A Bit Battered

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

Its good to see Spring flowers peeping up again even though some of them look as though they are a bit battered. I must get out on the garden when I can. The weather is a bit more stable now and it good to know that better things are just around the corner. Lets hope they are, anyway.

I wrote about Harry's twin, Larry, waiting for his heart valve to be replaced about a month ago. I'm pleased to say that he is now recovering from the operation that he had last week. The three weeks wait  for the operation to take place while in hospital, seemed to pay off because he's to be discharged this weekend and he'd be way down on the waiting list if he'd gone home to wait for the operation.

I think some people from overseas, find our NHS system quite awful but we seem to accept it and it has seen us through some very serious things. It does seem to be a fair way to give everyone a chance and the wealthy can always go privately, though I don't think their actual treatment is any better...... just the trimmings and timing!

We went to visit Larry last night and it was so difficult to get into the right unit. Everywhere seemed to be locked up and we kept being directed to different places. It is a huge city hospital and Larry had been moved from one place to another. I was laughing that we might end up needing to join the other patients if we took much longer to find him. We eventually got to the right place and found we'd been searching for half an hour. He was sitting on the bed looking quite dejected as he must have thought we'd let him down as visiting time was half over by the time we got to the right ward but the nurse let us stay on for a bit of extra time to make up for it.

I was quite worn out by the end of the day because earlier, I had also gone to my friend Hetty's mother's funeral which entailed waiting around for buses and standing and walking for quite a long time, though as the crow flies it wasn't that far. The service was really beautiful, though and well worth the effort involved with getting there. She was a very strong Christian lady and had suffered a great deal during her last years of life. It was good to learn a little bit more about her and the life she had led. I always feel this when I go to a funeral. It quite amazing because I always think I knew someone quite well but realise that I didn't because that person had an interesting life long before our pathways crossed. 

I did have a very goodnights sleep after my very interesting but tiring day.

It isn't always easy managing without a car and I come from a generation that only uses taxis in a dire emergency, much to my children's amusement and exasperation.

I nearly forgot to mention that when I went to see my Consultant this month for my routine check up, he said that he now thought I now had a 50% chance of the cancer not coming back and said that the longer I go without a repercussion, the better my chances will get. So I must hang onto that.

Harry seems to be tolerating his chemo better than last time but I know its early days yet. So there you are ...... a complete update on our family health.