD oil at night now as it makes him quite drowsy, but it's early days yet.

    I saw a tortoiseshell and white cat out in the paddock this morning, with Pippi beside her.  I called Pippi and they both disappeared through the bushes into next door's garden.  Then Pippi rushed up from a different direction, so it looks like a mum and well-grown kitten. This must have been the one that Danny saw a month ago when he went out to investigate a cat fight.  He said he saw Alfie (or L. Whale?) and other cat sat side by side, so obviously it had been noticed it was a girl, and no threat.  I do NOT need two more cats to feed, let alone two cats and a possible new litter . . .