Dressed like a liquorice all sort!

Today has been very stressful for lots of reasons. I will tell you the more positive bits first, so you can choose to stop reading after that. I will record the rest for my own satisfaction.

I slept really well, even overslept so that I did not get up early enough to open the door for Julie.

It was sunny and bright. I wanted to get dressed and have a little walk in the garden.

I have learned a lot about the aids required and I may talk about them another day.

We were both invited to have a village Christmas meal next week. It will be delivered.

Liz and Margaret (across the road) visited and were very helpful as the day progressed.

I managed a very short toddle around the turning circle in our drive and grabbed my blip.

This is where you may safely stop reading.


I managed to get into my pants (not trousers for you US readers) with the aid of a grabber. The trousers were too hard, so Julie helped. I chose a pair of corduroy jeans which are a bit large but had just been washed.

They felt tight. The I sat down on an armchair to do my socks and discovered that I could not slide from place to place because of the friction between materials. Impossible.

Julie brought my green and red jazzy trousers. Perfect but I was already wearing grey and pink socks and a different green top.

Even I could not cope with this! Julie said I was like a liquorice all sort!

My wound was very painful and the dressing full of blood. This worried me, so I rang the district nurses to ask for help.

No, it had to be the practice nurse.

The practice nurse was free to phone back during the afternoon. She could look at the dressing but I had to go. Brian’s car is out of action (see 11th) and he and Margaret have very low cars.

The nurse offered to ring the district nurses. She rang back to say I had to phone the “surgical hotline”. I knew this would be a problem because I was treated in a different trust (Newcastle rather than Northumberland) but I did it. The lovely young man who answered the phone was a junior apprentice, but he took the details and a nurse phoned back.

As expected, they had no record of me in their Trust. Perhaps I could phone Newcastle? I had not done this because I was in pain and could not face the drive there and back. I explained about caring responsibilities.

She was good but thought I was getting stroppy. I said that I was about to burst into tears. She contacted the district nurses and persuaded them to phone me.

That did not happen, but an hour later, Beth, one of our favourites turned up. I could have hugged her. She removed the stiff, blood soaked dressing and we were pleased to see that the wound was dry, I felt much better with a new dressing and reassurance. (The wound started to leak again later, but I will sort that out tomorrow, I hope.)

In the middle of the day the man from the stair lift company came to fix the lift. It just needed resetting but there
was the drama of him taking a wrong turn and needing directions. Mum and I gave contrary ones over our phones…..

Then I discovered that I could not open the study door. Daisy had slipped in and lifted the carpet in her attempt to escape. I can’t go on the floor to perform the escape trick with a large knife, but Julie did the job under supervision!

Mum found the day unbearably stressful.

Kate messaged me to say that her Dad had been locked in their toilet and they had to ring the surgical hotline about something else. I told her that I could trump her day. We commiserated with each other.

I certainly found this a very hard day. Things can only get better. Both Julie and Joan worked incredibly hard to keep the show on the road and there were moments of laughter for the three of us.