I’ve had fish up to here! by Buddy

As you know I’ve been on a fishy diet for weeks and weeks now and although P has given me a teeny tiny piece of fudge, a finger nail size bit of corned beef, less than a quarter of a cracker and a piece of ice lolly (not necessarily completely out of the goodness of her heart on that one as she came back to bed with an ice lolly in the middle of the night when she had a temperature and I managed to give it a lick when she wasn’t paying attention!)  Oh, and today she caught me as I was just getting my chops around a piece of chicken that had dropped off next door’s bird table – but basically it’s been fish morning, noon and night despite whatever pitiful looks I could manage.

On Friday we went to Auntie Ann’s and Uncle Ray gave me a Rodeo – fair enough to P she did let me have it as I was sitting in front of him with my paw lifted up so high I could have hi-fived him – but despite following him whenever he got up no more appeared.  And then yesterday we all got home from a short walk to this from one of our neighbours…

and has any of it come my way – noooooooooooooo!  It’s the final straw or in this case currant.  So after mulling it over…

I’ve decided I need to take action and I’ve prepared my list…

Window 

Check

Sign

Check

Waggley tail – Che – no, wait it’s not where I left it!  Where is it?  Oh, whoof! It could be a deal breaker?

We make Buddy sick!

As if it’s not enough that we’ve been subjecting Bud to a fish only diet last Sunday/Monday we made him up-chuck!  We ran out of fishy kibble on Saturday night.  B was trying to ration him but I couldn’t take anymore when he was standing on the floor and putting his chin on the settee looking up at me – so he polished off the little bit we had left.

Therefore for his breakfast on Sunday instead of a tin of tuna and some kibble Bud had two tins of tuna.  About an hour later B was sitting on the landing tickling Bud’s tum and then gave him a few solid thumps on the ribs and Bud promptly parted company with some of the tuna – on the only carpet in the house.

We went out to try and get some wheat free, rice free, meat free, basically anything other than fish free food and it was a non starter despite looking at the labels on practically every dog and cat food in the store until B was nearly at screaming point.  Oh, there was a pack of chopped white fish especially for dogs which could be eaten raw (blah!) or cooked but which turned out to be nearly twice the price of the bargain tins of salmon we subsequently bought from the nearby Tesco Express.

For his tea Bud had two tins of bargain pink salmon.  He hadn’t been sick again so at this point I didn’t make the connection between the hurling and the very wet, and possibly too rich, nature of Sunday’s food.  Although he did eat a huge amount of Sea Jerky (the dried, compressed, fish skins treat) on Sunday afternoon since he’d been sick before that I can’t even blame them.  I think he may also have had another tin of fish as a snack!

At 2.42am I was walking through the kitchen to the garage with the duvet cover.  On the odd occasion that Bud has parted company with food in the past he has always made it onto the floor – not this time – in fact I was just glad he’d not got me as the little pile was not much more than a foot from my head!  I actually thought it was worse than it was but the second pile, as seen in the dark, turned out to be the remains of a snowman toy which I’d tried to placate him with in lieu of his bedtime snack.  After a liberal application of Dettol to the actual duvet I went back to bed.

And still I didn’t make the connection so no note was left for B instructing him not to give Bud another tin of fish for his breakfast.  So late morning I was putting the organic handknit blanket that’s not normally covering the seat cushions on the settee in the wash (the usual quilt was drying) after wiping salmony splashes off the laminate.  If we had smell-o-blogging I wouldn’t even consider sharing the aroma, there was a serious risk at one point of me adding to the pile.  And finally along with the last lot of fish the penny dropped.

I did confess to our dietary blunder when we visited the Doggy Dermatologist later in the afternoon and we left with another bag of kibble.  When Bud has finished this one we can start re-introducing food stuff and see how it goes.  The DD was very pleased with the condition of Bud’s paws and I can phone her to let her know how the re-introduction is going – possibly because Bud was, once again, a bit of a disruptive influence in the waiting room.

I think Bud may have cottoned on to the pending lack of kibble on Saturday afternoon.  When Auntie Ann was leaving she called him to get into her car.  Now usually when someone does this he rushes forward but then backs off and only occasionally does he actually jump in.  On Saturday he jumped straight in and then jumped out and went back into the house.  Auntie Ann had got into the car and closed the door otherwise I think he would have got back in and stayed in – as he came out of the house with one of his toys and ran straight to the car all ‘I’m packed, let’s go!’

