Poor Hydro-puss (by sarah)

Well we took her to the vets this morning and it is an absess that has burst probably from a bit or scratch that became infected from fighting. The vet thinks it is unlickely to be one of our own cats (which due to terratory stuff includes tim and betsy) so that only leaves mystry cat 🙁 I thought he was getting on well with the other cats - him and tim just mew at each other all the time, but then hydrogen is the stupid friendly one out of the cats and has no concept of personal space or boundaries and is always being batted by the other cats for being in their face.

Poor little thing. I had organised a cat box to take her in but then we couldn't fine the house this morning so she had to just be wrapped in a towl and taken in on my lap. Fortunatly (and unfortunatly) the trip Al was supposed to be on was canceled so that ment Jean still got to nursery as dad was here aswell. Hydrogen meowed pitteiously all the way there but stayed very still nestled in my arms rather than really making any attempt to escape.

We thought they'd just clean her up and maybe do some stitches and give an injection but instead she's got to go under and have ther area shaved and cleaned and then drained. She was also running a temperature from the infection. So we have left her there and the vet will phone us later.

Mauled (by sarah)

Poor Hydrogen has been mauled by something she has appeared with a nasty looking cut on the side of her neck and smells funny, there was initially lots of blood but now only slime. I have made her an appointment at the vets for tomorrow morning first thing but unfortunatly I am here on my own today so I can't take her straight in. She seems quiet distressed and keeps mewing and weeing everywhere :'(

Poor little thing. I've made a little bed for her though and shes carmed down abit. I cant even get a taxi as Al has the baby seat and with my back I couldnt make it to the bus stop with baby and cat even if our cat basket wasnt in storage due to flood 🙁

I hope she'll be ok.

I also feel guilty as I have been feeding a rather fine looking stray cat - could he have attacked her? Or some animal she was trying to kill? Or has she just got cut on some wire somewhere? I dont know 🙁

Of Infections, Bad Backs and the Curse of the Builders (by sarah)

Mum came and stayed with us last week - it was Als week in London - it occures to me that we propably havent posted about the fact he is now away in the booming capital every other week which is a bit difficult but working out. Mum's wound from her operatation managed to get infected the week after the operation - the stitches were dissolvable and so dissolved and the scab cracked whilst she was being naughty and trying to wash her own her.

She came up here with a course of anitbiotics and some dressings but the wound was just getting worse and the antibiotics where nearly finished so it was off to mine and Als Dr she went. She's been put on two lots of antibiotics and the dosages increased. Also the nurse thought she needed more stitches done but becuase mum was not going to be here that long she couldnt really do them with out having mum back for the after care. My docs recon that the stuff she was given to clean the wound with was two harsh and that she shouldnt have been cleaning and dressing it herself anyway.

The wound itself is several centimeters in diameter and shows the raw shinny pink flesh that lies under our skin. There is a strange white gloop oozing out of it but it seems alot better than it did. The nurse said that the amout of fluid she's losing through it would have ment having to lance her breast if the wound hadnt of opened up. She had to go back for more dressings and cleaning etc... by the nurses on Thursday and they dropped the bomb shell that the radiotherapy which is scheduled to start on Weds day, can not start until that wound has healed properlly and by the looks of it its going to take a while.

Mum is also in a wheel chair at the moment which was interesting as there are many many hills round here, now I only pushed her on the flate to the loos but I've done something chronic to my back (yes again) I dont think it was pushing the wheel chiar but more lickily the picking Jean up and carrying her - something dad or Al normally does but of course dad had to push the wheel chair and there wasnt room for the pushchair in the car aswell. The mysterious hernia lump has also been acting up and has decided to double in size which is apt to make me a bit narky. I also slipped on the stairs jarring myself slightly along with twisting my knee as I came off the pavement - one or all of these things has caused my lower mid back to thrumb with pain.

I wake up relatively pain free but by the everning can bearly walk, crawling is fine I can do that but sitting (especially in cars) or walking just cuase the pain to get worse and worse until I feel nueseas. Last night I had a bath and did some gentle excersises to try and ease the pain, it started to really bother me on friday and has just been getting worse each day since. I also used a hot water bottle to try and releive the pain with little affect. I was beginning to think I had a kidney infection again but it doesnt feel quiet right for that and ibuprofen rub helped alot so I think its going to muscular.

