Budding Artist!!

Beth seems to be following along the creative line and has started to produce some lovely pictures. Her art book is packed with her creations. I really like this one, her latest creation. Laura always had a talent for drawing and painting. I wish she would take it up again as well!!

I have kept quite a few of the children's books and works of art from when they were at primary school. its nice to look back on them and see how they have changed and matured. I wish I could paint and draw!!!

Short Weekend.

How is it that the weekend goes so fast??? One minute its Friday and the next its Sunday night and I am thinking of getting back in the swing of things at work. I really think its about time that things changed, the weekend should be 5 days long, that would be far better!!!

This afternoon much to the dogs relief, I cooked Sunday Lunch, for the past two weeks we have eaten out. Poor Hunny missed out on the scraps. Today she was very pleased to be able to finish up the odds and ends left over!! I even managed to keep a little of the pork crackling for Mum!

Tonight we took Laura in to see Mum, she was snoozing in her armchair when we got there. Once we woke her up she was very chatty, not confused, no old lady voice, she was looking good. She is starting to feel positive and is looking forward to getting home. I hope that feeling lasts!

Today has been good. I hope its the start of something new and good!!

Creating......

Today I have spent a fair bit of time creating!! I enjoy creating! This time I am making some 21st invites for a lady at work. She wanted hand made one but wanted purple on black, which is nigh on impossible to do at home with a home printer. I made a few mock ups using purple on white, with purple mounts and purple ribbons, after doing around 5 different types I hit on the idea of making the bulk of the invite in photo shop and then sending the resulting file to photobox for printing. That has worked it has resulted in purple on black as she wanted. The photos look good and I have stuck on ribbon on the front and then mounted the whole lot on purple card.

They have turned out well, although they have been time consuming, its easy to under estimate how long simple cutting and sticking can take. Any how I have now made 110 of the 125 she requires, nearly there!!!

We went to see Mum yesterday ad she is still making good progress, she has had more physio and has been walking around. Her new bed is good, its by a window so there is a coolness coming off of the glass. They have replaced the air mattress with a regular mattress which she fines easier to deal with, so all is good. The only thing that gets to me is when we turn up she straight away goes into moany old lady mode, including the annoying old lady voice. It really grates on me, as there isn't really any point in it. As soon as you tell her she stops doing it and reverts to normal. Arrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!!

Looking Forward.

We have been at the front end of the government cuts, this has manifested itself in the lack of staff on duty to look after the patients in the rehabilitation hospital when mum is resident. As I said yesterday I do not blame the staff, they are doing an incredibly hard job with fewer and fewer members of staff. In fact its more luck than judgement that it all holds together, one day the wheel will come off and I expect it already has somewhere. I am worried what the future holds for our public services. All of us in Public Service are facing the prospect of job cuts and the very real problem of unemployment. Wages are frozen which in real terms is a reduction, taxes (VAT)  and national insurance are going up, interest rates are likely to rise.

So we are faced with trying to make ends meet in an increasingly difficult economic climate.

The TUC have a march and rally planned for the 26th of March, just before the local government elections. I find myself doing things in reverse. I never even considered doing any marches when I was in my youth, but now at 50 I find that I can't really just stand by and watch things fall apart, I have to at least try and have a say. So I plan to go on the March and Rally in London on the 26th of March.

This may in the end be the only way anyone will take at least some notice. I am not expecting a miracle, but if its something that I am considering for the very first time in my life, perhaps there are others like me out there!!

Tonight Mum was still a bit down in the dumps, but everyday she has been off of the drugs I can see the old Mum coming back, the confusion and fog seem to be lifting. So I expect its not nice from her side, but I think she will be far better off in the long run. I feel that she is now seeing that she has a future. I think she is poised to start moving on and eventually out.

Good Morning Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital....We have arrived.........

Last night I wrote my letter of complaint. This morning we went into the hospital (Keith and I ) and we made a formal complaint about the situation Mum was left in.We saw the Senior Sister, who I had spoken to before. She took our written complaint and told us that on the morning in question, three members of staff had called in sick with very little notice. She said that they had been using staff from other hospitals and they did not have the same dedication as the regular staff. We listened and then she asked us what we wanted to do about the matter. We were very clear that what we wanted was for the matter to be investigated and for the situation never to happen again. We are not complaining about the staff that actually turned up, their job was nearly impossible.

