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!

Mum and Dads 29th Anniversary (by sarah)

Last weekend saw mum and dads 29th annivsary, origonally we were all going to go away in a cottage together for a little holiday but that had to be canceled for a miride of reasons not least being that mums operation would clash with the end of the origonal plans!

David and Michele (my bro and his girly) came up and stayed in Stroud and Alaric was back from London. Mum had wanted desperatly to go on a boat trip of some sort - again part of the orginal plan had involved a narrow boat. So Barbara got us the boat times from Gloucester docks for us on friday (Mum and dad came up straight from the hospital from mums tests so we lost friday).

Saturday morning in my military style I made people get up and get ready and had I thought to phone David and Michelle we would have actually got out on time but I didn't and they over slept. Poor Alaric moaned and moaned becuase I'd made him get up at 9 o'clock! (a bone of contention about what is early and what is not!).

Anyway off we went and onto Queen Boaducea II for a forty-five minute cruise.

The driver was absolutly helious! I kept telling dad someone had cloned him yet agian - I think at the last count he has four clones (Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchette, Ale Holly from Red dwarf and now this boat driver!). Anyway he was full of interesting facts and little comic snippits and a dry wit in abundance.

The weather was actually really fantastic for October and it had that freash autum tinge to everything 🙂 I get to take lots of interesting pictures of old industrial archetecture including coragated iron anexes from the 1920's!

There were also tall ships (the old pirate/sailor type of ships) moored along the way and a few unfortunate fishermen who where cheerful even if we were ruining the days catch! Gloucester is actually a sea dock even though it is in land and we were taking a cruise up a canal built by returning solders from the Napoleonic Wars! The thing is massive with dry docks and swing bridges and log ponds galore!

There were other interesting boats too like boats that where used by the 'dad's' Navey during the war and really old experimental concrete barges!

(Can you tell I really really enjoyed this trip!)

I was really chuffed actually becuase I been collecting little snippets about the Second World War and was in need of a boat to carry my solder from Dunkirk so was exstatic to spot the little plaque saying that the boat had been to Dunkirk - they also mentioned it the commentary and me and dad went and pestered them for extra details after the trip 🙂

One of the best bits though was that Barbie waved at Dad - she blatently had the hots for him even though she was next to Ken and he was with his family - her little boat came right up along side ours and she waved repeatedly at him :). Jean absolutely adored the little boats and the water in general though this did cuase some issues with keeping her still on the trip!

David inadvertatly polluted the canal and almost dive bombed Barbies boat with his water bottle which fell out of his pocket into the water! He wasn't best pleased as the bottle hadn't even been opened yet.

We then had a quick trundle round the antiques market (well David and Michelle did we just went looking for them as they had our child with them!).

To round the day off we went back to the Mill where me and Alaric prepared a meal of Nachos for starter, falafles, pitta bread, salad and dips for main and Barbara special trifle for desert. We also had champagne in the flutes from the wedding which fortunatly hadn't gone into storage yet! Though one of them did get broken - by me at the end when I announced I was clearing them up before they got broken :/

David and Michelle rendured Mum and Dad speachless by presenting them with an oil lamp to match the one they have at home - complete with shade and glass chimney bit. Alaric was in high spirits and decided that my dads head needed cling filming to stop his communications with the aliens at Climperwell (don't ask).

The next day Sunday being the actual anniversary we went for a meal in Pizza Express after some fruitless hunting for a place that no longer existed :/ This was really nice too 🙂

Mum’s Doing Well (by sarah)

Mum is coming home from the hospital today, they have already removed one drain and are going to take the other one out later - she's recovering much faster and better than expected so hopefully everything will be fine.

Big Bad Hypo (by sarah)

As some of you know Dad is diabetic this is slightly different to the gestational diabetis I had during the pregnancy. The link will probably make reading this post easier - sorry everything isn't clearer.

Last night we got back to Gloucestershire and having put Jean to bed I set out to do some sorely needed work, I saw that it was late and went to find Dad - who was laying on the bed, he responded dopily and I initially thought he was just tired. But when he came out onto the landing he kept checking his glasses becuase he thought they were dirty - this gave me the first glue as it ment his vision was blurry and as soon as he stepped into the light I saw the sweat pouring out off him covering his face and bald spot.

Dad was deepish into a hypo (hypoglycimic or low sugar levels) if I had left him or not checked on him he would have gone into a coma and died before I would have fetched him for breakfast in the morning. I was so annoyed with myself as I normally check he's eaten enough and keeping the sugar level steady-ish but of course with all the hospital stuff it turned out he had just had some toast for both breakfast and lunch with a bannana thrown in for goood measure. I hadn't thought to check and hadn't been at home when they where having these meals as I'd fallen asleep on route back from Highgate to Upminster and had ended up in Leytonstow (sp).

