Packing Boxes and Bags

I do not know where October has gone to. It seems to me that it has been cut by around three weeks or so. Mind you I have been busy so it is not surprising that time has flown by. So, what have I been up to? There is so much to tell.

Work has been hectic, and I mean more so than usual due to various factors beyond my control. Also, at the start of the month I had a really bad chest infection which left me unable to breathe properly. I was put on a course of steroids strong enough to be the envy of an athlete with questionable morals and told if things didn't improve in a couple of days then I would be admitted to hospital. Luckily I did improve but am still not 100%. Nasty bug. So, I had to have some time away from work which further compressed deadlines. I have been very tired. On top of that I found out recently that my post has been cut so I need to find something else.

I have also been raising funds for Operation Christmas Child. I chuffed to bits that I managed to fill and wrap 50 shoe boxes for under privileged children this year. It's so simple to do and has such an immediate effect as I know that the box I put together will be received, as it was sent, by a child that would otherwise receive nothing. I love that such little things like soap, toothbrushes, stationary, small toys, hats, gloves etc. are appreciated. It seems to me that we can take a lot for granted sometimes. In Romania, the children from gypsy families cannot even go to school unless they supply their own stationary so just a few pencils and notebooks can provide access to education. Who would have thought it would be so simple to really make a difference to someones life?

I also had my first professional commission as a photographer. A friend of mine has written a book about survival during a zombie apocalypse and I have been assisting with taking photographs and editing. Taking the photos was quite intense but a lot of fun, especially when we had people made up as zombies. I loved that even though there was a list of shots that were required I could also still exercise some of my creative skills and came up with a few good ideas of my own. It was good experience having to direct the people modeling, especially as none of them were professional models. It was pretty time consuming but worth it as the book has been published and is available online.

So, after all that I think I deserve a holiday and so that is exactly what I am doing. Soon I will be jetting off to San Francisco, somewhere that has been on my list for some time. Literally everyone I have spoken to that has been there has said that they loved it. I am so looking forward to seeing it for myself. Of course this means that I will be absent from blogging for around just over a week but I am going to make a concerted effort to visit all my blog friends before I go. Watch out San Francisco, I'm packing my bags.

The Best News!

I am not going to beat around the bush or draw this out. I have just got back from seeing the consultant at the hospital and I have been given the best news! My thyroid tumour was a benign Hector! This means no more surgery and no nasty treatments!

I was so pleased when I received the news I could have hugged the humourless consultant. My joy must have been catching as he even broke into a smile. I cannot begin to describe the absolute relief I am feeling right now. It has been very stressful living with the thought that I might have had cancer, although at other times I have been so full of the hope that it would be benign. My hope has been realised and I am so happy! :)

Thank you so much to everyone that has left supportive comments, prayed or sent positive vibes. I have appreciated them so much. Right now I am off to get on with the rest of my life without the weight of Hector hanging over me.

The Waiting Game

I've never been very good at waiting. It's not that I'm impatient. When something is worth it I can be very patient. I worked five years for my Masters degree, I can save for things I want rather than use credit, I have coached staff, I can leave presents unopened until Christmas and birthday mornings. So I guess it's just that I'm no good at waiting when waiting leaves me in the "Great Wide Unknown".

When faced with uncertainty therefore, I hate waiting. I get frustrated. I hope for the best, imagine the worst and vacillate between accepting my fate (whatever it turns out to be) and railing against the gods. The various roads that could play out lay before me and I mentally travel each one, trying them on for size but knowing that only one of them is the road of my future. In short, in times of quiet, when my mind is meant to be resting (like when I wake at night or have some idle moments to spare) it is rushing around trying to remove the uncertainty and hasten time to no avail.

I see these potential paths before me now. The one to the left is marked 'Benign Tumour Ave' while the one on the right is labelled 'Suspicious Hector Boulevard'. This road is far more treacherous and has various branches where there might be more surgery, there might be radio-isotope therapy, there might be hormone replacement therapy, there might be complications, there might be time off work and... there are too many 'mights'. 'The Great Wide Unknown' is a noisy junction in which I currently feel immobilised. It is not up to me which path I tread.