This afternoon I got a call from a lady called Jane Lawton, who said she was an area manager who had been passed our complaint. While it was good that she had phoned me, she was clearly a lady used to getting her own way and not particularly interested in listening to anything but her own voice. She quite clearly had only skimmed my letter as she was talking about the night shift not doing their work. (that was not the case it was the day shift) She went on to say that it was a 'sickness' issue and that she had been onto the HR department to see how they could address the issue. It seems to me that thinking about addressing the issue now was just a touch too late.

It was clear for the way she spoke to me I would have to take a deep breath and talk over her. I told her that I was not listening to her excuses. I wanted a copy of the trusts capability/sick Policy and I wanted to know what their rate of sickness is and what they are doing to address the matter. I already have the policies, as the trust has them online. Not that she was going to listen to what I had to say. So I told her if she was unwilling to furnish me with the details I would make a freedom of information request and I would make sure that the results were publicised.

On balance I feel I came out on top, I certainly employed her own keep talking tactic!!

The present state of play is that they will provide a written response in around 10 working days with the state of the enquiry. I know that they are extremely keen on keeping the complaint 'in house' at this stage. All I want is an undertaking that they will take into consideration that their patients should be afforded dignity and respect and the right to a safe life.

Upsetting because there are a lot of brilliant staff up there who do a fantastic job (like you did Tanya!!) Its a shame the managers do not have a plan B for when things don't going according to plan.

One step forward, two steps back.

Just when you thought it was safe to assume that Mum was making reasonable progress, Bang it all goes wrong. Tonight Tom and I went in to see her and she was distraught, hot and sweaty and very under the weather. We found out what was going on and it was not very pleasant.

She has been diagnosed with another urine infection which makes you feel pretty wretched anyway, but the day had got of to a terrible start, due to the infection she was confused. All through the night the staff had been into her and given her a bedpan, she thinks around 6 times. When those staff went off shift only half the day shift arrived. She asked to go to the loo repeatedly from early in the morning and her ringing was ignored. She is not able to get out of bed so the inevitable happened. She was left wet and cold in bed until 12.30pm - Unbelievable !! How can that possibly be right???  What has happened to dignity and respect?? Had anyone considered her feelings?? While it must be terrible for the remaining staff to have to cope it is beyond a joke that people should be put through the embarrassment of wetting the bed in what is supposed to be a civilised caring country!

Again I find myself having to complain about the treatment provided by the NHS. I am sure a lot of people will think that a wet bed is a small inconvenience, but what happens when you are frightened, confused and too worried to stand up for yourself?? Have you been served your breakfast while shivering in a freezing cold wet bed? I keep thinking that I am young enough to still stick up for myself, what age do you become invisible? or too much trouble ?

I have spoken to the nurse in charge tonight and she has confirmed what Mum said and said it was due to the lack of staff, she has said now that I am unhappy about it she will make an incident report, so if I hadn't mentioned it, nothing would have happened??? How many other elderly and vulnerable people were in the same boat this morning? How many relatives knew nothing about it?

We have had very few good NHS experiences of late, I know the staff try their hardest but what are the managers playing at??

I am still fuming, but I have written it all down and tomorrow my brother and I will be on their doorstep raising merry hell.   Watch this space!

Rant over for tonight.

All Change.

This weekend has been the usual mix of busy and sleep. I try to get up around the same time each day its much easier if you can. Saturday morning it was 9.00am and this morning I woke to the sound of church bells at 10am!!! I couldn't believe how late it was. It really wrecked the whole day!!

Keith and Nicky came over and we finally sorted out the last of the fire claim. Its been a really long slog with that one and its not quite finished yet. Still waiting on a few more bits to be finalised. We all went out for lunch at The Long Arm, Short Arm in Lemsford. They do a truly wonderful Sunday lunch.

Today we couldn't get a table until 2.30pm the place was packed! The roast meat is very generous and they have the most fantastic roast potatoes and home made cauliflower cheese. (the cauliflower is edible and not rock hard which seems to  be the trend!!) By the time we were finished it was around 3.45 and as we were getting ready to go they were invaded by about thirty ramblers, who all had lunch in their stocking feet!!

