Uncertain times

So where do I start?

Well of course the thing that's on all our minds right now is Coronavirus. It's been approaching with a horrible inevitability and now it's been unleashed in the UK. The thing is at the moment no-one knows exactly what's going to happen and it must be hard for the politicians to decide what to do.

The panic buying has been horrible. Being someone with health issues I use hand sanitiser on a regular basis eg after using an ATM. As I was getting low I innnocently went out to get some and... there was none! Not any anywhere. And hand sanitiser is appearing for sale at extortionate prices on Ebay and other sites and you can't get much of a sadder reflection of our society than that.

And then there was no tissues, paracetamol, hand wash, soap, pasta, tinned tomatoes, toilet paper etc etc. Ok people might need to buy a little bit more but people piling their trolleys high with multiple packs of the same thing isn't necessary.

We tend to keep our cupboards well stocked with food anyway because it is possible for us to get snowed in and not be able to get to the shops. We might run out of a few things but we haven't been bulk buying. We'll just use up whatever we've got.

At the moment one member of my extended family probably has the virus though not too badly. A friend's nephew also has it.

It's my elderly family and friends that are on my heart especially my dad and uncle and  Mavis. If any of them get it I may simply never see them again.

We have already cancelled plans to go to Wales for Easter and we had been planning to go to Ireland in May (have booked cottage) and ferry and that's looking unlikely. 

Uncertain is really the word that describes things at the moment.

Hello again

It's sort of been a bit of a long time since I blogged. Life has actually been a bit tough really. Among other things J became really unwell. 

Sometimes you just kind of get from one day to the next and that's a major achievement.

Sometimes you go into the bathroom and have an emotional meltdown and say you can't go on. But you do go on. Because you have to.

Anyway life has gone on and there's been er quite a lot happening in the world since I last blogged.

Lovely staff and good coffee

On the drive to visit Mavis at some point I usually cover my eyes in shock at the 'city driving', there are often traffic jams, it can take ages to find a parrking space, the hospital is huge and busy, the ward hot and stuffy but I must say the staff have been lovely.

And there's a good coffee shop.

Bad driving

On the way to the hospital we saw what was I think the worst driving I had ever seen. We were second in queue at traffic lights at T junction but when they turned green there was so much traffic that car in front couldn't turn without blocking the junction. Cue lots of angry beeping and a woman got out of her car and berated the driver.

Then...

After lights had turned red two cars overtook both of us by driving on the wrong side of the road and then went through the red lights and barged their way into the queue of now moving traffic nearly causing a crash!

Never seen anything like it.

Mavis has an ercp

Well there was good news about Mavis today - the MRI showed three gallstones in her bile duct and they removed them with an endoscope this morning - a procedure technically called Endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (or ercp for short).  Amazing what they can do! Hopefully she will now start to recover. She was very dopey and only briefly opened her eyes. Will see what she's like tomorrow.

A difficult hospital visit

This afternoon we went to visit Mavis as in elderly lady from our previous church whom we have been supporting for years) who is in hospital. She is ill with infections in her liver and gallbladder but they haven't managed to diagnose what's causing them yet. When she has an infection it somehow affects her brain so she can become unco-operative and well, just plain stroppy.Yesterday when we went in a nurse was trying to get her to drink but she wasn't opening her mouth and she didn't speak or look at us. In the end we felt her condition must have worsened and she was actually unable to speak. I cried on the way home, thinking that she was dying.

Today when we went in she was talking again but in a really bad mood and actually being what you might call a bit horrid to us.

I know she can't help it. It's just toxins affecting her brain but it's  hard.

What am I like?

Well we have been away. Perhaps I'll write about that tomorrow.

Went to church this morning where we had a lively and unusual service.

A cute little baby was crawling around playing with a ball when it rolled out of reach under my chair. I picked it up and rolled it back and missed by several metres. He sat there bewildered as it shot past him and everyone nearby was laughing. Oops! And I used to wonder why I was always picked last for the teams in PE.

After the service there were two drink bottles left behind. They had names on - the children in the family who were leading the service. We took them home, I texted their mum, they came and I handed them over. A couple of minutes later mum texted and said one of them wasn't theirs - I'd given them P's drink bottle instead of the little boy's.

What am I like?