Most of the time I am fine. It's just the waiting sometimes. I see the consultant this week coming. Then I will know which way I am going. Best foot forward...

If you are here for Camera Critters, then please visit my photo blog by clicking on the photo in the side bar or *here*.

Scar Neck

The staples come out today (Thurs), hoorah! I really cannot wait. They are getting quite sore now and I am sure it's because my body is rejecting them and wants them out as much as the rest of me.

It will be so nice to move my head properly again as the staples pull when I move it. In fact, it will be nice to move my whole body properly again. You don't realise how much you use parts of your body until you can't any more. Simple things like sitting up and turning over in bed have become quite awkward because I haven't been able to twist my neck. Thank goodness my tummy muscles have been strong enough to compensate!

Still, I am on the mend nicely but have been oh so sleepy! I have never napped so much in my life and apparently it's due to the pain killers and the vestiges of the general anaesthetic in my system. I have spent my time dozing on the sofa with films playing. Never have I watched so many half films but on the whole I have seen them before and most favourites I can pick up and put down again like a much loved book and know exactly where I am.

Anyway, I will post a pic later of how my neck looks once it's destapled! I'm not looking forward to the process but I am looking forward to being staple free!

Update: I have now dispensed with my retro punk look, however there is no pic as promised as I have a dressing on for the next 48 hours to protect the wound. It didn't hurt too much at all, and I only felt discomfort on one or two. I'm a little sore right now but the nurse assured me that I was healing nicely and didn't think the scar would be too bad. Fingers crossed.

I also have my next appointment with my consultant now to get the path lab results. I find out exactly what Hector was on 28th January. Fingers crossed for that too. I really don't want to have to go through this again any time soon.

Hector has left the building

I'm back. I'm sore. I'm tired. I'm drugged up to the eyeballs, but above all my consultant assured me that the surgery went well and that is excellent news. Hector has been evicted.

I have been so out of things (generally dozy, nauseous and dizzy) that I haven't done much but nap. This afternoon is the first time I have felt up to going online so thanks to those of you who have stopped by and let me know you are thinking of me. I really appreciate it.

I currently resemble the sister to Frankenstein's monster as you can see from the photo (don't look if you're squeamish). Think I'm going to have to get some scarves to wear when I'm out and about (when I'm up to it). The staples come out at the end of the week and I get the results from the path report in a couple of weeks. Right now, just this bit of typing has worn me out so I need to lie down. Thanks for stopping by.

Touched

January the 9th is rushing towards me like an out-of-control train. This Friday I go into hospital and Hector (the thyroid lump) is evicted for good, which is a good thing. The fact that this involves invasive surgery and a short stay in hospital is not so good. I am in fact dreading it and I feel a right wimp as people go through far worse than this. But here's the thing, this is happening to me. I have to go through this and I do not like the prospect one little bit. As I said to my humourless consultant 'Do I really have to be there?'

The weird thing is, that as much as I am not relishing the surgery and going under anaesthetic and spending a day or so with a drain in my neck (due to post op bleeding) I am dreading the whole staying in hospital thing so much more. I do not like anything medical and hate hospitals. I am a very private person and the thought of spending time in a ward with strangers is filling me with dread. I am also a light sleeper and so I have been looking for a way to make the unpleasant a little more bearable.

Enter the iPod Touch. I have just treated myself to one of these little gadgets and it is way cooler than I ever will be. I have loaded some films onto it and some music as well as games and have an immediate entertain-Bobkat-during-her-stay-in-hospital kit. The beauty of it is that I can shut out things around me as much as possible with a pair of earphones and if the person in the bed next to me snores I can simply pop them on and drift off.