Ho Ho Ho

Who are you calling a ho? {Groan – I thought I’d save you a job.}

As we all know it’s nearly Christmas.  What?  Next week is November and at that point Christmas is next month.

Now I’m not a big fan of hand embroidery but one of the quilting blogs I read ‘SewHappy.Me‘  (as you know I don’t really quilt but it’s one of those crafts that I like to look at and think about doing) started a Christmas Banner sewalong.  So far I’ve managed to remember – in some cases just – to download the instructions weekly eg, block 1…

and today I finally got round to embroidering one…

On another creative note here’s how you give your husband a fright – you go upstairs (yesterday afternoon) at 3.oopm (see I’m remembering to use ‘old money’ on the times) to make sure he’s still awake after his alarm went off half an hour before and chat to him, then you go back downstairs and do some knitting. As you sit there knitting your head starts drooping and you decide to take a little snooze, so you snuggle down on the settee under a blanket and promptly fall asleep. When your husband finally makes it downstairs he opens the lounge door and you raise your dozing head off the cushion to find him looking at you with a horrified look on his face as he says ‘Are you not well?’ to which you answer ‘I was just taking a nap’.  He was reassured when I was able to get tea!

Other creative spaces can be found here.

Bananas in pyjamas, no wait – a bear in pyjamas!

I got my finger out and finished my first bear tonight – watched closely by Bud, who when introduced to Mr Bear attempted to greet him with a nibble on the nose.

Here he is sans pyjamas…

With jim jams and slippers…

And remember this…

the mis-matched front and backs of the dressing gown?  Well it turns out that I wasn’t the problem – well in this particularly instance.  After finishing the jim jams I didn’t have enough variegated yarn for the dressing gown, so I re-knit it in another colour and as I was working up the first front I realised that there was no way that it was going to match the rows for the back – so I had to adjust the decreases to get them to end up the same length.  And here’s Mr Bear in his full outfit…

The pattern is from Teddy Bears: More than 25 irresistible designs for knitted bears by Debbie Bliss.

I think the second bear may turn out to be an Aviator Bear.  B meanwhile has stated that although I always deal with Christmas presents, and he has always had minimal involvement, that as presents go these bears potentially suck as gifts for the recipients concerned!  Well at least I know Bud likes the look of this one.

Clinics and chips & egg

B and I sat in the consultation room on Friday and the Prof walked in, sighed and touched B’s arm as he was passing and I thought ‘We’re screwed!’ – okay, I lie and you know I’m always completely honest with you I actually thought ‘We’re f*&%@d!’.

And then the Prof threw me by asking about that conversation with the young doctor a week ago – but I guess that’s why he’s paid the big bucks to keep one step ahead of the patients and keep us on our toes.  We decided I didn’t need to continually be told it was serious and when I said that I’d thought it was maybe because I was generally happy and that the young doc had thought I didn’t have a full grasp on the situation the Prof said that just showed that I was coping well.  B pointed out that we’d known it was serious from the start and the Prof said yes, but that was before any treatment had been started and it was now seriouser.  At the start there was the possibility of squashing it and even when it relapsed in February but now it was more a case of keeping it under control for as long as possible whilst keeping a good quality of life –  as obviously the past few weeks hadn’t exactly been top form.

So once again I have to be different and although myeloma is an individual disease mine is being particularly individual.  It would appear that my paraprotein level doesn’t go that high which is deceptive because of the large plasma cell content of the bone marrow.

Revlimid is known to affect kidneys and it would appear that the 25mg dose did that.  My kidney function had been good for the last year, as evidenced by the black figures on the Prof’s screen, and then from the first tablet of Revlimid the figures went red.  Things seem to be on a more even keel on the 10mg dose.  The myeloma suppression of the bone marrow (and therefore blood production) seems to have eased up as my blood counts are better (I only got my platelets count which had gone from 33 whilst in hospital to 130 – WOW – minimum normal range 150).  I asked if things really settled down with regard to kidney function whether the dose could be increased and that is a possibility.

So we know that the transplant doc had said that the best option would be a donor transplant, and indeed without one the prognosis was really poor, but that the plasma cell content of the bone marrow would need to be reduced prior to it and basically at this dose I don’t think the Prof was confident that it would reduce it enough/significantly – this was reading between the lines he didn’t actually state it in as many words.

