Just when I thought we could avoid hospitals for a week, poor AJ got hit in the eye with an open pritt stick. The school didn't tell us what had happened but had apparently looked out for us!! Considering hubby is much taller than the average mum and the AJ's teacher knows him well, it was a bit surprising that she didn't spot him!! So wednesday night, i noticed the outer of AJ's eye was all blood shot and whenI asked what had happened he said his friend had thrown the pritt stick at him but it was an accident. It looked a bit better in the morning but by thursday evening it was really hurting him. I was just deciding what to do when my hubby returned with our friend from across the road and she was so upset. Her poor cat who was totally deaf, had been hit and left in the road and hubby had found her and wrapped her up and brought her back to our garden. She was still twitching but died shortly afterwards. We were all upset our children were upset and so were her children. Poor hubby was so upset he couldn't face going to his usual morris minor pub meet so he watched Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels instead which he found hilarious and I just found very odd.
After this upset, poor AJ still couldn't settle as his eye hurt him so I tried to phone NHS Direct with no success so phoned the out of hours service instead for them to look up on the poisins directory about pritt stick. Apparently, an eye injury by Pritt stick is not listed but it does tell you what to do if you swallow it. I'm not sure why you'd ever have the urge to eat a pritt stick but still it must happen!!! At the end of my phone call, AJ had fallen asleep so in the morning I took him to eye casualty. It felt very odd saying to the receptionist you were there because of an injury by a pritt stick. We were seen very quickly and AJ was brilliant at letting the nurse use their special microscope thingy to look into his eye. She saw immediately that one of his eyelashes had turned inside his eye and was causing the irritation. So now you know Pritt stick may be quite useless at sticking lots of things but is very efficient at sticking an eyelash to your eye!! She managed to pull it out and then had to put bright orange drops into his eye to make sure his cornea wasn't damaged. This dye went everywhere and he ended up with a bright orange eye and it came out of his right nostril as well!! We went to the Friends Tea shop so I could buy him a reward but also ended up buying some doll clothes for Max -AJ's doll complete with male appendage.
We tried to wash the dye off but it wouldn't come off so he had to go back to school with an orange eye and nose!!
That night, the twins were off to District Scout camp - it was a warm evening. The next day, AJ went to the camp for the day and had a brill time and we were childless from 9am -7pm. He then looked as if he had the remains of a black eye but he was very quick to point out what had happened.
Hubby and I then went to the vauxhall garage and have decided to get a Zafira on the mobility scheme. We drove round Whitely so I could see if I could get the hang of it. I was then meant to meet a friend for coffee but got the wrong M and S coffee shop so she drove into town to see me. As hubby always says it is wrong to assume anything as it makes an 'ass out of u and me'.
I then went to see my mother-in-laws chirpodist who was really lovely but she really seemed to enjoy getting the pus out of my toes. Good to know I could give her job satisfaction then!! We spent the afternoon and evening with friends which was lovely.
Sunday - it rained and rained and rained. We ended up picking the twins up at 3pm and everything they had was wet and muddy. Yuck!!! I then I drove down to Folkestone in the evening in the rain. As I was just about to get to bed I accidently kicked the wheel of the carrybag. It hurt a lot but then I noticed it was bleeding quite a bit. Now I can't reach my toes very easily so mum just stuck a plaster over it and i went to sleep.
Bank Holiday Monday, my sister and family came down for the day. Her poor husband had put his back out by bending over to get a cup of tea from a vending machine as his mum had been readmitted to hospital at 4am so he was struggling.
I was tired but thought I could make a cup of tea without incident but no. I managed to spill a newly made cup of tea over my left arm and finger which had my lymphoedema sleeve on and cardigan and burnt my tummy. My squeels got my mum, sister and eldest niece running out to help. My niece was busy putting a cold compress on my white, flabby tummy whilst mum and sis wee busy trying to pull my cardi off and sleeve off before i could put my hand in cold water. It definately worked and I haven't got any burn marks.
My sister and mum took the children out swimming at the Grande Hotel Burstin - not sure why it is now called Grande but it has a swimming pool as the council one has been damaged by the earthquake. Talking of which - I have never seen so much scaffolding in my life. Lots of houses had scaffolding around them. It seems it was mainly chimney stacks which had come loose but there were still some very interesting cracks to see in some houses.
Tuesday, everyone but me and Woody went to a wildlife park in Canterbury where it rained. We went on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway where it didn't rain and we had a good laugh. We also did a bit of shopping as I hadn't bought my sister's birthday present.
Wednesday, it rained even more so came back here in the afternoon and arrived in bright sunshine.
Thursday, was oncology day. Not a happy experience as the onc seemed concerned about the lack of reponse of my breathing on xeloda and also my creatine levels have changed so presumably my kidneys are now finding it a strain. He wants to do a CT scan and then maybe go on to my last option of chemo. I wasn't happy about that but he just shrugged his shoulders.
I forgot to say i found out on the saturday that I had got my appointment through for the Royal Marsden in Surrey on June 5th. I really hope I can get on the tykerb trial and it will work for me to give me some extra time before the final chemo option. I'm finding this very scary as generally I don't look ill and just get very tired and my breathing is bad when I do anything involving moving about. I don't feel ready to die but I do feel my body is struggling now with all this chemo. I'm really wheezy in the centre of my chest and can hear gurgling again. My pains in my chest have also worsened and now my ankles seem to swell at times as well so this does not bode well.
Whilst I was seeing the oncologist, he looked at my toe and thought I ought to see the practice nurse a I had actually cut a huge chunk from under my toe but luckily it had resealed itself as mum had put the plaster on so quick so ended up seeing the nurse for her to put steristrips on to old it altogether!!
I have made one memory box from john Lewis' where I burst into tears but actually putting all my things in made me feel better. I found my original contract for my first nursing post which said 'uniforms will be provided but nurses are expected to provide their own black lace up rubber heeled shoes' and I suddenly could remember the pair of shoes I had. I also found some commemorative coins but when I googled them they seem to be worth less than what my dad paid for them in the beginning!! I also found my school reports and found that I had been a 'reliable registration monitoress'. I have no idea what this post meant I did -presumably I just ticked the register and took it back to the office!! No idea really and not sure if it has helped me in my life at all!!!
Friday , I just spent time at home with the children but AJ and Laura went off to their friends house for friday afternoon and Woody went off to the library with his friend and then played computer games and football.
Saturday, anpother peaceful day at home and then AJ and Laura went off to their friends again for a sleepover. I couldn't believe that AJ would actually go but he did and wanted to stay the night. Woody then had plenty of 'mum' time.
Today, is our 12th wedding anniversary and this time last year, we had just arrived in Greece. It seems longer ago than one year though. To celebrate, we went to Pizza Hut as we hadn't gone out for the children's birthdays as well. Gone are the days for romantic meals just the 2 of us!!!
At the moment, the garden is really pretty and we've got baby blackbirds and sparrows in the garden eating all the nuts and seeds Laura puts down and we've put some water out as well. It has been so peaceful this weekend with lots of resting and sitting watching the wildlife.
Just remembered I haven't taken my chemo tablets so will ahve to eat something and swallow 7 pills.