This will be my last post before I go into hospital as I have lots to do around the home and at work before I go in, so wish me luck. Thanks to everyone who has left supportive comments, offered well wishes or said prayers for me. I have been touched and appreciate each and everyone from the heart of my bottom (or perhaps that should that be the bottom of my heart!). I will post as soon as I am back home and let you all know that the waiting is so much worse than the actual event. Fingers crossed!

Doctor Deaf

I didn't take this advice. Bob seemed unwilling and quite frankly his fur tickles my nose so I stuck to regular tissues despite getting through a box a day for the past couple of days. Of course it has to be the aloe balm ones as my nose is sore enough as it is, a sure sign that the 'slime monster' has come back for another party bash in my head. This time he has bought reinforcements in the shape of Headache Horace, Achey Al, Temperature Teena and Coughin' Colin. Actually, Colin was already here, I guess he never really left when I was ill this time last month. It appears that my bronchi are inflamed somewhat and this is playing merry hell with my asthma and I'm wheezing like a pair of old bellows.

All this prompted a return visit to the doctors which is somewhere I hate to go. I've never been fond of medical people due to a couple of negative experiences when I was younger, including one when I was getting headaches nearly everyday only to have the doctor write 'HYPOCHONDRIAC' on my notes. I know that he wrote this as years later I took a look and saw it there in capital letters. The thing is, soon after he wrote this I was eventually diagnosed with migraines.

The doctor I saw this week reminded me of that doctor. I tried to explain that I have had a cough for about a month, and that I had just got much worse but he was not listening. He had read on my notes that I have asthma and that was all he could hear. I tried to explain that I no longer considered myself asthmatic as it never bothers me unless I am ill but all he would do was say my asthma was playing up. I then asked if I could have an airomir inhaler as it's difficult for me to use a normal one at the moment. He refused saying they were too expensive (why do I pay my National Insurance contributions?). I left feeling very frustrated and discontented with the whole experience.

So here I am, off work and pretty much sofa/bed bound. I am bored beyond belief but my head hurts if I use the computer too much. I am working on an Edinburgh post at the moment which I hope to have finished soon, meanwhile I have a photo of an orangutan on my photoblog if you feel like taking a look.

Feeling Yuk

I didn't go to work today. I came home early yesterday feeling yuk. I went to bed feeling okay the night before and then got up with the most horrendous head cold.

It feels like a slime monster has set up home in their and is having a thumping big party. My head aches, I keep sneezing (such an annoying bodily response), my nose runs incessantly (another really annoying bodily response and really gross too), I feel dizzy and my throat is sore. My nose is redder than Rudolf's from constant nose blowing (even using those balm tissues) and quite unseasonal, it being July.

I am not a good patient but then I'm my own nurse so that's not too much of a problem. I hate being ill. I get very frustrated with feeling too awful to do anything except lie on the sofa. Life is too short to feel this bad. The slime monster must leave and take his party guests with him.

Holding out for a Negative

I have been experiencing some discomfort in my calf muscle for the past few days but over the weekend it got so bad that it became difficult to walk. Stairs and steps have become pretty tricky and I have developed a limp that would easily win all the trophies at a limping contest. Seeing as it didn't seem to be getting any better despite yelling at it and ordering it to stop hurting, I took it to the doctors. Now my legs don't usually see the light of day so showing them off to someone was a bit daunting. Who knew what effect actual daylight might have on them?

The doctor prodded and poked and made a 'hmmm' noise and then uttered three little letters. Just three of them, meaningless on their own but when put together they weren't something I wanted to hear: D.V.T. The doctor suspects DVT. It isn't confirmed yet but she took some blood for testing. If it comes back positive for (insert long Latin medical name here) then I need to go in for a scan.

Negative generally has, well, negative meaning in life while positive is seen as something good. This time I'm counting on something negative happening. Fingers crossed.