I had six days worth of Revlimid left and then a week off.  The Prof said he’d see me at the Day Unit on 2 November as the clinic for the following Friday would be really busy as he was off the week before.  I asked whether I needed to take the Fragmin injections on the week off and although Revlimid is theoretically less likely to cause thrombosis than Thalidomide it was advisable so I wasn’t coming back blaming the Prof if I got a clot.  Oh, and a fellow patient and his wife, who I met the day I was kept in the Royal last, gave me a tip that he’d been given by a nurse – pop an ice cube on the area you intend to inject and you don’t feel a thing.  Not only this I’ve found that it doesn’t leave a bruise either.

We’ll look at getting a further bone marrow biopsy late November/December to check the plasma content then.

Good news with the MRI – nothing new – C7 shows 50% compression but everything is fine with the spinal cord.  I also saw the results on the screen and missed the opportunity to ask if the ‘benign sinus disease’ referred to was actually snot.

Overall Friday I felt really good.  B commented to me and the Prof about the sprightly-ness with which I got out of the car.  And I had a shower Friday night!  What the heck has this got to do with the price of fish I hear you ask.  Well when I’m feeling tired or in need of clearing my mind I CRAVE a bath – I generally nod off risking dunking the book I’m reading but I feel better for it yet Friday there I was in the shower and I realised that not only did I feel better physically but I felt better generally for seeing the Prof too.

AND I popped the cushion covers back on the cushions after over a week of them being naked – it’s a big job as they are sewn shut – I may have mentioned this before – which seemed like such a good idea at the time I made them instead of fiddling about with button holes.  DOUBLE AND we had egg and crinkly chips (fries) when we got home Friday as my appetite is generally getting better (and this is what I felt like) although I have lost 3kg (6.6 lbs) over the past weeks so I’m in no rush to put that back on unless it’s muscle – I wonder if Bud could spot me for a set of bench presses!  Buddddddddy, come ‘ere!

Doggy Dermatology by Buddy

A few weeks ago (22 September 2011 at 9:30 – not that it sticks in my mind at all) P took me to the thingie, you know where they poke and prod small furry family members, the {grumble, whinge} vet.  It had to do with the bald patches I was getting on my paws that were looking raw and weepy – nice!

It didn’t even start off well.  I got told off by B as I played up getting into the car, but hey I thought we were going for a walk I mean at that time of day who goes out in the car.  Then we got to the {humpf} v – e – t (look spelling it helps me too).  Except it wasn’t even our usual one, it was a big building with a separate waiting area completely for cats.

We went in to see the Doggy Dermatologist (DD) and she was very nice – mind you they all seem very nice until they are trying to take your temperature!  Oh I’ve seen P take her temperature lots of times and it involves the opposite end completely!

After numerous subtle hints ie, rubbing my harness against P’s legs, the DD’s legs, the floor, the chairs, P explained and I was able to run round like a little nudist – well I say run but it was more – go to P, throw myself on the floor, get up whine, churner, pant, throw myself on the floor.  So P and DD spoke for ages, then I got a quick once over and after being put onto the table I attempted an escape without the aid of a parachute, and then DD popped a lead over my head and codded me into going with her voluntarily – as I was curious as to what was beyond the door and there was a new person there to fuss me.

I needed a general anaes, anaesthetic rather than a sedative as I’m so perky and I woke up to find I had three draughty patches where I was furless.  The one on my side was huge but I was more concerned about the big blue sock on my back paw!  I’d had a biopsy on one of my patches.  I was however a very good boy, I am, I am a good boy, I am – sorry got a bit carried away – and didn’t whinge in my cage.  However when B and P came to pick me up the nurse brought me out to wait with them and apparently I was a tad disruptive.  Oh, yes there were other dogs there who were all being very quiet, except for one that barked at me briefly, and one whose back legs kept shaking – but what’s the point of that if you’re not happy you need to let the non furry family members know.  So I whinged and told them off for about 20 minutes despite B and P’s best efforts to keep me still – people were looking but I wasn’t bothered.

And then we all got up and I thought we were going home and the next thing we’re heading back into the room we started in that morning – I attempted to back up but they were both behind me.

It turns out I’m allergic to wheat, grass – particularly rye, nettle pollen, leaf mould, dust mites (few comments regarding dusting were made there) and I got some antibiotics and some cream for my paws.  P asked if she could pick up anything from my inflamed paws and the vet said B should put the cream on – in the end B got P some disposable gloves!

