Today reluctantly we cancelled our ferry - the first stage of our holiday in Javea. Though we felt safer travelling on the ferry as we could isolate easier than being in an aeroplane or an airport we still felt uneasy. Not least was the thought that England could easily go on the red list or Spain could be. This could have meant us spending two weeks in isolation on our return in a hotel where reportedly the food is not the best and of course being in isolation we would be paying £4000 to still clean our own rooms and make the beds. When I go into a hotel I like to be taken care of and for almost three hundred pounds a night I would like more than what was being offered.
We are both sad as the thought of spending six weeks in our special place was heartwarming but we were fortunate enough to have the foresight to book flexi tickets ( actually our friend Freda advised us) it does mean that we can change the bookings to anytime next year. In March the ferry company is getting a new ship so it will be good if things settle down and we can travel on this one, should be nice and clean at least.
Sadly our daughter has had to inform school that Izzy will be needing the morning and afternoon club which in reality was unnecessary as we will still be here and not in Spain as we expected Still as Chris says it does give us a break and we can still take or collect her as we feel though the money will already have been paid for this service to the school.
THINGS OPENING UP
At last appointments are becoming to come through for the many of us who have had to wait for consultations. My ph clinic has always been in touch since lockdown but things such as endoscopy clinics etc have been virtually impossible to get necessary things done, my last colonoscopy was done three years ago despite my being told I would need one every year. Fortunately I have last week received my appointment for 1st September, so begins my sorting out when to stop warfarin, when to change my diet and of course the awful prep medicine, I hate that worse than the colonoscopy itself. So roll on Wednesday 1st September which will be one less thing to worry about. On the Sunday before I go for one of their own covid tests and I am then to isolate until my colonoscopy. This won’t be hard to do but it will mean I can’t walk outside as I cannot promise that no matter how hard I try I won’t come into contact with covid. I will not be able to complete my walks for my study but that is something I can’t help.
My ph team are ringing at the end of the month for an update on my ph which in all honesty right now is pretty good though I do tend to drop asleep in the afternoon. Since being told I now have mild copd and my local hospital wanted me to have oxygen at night I have begun to understand why they want me to and wonder why I resisted. I would like to hear from some who have night oxygen as to if they do feel better through the day. You see I can still walk easily six miles a day, more if I choose to so what difference will it make. It is because I explained how much I can do that they stopped trying to get me to have it. Have I cut my nose off to spite my face I wonder. The hospital did say if I did not have ph they would feel it was unnecessary as the copd is so slight but because I had ph maybe I should have it. I am lost so feedback would be appreciated please. Is it necessary to have that awful face mask or can we just have the prongs up each nostril if it is mild copd?
I am going to talk to a specialist about my back at the end of September and am awaiting an appointment to talk to a hand and wrist specialist to see if I have arthritis or if my silly hands are the result of my back - all a nightmare.
TRYING TO GET SOME NORMALITY BACK
For the first time in YEARS my sisters and I met up for a lunch a couple of weeks ago. It was really lovely catching up together and we have said we will do this once a month. Of course it won’t always happen as things crop up but whenever it does happen it will be great. We have all gone so long without living a normal life due to covid and although we are still wary and take all precautions we want to see our friends again. To that end I went for a lunch at a swanky restaurant with a really good friend in Leeds last week. I still wear a mask as does my friend but there were more people without masks than with so I still found myself trying to do the two metre rule even outside. We both said how quickly it was that people seemed to be unaware of covid! It was like it no longer exists. It still shocks me in supermarkets when I see so many people not bothering to clean their trolley or clean their hands. For sure it will take a long time before we will alter how we have lived these awful months though we will try to meet up with good friends and family. It’s a hard call and of course everyone lives their life as they choose.
PH FRIENDS ON HOLIDAY
It has been lovely to see lots of my ph friends going on holiday at last, in particular two that I know well that are transplant patients. Lyz Clements has certainly enjoyed her holiday with her family as too has Catherine Makin and this is heart warming as they are both recipients of new lungs donated by very generous people. Lots of ph patients are waiting for new heart and lungs or just the lungs and it just shows that by the very generous donations these two are very much enjoying life even though transplant brings with it many issues. If anyone reading this has not gone on the donor register please give a thought and add your name and inform family and friends. Though you may think that we now have the automatic right for doctors to remove anything they can use the real truth is that if your family disagrees then mostly the doctors go along with the family so please get your donor card and discuss so there will be no issues if sadly something happens to you. Please it takes no time to do this and hopefully we will get more people on the transplant list getting their new organs. Remember it could in the future be you or one of yours needing this very generous donation.