Update: The doctor said that I would be informed if the test result was positive within a day, but that if it was negative then no-one would ring so I should get in touch if I had heard nothing just to confirm this. But when I rang the doctors the officious secretary informed me that it took 7-10 working days for test results to come back. I was quite taken aback and informed her what it was for and so she melted a bit and said she would look. There is nothing on my records so I am left in the dark still. I would very much like to know what I am dealing with here. Is no news good news?

Update

(photo not mine)

A big thank you to all of you who dropped by to send positive thoughts, prayers and best wishes to my mother and my family. They were greatly apreciated.

My parents and other relatives all live in Gloucester which has been badly hit by the flooding. You can view many pictures here. Yesterday the water was receding but today another inch of rain is due and then more rain is expected later in the week. With the rivers full and the ground already saturated this is a big threat and will hamper the clean up operation. My family escaped actually being flooded but were without power for a day (now restored) and have been without fresh water since the weekend. It could be two weeks before this is restored! Emergency supplies are being shipped into the area as shown here.

As you know my mother was taken into hospital at the end of last week as her legs had become very bad and the treatment would exacerbate some of her other medical problems. Well, they strated her on anti-biotics and said they would need to keep her in but yesterday all but the critical cases were dischaged and my mother was sent home! She was simply told to keep taking the anti-biotics and that was it! I can understand them not having water and needed to reduce the strain on the resources BUT I cannot understand how they can wash their hands of these people so easily. There has been no plans to re-admit them, no follow-up appointments made, nothing. My poor father has just been left to care for her. I am quite concerned as he is not a nurse and I worry about the strain on him.

Raining

(Photo not mine)

The weather here in the UK has been very wet for weeks now. So wet, in fact that I feel like I should find a hammer and some nails, build an ark and start rounding up random animals.

Looking out of the window, it reminds me of that old adage: 'It never rains but it pours'. I am swamped at work. Things are uber busy with preparing for a big meeting on top of normal work and also being involved in a change management programme. My boss has been on holiday all week and so I have been fielding all sorts of things. My days have been looooooong!

I also have an assignment to write for my masters degree. I only have a few days to get it done.

My divorce papers came yesterday. They make me sad. When I got married I never thought it would come to this. On the plus side getting them signed and receiving the decree nici and then absolute will mean that the process of getting divorced is over and I can shut the book on that chapter of my life.

My mother was re-admitted to hospital again today. I am currently waiting to hear what is going on. It is the cellulitis infection again. It has worsened to the extent that her legs are covered from the feet to the knees. It isn't life threatening in itself but it is a worry, considering her kidneys are not strong and she will need anti-biotics. My dad is very worried and I can't help but feel we have been here before. Fingers crossed that this time they cure it. My mother is very down at the moment.

Can we have some sunshine please?

Hugs

At last! My mum is returning home from hospital tomorrow. The doctors saw her today and they are pleased with how mum's legs are doing so they are sending her home with some meds, cream for her legs and some compression bandages to try and reduce the swelling. My dad told me that mum's legs are suddenly looking a lot better so this is great news. Of course mum is pleased as she was getting very fed-up and bored with being in hospital, not able to watch what she wanted or sleep in her own bed and all those other little things we all take for granted. She had been in hospital for about a month!

My dad will have to help my mum with the bandages and such, and social services are meant to be calling to see what care assistance will be required. Apparently she is already bossing dad around again which is a sure sign that she's feeling better!

I wanted to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for all your good thoughts, kind words and prayers for my mother. They were truly appreciated so thank you and hugs to you from me.

I am hoping to have a fun post up for my birthday on Thurs so be sure to drop by! :)

Good news!

I passed my exam!!!

I cannot begin to tell you how pleased and relieved I am. As some of you might remember I took my Strategic Human Resources exam back in April and I have not been completely confident that I would pass. But I did and what is more I did much better than I believed!

The reason I wasn't confident was that my revision time was very much compressed due to my text books and laptop being stolen not long before and so I had to catch up on my last essay but this impacted on my reading and revision (in fact there were a couple of areas I was forced to make the decision not to study as there was no time).