Don’t get me started on the diet I’m on!  It’s fishy!  Literally fishy although I’m sure it’s a bit of an iffy idea.  We came home with a bag of fish kibble and to be honest it’s alright, in fact it’s quite nice – P said it should be at that price.  We also got a free sample bag of Sea Jerky.  Do you know what that is?  Neither did I but unfortunately I do now – it’s dried fish skins shaped into a circle or a square (like it makes a difference).  It’s got so I go to my treat cupboard and when P gets the bag out I turn away and walk off.  I have however been getting tinned tuna and the odd tin of ‘on offer’ pink salmon – although P says this is probably cheaper than the special kibble.  The tuna solved the dilemma of what to do with my tablets as it’s impossible to get them in Sea Jerky!

My blue sock lasted about five minutes after we got home – it started doing a Turkish slipper impression and then it was off – I didn’t really encourage it – much.  But I was a very good boy, I am, I am a good boy, I am…. oops did it again – and didn’t bother with my stitches.  They were supposed to disappear but one of them stayed put and P got all confident took it out herself.  I have to say I didn’t feel a thing but thought it was a bit suspicious when I was just lying on the settee dozing and she was suddenly telling me I was a good boy and I am, I am but she’s not normally that enthusiastic when I’m sleeping.

We go back to see the DD on Monday (I overheard them saying) and hopefully I’ll be able to go to my treat cupboard and come away with something yummy for my tummy and not something that could be used to sole my shoes – if I wore any!

Bearly Pyjamas

I finally finished the bear’s jim jams this evening.  When I started adding the vertical stripes in chain stitch with a crochet hook I remembered why when I’d done one of these before I said I’d never do another one.  I wouldn’t mind but I cheated this time too and used one variegated yarn instead of two separate colours.  Oh, and then there was my bright idea of sewing the jacket together before adding the stripes so I could get rid of the loose ends.  Yes, that worked really well until I got to the sleeves and then didn’t have room to maneuver the crochet hook so ended up doing them in chain stitch with a sewing needle.

Speaking of ends, there was also a couple of those to get rid of…

and here’s the finished article…

yes, I know there seems to be some slight difference between the top and bottom but the bottoms do need shirring elastic added – quite a bit by the look of it!

And as it’s the 20th we have the photos of the view from the front of our house…

Right

Middle

Left

 

 

Yesterday it was a completely different story and although it was cold it was quite sunny most of the day – but I resisted the urge to cheat.

I’m feeling generally better – I made it to armchair yoga on Tuesday and then basically slept when I got home, waking up only for the phone, tea, a shower and then to go to bed.  Yesterday I had a big nap late morning and then took Bud for a little mooch in the wood and today I’ve been napless.  I’ve also gotten more of my appetite back today – requesting chicken in black bean sauce for tea which I cooked myself, much to B’s relief!  And my temp has been staying in the low 37s celsius or just over 98.6 fahrenheit.

Oh and while I’m on a roll with the photos here’s some things I got last weekend…

flowers from my Auntie Ann

flowers from a neighbour and…

a hole courtesy of…

Bud and his accomplice Kong.  We both stood at the top of the stairs on Saturday after he’d cast it down the stairs and watched it bounce off the laminate and POW a hole in the lining paper – the lining paper which I thought was such a good idea to use on the radiator cabinets instead of the wooden grille supplied. It’s just as well I still haven’t dismissed the idea of redecorating!

Other creative spaces can be found here.

Sometimes you just want a good night’s sleep

 

One of the things you look forward to when you get home from hospital is a good night’s sleep.  I didn’t sleep too badly but since I was attached to various antibiotics/flushes for the previous three nights I did get disturbed a few times even though the nurses are very quiet.

B got home early on Friday, came straight to bed at which point I proceeded to have a coughing fit so got out of bed to avoid disturbing him and sat on the settee for an hour eating an ice lolly.  I then went back to bed and snuggled down for a few more hours sleep.

8:22am the phone rings until it goes to 1571 (answer service) and then it rings again.  B got out of bed and checked the number – it was his brother.  While B was checking who had called – the b-i-l must have called a third time and left a message unbeknownst to us at the time.

At 8:22am when he knows B would be in bed (not that it’s the first time he called at 7:25am two Friday’s before) and what he thought I would be doing I don’t know.

When I did get up – after not falling back to sleep properly just doing that dozing thing (that I don’t like) when you have funny dreams there was a message.

‘When did you last go to my mum’s?  I was there at ten past nine last night and the fridge freezer is broken.  It’s leaked on the floor.  We need to get another one sorted ASAP so that would be today or tomorrow.  We can pick it up either in your car or in mine because I have an estate.  (DER!) Can you go and look at Currys or check it out on the internet. (Statement not question.)  And we need to decided if the carpet tiles can be dried or if they need replacing.’  All in the tone of an emergency – to quote an old boss of mine – ‘it’s an emergency if something’s on fire or bleeding profusely’.