I am currently awaiting a drs appointment but the earliest is monday next week - I'm afraid I cried after I put the phone down becuase this added to the normal shoulder, pelvis, wrist and mysterious hernia lump ment that I got less than four hours sleep last night and the previous nights havent exactly been brilliant. Standing up straight is the thing that hurts the most and arching backwards is right out - the pelvic tilt offers me a little bit of restbite (ie flatening the small of my back so there is no hallow between it and the bed) but that hurts the mysterious hernia lump.

Then just too cheer things up Thursday saw the Builders visiting, the much awaited for appointment was at 12 noon and lo! he was early - good sign me thinks but then he tells me the sedule - first off he needs to find what gangs he has avalible in the area and when. They will strip the plaster off for 1 m and then the dehymidifers and heaters (instead of fans) have to be set up and the drying process has to start again. This will hopefully be done before their down time for Christmas and then the walls will need to be replastered with a drying time of about a week and then the restoration/new kitchen and floor goes in. Oh and of course the bottom steps have to come out too as they are wood and where soaked in the water.

So I had to break the news to Al - no new kitchen for christmas and the wall units arent covered by the insurance meaning we'll end up with mish mash cupboards which I dont want. Still I have a budget of £500 to pick out replacement units.

I managed to miss his call back to say when they could actually start becuase I was dealing with Jean and Mum and Dad thought I'd left the radio on rather than clicking it was my ring tone and everytime I've called back I get a woman who doesnt know anything about me. Sigh.

I will attempt to be more upbeat next post - promise.

Russet Apple Harvest (by sarah)

Last Sunday me and dad decided to start the russet apple harvest as Barbara had been asking for help with it and had already set up the dam in the stream to try and catch all the errant apples that fall due to the wind ect... For those that don't know the apple tree is on the other side of the stream just behind where the green house is (the green house is attatched to the building we live in (when its not flooded that is!).

The hard frosts have already reached our little valley so it is time for lots of things to be harvested at the moment!

We found a ladder and gingerlly made our way across to the otherside of the stream, we decided to jump it rather than use the ladder as a bridge as we noticed it had a rather large crack in it that would not take the strain but would be fine if the ladder were used as an actuall ladder. The back here was quiet slippery and muddy as Albert (Barbaras garderner) has been clearing it of all the scrubby grass in order to put more ornimental things there. But we made it over with no ill effects but than I realised that we had nothing to put the fruit in so had to recross the stream to get some bags!

When I returned Barbara has joined in the fun and was in the middle of donning wellies and get the 'cherry picker' now the only cherry pickers I've ever seen are those little crain things with a basket for humans that window cleaners sometimes use, I've also seen council employees use them to change light bulbs in displays in town centres and that type of thing - what Barbara came back with was something akin to what I would call a 'pruner' it was like a pair of shears on the end of a long poll with wires running down the poll so that you can move something your end and make the shears at the other end work!

Equiped with this dad scaled the ladder with much protest as a) he is scared of hieghts but was too proud to let me do it and b) there happens to be a couple of roses trained up the tree which did their best to scratch him to pieces!

Once in position I handed the cherry picker to him which he wedge by a joint in the trees branches and begain shaking. Nothing happened, no apples fell - all except one apple - which thanks to dads and mine combine bad luck feilds proceeded to hit him on the head! I'm afraid I couldn't stop laughing when I realised that the only apple to actually have fallen off the tree had managed to hit him right on the nogging!

Anyway with a bit of direction from Barbara he soon had the apples tumbling into the stream where they where neatly cuaght in Barbaras apple trap (an old wrought iron fire grate/basket thing with some chicken wire) where she was waiting eagily to extract them with a rake. I mean while I was creeping around the bank trying to retrieve all those that hadn't made it into the stream - I was trying to do this mid strokes so as not to be showered by apples. However dad decided that he needed to extract revenge for my laughter and shook knowing I was under the tree and then laughed like a drain when an apple ricochette off my back side into the water - Barbara then commented that at least that wouldnt hurt as much as one hitting you on the head :/

Anyway we got a good big basket full and the trees still laddened with fruit!