Now I am on the last leg of my MBA which is a work based project and also involves much reflection on myself as a manager and my development. I have been studying now for 5 years and although this learning has been great and so useful at work I have now had enough and want my free time back without having this hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles. For now though, I am just happy I have passed. It's the little boost I needed and what is more it's my birthday next week and I like birthdays :) I also had a great day off and went shopping as well as to see my mum and bought myself one or two little treats - a new pair of earrings and some lovely Molton Brown shower gel.

*************************************************************************************************************
Update on mum

Thanks as ever for your well wishes for my mother. There is not much change to report though the dermatologist is happy with how the infection is responding at last (it is less angry and red) and she is to see a lymph specialist next as her poor legs are so swollen and she can't have diuretics due to her tired kidney's. My mum was weepy again yesterday as now she just wants to go home. Fingers crossed, if they can get the swelling down it might be next week.

Mum watch

Your kindness in offering well wishes and prayers for my mother are very much appreciated so I thought I would give you all an update. I talk to my dad on a daily basis as I live too far away to visit more than once or twice a week. It gives me a chance to keep abreast of my mother's treatment and progress and also to check up on my dad who is starting to feel that the house is perhaps a little bit quiet with my mum away.

Mum is doing okay on the whole but goes trough weepy moments. She was on penicillin to treat her cellulitis infection but it didn't respond to this so she was put on erythromycin instead but she seems to be allergic to it! Now she is covered in an allergic rash as well. Either way, the cellulitis is being very stubborn and my mum is getting quite fed up with it. She is basically bed ridden as she has to rest her legs and keep them raised to reduce the swelling. She is seeing a vascular specialist tomorrow about this. On the plus side her diabetes continues to stabilise and her kidneys appear to have stabilised as well which is great news.

If you haven't heard of cellulitis it is an infection caused by bacteria, which affect skin and deeper soft tissues. Upon infection, afflicted areas are usually red, swollen, and painful. I am not sure what is happening next as the doctors decided against putting the direct line in to administer more antibiotics and have stayed with topical and oral treatment. Apparently cellulitis usually responds well to antibiotics but there are more resistant strains evolving. Here's hoping it has a positive effect soon.

Anyway, I have been feeling quite a bit under strain lately, so tomorrow I am taking a day off work. Ideally I need a longer break but a day is a good start. Things are getting on top of me and even housework and keeping the garden neat are an issue for me at the moment, let alone sorting out my divorce or writing my next essay for my MBA. My head is still above the water but at times I feel like I'm not waving but drowning. I will be fine I know, I just need to step back a bit and accept I'm not superhuman and try to tackle one thing at a time.

More on the zoo and Mum

I thought I'd share a couple more photos from when I visited Bristol Zoo, this time of the penguins which have always been a bit of a favourite of mine (though where animals are concerned I have many!). The zoo has a dedicated area called Penguin Coast which mimics the penguin's habitat, down to a pebble beach, nesting areas and waves on their 'sea'. Visitors walk along a planked walkway above the beach and also can walk through transparent tubes under the water to see the penguins swimming, which is always wonderful to see. They turn from slightly comical birds to graceful creatures underwater, diving and swooping through the water with agility.


When people think of penguins they usually think of the Antarctic, of snow and ice and cold but the penguins at the zoo are African Penguins. They come from the beaches of the Southern most parts of Africa and are threatened in the wild. As with the lemurs, Bristol Zoo is heavily involved in conservation work.


Also at the zoo is a Pygmy Hippopotamus (photo below) which are also found in Africa, but in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Their habitat is fresh water and tropical rain forest and once again the zoo had done wonders in making the hippo feel at home. The pygmy hippo is much smaller than the common hippo. Like it's larger relative, the nose and ears can be closed under water which is an adaptation to aquatic life. The skin is hairless and sensitive to the sun, but is kept supple and moisturised by a fluid that oozes from glands all over the skin, hence the hippo looks shiny in the photo. Most of the day is spent resting in ponds swamps and rivers to keep the skin supple. Now, doesn't that sound like a nice way to spend your time? This animal is also threatened in the wild with only 2000-3000 remaining in the wild, with the main reason being logging destroying it's habitat.