Dad, Keith and Nicky went in to see mum, she has been moved out of the five bed ward and into the two bed ward where Dad had been in 2006. This is much nicer for her and the other lady. She has finally been able to concentrate enough to read some of her book. They even have their own telly (although dad said its something out of the 80's!!) Hopefully she will settle a bit now and build on her progress. She is still coming off of her patches so that is tough on her, but it will be so worth it in the end.

Looking forward to another packed week at work!!

Moving On

This week has gone by in a flash its hard to believe that its nearly February! I still don't seem to have time to breathe with work and hospital visiting there is little time for anything else.

Mum is up on her feet, she has physio three times a week and they encourage her to walk as much as possible. Mum doesn't really get that last bit, she thinks that means sit as much as possible and only walk when you absolutely have to. I spoke to the sister last night and she said is progressing but they can't understand why she is so reluctant. Unknown to us they had arranged for her to be taken home yesterday so that adult services could look at what needs doing for when she gets home. Seems Mum had other plans and refused to go. She said she wasn't ready but I think sometimes you have to push yourself and have a go.

This week we have installed an energy monitor, I am not sure if its a good idea. To start with its interesting to see what happens when you put on the kettle or the tumble drier, but the way that the information is recorded is not that useful. It tells you that if you were to have the tumble drier running 24 hours a day for a month it would cost £400. Well its unlikely that anyone would have it running 24 hours a day for a month, so I fail to see how that really helps. I was hoping that it would show a running total or something so you could compare last weeks use to this weeks.The monitor came with a whole load of paperwork and instructions. BUT sometimes there is a red light on it, I have searched the book to see what that means and I can't find anything. Its only on in the morning and then only some mornings.Its annoying me!!!

 Talking about things 'green' the council are introducing recycling wheelie bins in the next few weeks, that should be interesting. We will now have three full sized wheelie bins (which are not very pretty at the best of times) we will have a general waste collecting fortnightly and 'most things' should be recyclable. I think all we can do is line them up outside the back door and go from there. We will have to squash everything or they'll be full up in half an hour!!

Off to watch my energy monitor!!

Its So Cold!

Just as we thought the really cold weather was gone, the cars are again tonight covered in frost. I am feeling really cold. Grrrr.

Tuesday is one of those nightmare nights, Beth has life saving, Laura has college and I popped in to see mum. Mum is doing well, they are reducing her medication and she is not suffering too many ill effects. Tonight she was very tired after a good session with the physios. She is now walking with the aid of a zimmer frame and she is having to walk everywhere. She seemed quite good in herself so I feel very encouraged for her. She is starting to worry about coming home, although I don't feel that will be any time soon.

So short update tonight, going to hit the bed to warm up!!!

I have Scrapped!!

I have Scrapped words I haven't said in a long time. I have used my new craft station and its easy to find things, if I want stickers there are only two places to look, if I want paper just the two places to look. I might even get a few more done this afternoon. Going to Disney over Halloween has resulted in a load of Halloween photos, so I am going to do them.,I picked up a load of Halloween embellishments in the sales in Florida, so I am going to make the most of them.

Today is the first Sunday in an age where I am not going to cook Sunday lunch. Dad has suggested that we all go out for lunch which will make a good change.

We went in to see Mum last night and she is still pretty fed up and miserable, She was aching from the physio the day before and she was still complaining of an ache in her upper arm. She has been seen by a Doctor and they think that its a pulled muscle from trying to get herself into a standing position. She has also picked up a cough so she is pretty miserable. When we got there Keith, Nicky and Dad were already there. You are only supposed to have two visitors at a time, but they didn't seem too worried and as Mum was in bed we were not interfering with anyone else.

Yesterday E-ON delivered an energy monitor which I have now fixed up and we are watching just how much electricity is used whenever something is switched on. Its quite amazing how much is used when you put on the kettle. I can now see why you should only boil what you need, it makes the meter race!!

Thanks Beth!!!

I received a big surprise when I got home from work tonight, Beth bought me a big bunch of flowers, she knows that I have been running on empty all week and that I was having a bit of a struggle to get everything done. On the way home from school she made Tom take her to the shops and let her buy a bunch of flowers for me. She also gave me a little credit card sized keepsake which has the following words on it-

Hang In There

I know that things are tough

right now and you may feel alone

but please remember others care

and you are not on your own.

Just try not to forget to take

things day by day

and anytime you need me,

I'll be with you all the way.

