The cleaning gang

Hoovering up all the seed spilled by smaller birds (& squirrels). And in the background our very-nearly-finished pond (note to self: nag remind hubby to remove that wonky bird feeder which is spoiling the view)

Today has been the pits. The abscess I 'thought' may be on its way yesterday had arrived with a vengeance by this morning: there's a lump in my cheek, pain in the whole of one side of my face, & my top lip is so swollen that I look like a bad advert for Botox, plus of course I have a headache & am feeling generally grotty. This could be retribution on the part of the condemned tooth, or perhaps fate has taken a hand: from dreading the hospital, & still wondering if I really wanted it done/could bear to go through with it, I now feel that tomorrow can't come soon enough!
But of course today's development means that there's now a big fat question mark over whether it'll actually take place anyway. I rang the dentist at 8.30, but they wouldn't prescribe antibiotics without actually seeing me, & couldn't offer me an appointment until this afternoon. At 9am I phoned the hospital, & then had to wait for a doctor to phone me back; the verdict was that they could 'definitely make me more comfortable', but wouldn't be able to even consider the full treatment unless I'd been on antibiotics for at least 24 hours; at this point the appointment was 25½ hours away. Another call to the dentist, but they still couldn't fit me in any earlier. So I phoned the doctor's surgery, then had to wait ages for a doctor to phone back; initially he said that it was too soon after the last course, but when I explained about tomorrow & he read my notes from the hospital, he agreed that I could have some. Countdown time was now 24¾ hours.

But, there was another complication: our gas had been cut off at 8am whilst the pipes leading to our house were replaced; we'd had gas men in & out of the hall all morning, & I'd had Jack shut in with me, then when I was on the phone to the hospital they disconnected the old pipe & there was an escape of gas - it was ok for hubby & the workmen, as they were all standing by the open front door, but the gas made its way into my bedroom & I couldn't put the phone down to open the window, (nor could I open the bedroom door in case Jack escaped out the open front door), so we both nearly got gassed - luckily I wasn't smoking a cigarette at the time! Then, at the time I needed hubby to go & collect my antibiotics they were rummaging about by the gas meter trying to connect the new pipe; they'd said it would only take a few minutes, so hubby said he'd wait until they'd finished, but there was a delay .... & all the time the clock was ticking; I was getting very anxious, & frustrated, & was in pain, & couldn't take any more paracetamol for another hour, & in the end lost my temper & yelled through the door that there was a medical emergency & could they please sod off & take a tea break! All went quiet in the hall (though not in my bedroom - Jack joined in with my shouting), then the gas men scuttled off to their van, & hubby to the health centre. I took my first antibiotic 24¼ hours before tomorrow's appointment, though whether I was in time we won't know until the morning. When the gas men came back in they found that there was a kink in our old pipe (through which the new pipe was being inserted), & they had to dig up a bit of our drive; then we had to wait for another gas man to arrive to check it all & switch the gas back on, but he'd been called away to an emergency. Strewth, our situation was becoming an emergency! The idea was to have a peaceful day, & part of the plan was for me to have a relaxing bath; but I had to wait 6 hours for my bath, & lunch was seriously delayed as we couldn't use the cooker; it was also very cold today (even more so with all the windows open), but of course no gas = no heating. And the whole time I had Jack shut in with me; he'd developed an aversion to the gas fitter, & wouldn't walk past him to get into the kitchen, so when he needed the garden hubby was passing him through my window!

I will be very glad when tomorrow is over, but am even more glad that today is finally over. Thank you for listening - I needed to get that lot off my chest ;-)

Things we've learned about Jack
He doesn't like gas fitters
Or disruption to his routine