On a completely different note, I went to see my mother and it was the brightest I had seen her yet. This new consultant has changed her meds and has changed her management of her diabetes and it has had such an immediate and positive affect. I am really happy that this is the case but part of me is really very angry that my mother had been left until things got so bad. There seems to be an awful lot of apathy in our health service at the moment. I am not sating that all doctors are bad because they clearly aren't but I think that some care more than others. For example, my mother has found it impossible so she had been spending all night sat on the edge of the bed, in too much discomfort to sleep. One of the nurses noticed and bought her a wedge to put under the mattress at her feet end. My mum said it was the first good nights sleep she had had in a couple of weeks. This is the difference that caring makes!

Unfortunately her legs looked awful. They are so swollen and sore. She has to lie in bed while they are slathered in thick gunk to try and treat it. In her arm she has an antibiotic IV drip. They have drawn around the red area and it doesn't seem to be responding. However, I am hopeful that this new doctor will help. Fingers crossed! Thank you for all your positive thoughts and prayers. It is nice to know that my mother is in your thoughts.

Worried again

My regular visitors will notice that I haven't posted in a few days. It is most remiss of me and I apologise, however my mother has been re-admitted to hospital and I am concerned.

When she was admitted a couple of weeks ago with sciatic problems they sent her home with a suitcase full of painkillers and other medication but never really did much to address the actual cause. For the last couple of weeks this has meant that my mother has been virtually bed bound as she can no longer get around as she used to and the meds make her confused. Being a diabetic compounded the problems and now it seems that she has problems with her lower legs. Apparently the doctors think it is an infection but it is not responding to IV antibiotics. Yesterday a consultant saw the state of my mothers legs on his rounds and decided to take over her case. My father tells me that he was appalled at how my mothers diabetes has been mismanaged (she has not had a consultation about it in 4 years) and that he believes getting the diabetes under control will lessen all her symptoms. I hope they help her soon as apparently her spirit is severely dampened and she is very weepy. It is very upsetting.

I am going up to see her today. Please can I call on you to send positive thoughts and prayers again? Thank you.

Mum's the word

Thought I might provide you with an update. My mother is now home from hospital so I went up to see her. She was really pleased to see me and was so much brighter than when I last saw her which was great. For a start she recognised me this time! However, she is on a lot of meds which still make her disorientated from time to time, especially straight after taking them. This distresses her a bit so we looked them up and found she was on one or two that didn't seem to make sense so I noted them and told her to make sure she asked the doctor about them.

The thing that bothers me is that other than dose her up they seem to have done very little to help her and she certainly can't remain on the meds forever as she is very immobile and they affect her too much. I had a word with my father and apparently she is seeing someone this week (he thought they were from physiotherapy) so we'll see what happens next.

I took her some flowers and she told me she was glad to be home because she couldn't sleep properly in hospital. and she hated the food. We had to laugh as apparently when she was first admitted to hospital the doctor asked her if she knew where she was and she said 'Great Britain'!.. well, he didn't ask her to be specific! Anyway, I was glad to see that she was more herself.

Thanks to all of you who have popped by and left supportive comments. They are very much appreciated along with all your positive thoughts and prayers. Esecially as I'm not so good myself right now. Thank you.

Ray of Sunshine

(pic found on web)

I just wanted to thank all of you who have dropped by and left supportive comments and who have sent positive thoughts and prayers for my mother. It appears that they are working. Although the hospital still hasn't been able to find out exactly what is wrong, my mother is much more comfortable. The pain is more under control and she is sat up in bed on her own and is much brighter. She is mostly lucid (apart from just after she has taken her drug cocktail), is eating regularly, and from all accounts is starting to boss people around again so I know she is feeling better.