How nice is that ??? Thanks Beth it has made me feel much better

XXXX

Tonight we called in to see mum, she has had physio and has done very well. She seems much brighter, she has had a shower and a hair wash. I think that picks you up. Things seem to be getting better in so far as she is able to get out of bed a bit quicker and they have left a commode by her bed. She was sat in the day room tonight and had made friends with a lady called Heddy. They were having a laugh and a chat when we arrived. Its a shame Heddy will be off home soon, but there will be someone else along soon.

Tonight I have used my new workstation. I have trimmed some photos for scrapping. I hope to get cracking on them this weekend. I will be scrapping our Florida trip, so it will be nice to remember the hot days and the fun we had what seems like ages ago!!

And Relax.......

I have finally finished sorting out all my craft stuff. The very trying cupboard construction is over and I have now got a nice looking cupboard to hide away the 'stuff'!!

Here it is half opened up. I have decided to use the back of the doors o display some of my bits and pieces. there is a load of space for pictures but I have made a good start on it. (I have some of my favourite hand made cards, plus other bits and pieces) Even with all the storage space I have decided to store albums on top as they are so heavy and I don't want to trash the shelves.

Here are a few of my favourite things!!!

Here it is opened out. I still have lots of empty drawers, but those with things in are full of 'stuff' and labeled which means I should be able to find things again. Now it is fully sorted out I am pleased with it. It looks really neat packed away and when its open everything is within arms reach. I just need to get started back on my scrapping now!

Mum is doing fine, I haven't been in today as to be honest its all getting a bit too emotional. She seems to cry every time I go in and that is hard to deal with. Keith has gone in and has spoken to the staff and they have made some headway. She is going to have a shower tomorrow morning before she goes to physio. Dad has seen her walk around 10 yards today which is great. She should be able to build on that and is closer to getting home!

Strange Old Day

Well the day got off to a bad start, I was unwell with a dodgy tummy, been up on and off during the night, I am very suspicious that the Subway I had for lunch yesterday was responsible for my rough night and grotty day. By around mid afternoon I was feeling a little better and started to look through some of the 'stuff' I had been clearing out. I found this lovely little photo starring a load of sunflowers and two out of three of the kids. Carl was so chubby cheeked and Beth looked sooooo cute!

This evening we went to see Mum . She has had the staples out of the wounds and again she was not impressed and kicked up when they came out. When I have had mine out I don't remember them hurting that much, there is always at least one that needs a bit of a tug, but generally they are uncomfortable rather than painful. My brother visited and asked the staff what was happening as she has been complaining of a pain  in her arm for the past few days. The Sister said that they had reported it to the Doctor who thought it was muscle strain, they are going to check it out again in the morning. Mum seemed a little confused again tonight, Yesterday she was freezing cold sat in the day room wrapped in a blanket , tonight she was boiling hot and sitting by her bed, she was not happy at the arrival of another housemate and she told me that she had walked around 12 miles today! Confusion reigns!!

Onwards and Upwards!!

Still Sorting Out.

After work today I continued with my reorganising. Its been very painful, mainly because I have real trouble throwing things away. I am firmly in the 'one day it might come in useful' camp. I have tonight finally given in and decided to throw out some fabric paints from about 15 years ago. It was agony, I started by checking each bottle out to see if the paint was still liquid, it was hit and miss, some were some were rock solid. I took the painful decision just to stop testing and chuck them away. Oh the pain, what if I discovered that I had an urgent need to paint fabric tomorrow and I was without paint?? I have kept a couple of little bottles just in case, just in case.

I also cleared out my collection of sewing boxes, I have a thing about 'old' sewing boxes, you know the type your Nan used to have. Odd buttons, ancient threads for mending 'nylons', Hooks and eyes, strange instruments for transferring tailors chalk marks (who knows why you would want to do that in the first place!!) So I have decided to rationalise them as well.I have now got all the threads in one of the new drawers and all the 'tools' in another drawer in case one day I do find that I need to use them on something.

All I have left is a few bits and pieces to do, I am finding it hard to build up my confidence enough to throw out anything else tonight. Mind you with the huge amount of packing that we have left out for the dustman, they may decide that we are worth missing this week!

Mum is getting on well, she has been up and walking around a bit. They seem to have adopted the carrot and stick method with the patients. They dangle the carrot by saying all they have to do is walk to, say the toilet. Once they arrive and expect to sit down and then hitch a lift back on a chair, they are hit with the stick and told that they have to walk back as well!! So best you don't exhaust yourself on the first leg of the journey.

