From "One Bloody Mess" to "One Muddy Mess'

Well it has been a busy week here with one thing and another.  First of all we have had Izzy spending her days with us as she had a bout of croup.  Silly me did not realise we can catch it so blithely said "of course" when asked if she could come here instead of school.  It was only when it was too late to bother that we discovered that of course we can catch it too.  As the days have passed it seems I have been spared fortunately as I do not think I would have fared well had I come down with this just after my chest infection.  Izzy is well now and back at school, suffering no long term worries after this horrendous illness and I am happy to report neither of us came down with this so all is well.  

As I wrote in a post I have had not one really bad nose bleeds but two, both resulting in the bed having to be stripped right down to the mattress.  How lovely it was then to receive a private message from a ph brother who suggested that I always kept some Tampax ready for such an emergency.  Of course, why didn't I think of this as before whilst in hospital I did have a similar thing inserted in my nose to stop such a bad bleed.  These items are  in fact even handed out to soldiers to use in times of being shot as they will plug a hole to a degree.  Thank you Joseph, I have now added some to my bedside drawer.  Though they can't stop a nose bleed they can save our bedroom looking as if carnage has occurred.

Here is a video of my friend Sarah Marshall as ever raising the awareness for pulmonary hypertension and a really good job she did of it too.

https://www.facebook.com/sarah.marshall.56/videos/10154638778911511/

Her hubby Phil does so much to raise money for our small charity too so this young couple deserve our thanks very much.  A follow on piece on the same tape comes from our own head of the PH Association Iain Armstrong who I really like and hold him in high regard.  Not so much this time though as he went on to say that nowadays with the new meds and better understanding of pulmonary hypertension we could in fact live for eight years after diagnosis.  As I am coming up for my 8th year it was hardly reassuring to either myself or the many others in this position.  I just wish he had chosen his words a little more carefully.  Nevertheless his pride in the ph association as a whole is so obvious to hear and so rightly so.  It is an amazing organisation and we all owe so much to it for all the things they do for us and all the info for us just a phone call away.  Well done Iain.

We went down to our land to visit with our builder who has all the land pegged out now ready for the build to begin.  Talk about a quagmire, there was so much mud even my daughter has stopped foraging on it for the dandelions that fed her rabbits a large part of their diets.   (Of course as these dandelions are dying off I don't feel so guilty we are at last getting our house built at last.}  The digger is going in next week and so it will begin in earnest.  I am so excited that at last we will begin to see this longed for house begin to take shape.  Lets hope the weather is not too bad until the roof is on.  Time will tell.

Above is a picture of just a small muddy section of it that has been dug out ready for the cabin they intend to put on the site.  

We both decided we could do with some time out for good behaviour from our routine everyday stuff so off we went to Liverpool for a coupe of nights.  The object was threefold.  We knew there was an amazing music shop and we needed to discuss certain things that Izzy needed to complement her new piano so she gets the best out of her lessons.  What an amazing shop it was and the gentleman we spoke at length to was so very knowledgable on all aspects of music ( as we would only have expected) that we came away feeling so pleased we had made the journey.  Whilst I was there I also purchased a ukulele for my son's girl Anna as I know she does play a few instruments,  I hope she likes it and gets a lot of enjoyment out of it.

The second reason was to buy some new outfits.  I hate shopping for me and so does my hubby, he hates clothes shopping too but needs must.  Off we went.  He was quite easy to deal with and we were both delighted with his choices.  I on the other hand was getting despondent and also very tired as I tried on outfits.  My legs were getting wobbly and my face was so very red and I was so hot.  Just as I declared NO MORE we hit upon two pairs of trousers I really loved and so quickly following on from that we added four blouses to the pile.  A new pair of boots completed the ensembles and so we could at last make our way back to the hotel for a well deserved rest.

The third reason was something we had meant to do for a long time and never got around to it.  As you know we are members of the National Trust,  an amazing trust that does such a wonderful job taking care of our heritage, all the old houses, castles lands etc.  We must preserve our heritage at all costs so we have had annual subscriptions since we were both quite young.  We had said many times that we really must visit Speke Hall. This hall is not too far from us so quite why we never got around to visiting it is beyond me.  Built in around 1530 on the site of an old farmhouse this magnificent Manor House is such a pleasure to walk around.  With a fascinating history we were blessed to be shown around by our guide Vera who brought the house and previous occupants alive.

We were captivated as she told us of each and every generation, the good, the bad and the downright awful.  The last occupant Abigail sounded to be delightful in that she took so much care of the surrounding schools, hospitals and homeless etc that I wished I could have shook her hand.  A fair but strict employer she was one that could be talked to and reasoned with.  A very astute lady she was not for letting go all her worldly goods as happened in those days when a woman married.  No way would she hand over all her chattels so she remained unmarried.  Quite a lady before her time though as when a servant got pregnant before wedlock  she allowed them both to marry and stay in her employment.  Not too many would have done that in those days.

Not the same for all the previous occupants who would not have dealt so kindly.  I was pleased though to see that one of its former owners,  a Richard 1V actually married his servant girl and though  his father would not have been too happy they did continue to live in the house until their deaths.

Reputed to be one of the most haunted houses in the UK it has appeared on quite a few television shows and is said to be haunted by different ghostly figures. One of these being the real wife of one of its occupants.  On being told that they were ruined as he had gambled his money away she was reputed to have thrown their infant child out of the window into the moat to meets its grisly death and she threw herself in after said child.  Not a happy ending at all.

We have been incredibly busy, what with the house, Izzy bathrooms and kitchen hunting, hospital visits and much more.  I actually love weeks like this as being the blob in the chair is never my idea of a good time.  Today we had a super visit from our friends that live in Canada.  Friends of over 30 years we quickly picked up from where we left off and there is never an award moment between any of us.  Sadly the visit was not a long one due to commitments on either side but they have promised to come and stay with us when our new house is built.  

As the build is upon us we also decided to get in a dry stone waller to straighten up one of our walls that has, over the course of the hundreds of years got bowed.  Though it will likely stand the test of time of many more years we decided we would get a better edge to our garden if we did this job now.  Living in a county where lots of our walls in the fields and surrounding district are dry stone we were fortunate to find a man who comes highly recommended.  He has said he will do the wall, though not this week.  How fortunate that he can get on with this swiftly due to being retired.  I can't wait to see him in action.

My denervation appointment is due on the 12th of this month, Thursday.  Despite my asking it seems that for the very first time EVER there are none of my ph friends going to be either as a resident or for an appointment.  I needed to ring the hospital today and was alarmed as I could not get a call through, all the lines were blank!  anyway hours later is was resolved so the taxi will arrive around 9.00 and testing here we go.  I shall post how  get on with this, though there is no right heart cath this time or MRI, just the usual ecg, bloods walk test etc.  

So all is well here, though busy.  I trust this finds you all as well as can be.

Much love to you all and again thank you so much for just clicking the like button, comments are super too.

Carole xxx