He was on the very cusp of it being a major hypo and failed to navigate the stairs perfectly which scared me (he slide down like three steps). I had to initially feed him as he wasn't with it enough to do this him self but I have had to deal with worse hypos in the past (he is a type 1 juvinile onset diabetic - insuline controlled and had a bit of an allergic reaction or something to a new type of insuline made synthetically in the 90's. On that stuff I had been unable to get him out of the coma even with the sugar solution and so had had to call an ambulance.) We'd been doing so well and he hadn't had a hypo for a while 🙁

Until...

The day of mum's opp. he'd just started to go hypo then too but me and David spotted it and fed him lunch - now he had eaten properlly that day and so everything should have been fine but I think that stress may have an effect on his metabolic system or something, I know tempuratures can affect things.

I was in the middle of dealing with this when Barbara came to find out what had happened to us and then ensued a confused conversation about why had I let dad get that cold - realisation that she thought I ment HYPO-thermia and that was sort of straightened out though she still insisted that I make him a hot drink :/ Alarmingly for me she thought he was fine and just a bit sleepy though his behaviour was erratic and speach slurred etc...

I was then stuck with a dilema - in his worrying about mum he had not packed his blood test kit - I had checked up on medicans and made sure he had all of them but had stupidly assumed that the blood test kit would just be with them. This ment we could not monitor Dads sugar levels and so we are running a bit blind. I didn't want to feed him too much sugary junk as that would just result in a short term high - at this point I was cursing myself for not having pinched the diabetic uk mag I'd seen in the bog at their home. I waited a bit and he seemed to be coming out of it and we both agreed that I would make him some proper food with the long term carbohydrates in (now I've probably got this all round my neck as I'm not medically trained and haven't really looked into things too well but I think that its the things like startch and that that the body actually has to digest to get the sugars that makes them long term - again I have no idea what the actual terms are or even if this is correct.)

This shook me up a bit and at some point I'll have to tell mum that I let him go that hypo - mew :'(

I get concerned about the hypos becuase as far as I know its not just the danger of death from the coma but each time it happens brain cells die, and capillaries do something odd which can result in blindness, uncontrolled sugar levels can also lead to gangreen and all sorts. It is so important that the surgar is controlled.

I've been trying so hard with this one as well as mum has type 2 diabetis and I have got the special cook books and read up on the GI of certian foods and stuff like that but I just wasn't thinking with everything that was going on.

Mum’s Opp. (by sarah)

Mum had her oppuration yesturday, they removed the lump from the breast and the lymph nodes undernieth her right arm. When I went to see her she had blue lips and very pale with two drains coming from her breast (this was two tubes full of what looked like just blood ending in what I think of as a plimsol bag). She was also drifting in and out of concousness whilst sitting up with the cup of tea they'd given her to re-hydrate/replace the fluids she'd lost (I'm really not sure this is a good technique as I thought tea was a diarrectic and it contained milk when she was feeling quesy from the drugs and it was hot and I had to keep rescuing it otherwise she'd have tipped it all down herself!).

Apparently she had been bleeding alot and they'd had trouble stopping it, she'd just come off of the oxygen which she would have hated as the masks make her feel closterfobic. They had given her morphine as well for the pain and she really was away with the fearies!

To my suprise there was actually stuff to wash your hands with though it did run out whilst we where there and I was actually really impressed as when one of the woman fell over on route to the toliet three nurses appeared like lightning from the woodwork!

Jean was very quiet and still for most of the time in there, she was fine with mum if a bit subdued but seemed highly concerned about all the other people on the ward. When she started to become fractous I took her out of the ward and instantly had a hell of a fight on my hands as she wanted to go back and got annoyed with me as, 'Nanny ouchy, Nanny stuck, no like, Nanny!' She seemed quiet concerned that we had left nanny behind.

Mum did look very bad when we went to see her - I actually cried a bit when I took Jean outside to the shop that was supposed to be open until 7 but was closed at 5, but Al visited later on and she was fine and coherant by that point.

I was concerned as well to find that mum only had one sexy white stocking on to help prevent clots - they had been unable to find a vein so had had to take the other one off to find one in her leg. I saw the results of their search today and I haven't seen bruising as bad as that since my nan died and her skin had gone paper thin. You could really see that it was bleeding under the skin. (mum normally has to take asperin as a prescription thing but had obviously stopped taking it in the lead up to the opperation but I think that perhapse it hadnt been stopped long enough).

I am a bit perplexed that she had trouble stopping bleeding yesturday and today they've given her Claxan (sp) which is the blood thinner I had during the pregnancy, this is 'just incase' and she had two stockings on today - her feet have also blown up like balloons which worries me quiet alot as she's had history of blood clots in the legs.

Still she seemed almost herself though a bit concerned that one boob seemed to be bigger than the other!

We now have to wait three weeks to find out what sort of cancer it was and wheather chemotherapy is needed. She will start the radiotherapy at about that time just to 'make sure' . She's alot better than we were expecting and they might let her go home tomorrow even though she will still have a drain in.

We are happyish as the main concern for me really was the strain of the opperation and the anasthetic.