A bonus of my big clear out is that I have found a bag of knitting, so I am going to take that in for her tomorrow, that should keep her busy.

This Weekend I made Something........ and it made me ache!!!!

For Christmas Tom said I could have a craft storage cupboard, I had hoped it would arrive before Christmas, but it didn't. So when it finally arrived on Saturday morning I was glad it hadn't, it arrived on a pallet, 5 enormous boxes weighing a ton.  We got started on it straight away and the above photo is us in mid sort. By the time we had all the pieces out of the boxes we had 6 black bags of polystyrene waste plus a whole load of cardboard. The next problem was that the construction instructions were on a CD ROM. This meant that we had to watch, pause, rewind, watch again to work out what to do. The bloke showing us how to build it managed to do so in around 8 minutes, while calmly listening to tinkly music. We on the other hand took two days, a large amount of swearing and still managed to get a piece the wrong way around which meant we had to take one piece apart and start again.

Today at the end of day two, we are both exhausted and ache like theres no tomorrow. We have both been in positions that we haven't been in for a good long while. The Conservatory looks like a bomb has hit it. I am now slowly loading all my craft stuff into the new cupboard. It has a load of cute little shelves and baskets. I am having to label them as I go or I stand the risk of never being able to find a pair of scissors ever again!! Once its all sorted I will show you. If you want my advice, don't think about buying one, its too painful!!

Because of the marathon construction effort we never made it in to see mum today, we did however manage to make dinner for Dad and Laura. We saw Mum yesterday and she was not too impressed with her new abode. They were making her do things which she was not too keen to do. Nothing nasty just little things like getting herself dressed and the likes. Dad has seen her today and he has said that she is finally accepting that she needs to get stuck in and things will get better for her. I am encouraged!!!

Whooosh and shes gone!!!

Yesterday I was planning to go and see Mum at the usual time, when I received a call from the hospital to say that they were planning to move her to the QVM. I was surprised because they do nothing in a hurry, but they had transport arranged for 1pm and they intended to have her moved at that time.

Of course knowing what I know about the NHS they NEVER do anything on time and why move a patient in the day light? far better to move them at night (or at least in the dark) so that they are disorientated and have no idea where they are. This was a tactic they used all the time when dad was in hospital. He was even asleep on one of the moves in the middle of the night and they shunted him to another ward.

Any how true to form they finally loaded mum up into the ambulance at 7pm and carted her off, only 6 hours late in the pouring rain and dark!!!

We went to the new hospital and by the time we had got there she was already in the bed and settling down. She was still miserable, but she will get better at this place she will not be allowed to stay in bed. They have already phoned and asked for her clothes and shoes, until she is dressed she can't go into the mixed day room or undertake any physio. So dad has gone up with an assortment of clothes and hopefully we will see things start to improve. Its a nice friendly place, no Doctors only nurses and physios and on call from the local surgery. It just seems a lot more caring.

Tom and I have been up since 8am (on a Saturday!!!) and we have cleared off my craft area. Before Christmas I ordered a spanking new craft cupboard and it was delivered this morning. It looks really daunting as there are 6 huge boxes in total, it arrived on a pallet and its going to take an age to sort out. It'll be great once its done.

Fantastic Good News!!!

Today Laura went for a job interview, the first one in a few years, she prepared well for the interview, went to the place that was advertising to see if she would like it. She found out as much as she could about it and applied. Today she found that all her hard work had paid off, she was successful and has been offered a full time job!! This is fantastic news, against a background of growing unemployment. So she is going to start at the beginning of February. We are so proud of her. 

We went to see Mum tonight, she was sitting in the arm chair by her bed. Despite being in a new bay she said she had a terrible night, this time it was due to the bed itself. The mattress is a special any bed sore one and has a undulating effect with compressed air moving the points of pressure. Mum said that last night she was finding it difficult to sleep because of that. So when we arrived tonight they had decided to change her mattress to a new one which was still an air mattress but one more suitable to her size. Unfortunately the hospital had declared and emergency incident this afternoon after all electrical power was lost and the hospital had swapped onto generator power.So the new mattress was taking ages to blow up. We were there over an hour and it was still only half full. Mum was getting herself upset by this and wanted to get back in bed as she said she was aching in the chair and very tired. When it was finally firm enough to use the nurse arrived to organise her return to the bed. I was quite shocked at how 'infirm' Mum was, She had told us that she had walked around the bed with a zimmer frame, but tonight she couldn't get off of the chair, once we finally got her up she was all bent over and in danger of falling as she was looking down at the floor and not at where she wanted to go. There was only one step to the bed but she didn't lift her feet she sort of shuffled and then perched on the edge of the bed. She was too close to the edge and ended up having to get up again to move further back. She eventually got in with the nurse swinging her legs up.