GLOBAL WARMING
What a nightmare this is and so very worrying as some specialist in this field have said if we don’t turn it around in the next 20 years it will be irreversible. We do all we can, all my rubbish goes into the correct piles for recycling and food waste goes into our compost bin, we save rain water in our butts and if I just want a few bits from the shops I use that as my walk as generally by doing so this can mean I at least get four miles in.This saves taking the car out. I generally walk to my hospital appointments such as warfarin and that is a few miles round trip. Our house is eco friendly so we do our best to change things and how thankful I am that our longed for log fire was not to be in an eco house . The government will be needing to look further into this we are told and it may well be that our beautiful log stacks for our outdoor fires will not be allowed due to carbon emissions. However one thing we were doing has been a worry. Will we be able to turn around global warming in the next 20 years, I don’t believe we will and though highly unlikely I would still be alive we have of course our children and grandchildren’s future to think about.
The government are talking about changing boilers in every house at a real cost both to the government and to the householder. This idea is a good one but they must remember that there will be some who just cannot afford any of this no matter how small their cost in this will be. Hopefully they will look kindly at all circumstances and deal with them accordingly but I do suspect there will be lots of people worrying right now. There is so much to deal with to turn this nightmare around and whilst our government has such plans there is of course China who does more to global warming than any other country and they refuse to change. The cards are not stacked well and I fear they will fall down over the coming years. Very sad.
Last night after typing most of this blog I went to bed to watch the film KNOWING. It did make me think if our warning is not heeded quite how our end would come!
GARDENING
Our sweet peas have been amazing this year, every day we pick one or two bunches and still they grow so quickly! Next to them I have my tomato plants which have really big fruits on and I am just waiting for them to ripen. We have had our fill of purple sprouting broccoli from our garden and Colin has just bought in another big bowl of strawberries for tea, very sweet indeed. We have eaten our fill of broad beans and I have also frozen some after blanching. The last of our cabbages have gone now and this does give our leeks more chance to get the sunshine. We ate many peas from the garden too. Our onions are doing very well and I have decided to plant potatoes in the raised bed now almost empty ready for Christmas. The apple tree is heavy with fruit, just waiting for them to get fatter. We did go wrong with the blueberries. We had lots of them on the bushes and Colin took Izzy away and I admit to leaving them on the bushes only to see on his return they had all been eaten - whether by squirrels or birds who knows. I am just waiting for our plums to ripen a little more and then will pick the lot in one go and freeze them. I will admit to it being harder this year to keep up with everything due to the weather but we managed not to lose anything. ( except the blueberries! )
WEDDING PLANS
Colin is shortly going to go to get fitted for his wedding outfit. I still have not got mine for the day though my evening one is waiting in the wardrobe. I am dreading looking for my day outfit. I do not want to look like a typical mother of the bride with a hat and a very safe outfit with a jacket. Of course I also do not want to let my daughter down so I do not know where I am headed. Izzy still has to get her dress and I am not sure what type she will get. I am pleased that Danielle has her dress which is really lovely. A t least as we have now cancelled our holiday we no longer have the concerns about will we be back in time for it. We would be devastated to be stuck in Spain no matter how much we love it when the day of the wedding came around. Now no chance of that. So we are playing life as safe as we can and always hoping of course to stay as fit and as well as we are. I am aware that there are people facing serious illnesses and so am always grateful that yes we have issues but none that at the moment are too devastating.
LAZY SUNDAY
How do you spend your Sundays. Generally Colin goes for a bike ride and I go for a walk. This week we have decided to have a walk together. I am pleased about this as it is always pleasant to have a companion. Avril who walked with me twice a week has abandoned me for a while to do lots of jobs in her lovely 400 year old cottage. Since her husband died she has been considering so many things that needed doing to it and now is systematically working her way through them. For us a very lazy day after our walk with maybe a late lunch out which I will enjoy.
I need to make the most of being with Colin as he has been away with Izzy and twice with his friend in the motor home and I have been home alone. Yes I do enjoy my free time I admit but I do still like to be with him and walking is a nice time to unwind. So what do you get up to on your Sunday’s,?
I know I do go on about walking as an exercise but in her latest blog our lovely Sarah Marshall did an amazing six minute walk test of about 527 metres! Now I won’t tell you all of Sarah’s ph journey, you can read it in her blog but she has kept trying and trying to up her walking as generally she is in her wheelchair but my heart soared when this girl who was once on the list awaiting new lungs has now been taken off as she is doing so well.
Now I must get up to do what I must do on my machines to record my vital signs etc. These are for different studies and I would hate to let down the medics who were good enough to put me on these. So I will say goodbye for now.
I hope you are all keeping as safe and as well as you can, thank you for reading this blog and I send warm love to you all.
Carole xxx