When B got up he sorted lunch out while I had a tootle on the web, found an ideal small fridge freezer, B gave it the stamp of approval, I ordered it and it was available for free delivery on Saturday.  Job done – well you’d think so.

It was an open delivery time (8am to 7pm) as that was all that was left.  The b-i-l wanted a number to call about this – well yes, because the m-i-l has such a busy schedule – and I’m sure if they had any timed slots available they would have been more than happy to charge us £21 for one.

Further phone calls asking whether B was going to go and sort it out on Saturday and then it turned out that when the b-i-l had called at the m-i-l’s at 9:10pm on Thursday he hadn’t emptied the freezer as he didn’t have time – I mean what five minutes – bin bag to bin!  So B went and cleared it out and wiped it down.

Saturday the fridge freezer was delivered at some point in the afternoon, they took away the old one and set up the new one and then we got a call from the b-i-l saying it was there, it needed to stand for four hours and then be switched on and was B calling round.  Now we’d had a little trip out to the butchers and green grocers to get supplies for a hot pot because that was what I was craving (it smelled gorgeous but I didn’t enjoy it) – I’d been reluctant to go but felt better for the fresh air but then needed an hour and a half’s sleep after making the hot pot and we’d decided that a little trip out to Auntie Ann’s would be nice for us so he’d see what he could do.  When he did call round at 8:30pm the m-i-l was upstairs going to bed and the fridge was switched on.  (She did shout down a request, well probably more a demand, for a cup of tea but B told her that since she was already going to bed she didn’t really want one!)

And then yesterday I went for my MRIs.  I am somewhat claustrophobic and my biggest concern is having some sort of screaming hissy fit part way through and I think it is just the thought of embarrassing myself that keeps me from doing it.  I was in there ages – at least 50 minutes to an hour and I rested by hands palms up and concentrated on my breathing (as per armchair yoga teacher’s relaxation).  I opened my eyes prematurely on the way out from the last one (lower back) and I wasn’t all the way out so I snapped them quickly shut again.   Now I hadn’t given much thought to the head MRI which was just as well.  Chris called round last night and she has always said that if she ever needs another one they will need to sedate her as it was truly awful (turns out she didn’t close her eyes from the get go).  I’d always said it wasn’t that bad, eyes, closed, relax, don’t think about the fact that you’re in a tube.  Last night I said that she is never, ever to say to me how awful an MRI is until she has had one with her head in a plastic cage.  ‘Just pop your head in the hole.’ In this plastic brace thing.  GULP!  Surely they won’t put anything on top I thought and didn’t quite close my eyes in time to avoid seeing it close in.  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch The Man in the Iron Mask again without having hysterics.

I am overall feeling better, temp seems to be a bit high in a morning, and there has been a little bit of knitting going on – Friday there was about three/four rows and then Saturday a few more.  I put the shawl to one side for something easier and decided to do the pyjamas for the one of the bears I’m knitting.  This is how it’s going so far…

 

 

 

 

Home again

I forego my creative space (I managed to start a shawl yesterday) in lieu of bringing you the following.

The doc briefly bobbed in to my room this morning to ask why I didn’t take Aciclovir or Septrin and I informed him it was because I didn’t take steroids.

He called back in later this afternoon about 2:30pm (see I’m so considerate I’ve nixed the whole 24 clock thing) to say that my ears must have been burning as I’d been discussed.  The report on the heart ultrasound confirmed that no infection could be seen.  Our Prof stated that I had presented like this when the myeloma relapsed in February so basically I could go home, keep taking the tablets and come back to clinic a week tomorrow.   Now I was graciously enough not to point out that ‘someone’ wearing jim jams, sitting on the bed and looking remarkably similar to me had in fact said the same thing on Tuesday ie, when the Revlimid kicks in the temps will settle down.  I believe I may also have mentioned it to the radiographer.

B knows me too well  he’d been there all of five seconds before he asked if I was okay and when I said ‘Yes’ he said ‘Well you don’t look it round your eyes’.  Well that would be because the rest of the conversation went like this…

‘You know it’s serious.’

‘Yes.’  Polite laugh

‘People must have said that to you before.’

‘Have you ever spoken to anyone else about the myeloma?’

Glazed expression – ‘Well I chat to the ladies in the wool shop a lot and like who else – man on bus, women walking her dog?’  ‘Here?  Or at Whiston?  Well there was the doctor there and then we came here and we’ve recently seen the transplant doctor…’  Trailing off in a I really don’t know what else to say way.