To be honest I was amazed at how little she could move, I was expecting her to be able to walk but with assistance, but this was nothing like that. I really fear that she won't be in a position to walk out of there.

So a great day has turned to a day of great concern.  I just hope it turns itself around, perhaps Mum was tired and stiff having been stuck in the chair so long. Onwards and upwards!!!

If Only I had Known !!!

After I called the hospital last night about the wailing lady and the fact that Mum had complained to me that they had not got her a bedpan when she needed it, the lack of sleep and the general feeling that both Mum and we had that she was not being listened to,things have changed.

This morning they moved mum into another bay, with a bed next to the window. At the same time they moved the wailing lady to the other end of the ward in a side room. The distance combined with Mums deafness means that she can't hear her anymore and she at last has the chance of a reasonable nights sleep. I spoke to Mum this morning and she said they actually made sure she was warm enough last night and they answered the call bell when she wanted the loo. Its so undignified to have to beg to go to the toilet and if an accident happens to be left wet all night. Last night my phone call made sure that they knew we were onto them I think that they knew I would not let it rest and my only regret is that I did not complain earlier. Isn't it sad that you have to fight for absolutely everything???

Today has been a mixed day for her, the physios have not been around so she feels bed bound again. She has been out to sit in her chair but she doesn't feel she has made any progress. The nurse looking after her says she is making the progress that they require and if she carries on at this rate she will be out next week. More mixed messages from Mum, she has told me that they are looking for a private hospital for her (?) or they are looking for an old peoples home for her(?) I think she has her knickers in a twist and has confused things. Who knows??

I had some late appointments at work tonight and when I came to leave at 7.30pm I was blocked in by a car with a flat tyre. It was pitch back, pouring with rain and cold. The car driver was trying to change the tyre, but didn't know exactly what to do, so I (a mere woman) had to help a man change his tyre!!!! He didn't even have a torch, It was true Girl Power!!!!

Hit The Wall.

Mum has been doing so well, today she has hit a wall and is very very tearful. She has been up and out of bed, she has walked around the bed, sat in her chair got back in, got out again and should be very pleased with herself BUT she is tearful. This morning instead of telling her that she was doing well the staff told her that she might end up at QVM for rehabilitation. Dad was at the QVM and once we had all got over the shock of him arriving in a day room full of people in chairs all staring blankly at each other they went on to get him back on his feet and walking which was the whole object of the game.

So The QVM (Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital) could end up being a good thing, Mum is yet to be convinced.

During tonight's visit we were all subjected to the wailing from the woman in the bed opposite, she is totally confused and she screams at the top of her voice and carries on all through the night. She is so loud and frightening that the rest of the ladies in the bay have all been given ear plugs. During visiting she wails and just doesn't stop. I know it must be hard for the staff but its awful for the rest of the inmates who can't sleep and are exhausted by all the noise. Tonight Mum phoned to say that she had had enough and she was going to have to leave and wanted me to go and get her. I called the hospital and spoke to the staff nurse. While I understand its hard but surely the rest of them are entitled to some peace to enable them to get better, perhaps some or all of them need something to help them sleep.  I think that the woman who screams is lucky that the rest are bed ridden or I think they may well have taken the law into their own hands.

The hospital are going to see what they can do I'm not holding my breath.

I am looking at this as a step closer to home......

If that was Christmas, We've had it!!!!

Things really haven't gone to plan this Christmas so its a shame that I am  heading back to work tomorrow feeling far from refreshed and ready to fight a new years worth of problems.

I am still awaiting the delivery of my craft cupboard, so I'll be on to them tomorrow. I have not been able to do too much as I refuse to sort the craft table out twice!! I did buy a Rosary kit in USA and I finally photographed it, not a good one, but I enjoyed making it and will make some more.

