Tales From The Crypt - Tuesday 24th August 2021

After yesterday's flying lesson, everything today is a bit of an anti-climax, and I'm back at work, to boot.

Back to work means less words here both because there's nothing other than the most general of things I can say about work and because work takes up a large chunk of the day, meaning there's less time to write making it harder for me to motivate myself to put fingers to keyboard.

As I've thought about the flying lesson, I realise there are a lot of things I picked up yesterday and that are only just starting to sink in and slot together.  Roll on the next one!

Not much else to say about the day: walked in the morning and again in the evening with son #1; otherwise, just the usual working day stuff culminating in me retiring to my freshly changed bed.

Steely Dan / 'Haitian Divorce' / 'The Royal Scam'



[[Despite the cod-reggae guitar motif, this song has always managed to retain a place in my heart! (Thinks: I should put together a list of successful and not so successful attempts at reggae by rock artists...Led Zeppelin for starters, anyone?]]

[[]]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Thursday 14th November 2024

Image
For about a week, maybe more, I've had a cold.  It's one of those colds that refuses to go quickly. I have shared it widely, unintentionally, though of course, I may not be the source of all the colds, there are so many about. I'm not here to write about my cold, though. It's a lead-in to something more pernicious. Accompanying the cold, especially as it slowly fades, I've had a bad headache. Initially, I thought it was cold-related, but I've come to believe it's a physical manifestation of stress - a topic that opens a crate of cans of worms. The stress I'm experiencing is probably the result of several things I'm anxious about. I had considered listing the things I thought were at the root of it, and then deciding whether they belong in the category of things I can control or cannot control. Instead, I've decided to dig deeper and write about it in the hope that writing it down helps control it and maybe it helps more widely.  I've always b...
Read more

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Monday 12th February 2024

Image
After eighteen months of stability, it's been a while since the focus of these posts has been E, though that hasn't been the case in real life, of course. This past week has been very troubling with the onset of seemingly regular small seizures.  From our perspective we've been struggling to know if E's in pain and/or suffering discomfort, but increasingly there have been signs that she is. This morning I called the District Nurses to explain my concerns.  Whilst the nurse was here, E had several mini-seizures, and the nurse saw these and validated what I've been seeing. E needed pain killer and relaxant and she seems more settled, though there are still signs of seizures even with the medication. The nurse is going to contact both the Sue Ryder nurse and the GP, so I guess we'll have to wait to see what the next steps are. Against this backdrop, life goes on, though at an elevated level of agitation. Julia Holter /  'Spinning'   / 'Something In The ...
Read more

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Thursday 17th October 2024

Image
The longer things stay the same, the more it seems that's the way they'll stay. No longer? Ever since returning from hospital some three years ago, and her brush with death whilst there, E's illness has followed a familiar and consistent pattern. Brief intense periods of illness (infections, seizures, that sort of thing) followed by longer periods of slow, continuous decline. Latterly she's been experiencing other symptoms, most especially bouts of pain of unknown origin.  When she's been in pain, it's often been associated with mild seizures which pass in a minute or two, with help. E is in an end-of-life care period during which comfort is the priority, which can throw up unexpected challenges. Her pain medication has been increased, but she still experiences pain at times. It's a bit of a challenge. On the one hand, we don't want her to be in pain, on the other it's hard to know how long the pain will last and we don't want to rush in and give...
Read more

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Thursday 29th February 2024

Image
I could write a lot today, but I am not planning to.  Why am I bothering to write at all, you may ask?  Purely because of the date.  The twenty-ninth of February only comes every four years (yes, I know there are exceptions to that rule - I have written code to deal with that in the past), when it's a leap year.  I feel, for no apparent reason, I should mark this day with some words. It's starting to look a lot like E's decline has plateaued and we (the Sue Ryder nurse, maybe GP) may well decide to change the way medication is delivered.  We'll not stop giving her medication to reduce the likelihood of seizures, nor will we stop the pain-relief medication because I think everyone that knows agrees there is no turning back from that. Respite.  That's what I need, though as yet it's not easy to arrange. Maybe that will become a possibility next week. Within the family, we've been having lots of discussions about the end and how we want it to be, and where we ...
Read more

Tales From The Crypt - Wednesday 15th June 2022

Image
The final working day of my week, and it's going to be a busy one.  What sort of insane brain wiring makes me feel guilty about being on leave tomorrow so soon after being off ill? At one point I seriously thought about cancelling some of my leave in order to progress the project I'm working on.  Luckily, sanity prevailed and I turned my thinking around. It would appear that the Protestant work ethic is deeply ingrained. It's getting a bit late to fix that and I'm clearly failing my Idler entrance exam. Notwithstanding all that soul searching and hand wringing, I have work to get on with, and so today will be another day of few words. Probably. Social services interrupted my productive day to check if it was OK for E to come home tomorrow.  Swiftly followed by a call from the hospital ward admin person to confirm transport has been booked for tomorrow.  Now it just has to happen. Fingers and everything crossable crossed.  My cold (or whatever it was) is receding...
Read more