The doctors think that they should be able to investigate the cause of the pain by the end of the week but for now they are giving her time to stabilise as her muscles were in spasm from the pain. When I spoke to my father I could tell he was happier with how things were going too. This positive turn of events is quite a relief and I will go up and visit her again soon. Keep the positive thoughts coming!

Still worried

I went to visit my mother in hospital yesterday and she is not looking at all good. At first she didn't even recognise me. The drug cocktail she has been prescribed has her feeling extremely disorientated and nauseous and yet she is still in a great deal of pain. I really think they need to do something to alleviate the cause of the pain rather than just dosing her up but the consultant will not be back until tomorrow.

When I got to the hospital she was lying on the bed holding onto a damp flannel which she held across her eyes and forehead like her life depended on it. She just kept repeating that she didn't know where she was and that she couldn't take much more of this. Later when she was a little more lucid (it comes and goes in waves) she told me that the flannel is the only thing that is keeping her sane. I had taken her a small fluffy black dog with really soft fur and she held it in her other hand mumbling about how soft it was. I think it really helped her have something to hold on to.

Being diabetic my mother has to take insulin and so it is important for her to eat. Unfortunately as she is feeling nauseous it is hard to get her to eat, but it is so important that she does. I had taken her some fresh fruit salad as I know my mum likes fruit. Thank goodness that I did as everything the hospital gave her made her feel worse but she ate some of the fruit before becoming disorientated once more. I insisted on seeing the nurse and her drugs have been adjusted slightly in the hope that this will help.

We are still uncertain as to what is wrong with my mother but it seems likely that two or three of her vertebra have crumbled causing the discs to slip and press on the sciatic nerve. I am terribly worried that this will mean that she will be wheel chair bound for the rest of her life now. My mother is pretty disabled anyway but fiercely tries to keep mobile as much as she can, even if it is just a few metres that she can walk. I know that if she can't walk at all this will upset her very much.

At the moment though I just hope that they do something to help her soon. It is extremely upsetting to see someone you love in such much distress and not be able to help. I stayed for a while and held her hand though she nodded off for much of the time. When we left I promised her I would return soon and then I went to have dinner with my dad. We took him to a nice pub nearby and bought him dinner which he enjoyed immensely. I didn't want him having dinner on his own. He is holding up okay but I can tell he is worried. I am too. Thanks for all your kind comments. Please keep sending the positive thoughts, they are much appreciated.

Worried

I'm back from my trip to Brussels. The meeting was successful and I actually had a few hours to have a quick look around. I took some pics with my mobile phone and I will post a few very soon however right now I have other concerns. While I was there I received a message to say that my mother had been taken ill and today she has been admitted to hospital.

My mother suffers from diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, curvature of the spine, asthma and one or two other medical conditions, whose symptoms seem to merge into one mass medical condition that seems difficult to for doctors to tease out and treat effectively. As you can imagine, she is pretty disabled, on a number of drugs and she has good days and bad days. Just over a week ago she developed an abscess under her tooth and the dentist had to remove the tooth. This left her with a very painful jaw which got more painful as days passed. Last weekend an emergency doctor prescribed her some painkillers which seemed to help at first but then she got much worse. It seems that while I was away she went downhill rapidly and is now in great pain, in her neck, shoulder and down the side of her body. The doctor prescribed morphine but it is not working and has made her disorientated and sick, so she has been admitted to hospital so that they can get the pain under control. Then they can investigate what is wrong and hopefully treat her.

I am currently waiting for the consultant to see her. I hope they make her more comfortable soon. I am hoping to go and visit her over the weekend (we do not live in the same city), but at the moment she is not up to visitors. I am going to go and see how my father is bearing up anyway so I apologise in advance if I am not visiting you all as much as I would like. Please send my mum lots of positive thoughts. I really am quite worried.