Called in to see Mum this evening. She seems to be doing well but tonight she was very down in the dumps and crying. I think its because she feels a bit trapped in there and unable to get away from the woman in the bed opposite who wails all the night and most of the day. She is pinning a lot of hope on the physios turning up to help her tomorrow, but I hope she isn't going to feel let down when she is unable to walk up and down the ward in one hit. On the plus side she is on no extra pain killers beyond those she was on when she came in, so no more morphine and she is comfortable, she is really able to move the duff leg around in the bed which is great. Fingers crossed she continues to progress, I noticed on the board they have her down for discharge on the 11th of January. Who knows??

Morning!!

We called in to see Mum last night and she seems back to her usual self, no wild religious Sects demanding that she joins, they have stopped using grapefruit in the tea and all is nearly well with the world. She has been out of bed twice and has sat in the chair for a bit. The real problem is that with it being the Bank holiday she is again waiting for the physios to come in tomorrow to get her moving on her own. The biggest problem she is experiencing at the moment is another patient who is very confused and who screams out all night. She makes me jump when she does it during visiting, so it must be very disconcerting in the middle of the night when you have just dropped off to sleep. None the less we are still happy with progress and Mum is really trying which is all you can ask.

I was really hoping that my new craft storage cupboard would have been delivered in time for Christmas as promised on their web site, It hasn't been delivered and it appears they are on shut down over the holiday period, so I can't even ask them where it is. I feel a bit miffed as we have had the time to build it over the break which has now not happened, I will have to hope its here this weekend.

Over the holiday I have made a few necklaces and I have made up a Rosary Bead kit that I bought back from the USA. I am really pleased with that and I will make it up again using different beads. I just need to take some photos to show you all!!

Tidy Up Time.

Well that time has arrived, where all the decorations have to be packed away back into the loft for next year. Usually we would wait a little longer but this year the tree has given up the ghost and we are fed up with sweeping up needles, so its gone out into the garden ready for recycling. I have also given our bedroom a good clean and got rid of loads of 'stuff' that's been hanging around. I seem to have loads and loads of rubbish bags and the dustman hasn't been for weeks. New years eve the TV blew up, so we decided to get a new one in the sales, that generated a whole load of cardboard so our brown recycling is stuffed to the gunnel's and I am sure when they tip the bin nothing will happens as its so jammed in.

We went to see Mum last night and she is doing very well. She has been out of bed a couple of times. All drips have gone as has the catheter, she is really making good progress. Since she has refused to have anymore Morphine her mental confusion has improved. Last night she was back to 'near' normal only a couple of odd things, but I am very encouraged. We even decided it was safe to let her have her mobile phone back and she called this morning to say she was doing OK.

So back to the hoovering, nearly done!!!

Best neighbour in the World???? I think so!!!

My lovely neighbour - Karen over the road- made these lovely cup cakes. I saw them on face book, I lusted after them and today they arrived st my house!!!!

They are absolutely Yummy. Thank you Karen.

xxxxx

Happy New Year!!!!!

2011 has got off with a big bang!!! We had our regular guests over, Madeline, John and Grace. We had a lovely Chinese meal followed by Lemoncello cake and chocolate trifle. We then had a few rounds of Balderdash and before we knew it it was midnight and next year!!!

We set off our 25 round 'twinkling barrage' firework (which was certainly more barrage with some twinkling) We the went out the front and set off some Chinese Lanterns. The whole of the sky was lit up with them at one point before we even released ours we could see around 20 floating away, very spectacular!!

We did have a bit of a problem getting ours to take off, they seemed a little reluctant to leave us and one of them once it had gone failed and set fire to itself, no doubt the remains came down over the road!!!

Happy New Year to one and all!!!

Before our guests arrived we went in to see Mum, she was much less confused not too uncomfortable. They had tried to get her up but she was convinced that she couldn't get out of bed because the mattress was wrong. she said it was in the wrong place (?) and that she wasn't close enough to the ground. I am worried that by not getting out yesterday she has blown her chances of getting out of bed until Tuesday when the physios return. We took her mobile into her and she has text me this morning but she has phoned one of her friends and told her she wants to get up but they are taking no notice of her. I have checked with the hospital and they won't get her up until the physios are there, so it going to be Tuesday. A real shame because if she had got up yesterday she would have been able to get up herself this morning. She will just have to keep moving in the bed.