‘Have you spoken to anyone in palliative care?’

‘No’ slightly high pitched

‘Would you like to?’

‘No!  I’ve always taken the view that I’d cross that bridge when we came to it.’

‘Well if you want to you may find there’s someone who can be really helpful…’ – okay there may have been something else said but things went a bit fuzzy about then.

Now Chris arrived to be a participant from the ‘serious’ bit so when B said that I didn’t look okay she said she’d go (declining a lift home) so we could discuss things.  So we did and then we discussed it some more in the car on the way home and I had a little cry and then B got teary and had a coughing fit – not exactly getting hit by a bus but definitely potential road traffic accident potential.

So I have it on good authority that B will be saying something when we go to our clinic appointment.  Chris rang me before and we both came to the same conclusion independently regarding the ‘serious’ question.  This doctor doesn’t know me, he doesn’t know I am generally happy so he maybe thought that I was so happy because I was completely oblivious as to the ‘seriousness’ of the myeloma situation.

So I’m happy to be home, am tired but feeling reasonably well and have so far only nearly ended up in tears twice more – the second time when B went to work when I would gladly have given his left testicle (to make a common expression as polite as posssible) for him to stay home.

Mac ‘n Cheese

Last Tuesday I realised I was really craving a particular food item, not one I eat much and in fact I couldn’t actually recall the last time I’d eaten it.  Macaroni cheese.  I looked on the menu, the menu from which my regular menu selection for lunch and tea were cream crackers and spread cheese, and scoured it unsuccessfully for macaroni cheese.  So my Auntie Ann brought me something in.

The following morning when the catering assistant (CA) came round to take lunch orders and produced a NEW menu I said…

‘Cheese and crackers’.

CA: ‘It’s new!’

Me:  ‘As in – it’s been reprinted with Autumn/Winter 2011/12 on the front?’

CA:  ‘No, there’s new stuff on it such as brunch.’  (This turns out to be a somewhat dubious collection of items that may once have been on a shelf near items that would usually be encompassed by a full English breakfast.)

Me:  ‘Mmmmmmmmm.’

CA:  ‘Right, well you can have them for your lunch on the basis you have to order something off the menu for your tea.’

Me:  ‘Okay.’ – thinking ‘hehe I should be at home anyway’

On B’s shopping list for Thursday morning were the relevant culinary items but of course I felt just a tad like not making in for tea.  So on Friday after leaving the Royal we called at a shop opposite and I got a frozen mac and cheese (I believe that may be the US terminology) and it sucked.  Come Sunday night I felt well enough to give it a whirl, well I felt well enough initially but then it took me ages but ended up dishing it out while I had a sit down. This too sucked.  I think I may have just been too tired to enjoy it as B said it was fine – even though he’d not wanted it in the first place.

So yesterday, when I felt properly hungry for the first time in ages, I thought what the heck let’s give it a whirl – I can always get something brought in.  I didn’t know what to expect especially considering the way things seem to be heated up I expected something paler looking than I am.  However it arrived with a definite colouring of grilled cheese colour to the top.  I tentatively poked it with my fork and then gave it an experimental stab (nothing seemed to be moving) and them I ate it – I ATE IT ALL!!!!!  The first hot meal at the Royal that I have ever eaten – actually the first meal as I couldn’t even make it through a salad.  The addition of yellow mustard seeds was, I thought unusual and although visually pleasing they’re a sod when you get them stuck between your teeth.  It was pointed out to me by Auntie Ann that if I wasn’t such a smart alec I could have had it last Wednesday.

I had more today but it was slightly more, I’m gonna go with set, and as the catering assistant said ‘You can have too much of a good thing’ – so tomorrow we are entering the wild world of haddock fish cake with cheesy wedges.

And now for the non food related stuff – I’m still tired but generally not feeling unwell as such, I’m eating more, I’ve done some knitting but it’s lace and I really need to concentrate so it doesn’t mix well with visitors, needing a nap or getting approximately 350  antibiotic infusions a day or rather seemingly continuous.  The ultrasound on my heart appeared okay – the doctor hadn’t seen the report when he saw me earlier today but the radiographer said to me ‘I’ll do a report.  Everything looks fine but I will look at it in more detail later.’  He still thinks it is an infection but honestly doesn’t know where, he’s going to discuss it with a microbiologist and there may be the need for a interesting little test involving a camera down my throat which would take a more detailed ultrasound of my heart – there’s something to look forward to – so let’s all say it together SEDATION.