The Mummy on the Bus says ‘Never again!’ (by sarah)

People have been being horrified that I wait until Al is free to go shopping rather than taking Jean on the bus - now I know full well that getting up the hill to the bus stop with the pushchair is a bit of a no-no. Al struggles to get the pushchair up the other side of our valley which is a lot shallower and due to the narrowness of the lanes if a vechile does come along - in some places you have to pretty much scale the sides to get out of the way - also something I feel I can not physically cope with.

But Tuesday I had people to meet and shopping to get and Als time was already pressed so he gave me a lift in and I said I'd get the bus back with the shopping. Now I recalled there was a reason that we had only taken the pushchair with us once on the bus when Jean was really tiny but that reason had escaped my mind.

I had shopping, I had torrential rain, I had a soggy baby and a pushchair I never collapse becuase it hurts my wrists to do so. I put Jean on the bus and gave her her now soggy blanket (bus was late and there were a lot of people waiting for it. I struggled with folding the pushchair up and then discovered that it was an awkard fit even when it was folded - then I remembered 'Oh yes I couldn't get onto these buses easily with the crutches becuase of how narrow and steppy there are.' A lady on the bus helped me get Jean past the urine smelling old guy who had his shopping trolly in the ilse taking up more space than the pushchiar would have, muttering to himself and occasionally shouting - whilst I wrsteled with the shopping and pushchair. On the seat I lift Jean sending my poor arm into spasm enough to grit teeth, so then I'm worried that the nice lady who's just helped me is going to think I'm mad or rude or something.

The next bit was fine as Jean was entranced by the 'Oh dear water! Wet! Floor water!' though one of the men on the bus was commenting loudly that 'no wonder the buses never run on time' as my attempts to get one the bus had obviously taken some time. Jean happily played peek-a-boo with school girl behind us (with the nice lady who helped), this was up until she founf the yummy! some nice person had shoved their sandwitch down the side of the seat which of course Jean found and being two wanted to eat. So then I have a disgrunteled child who does not understand why mummy wont let her eat the perfectly good yummy - and I think why hadnt I noticed it when I sat down, coming to the conclusion that as the bus started to move before I'd sat down I was a little pre-occupied!

Annoyed with not being allowed to eat yummy or stand on the seat Jean decides to get off of the seat and as I try to stop her my spasming arm decides to get worse meaning that I could not stop her flying off the seat at the bus suddenly stopped - fortunatly she landed on the shopping which was all soft stuff. After two more escape attempts she was imprisioned on my lap with my good arm holding the wrist of the bad arm as I had very little use of it. Miffed Jean wriggled as best she could to escape though eventually she gave that up.

The to the next fun bit - getting off of the bus. Fortunatley urine smelling man had gone taking his shopping cart thing with him but that still left me with Jean, shopping and a folded up buggy and a bus stop next to the A46 and I mean RIGHT next to it - no pavement or stuff. An old lady retrieved Bob the duck who Jean had hurled for me and I managed to stop her just before she dived off the bus whithout me. I then had to make sure I had a grip on her with one hand as she wanted to look at the 'doot doot cars!' whilst I wrested the pushchair off the bus, over the shopping I'd had to put down becuase I jsut could not physically do anything else.

I grabbed the shopping retrieved the pushchair from the mud (where the shopping had to take its place) reinstated the pushchiar pulling a muscle in my back as this is a proceedure you really need both hands for and a chin just really doesnt cut it! Child now thouraly soaked as it was still tipping it down - rammed into pushchair with soggy shopping half squashed uncermoniously dumped into the basket underneith bag on back I headed across the road into the pub where they dried the blanket for me and made extra hot hot chocolate for me whilst I waited for Al as we needed to be somewhere else in an hour.

Jean thought it was a great day out.

I think bus journeys are out intill she is no longer in a pushchair - the journeys fine on my own but not with a pushchiar. It is probably doable with two people but not on my own! Oh and did I mention the fact that the driver didn't have any change so the trip cost me £3 instead of the 2.50(60) it should have 🙁

The shopping was fortunatly all still usable at the end of all this which was a relief though I did discover that I'd forgotten the urgent nick-nocks (pull up nappy-nicker things) for Jean!