Lockdown Diary - Monday 7th June 2021

Went for a walk just after the carer's first visit.  Back to get myself organised for yoga at 10.  Abbot nurse is supposed to be coming at 10:30 to change my wife's PEG, which will interrupt my yoga, but there you go.  

Just after the second set of carers arrive and as I'm setting up for yoga I discover a text from the Abbot nurse sent at 7:30.  Apparently the last feed and medication should be from then. Great planning on his part! I reply and say I hadn't seen the text until now (about 09:45), so he has to change his plans - we have to stop the feed now and flush the tube and he's now coming at midday.  Maybe he should have told me this last week when he made the appointment - then I could have coordinated all this with the carers!  On the plus side (for me) my yoga won't be interrupted.

Yoga is done - another good virtual session and next week it returns to being in real life yoga.  Just one problem, I've just realised that I am busy next Monday and can't attend, though I plan to the following week.

Around midday two community nurses arrived followed by the Abbot nurse. There all here to take part in the changing of my wife's PEG.  After all the legal stuff that I have to verbally accept - it's not quite an operation, but it is a procedure which comes with risk, the worst of which being my wife ends up in hospital - the process begins.  In the event one of the nurses asks if she can do it, and so removes the old PEG and inserts the new one (there are a lot more steps to the process than that) guided and overseen by the Abbot nurse.

After the process is completed and they've checked for leaks etc I'm told that we have to look out for signs of discomfort when feeding, fluid seepage or blood in or out of the tube for the next 24 hours. More things to look out for!

A chunk of the afternoon is taken up with all three sons visit to the hygienist with me as chauffeur.  Whilst waiting in the car sons 1 and 2 booked their first Covid vaccines with our GP and have appointments on Friday.  They still aren't doing the under 20s so son #3 will have to wait.

Book club this evening and we're going to be discussing 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho. I have a feeling I am going to be the only one who didn't enjoy it (or to be more precise the only one who actively disliked it), but that's the way things go sometimes, I guess.

Well that was a very lively discussion about 'The Alchemist'!  Unusually we had three new members, two of them international - one in Paris and one in New York city. One other person didn't like the book, though perhaps not as much as me.  I expressed my dislike of the book and my perspective (which after all, is all it ever can be) which ended up taking in alchemy, the history of Magic(k) as well as contributions from across the pond about stoicism and daoism! More bedtime reading! Overall a very enjoyable evening, one of the best book club meetings of the Zoom era!

After that dinner, philosophy, the 'Rub'aiy'at of Omar Khayy'am' (extracts) and the beckoning arms of sleep, which can never come too soon.

Gaz Coombes / 'Vanishing Act' / 'World's Strongest Man'



[[]]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Monday 13th May 2024

Image
The last time I wrote here, April was disappearing into the sunset. Given the amount of cloud and rain during the month, that was more metaphorical than literal. Ho, hum, pig's bum! It may or not be the case.  Scrub that: it May be, is. What's the craic, I 'hear' you ask? It's a game of two halves, to be 'honest'. Allegedly, I am a 'parrot', sleep-wise, though not as sick as one. Over to you, Barry. It's alright, I'm just messin'. I am toying with the idea of attempting to write entirely in clichés, but mixing them up and playing with them for the linguistic fun of it. I could try to do that, but it would take a while and I have other things I want to say today.  So, it's time to get down to business.  Nose to the grindstone. Shoulder to the wheel. Pull my socks up. This post is not going to write itself. Sadly, for all concerned, E's health seems to have plateaued again. I'm not sure who this benefits, not her nor our sons wh
Read more

Lockdown Diary - Friday 28th August 2020

Image
I had a lie-in until about 7 a.m. as it's the last day of my leave, but I was up for the first carer call just after 7, then after she'd left I got on with showering, exercising, getting dressed and having breakfast. I have various things to organise, not least to make sure son #3 has actually thought about what he needs for university, which potentially he starts 3 weeks from today (I say potentially because things are not yet finalised, but it's looking like he'll be starting on our wedding anniversary) Apart from that I'm going to revise the next module of the Mulesoft training course, which I hope will take no longer than an hour. Cripes! The morning has gone and I have no idea how I've used it all up.  Sons 2 and 3 are making lunch - bacon and eggs today - and son #1 and his gf are up and about. We watched an episode of 'Peep Show' over lunch then split up to do whatever we had to do. Fully recharged by lunch, I'm going to tackle Mulesoft now. 
Read more

Lockdown Diary - Wednesday 8th July 2020

Image
I shall start this post, my first since Sunday, with a warning - actually, make that two: It's going to be a long post, as I have a lot to say; It's also going to have load of hospital / surgery / whatever stuff in it too, about which you may well have zero interest. I'll mark the beginning and end of that section clearly so you can skip it and move to the rest of the blog without getting bored senseless. I have to write it though, because it needs to be recorded for posterity and for one reason or another everything that surrounds this operation has been a major part of my life, with a load of impacts on almost every aspect of it, for a few years now. I cannot ignore it for that reason. I came out of hospital yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon being discharged at around 1:30 p.m. and collected by a good friend. During my time in the hospital - from 7:20 a.m. on Monday, when I was greeted by the admin person at the door of the ward - I was looked after incredibly well. I'd
Read more

Lockdown Diary - Thursday 11th March 2021

Image
Work until early evening, when I joined the Idler Drinks with this week's guest, Chris Difford, of Squeeze and solo song writing fame. Interesting and temporarily diverting chat which roamed far and wide across his career and what he's doing under lockdown.  More of that, including monthly (I think) online socials with guests in aid of charities (see here for more info on all Chris's activities) and much more.   Early on in the chat he talked of the early days of writing with Squeeze co-conspirator Glenn Tillbrook, when they were much taken and influenced by the songs of Todd Rundgren, which I enjoyed hearing about. The interview ended with an impromptu acoustic rendition of 'Cool For Cats' from Chris's shed/den. After that son #2 and I started making chicken and black bean enchiladas from a recipe off the BBC Good Food website. Prep time is always longer than their estimates - and that was with two of us doing parallel tasks. Usual series of events, accompanie
Read more

Lockdown Diary - Tuesday 29th September 2020

Image
Although I have today off, it pales into insignificance compared to the action of yesterday. This is often my challenge. I decided last night that I'd get up later, but I have to admit, though technically I had more sleep, I don't feel any better for it. I still struggled to get up and I know that there is an undercurrent of tiredness which cannot be cured by sleep alone. Less or more, makes no difference. Ennui. I've only got one specific thing in the diary today, which is a call with an ex work colleague who I've not spoken to in a while.  Not sure how long. At the appointed hour WA kicked into life and I began a longish video call with an old friend. He has retired (who hasn't?) - in fact he's been retired for two years and seems to be enjoying life, subject to the same restrictions we are all living under.  It turns out he didn't even know my wife was ill, never mind bedbound, which means we may not have spoken for 11 or more years.  Despite the interven
Read more