The first Doctors appointment of 2024

 Today's visit to the doctor was for my steroid injection into my knee. It should have been my left knee however, because my right knee was so painful and swollen he agreed to inject my right knee. He has also referred me to hydrotherapy. I know this will take a while I am not expecting miracles, I just hope it won't be too long. 

My latest pair of DM's fur-lined it says Dark Grey but they are shiny black, the laces are courtesy of the youngest daughter makes them a bit more in your face.

Until the next time...

The bedroom is looking no better...

 The bedroom is a mess...

I have been trying to sort out the bedroom since we moved in here! No matter how much I throw out it never looks any better. I am going to get a skip, I did send some stuff to Emma's when she had one, I sent some up to Janets and she has had two. It hasn't helped. The bedroom is still a mess. I am being brutal but it looks like I am going to just have to be more so. The trouble is I have things that I have had from my childhood, my teenage years and years in between. That is a lot of stuff. However, that is all it is stuff. Clothes I will never fit in again, memories I would probably be better off forgetting, I realised today that the things I really want to remember I could photograph and make into a memory book, that way I can then throw away the bulky stuff and still look at the things I want to remember. So on Friday, my camera is coming out, a photoshoot will take place and next week I am ordering that skip.

Until the next time...

The year is off to a slow start...

 Today was a quiet day, I spent it with Mum. Tuesday is Mum's day, so a small amount of normality is creeping back into the daily routine if there is such a thing.

We have new neighbours getting ready to move into the bungalow where Ken used to live, who died in August 2023. Then Mo who lives in a bungalow on the same side will be leaving us soon to exchange to an address in Ossett, Nancy who lives in the remaining bungalow on that side is waiting to go into sheltered accommodation as she is finding it increasingly difficult to live alone. It will all change over that side come summer, hopefully, we and Anne will carry on as usual Adele will fit in wherever she can as she usually does.

Tony has been asking the WDH about the garage that Ken had because we have been on the waiting list since we moved into the bungalow, even though we no longer have a car we need one for the mobility scooters these are our main means of transport now. We are not supposed to keep them inside our property so we need somewhere else to keep them, Tony has a scooter shed but it is only big enough for one. We are hoping to buy bigger ones for longer trips out so the shed might not be big enough for one. They were supposed to phone him straight back but he is still waiting for a callback.

The squirrels are growing in numbers we have 5 visiting the garden, we have a variety of birds and overnight we have foxes and tawny owls.

All enjoying the garden over the year 2023.

Until the next time...

Well here we are 2024...

I had a play liked what I saw so I played some more.

Two of my favourite things, are squirrels and sunflowers.

You can expect to see more of both in the coming months.

 

Until the next time...

A Quick Update...

I finally managed to get my last tooth removed on Tuesday, 20th June 2023. I have to return on Friday, 7th July, for a fitting to make some dentures. I may feel better and be ready to venture outdoors more after this. I have still got an ongoing battle with the doctors over my pain management; I have reduced my Gabapentin down to 200mg    3 x daily from 600mg, which I think is a good amount. When I put in a repeat prescription, I asked for more 200mg tablets, and they have not sent any; I, of course, questioned this and am waiting for an answer. I was supposed to have a telephone appointment at 12.30 pm, but it is now 1.45 pm, and I am still waiting. I need help, but it needs to look better than no meds and phone calls. I can self-refer to Aspire for hydrotherapy, but I would have more chances if the doctors referred me, and I would get in quicker. 

Tony has had his op on his wrist. It all went well; he says it was a lot easier than last time, it didn’t hurt as much, and he seems to be doing well. The only thing it seems to stop him from doing is washing up because he is not allowed to get the wound wet. 

We have been out on the scooters, just short trips to Morrisons; Tony is happy to sit in the garden now that he has a small patio area. He takes a snack and a drink outside and soaks up the sun. At least his vitamin levels will increase without having to rely on tablets. The BBQ has been used once, but I am sure it will be used more when Tony can fully use his hand; Anne and the other neighbours look forward to it happening. Alison has given strict instructions that she be invited to the next one. 

Lynsey has not been able to have her first nerve injections yet; she had a rather nasty gum abscess preventing the injections. The dentist gave her some antibiotics, and she must wait until the infection and swelling have subsided. The next visit to the dentist ended with the tooth being extracted; when the tooth was removed, the dentist was amazed to discover a small cyst attached to the end of the root. This could have accounted for the reason the infection had been so bad. Lynsey has been booked back in for the nerve injections, but if the condition is still lingering, she will have to postpone them again. 

Oliver, Mum’s dog, has also been out of sorts lately. He has been off his food and is sick. We hope it is just the weather and nothing serious; he is quiet compared to usual. 

I just got my call from the doctor at 3.55 pm. They cannot tell the time. I am being referred to physio and hydrotherapy. Well, how long will that take? In the meantime, she will make sure I get some Gabapentin, and it will be put back on a repeat prescription. I still, however, have to talk to Dr Mirza.

Emma is going to Scarborough this weekend; Olivia has paid for them to go and watch Rag and Bone Man at the open-air theatre; Emma is buzzing about this. She has never been to anything like this before. 

I took delivery of an exceptional parcel earlier this week; I have waited seven weeks since I ordered these, and they were worth the wait.

A Very Special Pair Of HandPainted Doc Marten Boots.

