Bad health and setbacks overcome by laughter

Jana is flying home today. Mas is still feeling ill although his eyes are much better. I did more on my Deaths Head Moth picture. I heard from Pete and Toby, and a couple of friends called. In the evening we watched another episode of Wallender.

Sunday was a horrible day as we had problems with AOL all day, and the computers seem to have a problem too. The cat bought in another mouse.

Mas has started coughing badly again, and he gets so breathless that he passes out. As the doctors are not open today we went to the drop in centre at Edgware hospital. After waiting for a couple of hours Mas saw the doctor who thought he should have an x-ray. Once this was done we went off home again, and Mas took it easy until bedtime.

On Monday morning Mas was feeling better, and the weather is cooler again. AOL is still not working properly, and our computers are useless. To cheer ourselves up we had lunch at the Man in the Moon and then collected some groceries.

In the afternoon I painted a bit more of Pete's picture. In the evening we watched The Burbs which is funny, and one of our favourite standbys to cheer ourselves up.

Treading water, and a surprise out of the blue

I walked to Edgware, meeting Myk briefly, and a friend I had not seen since we did our 'alternative' classes together. Mason's cough is bad again, so we have made an appointment for him to see the doctor.

I did some gardening, and re potted the parsley , and saw a rather moth eaten fox twice in the garden next door ,before trying to catch up on phone calls and emails. Romy invited us to go on holiday with her, Toby, Joan and Dick!

I took Mason's temperature which was 106 which gave me a terrible shock, luckily I had another thermometer and was relieved that his temperature was almost normal. I drove him off to the doctor and he was given antibiotics and antibiotic eye drops for his eye infection.

Today Mason's eyes are much better, but his cough is still troublesome. I did some painting; the Deaths Head Moth for Peter, while Mas was trying to take things a bit easy.

sickness and confusion

I became increasingly nauseous, and to add to the aggravation I put my back out, and could not stand upright, so took the correct pills and stayed in bed until the muscles stopped spasming and I could move again. My friend Pat was going to visit, but we had to put her off until I was a bit better.

Pete came up, and gave a hand with all the housework. He was so worried about me that when he left I phoned the hospital, and they admitted me again. It seems I was dehydrated and had lost all kinds of vital salts from my blood. They ran all kinds of tests to make sure I had not picked up an infection, and replaced all the things my blood was missing by drip. I felt as if I was tethered to the wall like a goat on a chain, and was relieved after four days when I was disconnected from the drip machine.

It seems it was the chemotherapy causing all the problems. I was given a huge supply of pills to take home to also keep hydrated and replace salts and vitamins also I was advised to drink Coca Cola as it has so much sugar in it that it helps in water absorption .

I came home on Tuesday the 15th. Mas had been visiting me every day, spending £6.00 a day on the parking fees, and on the last day also paid the fees and a fine of £60.00 for not parking in exactly the right spot because there were no spaces left!

Pete visited again, and he and Mas were relieved to see me looking better again, and Pete wrote up a schedule of which pills had to be taken and when as it was all very confusing. Later we had a nice relaxed evening with me going off early to bed as it is hard to keep awake with these pills I have to take.

Unexpected illness and anxious driving

On Wednesday we went to St. Albans as usual, to get shopping, and meet up with Tania and Robert. We had lunch at the Bhua Thai restaurant and talked. Robert has been unexpectedly very ill and in hospital recently, but is looking and feeling much better now, so we had a lot to talk about before going back home again.

Yesterday we took four more pictures to Linda Blackstone's house in deepest Hertfordshire. I have become very nervous of driving, and if Mas is driving I feel the same, except on our usual driving routes. Anyone else could drive and I would have no fear at all, which is very unreasonable. We managed to deliver the paintings to her and get back to Stanmore, with me white knuckling it all the way. I had to have two restorative alcoholic drinks to get over the stress, despite it only being midday. We went shopping afterwards, and I walked past two friends without seeing them until they called me. We returned home, me feeling sheepish, and I spent the rest of the day trying to tidy up my studio.

Sickness at Christmas.

After we recovered from our trip we caught up with friends and relatives, and got back to doing the usual things in preparation for Christmas. The weather was very cold and frosty, but got warmer as Christmas approached. Peter had asked us if we would like to spend Christmas with him. We wanted to do this, but Mas got increasingly tired until he came down with a virus and became ill, and had an awful cough.

I made a brief foray to Brent Cross shopping centre, which was like a descent into hell ( I hate shopping at the best of times), and finished my Christmas shopping, as usual resolving to do next year's Christmas shopping in February. By this time Mas had lost his voice (unbelievable!), and one of our neighbours visited, and left shocked when he tried to talk to her.

Pete came to stay with us on Christmas Eve, and ominously he was feeling very tired too. In short order he came down with the same kind of illness as Mas. Despite all this illness, we had a cosy time, eating by candlelight and watching TV around the fire. I did get the feeling sometimes that I was running a kind of gourmet hospital, and from time to time, if I thought my throat seemed sore I would sip some neat, strong, rum to sterilise my throat (if it had not been medicinal I would have had a G & T), and it seemed to work. We cheered ourselves up listening to some of the jazz compilations Toby had put together a year or so ago, and the one we kept repeating was the Hi de Hi song by Cab Calloway.

Things continued in this way until Mas began to feel a bit better, and Pete returned home despite still feeling ill, on my birthday, December the 30th. Maheena called in with a present and card,(her son has his birthday on the same day), and later Diane and then Toby phoned telling me of his recent trip to Belize.