Until the next time...

Some good news, some fun and games, a badly placed sign...

 The garden has been partially flagged, and Tony has his scooter shed to house his mobility scooter when Richard takes his car away. Tony's driving days are over. This happens just as I receive this...

My Blue Badge.

I have finally been awarded mobility after years of being refused. Not only that but because I was awarded 10 points for being able to walk 20 metres but no more than 50 metres, I was automatically eligible for the blue badge. Happy Days. At least it will make life easier for all the doctors and hospital appointments we must attend. No more paying for parking and more accessible parking spots. Talking of hospital appointments, I finally saw the hospital dentist after waiting since May 2022. He sent me to have an x-ray of my jaw and gums, spoke to me, looked at my three and a half remaining teeth, and told me... "I am going to refer you back to your dentist. There is no reason that you cannot have the teeth extracted there." I didn't know what to say. I had waited nearly a year for this! He said he would write to the dentist, send a copy of the letter to me and then I was to ring the dentist and make an appointment. I was shell-shocked. 

The letter arrived a few days later. I rang the dentist. I have an appointment on May 5th with Mr Khan, I think he should remove all the teeth in one go, but it will take some time. It might be one at a time. Then I should have some dentures made to stop me from looking like Granny Grump. 

Granny Grump

Tony is enjoying his new Rise & Recliner chair. It seems to be doing his legs some good. Now his feet are higher than his hips; when he sleeps, the fluid drains back up his legs, and his circulation improves. The best part is that he can step straight out of the chair alone when in the rise position. Tony seems much better in himself now he is more self-reliant. 

Tony went for an appointment with the fracture clinic today. He still has trouble with the feeling in his thumb and two fingers; he has to have an operation to relax a nerve in his hand, he is not looking forward to that, but it should be happening in the next few weeks; fingers crossed. 

Lynsey, as usual, has had some more drama in her life; she phoned me at 6:10 am the other morning to tell me she had sent me a photo on WhatsApp; I had a look and just burst out laughing even more when she asked if I thought she should put a plaster on it.

Lynsey sent me this picture.

 

A day later, she sent me this one.

We concluded that she had had a nocturnal seizure and banged her head on the bedside cabinet. 

Lynsey has a neighbour next-door who parks his car and van outside her house; this means he is parked on a bend, so traffic cannot see if any other traffic is coming. This means the bus and any other vehicles blast their horns to let the other drivers know they are coming around. This happens during the night as well as during the day.

That's close.

Then the other day, he went to the other extreme and parked his van across the road in the middle of the road; other drivers thought somebody was in the van, well you would, wouldn't you.

Abandoned or Parked?

Then the police blocked the road for hours.

Nobody knows why; they stayed for hours, they left, they came back, they left, then they came back, and then they left again. It's been fun and games at Crigglestone; I am sure we will find out the full story soon; somebody said it was a shooting, an ambulance did attend at one point, the paramedics parked the ambulance near the park behind Lynsey's house, ran across to a row of houses behind and disappeared. When Lynsey looked again, the ambulance had gone.

Emma has been helping us a lot, running us about when we need to go somewhere. She has bought a new car, it is a five-door Peugeot 108 Automatic. The other car she had was a three-door which meant neither Tony nor I could get in the back; this is one of the reasons she changed it. 

Emma's new car.

I think I have probably waffled long enough now, so I will just leave you with another picture that Lynsey sent me that amused me,

This supermarket should be more careful of the placement of its signs...

 

Until the next time...

Learn to suck it up...

 

I went to the doctor on Friday for my steroid jab in my right knee, and he asked me how I was doing reducing my Gabapentin dose. I told him I had reduced it from 600mg 3 x daily to 300mg 3 x daily. His response was when I see you again in July I want to see you have stopped it altogether. He had already taken my tramadol a while back and I began feeling more pain. Then he said after that we would begin to reduce the amitryptiline, and then we would feel much better. After that, the topiramate can go. That prevents me from having migraines, I looked at him in amazement, can I just ask after we have stopped all these pain management tablets what will it have done for us? He answered me by saying, it will make us feel much better. I looked at him and said I think it is going to make me f@*&ing hurt! Well the look on his face, Susan he said there is no need to swear at me. I think there was, then I asked him how I was supposed to control my pain levels when he had taken all my pain relief? His answer learn to suck it up!

I was gobsmacked. I think I will be seeing a different doctor about my pain from now on.

This is my new reading seat.

It is due to be delivered tomorrow, I probably will not be in because I go to visit my mum on a Tuesday, so I am leaving it in the capable hands of Tony.

Tony has had a couple of visitors over the weekend, his son Carl, his wife Amber, and their youngest son Connor came on Saturday. Connor loves coming to drink a dram or two with his Grandad Tony, this time they were drinking Fundador a fine Spanish brandy. Connor will have slept all the way home to Morecambe.

Then on Sunday Tony's younger son Richard and his son Oliver came to visit. Tony had bought a shed for his mobility scooter, and Richard and Oliver had come to build it for him.

Tonys Scooter Shed.

It fits nicely under the room window in the back garden and is just high enough for the squirrels to stand on and look into the room, so they can ask for their monkey nuts when the box is empty. Yes, I know squirrels can't talk but I know what they want I am fluent in squirrel. 

Until the next time...